Brown Quarter Stars and The Prairie

In October 2024, according to past blog posts, brown was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month and I started making brown Quarter Stars with 2.5 inch width scraps.

Then in October 2025, according to past blog posts, neutrals was the RSC color of the month so I made more brown Quarter Stars.

Then at the end of October 2025, according to past blog posts, I had 320 Quarter Stars - enough to assemble 80 - 8 inch Whole Stars.  In that post I also mentioned I would probably use the Quarter Stars as a leader/ender at some point.   Well, here we are in October 2026. The RSC color is once again neutrals. So, I dug out the box of Quarter Stars and am leader/endering them into Whole Stars and maybe by month end they will be ready to assemble into a 64 x 80 inch top.

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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Gardening.

The Prairie.

Two years ago I cleared an area in front of the house for a Tall Grass Prairie.

After studying the plants that were actually natives to the prairies in this area by visiting sources like the University of Iowa Prairie Plant database I purchased some mixes with a lot of seeds for those plants from Prairie Moon Nursery. 

  In December 2024 I sowed seeds mixed with sand in the area I had cleared.

Not sure if you can read my scribbles but this a list of what was in the mixes. 

This is year two and I posted a few prairie pics on an August blog post.

Here's a view from the South of the whole area this summer.

And this is a view from the North.

Well, now is the time to cut out trees and brambles and other weeds. I have been monitoring the area and as I see certain weeds ( like ragweed) starting to go to seed I try to get them out of there before that happens.  This year it is also suggested that the area be cut to 6-12 inches. 

I started working on the South end. After I cleared out a lot of wild raspberries, wild grapes and greenbrier, black walnut trees and virginia creeper from the area in the shade of those trees it left kind of a bare spot. Mostly Golden Glow Rudbeckia that I transplanted from another area last year was growing there.  I've done some research on the plants that will tolerate some shade and will sow some seeds there after all the prairie is cleared. 

Again on the South side going west from those trees. There are a lot of nice plants with seeds the birds are dining on right now so I didn't cut most anything here down to 12 inches. I figured any remaining seeds will fall and sprout sometime in the future. 

Continuing on to the North I cleared a lot of area and did cut some things back.  Up by the telephone pole and those two skinny trees was another shady area full of Snakeroot (Ageratina Altissima) that just popped up in that area. It's kind of invasive and woody so I tried to dig most of it out. I will sow some seeds there after the whole area is cleared with seeds that will tolerate some shade.

This area here on the North side is what I have left to clear and cut. 

I know there's a patch of poison ivy there about a foot in from the edge so hoping I remember to avoid it. I might put some heavy plastic bags over my shoes and pant legs before I wander in.

This is a close up of what I've been dealing with. There's a lot of good plants in here like monarda, several types of asters and rudbeckias and mints and grasses. But then there's always a few trees that pop up here and there. And there's some invasive honeysuckle in there too.   And I spy a wild rose that was not in the seed mix. They also pop up here and there around the property. Well, I do love roses and I see that 4 different types of native roses (meadow, pasture, smooth and carolina) are in the native plant database for this county so I think I will leave that there for now. 

Here's some of the seeds that need stratification that I will be sowing soon in those partly shady areas. 

Yeah, it's a lot of work. But I have a dream...and lots of gardens.

And sow on...