Mourning Doves

This pair of Mourning Doves have been visiting out bird feeder all summer. They are always together and usually spend all their time on the ground. Today for some reason they sat on one of the bird baths for almost an hour.

Super Flowers

We been working out in the yard a little everyday, getting everything ready for winter and raking leaves. We have had fairly mild days here lately but some of the nights have been in the 20's. I noticed a few flowers still in bloom here and there. The flowers around them are dead but somehow these have managed to hang on.

3D Rail Crumb Quilt

This is the quickest I have finished any quilt I think.

When Less Equals More - Fabric Scraps, Strips, & Crumbs

I will have a dedicated sewing room soon, but for now, I sew in the dining room. I store all of my fabric in the attic except for two medium size tubs of scraps, one for crumbs, the other for scraps smaller than a fat quarter and a small stack of 10 inch squares to use for backings.

A couple weeks ago I realized the bin for larger scraps was stuffed full so I decided to cut some patches for a few scrappy quilts and try to use up enough scraps to make a dent in that tub. I promised myself I would finish each quilt completely before moving on to the next. Going to the attic for border, background, backing, binding and sashing or framing fabric would be legal though.

I like a lot of variety in my scrap quilts so I only cut a few patches out of each fabric in a few sizes, 4.5 inch squares for an Indian Hatchet quilt, 3 X 5 inch bricks for a Nickel Brick quilt, 2 X 5 inch strips for a Rail Fence quilt and 2.5 and 2 inch squares just because. The result after a few afternoons of cutting was 2 shoe box size containers of ready to go pieces and a slightly fuller crumb bin. For some reason the bin for larger scraps looked about the same but the top did fit on easier.

I started the Indian Hatchet quilt first and when my daughter (who loves scrappy but does not quilt herself) saw it, she wanted it for a TV watching snuggle quilt.

I finished it about a week ago.

When I went to look for the stack of squares to make the back of the Indian Hatchet quilt, I unearthed a stash of crumb blocks I squirreled away after I used a bunch for this quilt. I decided I needed to make another quilt from them because the crumb bin was pretty full and soon I would be making some new crumb blocks to try to empty that bin a bit. I decided on this pattern, which was really fast and easy.

But it still left me with this stack of crumb blocks which fill another shoebox container.



And I needed more 10 inch squares for the backing so I had to get some fabric from the attic.

Of course, after I cut the squares there were scraps left over which filled the bin with the larger scraps past the point of closing easily.

I am right back where I started except now I have 3 shoebox size bins full of ready to go pieces in addition to the two medium size tubs.