September Cornucopia

Will another rose have bloomed in my garden in September? Probably, but I'm not betting on this particular bush as it's rather new. But welcome to a monthly cornucopia post which is filled with links to a random tour through all the many things I consumed online this past month. Some are useful, or beautiful, or interesting. A few are all three, but I hope you enjoy.

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This has apparently come back around once again to be updated, Sunbonnet Sue.

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A new process for making fabric out of wheat straw and oat husks that would replace reliance on oil-based polyesters, fascinating.

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How the insane tariff regime is affecting knitting (and I'd imagine the same about fabric/quilting).

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I'm sharing this link to a preview article in Selvedge because of the picture of the absolutely beautiful vintage coat by Paul Poiret. Really, it was the textile print that truly grabbed me, by Raoul Dufy.

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Pomegranate Progress

Just checking on the pomegranate crop.

There’s a lot of them this year. I’m hoping they won’t all be ripe at the same time.

I’m waiting on this one in particular.

UFO Challenge Update

 

Back in January, the UFO Challenge for 2025, had me choosing six projects to concentrate on trying to finish during the course of the year. It was pretty hard to narrow it down to six from my WIP list, but I gave myself a chance at succeeding, and picked quilts that were in very different stages of completion. 

This challenge has helped me keep focused through the year so far on what the heck to work on when I've got so many choices. I hope there is one next year too!

I've gotten four of these finished completely, and a lot done on the other two. Bohemian Wife now has a backing of the right size, and then needs to be sandwiched and quilted. And the Temperature Quilt has been getting assembled as you've seen recently. Will I be able to buckle down and get these last two projects over the finish line by the end of the year? It's definitely possible, and not too out of pocket to think I'll actually do it. 

Circle Coralled

 One of the free P.O.T.S. (plastic organizer thingies) I got from the free table at Sew Day is now in use containing all the threads and most of the tools I'll be using for the Circle Sampler. 

Here's what it looks like with the label taken off.

Now that I have my felt cut to the right size, I can finally get started stitching.

Temperature Sashing

After getting all of the twelve monthly columns trimmed and right-sized, I now have a number to work with for the length of the sashing. That means that I'm now moving on to cutting up some sashing strips from the Painter's Palette Onyx black that I'm using. And then I'll be piecing them together to make them long enough to go between all the columns. 

Oooffff, I forgot how hard black on black sewing is.I need to turn all of the lights on to do it now. Guess my eyes are indeed getting older. Okay, all eleven strips of sashing are done, now to start piecing together this thing! 

Last Months Trimmed

 

The last months of the Temperature quilt were all trimmed down, and I got all the measurements taken for the length of each monthly column. There was a little fiddling around with a few of the months to make them all play nicely together. But, at least, now I know the final number I'm working with so I can cut up some sashing to the right size.

Wandering Wednesday - Spokane Views

I just had another trip up to Spokane for the drug trial study that I'm participating in, and this time my DH came along. We had a really nice (and steep) walk up the hill a couple blocks away from the doctor's office. Turns out to be a really beautiful neighborhood, called Cliff/Cannon. 

This was near a really enormous mansion, I was thinking that maybe it was originally a carriage entrance?

We were happy to find a very lovely city park, which was a restored garden, Moore-Turner Heritage Garden. A great view of the city below, but a bit hazy on the horizon due to wildfire smoke.

I always love to see a spitting fountain face.

We were just a tad late for a lot of blooms, but this is a very nicely laid out garden.

The little castle in the yard of the Corbin Art Center was very charming.

We resisted rolling down the big grassy hill, but DH was enjoying the long pods on the Catalpa tree.

This was a nice reminder on the side of a building in downtown.

Got to say hello to Mt. Shasta on our way home.

More Temperature Months

 

Still working on trimming the monthly columns for the 2023 Temperature Quilt. I'm measuring each column after I trim the top and writing each number down. So far there's a pretty big variation between columns. I think I may have not correctly followed the end of the column piecing instructions for every month .

The top of each column has started out accurately, as I'm finding that I'm trimming off the same shape every time. And I know I checked and re-checked the number of days for each month. But February vs. December had different instructions on what to put on the bottom of the column. 

Again, I will note here, that I am so excited by all the colors and textures of my hand-dyed fabrics. It was definitely a good challenge for me as a dyer. And it is making me want to go dye some stuff right now this very second.

Definitely a lot of variation happening. But each column will be measured and corrected before I start sewing any sashing on to these columns.

Back to Temperature

Finally turning back to working on one of the UFO projects, The Temperature Quilt (from back in 2023!) Here's the stack of the twelve monthly columns that I'd pieced. And that's where I stopped because frankly I was sick of working on it.

The next step after piecing the columns is trimming off the top to a 90° angle.

The next step is to measure each of the twelve columns and make sure that they're all roughly the same lengths. This is so that when you sew them together with the sashing they'll match up well enough to make an overall good rectangle in the end. 

Guess there will be some bottom trimming and/or adding on of fabric. Thankfully I store the black that I was using along with the columns so at least I won't have to search for the correct shade of black to use.

2 Postage Stamps

I finished two of the BAMQ Community Giving postage stamp blocks.

That's two more done, and five left to go.
 

Patchwork Palooza #11

 

This week's Patchwork Palooza block was a pretty easy one, so I played around with different fabric choices. This one was too busy for me.

I thought this was a better look.

All done with the 11th block!

And of course the resulting teeny tiny HST's to add to my envelope.

Here's how it's looking so far, without the sashing and cornerstones as we still don't have the official measurements yet. I think it's working out color-wise so far. I may move some of the blocks around in the final version.

Patchwork Palooza #10

 

Coming in hot with Patchwork Palooza block #10. I always think of this orange/fuchsia/lime green as being "hot". I like this block, it has a lot of movement and there are a lot of possibilities with it. I'm liking that I'm getting to use my 2.5"x4.5" Flying Geese Bloc-Loc ruler so much, it really works out when doing the four at a time method. And this is made with scraps from recent projects.

Old Town Aftermath

 So, my teeny tiny HSTs obsession was well fed with the piecing of the Old Town quilt. And regular sized HSTs as well!

And extra Flying Geese, and triangles and strips of various widths. What will I do with them?  For certain, I promise I will not be making a back out of them. Maybe a matching pillow or something like that?

Border #3 and Done

 

Border #3 for the Old Town mystery quilt is pieced squares, alternating red and white/neutrals. There are a lot of intersections to try and match up with the four-patches in the second border so I pinned each and every one. 

The majority of the intersections matched up on the first side, so I did the same with the other three sides.

All of them worked, each border fit on pretty much perfectly, I was really happy about that.

A lot of ironing to do.

And then stay-stitching around the entire thing. Gosh, it's hard to sew "not-quite 1/4" after doing this whole quilt concentrating on doing and exactly 1/4". 

And there it is, all done! Now I'm looking for a title and then I'll have some backing and binding to be made. So it doesn't count as a "quilt finish" yet, but it's a quilt top finish and goes into the finishing category for me.

Border #2 Done

 

The second border for the Old Town mystery quilt is comprised of a whole lot of red and neutral/white four-patches.

I didn't have a lot of trouble having these borders fit, which for such a long and pieced border was sort of amazing to me.

Usually I have some hassle with that, but not this time. I guess I followed the directions or something?

Looks pretty good, but needs some ironing.

Definitely time for some ironing!

Yes, good.

There's the whole thing! I love it. I've always enjoyed the look of a checkerboard border, and now I've finally made one, hurray! Okay, on to the final border...