More Orphan Blocks!

This is the orphan block project I've been working on lately. I haven't come up with a brilliant name for it yet so if you have suggestions, please leave a comment. Definitely a utility quilt which I'll probably use as a table topper since its roughly 58 inches square. Did I say square? Not really, lol!

I quilted it myself somewhat successfully using my walking foot. I don't like moving the quilt around when quilting and the pattern I chose to quilt the outer blocks was my downfall. I ended up picking out 6 blocks worth of stitching and starting over with easier straight lines.

I pieced the top several years ago and then as now quilt math was a challenge. I ran out of the red border fabric so I added the purple but didn't cut it long enough. I added a few inches of gray fabric and decided to add my initials and the year in that space to make it look "planned".

Why did I choose purple binding? I keep a bag of binding scraps to use on scrappy quilts and I found some binding which should reach all the way around the quilt. Premade binding, yes! Well, it almost reached all the way around the quilt. I added some scrap purple plaid to finish the last 5 inches.

I decided this quilt would be a good opportunity to learn how to sew down binding by machine. I stitched the binding on the front, pressed the extra to the back, and glued it down with Elmer's School Glue. It took me less than an hour to glue and stitch in the ditch from the front. I think it went fairly well for the first time doing this technique.

Other things keeping me busy: I've been stripping these 3 old chairs to refinish. I bought two of them at a farm sale at least 20 years ago so I'd say its time to do something with them! If they look good when stained, they will join 3 chairs like the one on the left around our dining room farmhouse table.

What's still blooming in my yard?

Asters

Brown Eyed Susans

More Asters

Butterfly Milkweed

 A Bumblebee was taking a nap on one of the zinnias one cool morning! I let him nap in peace.

Until next time, Mayleen

The Quilt Math Quilt

 While the Orphanage Quilt is at the machine quilter, I've been working on the Quilt Math Quilt. I named it this because of the math struggles I had while putting the orphan blocks together. I measured incorrectly, forgot to add the 1/4 inch seam allowances into spacer blocks, and just made simple errors. I think I had to rip out the blocks three times! I just couldn't ignore the mismatched seams.

I still have a collection of out of print Jo Morton fabrics and I used them for sashing, borders, and the cornerstones. So now the top is finished, the backing is pieced, and its all ready to be delivered to the machine quilter. This should be the last of the donated orphan blocks! 

The past two weeks has been a race to see how much I could get done outside in the heat and humidity before our temperatures dropped 30 degrees and it began to rain. It was really dry here so the slow gentle rain has been welcome!

First some planting and then mulch happened to make ...

... my rain garden! 

There is a swale in our back yard which drains standing water away when we receive large amounts of rain in too short of a period of time. We've landscaped it to make a rain garden. I've planted mostly native plants which can tolerate the standing water for a few days. There are still a few blank areas where I plan to transplant plants to in the spring.

 After four days of cool cloudy weather, I'm ready for some sunshine! These pictures of my flowers were taken last week. Summer will soon be over and I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

 

Until next time, Mayleen