Butterfly Collage

I know I already showed you pictures recently, but I don't want to wait all month to show you.  Today when I let Zeus out I saw a beautiful butterfly on the zinnias by the back door.  I didn't think it would still be there when I got the camera but I thought I would try.  It turns out that this butterfly loves to get its picture taken. It went from flower to flower, giving me different poses and angles. It stayed on the same plant so the flowers are all the same colors.

In fact, when I thought I was finished, it flew around my head as if to say it still wanted my company!  Wait! I can give you more poses!  I made a collage out of my favorites.

While I am looking in the September folder, I thought I would show you this poor squirrel that I saw on one of my walks.  It was going so fast, I wasn't even sure what kind of animal it was, so I kept taking pictures.  From this photo, it looks like there is a sad story to tell about the tail.

I also wanted to show you that Rey has a face now. I changed the pattern a little bit so that her hair is longer. It isn't as long as it is in the movie, but I didn't want to change the pattern too much. I just wanted to make sure it was clear that she is female. When there is a female hero in many movies and books, she winds up being very man-like. Rey can fight, but she still has a lot of female characteristics, and I wanted to make sure that my quilt showed that.

Linked to Wandering Camera September Linky Party.  Be sure to click on the link to see all the gorgeous photos there.

Also linked to Let's Bee Social 141.  Lorna is gearing up for another beautiful Sew Along, and I will be joining her for that. Check out her blog for free pattern of a beautiful Bear Paw Quilt.

August Photos

It's that time of the month when I look into the pictures I took during the month and choose my favorites of the ones I haven't shown you yet.  I have five favorites for the month of August.

The rabbit is enjoying the shade.  Zeus and I really appreciate these little spots of shade during our walks this summer.

I love how the background is all black in this picture to really highlight the beautiful plant.

I had to include sky pictures, otherwise you wouldn't recognize my blog.

Another sky picture. Love the moodiness of this one with the birds on the rooftop.

This one represents all the zinnia pictures I took this month. The majority of my photos this month were of zinnias.

Linked to Wandering Camera September Linky Party.  Be sure to click on the link to see all the gorgeous photos there.

Droid Progress

I've been making progress on the Droid quilt, but these parts and pieces didn't seem blog worthy.  It is hard to tell what I am making until I put it all together, but I didn't want you to forget about me, so I will show you my progress.

I knew I wanted to use fabric I already had at home, and found several great choices.  It was hard to choose which fabric to use and where.  In the end, I decided to not let indecision slow down the progress. I especially had a hard time deciding which fabric to use for the skin and which one to use for the undershirt. It is all shades of beige, everything works everywhere.

I chose a stripe for a tunic, and I love the way it looks like folds. I did have to unpick the top right and cut a new piece to make the stripe go the correct way.  Well worth cutting on the bias. There was also a burlap looking fabric that would have looked great for the tunic, but I could only choose one, and the pants also have that burlap pattern.

I was worried about using templates, but it went together without issue.

This is her belt and the bottom half of her tunic. I've been finger pressing since it is really hot.  I'm sure it will be fine when everything is pieced, and I press everything smooth.

This is her pants, legs and part of her boots. She is very slim in the pattern. The pants look more brown than green in real life.

I didn't notice that little fold until I took the picture. I'll fix that.  I also have one of her arms done and ready to add.

Parts of her face are ready to sew.  This is a fun project.

Pets on Quilts 2016

It's that time of the year when Lily Pad Quilting hosts Pets on Quilts.  I sat down to rest after our long walk today, fired up Bloglovin' and went on her blog.  As soon as I saw the announcement,  I knew we had to run out on the porch and grab some pictures before it started raining. I needn't have hurried though, since Zeus is so photogenic, the pictures just rolled off the camera in no time.

Here are the best ones.

I knew you were so busy looking at Zeus that I might need to point out that there is a dog on each of the quilts too. I am entering the Dog on Quilt and the Pet Themed Quilt Categories.

A Droid is Born

I was initially going to use a light pink as the background, but I was afraid there wouldn't be enough contrast, so I chose the blue. It's not light, but I like the swirls and the yellow dots. I think it looks outer-spacey.

I don't have a lot of large pieces, because as a scrap quilter, I generally buy fat quarters. And when I use the fabric, I put it back in the box.   I must have already used part of it, because I ran out of orange fabric, and instead of using a patterned orange, I went with the next closest color in the solids box, which was pink.  I think it is appropriate to subtly get pink in the quilt.

For Rey, since she is bigger, I will need to be careful with making sure I have enough fabric.

Another New Quilt is Started

Ever since the peak time for my work was over, I have been diligently working on making progress on my quilting projects. I thought that if I kept myself busy, I could delay or avoid starting a new project.  In the past, I would promise myself that I could start a new project after I finished an existing project, but the quilts I was working on were long term projects - BOMS which did not have all the months released - so that wouldn't work.

Until now, I was able to keep working on getting up to date on the Adrinka blocks, and making progress on the 1857 blocks.  I decided it would be a good time to work on putting together the blocks for the Elephant Parade.  That led me to think I could start this new project as a leader/ender. Or maybe the idea to work on the new project came, which led me to think I could put together Elephant Parade as a leader/ender.  These two projects became tied together because they are pieced in similar ways. They are also similar because I am using the solids box for the fabric.  They also share the white fabric.

I bought yards and yards of the white fabric when the modern movement first came out and I saw how a white background was  necessary for most of those quilts. Yes it is tone on tone. I thought solids were a fad. Why pay the same price for plain as you pay for fancy?

I saw this free pattern on a blog during peak, and knew that I had to set it aside for later, but recently I saw someone else made this quilt and that reminded me all over again that it took great strength for me to not start it in January.  I've held off starting this quilt since January!

It turns out that Elephant Parade does not work as a good leader/ender in its current state.  I need to trim and measure my improv blocks. Some of them were made the standard size, but some of them were made to go into the sashing.  What sounded like a clever idea when I was making them is going to be more work for me now. I also need to decide on the layout so I know which blocks need sashing.

Also, one part of the new quilt serves easily as the leader/ender for another part, which makes it easier to keep progress going at a steady pace.

I feel guilty for starting a new quilt.  I make quilts for the joy of making them, not for the completed projects, so I really shouldn't feel guilty for not finishing something before starting this one, but I do anyway.

Linked to Monday Making, MCM #34 and Moving It Forward.

Zinnias in the Garden

It was cloudy when we went for our walk this morning so I decided it was the perfect time to take some photos of my zinnias. I have three beds of zinnias, so there is a profusion of color out there. It's been a harsh sun every every other day I thought about photographing them. It has been dry so the leaves are a bit wilted, but the flowers still look great.

I took a lot of photos of them. The sports setting worked best even though it really wasn't windy this morning. The funny thing is when I chose the best ones, I found I liked 37, 47 and 57 the best. This happens to me quite a bit, where I like every tenth picture. Good thing I have a digital camera!