UFO Busting

I am linking up with

Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
and Quilting is More Fun than Housework today,

to celebrate having finally finished a long-in-the-making flimsie

that you are probably sick of seeing! 

I was sick of seeing it, too, languishing in a bin since 2013.

(You can just click on my pictures
to enlarge them!)

(58" x 72")

You'll only have to look at it one more time,

after it's quilted and bound.

That probably won't be until next summer.

I did notice that I'd left off the bottom sashing at picture time,

but that has since been rectified.

~

I just have to show you this perfect specimen

of a Fly Agaric, (Amanita muscaria).

It was about the size of a man's fist.

Here it is, two days later, 

almost completely flattened out.

It's as big around as the cap minus the visor!

They are quite spectacular.

Thanks for stopping by today!

(I'm sad to see September end.)

Karen

  

Scrappy is as Scrappy Does

Well, August certainly went by in a blur.

My scrappy heart did a happy dance when it saw this timely post by Blossom Heart Quilts.  I jumped right up, left my morning cup of coffee half full, and got right to work.

Why was I so excited?  Well, 2 seasons ago, I precut a baggie full of scraps into 3.5” x 6.5” rectangles to bring back to Cape Breton for a specific quilt, but once I put it up on my design wall, I didn’t care much for it, so the rectangles have been sitting in my cabinet all this time.  This summer, I decided to use my collection of grays to make Cluck Cluck Sew’s heart blocks and use them up.

After making only 4, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go this way, either, but the fun part is that these heart blocks generate bonus HSTs and 1.5” scraps.








So, I quickly made the 8 bonus HSTs into units for Alyse's Double Dash.  They’ll only finish up at 6.5”, a size not included in her pattern, but that’s okay.  The block is adorable!  It will make a wonderful doll quilt for A Doll Like Me!




I have decided to continue making the heart blocks and the Double Dash blocks at the same time.  This created a moral dilemma, however, because I don’t need the pattern to make these units.  But after a beautiful day out in the kayak, when I returned home, I went ahead and bought the pattern anyway.  That’s only fair, right?  Or am I going overboard?  What would you do?

I've been working diligently on my leader/ender quilt, but am going to have to table it until I generate more scraps.  Here is a picture of my progress, 2 out of 5 rows sewn together. 

I have row 3 ready to attach as soon as the sashing strip is pieced, and the remaining blocks are constructed.  They just need to be sashed together.  This quilt top, when finally finished, will measure 58" x 74" with no additional border.  Oh, I did sash the outer edges before I put it away.  I guess that  could be considered as the border.

Today, I am linking up to Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  If you follow this link, you can see how other quilters are making use of all their scraps.

With September upon us, my resident birds have flown the coop, so to say, and have been replaced with the random butterflies and dragonflies.  Here's a picture of one of my favorite backyard visitors.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

(Libella pulchella)

male

Happy Labor Day!

~Karen