Wednesday Wandering

I've been working on clearing out my 4.5 inch width scrap bin. This is probably (or maybe not) the last quilt I will get out of the scraps in there. It's a simple Coin type quilt. The layout will be six blocks across and 20 down for a finished quilt of 60 x 80.  I made 60 blocks in the L-D-L-D-L combination and 60 blocks in the D-L-D-L-D combination. 

Any pieces left that were two squares or less were cut into squares. Looks like scraps that are around awhile get a little hairy.  I'm not sure what I will do with the squares except store them in a container for awhile with the other sizes of scraps. I do have a bin of 4.5 inch units of different types I've also been trying to clear out (so far I've made Whigmaleerie and Pea Soup flimsies) so I toyed with the idea of alternating some of those units with squares but I'll save those thoughts for another time when it's not too hot to think. 

So now my 4.5 inch bin has strips that will yield more than two 4.5 inch squares and a bag of pieces less than a 4.5 inch square.  I will sort the bag of pieces into colors and sew them together into strips because I've been doing that for a couple of years now with my various widths of scraps and I'm thinking this year I will make a Coins quilt with everything I find in that box.  I'm not sure what I will do with the remaining strips...store them with scrap chunks from now on since I keep scrap chunks by color? Or make some four patches with some? Or HSTs? Or...again, too hot to think clearly!

When it's too hot to think I take a walk in the flower garden and enjoy the sights, sounds and fragrances.  A monarch posed for me on the Joe Pye Weed. 

I liked this photo because in the top right I can see a hoverfly (or maybe it's a sweat bee) ready to zoom in and there's already a bumble bee in shadow already on the flower. 

I used to go around the property and try to identify weeds that were native so I would know if they were pretty weeds or nasty weeds when I found them sprouting up in my flower garden. About five years ago when I learned about Joe Pye Weed I dug a little piece of it up from the side of our field and put it into the flower garden so I could attract pollinators and butterflies and see them in action. Now I have a giant patch of it. 

Skipper twins or boyfriend and girlfriend? Did they just stop over for a snack while on a journey to elsewhere or are they here to stay for awhile? 

Remember those five inch pieces I had left over after making my Churn Dash flimsy earlier this year? I've slowly been making Hatchet blocks and have 155 toward my goal of 252. I still have some scraps and keep a little basket of them cut into five inch squares paired with their 2.5 inch corners near my sewing machine to use as leader/enders. I cut a little each day and iron the flippy corners in half diagonally and use the ironed line as my stitching line. 

Postage Stamp blocks are also leader/enders. I usually have a pile of them that need rows sewn together at the back of my sewing machine. Ooops...you caught me...I do sew over pins. 

I've been clearing out my 1.5 inch width scrap bin and most pieces are little more than a square now. I cut a few squares each day to add to my pencil box. 

I also have been cutting some of my 4.5 inch rose themed scraps into squares. I match up two squares and sew them together right sides together leaving a little opening for turning right side out. This is another leader/ender. I use the squares for my crochet fusion quilt I work on in the evenings. I blanket stitch around the edges and then crochet around the edges. Later all squares will be joined together. 

I dug a hill of potatoes (only 49 more to go) to see what was in there. I let them dry (or cure?) on the deck table. Shouldn't leave them too long or they will turn green. I don't think I ever peel homegrown potatoes- french fries, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, augratin potatoes- they all contain peels around here. 

I pulled up about a third of one of four rows of onions. One row we have been eating for about a month as green onions. 

Now that all my chicken scratch is finished I've been sloooooowly working on getting my quilt sashed. Maybe someday soon Grandma's Apron Strings will be a flimsy. 

I save a lot of my zucchini, squash, pumpkin and melon seeds for planting the following year. I labeled these seeds as butternut squash. Wrong!!! That's an Emerald Gem cantaloupe - an heirloom variety that has been around since 1886.  

This is a Butternut squash. And to think a few weeks ago I thought I was going to have to hand pollinate my vining crops. Oh, I'm getting hungry for candied squash. 

I've also been trying to pair up a few flimsies with some possible backings so I can get those pieced and then move forward to pin basting. 

And from time to time I still stop and smell the roses.