Science Fair Bound

I finished the binding on my Science Fair quilt today.  This quilt was made with a  jelly roll of Bella Solids. I was happy with the colors, but the fabric itself seemed thin, and I'm not a fan of the pinked edges.  Also, I didn't notice that there was a slub in one of the binding strips until the quilt was almost done.  I'm not going to take the binding off and redo it, because it isn't that big a deal, but I wish I'd caught it earlier.

The backing is raspberry minky.

This quilt will be a Christmas gift for my niece Emily.  I still need to make a label, but it has been washed already, and I'm very pleased to say than none of the fabrics in this quilt bled, unlike the last few quilts I made.  All 15 of my color catchers came out clean!  Why so many color catchers?  Because they are cheap, and I have had a few bad experiences.

I am counting the binding as an October finish even though I technically put the last stitch in today.  

 This is a Jaybird Quilts pattern and uses the Hex N More ruler,  The good news is that I've now used this ruler on 3 projects, which is my new goal for any specialty tool.

The first was Gravity:

The second was Daybreak:

I am a big fan of Jaybird Quilts' rulers and patterns! 

Linking up: https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2016/11/lets-bee-social-149.html

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2016/11/brushstrokes-quilt-top.html

Scrappy Mountain Majesties Quilted and Bound

I  finished piecing Scrappy Mountain Majesties (a free Bonnie Hunter pattern)  in September of 2015.  I finally got it to the longarmer in a few weeks ago and got it bound yesterday.  This will be a high school graduation gift for one of my ten nephews.  I'm going to hang on to it for a couple of years.  Two nephews and a niece will graduate in 2018.  I have to plan ahead since there are so many of them!

All of the fabric on the top is from old shirts except for the red checked binding.  The backing is red flannel.

Linking up:  http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2016/11/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-survival-winners.html

http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/2016/11/finished-or-not-friday-and-tgiff-linky.html

http://www.shecanquilt.ca/2016/11/the-november-scraptastic-tuesday-link.html

Late October Flowers

I have a few flowers left in my backyard.

Only  tropical milkweed is left (the orange and swamp milkweeds are long gone).

 There are still a few flowers on the crepe myrtles,  a couple of cannas, geraniums with one or two blossoms on them, a patch of very short yellow zinnas, floppy sedum past its prime, and a host of marigolds.

These flowers are prolific in my yard.  Several years ago they started taking over my beds, and I tried to control them with Preen.  This year I let them run wild.

Lantana is an annual here, and it is still going strong by the mailbox.  This is one lantana plant.  Full sun makes all the difference.  I have some out back, but it is too shady to grow very well there.

One of my camellias is blooming now; one one of them never blooms, and the third one died in the August heat.

I chose red mums for the porch this year.  I am hoping they will last until Thanksgiving since we are hosting it again this year.

I may leave my Halloween display up until Thanksgiving too.  Two of my birds are missing.   I suspect my dog got them and buried them somewhere under the porch or in the woods, but  I haven't been able to find them anywhere.  I would like to give the dog the benefit of the doubt, but I know him too well.

Pre-Stitching Harvest Home

I am going to be taking a cross stitch class in November taught by Beth Ann Seal of Summer House Sttiche Workes.  The piece is a drum shaped pin cushion called Harvest Home.  A few of the ladies in my guild have already gotten the pre-stitching done. This is what I've been working on instead of quilting in the evenings.  The end is near, but it will still take me a few more hours.

Linking up:  /http://www.supermomnocape.com/2016/10/24/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-81

Stash Report, Nags Head

No quilting pictures today.  I'm at Nags Head!

For mid October, the weather has been great!  It was a little windy yesterday, but we walked in bare feet anyway.

Used this week: 1.5  yards (Mod Bear Paw)
Used year to date: 78.375 yards
Added this week: 0 yards 
Added year to date:  84.125 yards
Net  Added:  5.75 yards

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/10/23/stash-report-october-23-2016/

Mod Bear Paw Top Done!

This week I looked for border fabric for Mod Bear Paw.  I couldn't find the perfect dark  color I was looking for.  Everything was too blue, too dark, too light.  There were fabrics I could have used if all I wanted was to make this a bigger quilt, but nothing that added anything to the design,  So I just added a narrow blue border, and called the top done.

 It  is baby quilt size, but I don't give quilts with lots of white to babies.  I'm going to turn this into a wall hanging for the playroom/office.  Now I have to decide what to do about the back.  I'm thinking about some of the paw print blocks across the back, but that is a lot of work for the backing of a quilt that will be a wall hanging.  Need to think about this!

Thanks to Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts for making this pattern available!

Linking up:  https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2016/10/lets-bee-social-147.html

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Last month's RSC color was red, and I worked on Talkin' Turkey, but I didn't make any string blocks at all.  This month I wanted to do better.  The colors this month are orange and yellow.  So far I've made  24 blocks.

I have a bunch more yellow strings, and I hope to get a few more yellow blocks done.  I'm down to the dregs in the orange strings:  not much variety left.  Next year, I want to get a string quilt put together.  Thanks to RSC, I have a bunch of string blocks already made.

I have a few blue string blocks done, but no picture of them.

http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2016/10/scraphappy-saturday_22.html