There is nothing like fall in New England to lift the spirits:

But don’t blink! After the drought, the local wisdom is that the fall colors will come and go before we know it.

I’d like to say I spent the entire week outdoors, but most of it was behind a screen, working on Sugar Meadow block 9.

The theme this month is the big, bold blooms of autumn– sunflowers, and even an ancient grain, the amaranth! I am digitizing from my own photos each month and it’s been a real pleasure to see the change over time. This month is a bit of a metaphor– we’ve been in extreme drought for the past two and half months, and the September blooms are a testament to strength in the midst of hardship– they are monumental!

And here’s where we stand:

We are coming around that last corner– I’m a bit concerned what will happen in October-December, as I well remember going outside in freezing temperatures to find the dull seed pods and leaves of February. But the meadow always provides, right? October is right around the corner, and I’m sure there will still be plenty of colorful leaves.

Many of you are asking what the finishing plans are– the center will be a background of pieced rectangles– or maybe an easy star, with line-drawn quilted flowers from each season that show an overall view of the meadow. Then, I’m planning beautiful borders made of some of the flowers in the designs– one for each season on each of the four borders. These border would be usable on some of your other projects as well, I think!

So hoping this could be ready for the Maine Quilt show next July– it’s such a sentimental piece to me, all Maine inspired. I’m going to work really hard to make that happen.

In the meantime, star points have been the quilting of the week on Carefree Highways!

I think I am going to have the order of the states being added to the Union memorized by the time this is finished. There are fifty sets of star points to quilt, obviously, and as you can see I’m not done with the original 13 yet! Hoping to be there by the end of today. On the plus side, I am a stitch in the ditch and ruler work expert at this point– I’m starting to wish I had used a bolder thread color so it would show up more.

My Posh Penelope class is about ten days out. I have really bad listening skills– I always did, but now it’s compounded by age related hearing loss. So that’s why I decided to make a block ahead of time, so I do not look like a dunce and hold everyone back. What? What? haha. My practice block came out beautifully!

A couple of months ago, I was opining on how I don’t mix ‘n match fabrics, instead doing it the easy way and designing within one fabric collection. This is my gorgeous Sunday Brunch bundle from Basic Grey, and HECK, YEA! I’m only gonna use it for this quilt. Of course, I’m planning a big project now, so I found some more of the backgrounds at an Etsy shop and they are on the way. I’m thinking of making a dumb rule up for myself– like, make six blocks a month. I like making dumb rules almost as much as I enjoy not following them.

Here’s the back of the block– I am also often opining about not pressing open seams, but if you look, there’s one that just had to be. So I’m doing my best to accept my hypocritical self this week. Don’t you love me! On a side note, never balk when you have to cut a piece as small as 1-1/2″ wide–as you can seen, the seam allowances meet perfectly on what is a 1″ finished piece.

I forced myself to bring the Pioneer Woman quilt along. I had purchased a teal fabric in July for the sashings– (Pioneer Woman fabric is no longer made) and the color just didn’t look right. I asked the DD’s opinion, and she said it was fine, but I could tell by her face it wasn’t. Don’t you love having people in your life you can read like a book?

So then I wasted time trying to find something from my stash, to no avail. I really need to go through my loose fabric and try to understand what is wrong with it all! There it is, all exploding out of wicker bins I have loosely ordered by color and holiday. I started buying fat quarters about ten years ago and never use most of my older pieces– some of them go back to the 1970s, I’m sure! I never have the right thing.

I ended up getting frustrated and just cut the teal borders thinner– I think it’s good enough for me now. All that’s left to do is a bit of assembly– there’s an outer border of HSTs that I already made. It’s a bright happy thing most suitable for summer so I have plenty of time to quilt it up and bind, right?

So that’s my week– I better re-group and start figuring out what I’m doing this week, or nothing will get done– with temperatures in the 80s this week, the outside is calling!

xox
Carol