I Like Thursday #504

We took a little field trip to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, Colorado, the other day.  It's about an hour's drive from our house, but well worth it.  And my husband and son enjoyed the photo ops.

This guy was my favorite, with its striking orange markings.

According to learnbutterflies.com, it is a Common Longwing.

They had these spongy contraptions hanging all over the places, and they were always covered in butterflies.  Apparently the sponges are soaked in sugar water for the butterflies to drink.

We found one beautiful monarch on this red flower.

And look!  Apparently these two liked my yellow shirt!

Google Lens says that bottom butterfly is called a Clipper.

This was a fun day trip!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about Halloween.  Do we prefer fun and festive or scary and terrifying?  I'm definitely on the fun and festive side!  No haunted houses or scary movies for me.  I'd just as soon not have any nightmares after that kind of thing, my dreams are strange enough as it is!  Here's the typical Halloween decor at my house.

Hope you're having a great week!

Joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

Midweek Update

My Pfaff is in the shop for what is (hopefully!) just some routine maintenance, so I brought up the back-up machine, a little Janome.  It's a perfectly good sewing machine, just a lot smaller than the Pfaff.  One thing I really like about it is that you can leave the last block you were working on with the needle down and just start up where you left off the next day.   The Pfaff has to do some kind of reset each time you turn it on, so it can't be left with the needle down.

Little Janome has been just fine for sewing some pieces and parts for Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  

One last Jacob's Ladder in very light green, and 

the centers for one light neutral and one dark neutral gameboard block.

It has also worked for finishing up my project for next week's Fall Fortnight blog hop over at From My Carolina Home.

The Fall Fortnight event starts this Sunday.  I've participated in this for many years, back to when Carole also hosted Autumn Jubilee.  I've gotten some favorite fall recipes from Carole's blog, and also made many of her quilt designs over the years.  The blog hop will be next Wednesday, October 14th.  Hope you'll come and visit then!

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Daily Stitching Update and a new start...

 I finished out September with my daily stitching...

And moved on to October!  October 2nd has a butterfly because we went to the Butterfly Pavilion down in Denver that day.  That is such a sweet experience!  I'll share some photos in my Thursday post.  This is the first daily square where I actually drew the shape before I stitched it.

The whole piece looks like this right now - you can see July, August, and September in the top row, and then it skips down to October on the bottom left.  I just started this project on September 26th.

The new start for October is Broom Hilda, a design from Melisa at PinkernPunkin.  I think she's so cute with her purple hair and green skin!  Her hat and dress are supposed to be stitched in black, and I couldn't find a bit of it in my stash, so I chose a very dark gray instead.  I think that's working fine for the clothing, but not so much for her eyes and mouth.  So I'll need to go pick up some black floss!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

October Neutrals

I decided I need to spend October figuring out what each of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects needs so that blocks can be sewn into quilt tops.  This week I started with the Jacob's Ladder blocks.  The last time I shared them, I only laid out sixteen of the blocks, like this:

There are two blocks made in each of the eight main colors.

But I have also made two additional blocks, a brown and a light blue, that didn't have a partner.

So it's time to decide how to fit these two into the design!  When Angela posted earlier this week that October's color would be neutrals, I started hunting around in my stash for something I could use to make another brown Jacob's Ladder block.  There were still some brown batiks left in the pile I used for this year's SAHHR quilt, so I chose from there.  This one with the butterflies is really a favorite!

Of course, it's not just brown, it also has some 

gold, gray, and black in it.

Add in another batik that reads as brown, and I ended up with these pieces and parts.

So there are now two brown blocks, but I still have to decide what to do about a partner for the light blue block.  Still thinking about that one!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell.

I Like Thursday #503

It was my birthday earlier this week, so younger son made me a cake.  It is a sourdough chocolate cake with buttercream frosting.  So yummy!  He made it on Saturday and we are still enjoying it!

Judy sent me some happy squishy mail.  Thank you, Judy!  That was so unexpected and kind of you to do.

We were doing some fall yard clean-up which included cleaning out the flower pots.  The marigolds were about at the end of their season, but I cut a few to bring in.  They're one of my favorite flowers - and a good bridge between summer and fall color!

I just finished this book today, The Calamity Club.   It was really good!  I love a story where women band together to help each other, and this is a story like that.   It's a pretty long book, but worth the read!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about the seasons changing - what is our favorite thing about the shift from summer to fall?  And I have to say it's that change in the temperature when you finally feel like you need a sweatshirt or a quilt to cover up in.  We've had some days like that this week.  They've given me the chance to wear the new hoodie I bought in Michigan!

Hope you're having a great week!

Joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

Midweek Update

I've stuck to my plan from last week's midweek post as to what I wanted to work on over the week.  I added a purple house to A Year in the Neighborhood and continued working on a project I'm doing for a blog hop in October.  But the main thing I wanted to accomplish was finishing the last blocks for my mini Lala's Irish Chain.  And I did!

I've always been fascinated by Irish Chain designs, and there are many ways to make them.  When Melva started the QAL for her version of the design, I was working really hard to finish up my Patchwork Hearts quilt, so I couldn't really fully join in something new.   But making a block or two here and there for something small seemed doable.

This is 30x30, so a small baby quilt or tabletopper.

I just had fun giving this design a try!

I would love to get right on quilting and finishing this one, but my Pfaff is making a funny noise, and I'm thinking she needs a spa date!  I'm going to have to get out the back up machine, which will be good for piecing blocks, but not necessarily for quilting.

On Sunday, I shared that I started a new daily hand stitching project, and my plan is to share updates on it regularly.  So far - just a few days in - it's been easy and fun to keep up with it.  The September designs are leaves, so I've played with different colors and stitches inside the leaves.

September 26, 27, 28, and 29

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Hello, Autumn!

 

is fully finished!

And, even though it's not quite the new month, it is officially Fall, so the October and pumpkin decorations are out, too.

I also stitched some pumpkins on the Gail Pan Autumn embroidery this week.

I've been prepping for a new, year-long daily slow stitching project.  Inspired by Julierose, I ordered a piece of fabric from Spoonflower which was designed by Karen Turner of stitchinglife.uk.   This is made for stitching on daily, as Julierose calls it, a Calendar of Life.  

On her blog, Karen describes this practice as a stitch journal or intuitive daily stitching.  Here's what my cloth for the project looks like - 30 x 32 inches:  

The fabric is white - what you're seeing that looks like a pattern is a quilt I laid out underneath this cloth when I was pressing it!  It's 3 boxes x 4 boxes so = 12 months.

A close-up:

And I started here - September 26th!

Can I keep up with stitching one motif each day?

Time will tell!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.