General update (what a lame post title)

Fall.

It's almost here.

Sure, most days last week had highs in the upper 80s and 90s. But the nights were cooler. Cooler than they've been all summer.

And the leaves are changing. The warm weather can't stop that. Though I thought it would somehow. I guess I don't understand science as well as I thought I did.

I've been sewing less and running dogs more.

Pre-run

Post-run

And baking. That's been happening a lot these days.

This bread went so fast I didn't have a chance to photograph it baked.

There was also tomato pie. Tomatoes from the garden!

I've never had or made a tomato pie before. It turned out good. Really, really good. Recipe here

I have done some sewing in the last month.

These linen blocks turned into...



... pillows!



They still need to be bound. But first I'll need to clean off the dog hair.

I made a pouch for laundry (NOT soda money for the office) quarters.



An owl and undies!



I also made a mini quilt.



I'm a big fan of the mini quilt. It's fast, easy and gives me a chance to practice skills -- appliqué, in this case.



The idea for this quilt came from here.

I got all the fabric from the scrap bin plus quarter-yard cuts of the brown and blue at a local fabric store for $10. I mixed in some other scraps from my stash once I was home and ended up with lots of leftovers.

It went together very quickly. I started by cutting out the vegetable shapes. I used fusible web and did two at a time because I knew I was making two quilts. (There's a second one, it's just not bound yet.) Then I selected what greens went well with each veggie and cut the top leaves, again with fusible.

I appliquéd the leaves first, using a zig-zag stitch. I used the same green thread for each of the leaves.



Then I appliquéd the veggies. I used the same burnt-orange thread for everything but the garlic.



I used 1-inch painters tape to mark my quilting lines and went vertical in the brown (dirt) and horizontal in the blue (sky).

I backed each with a fat quarter. I had an inch of overhang on each side, so these suckers are about 17 by 21 inches. I didn't plan it that way, but it worked out nice.

I added a hanging sleeve before I bound then up, so they don't have to hang by two little bluebirds.

But the birds are pretty cute, right? They came from Astoria this summer.

Abundance

One of my co-workers is having a baby, so I get to make a baby quilt!

I've been doing some fabric selection by committee, asking everyone in sight (and a few far away) what they like.

This is the first time I've had a stash large enough to pull from for a project. A real abundance. And I think I'll be able to piece the blocks almost entirely from what I have on-hand.

I started with this:



And then this:



And now I'm down to this:


(The Xs are going away)

I think I'll add a yellow solid too.

The plan is a wonky log-cabin style block with largish strips. The elephants and birds will be the block centers.

To keep it neat-looking, I want to use a neutral sashing between blocks. I'm thinking Essex linen, which I've never used before. But the heavier weight might be nice for a baby quilt that will be washed lots.

Thoughts? Is it gender-neutral enough? Too boyish? I think the extra yellow will help.

On other fronts, I'm just about halfway done with the hand-binding on the Seattle quilt. I want to mail it by Friday.


(Ignore that stray dog hair. That's why you wash quilts before sending them)

And Tom and Chowder are, as usual, living the life.