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Lots of wildflowers on display this week!

Cardinal flower / lobelia was a new one for me. It was growing alongside a stream in a shady patch.    

Coneflowers. The Latin name, echinacea, means spiny and the flower centers are.

Teasel is invasive  This patch was right next to the path so I could easily get closeup photos.  The upper and lower right photos show it in bloom, with all the little tiny flowers.   

The lower landscape photo is the Des Plaines River at Sedge Meadow. The middle landscape photo is one of the ponds at McDonald Woods.  From the LCFPD website ...

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Thunderstorms between midnight and 5 a.m. on Saturday brought very welcome rain.   The sun was out the rest of the weekend.

Wildflowers at Illinois Beach/Hosah Park on Saturday and Lyons Woods on Sunday.  

Pinnate prairie coneflower, jewel weed, rosin weed,  bluebell (campanula), spurge, joe pye weed.

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I do find time to sew, of course!

I used the picnic basket block (the guild July BOM) for the next batch of daisy mug rugs for an ongoing P.E.O. project.   All the baskets use the same daisy print.   (2 yards for all 16.)

On the design wall now:   8 ...

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 When Preeti announced the Positivity Quiltalong I thought, "I can do this!" but I confess I forgot about that pledge until one of the other bloggers posted her initial PQAL blocks.  I quickly went to Preeti's blog and copied all the relevant information.  (If you've missed the details, start here and follow the tagged posts.)

The block construction is simple.  Preeti's blog shows some variations (triangle corners, square corners) and layout ideas.  The fabric choices are the challenge.  Miscellaneous scrappy? Rainbow? Floral? A genre -- but which one? (Aussie, Kaffe, batik, Civil War, 30's....)

I went with ...

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78 x 78 and 5 yards used!

I have trouble making "unbalanced" quilts with an even number of rows (i.e, seven columns and eight rows). Does that bother you, too?




Here's the new project.  It was inspired by "Sound Check" by John Kubiniec (McCall's, March/April 2014).  He used solids.

The fun part is choosing the fabric!


 I've admired Wanda's (Exuberant Color)   16-patch block series.  I like the look with 30 patches, too.

Linking up with  Finished or Not Friday
and  Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

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I knew about Turk's Cap lilies from the wildflower book but I'd never seen them in the field until this week. They're much smaller than hybrid lilies. 

(Photos taken at Illinois Beach State Park.)

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In the studio:   I pieced the backing for the Goose in the Pond quilt. (See the flimsy in the previous post.)  I used 52 of the extra flying geese as an insert strip.  (8-1/2 yards by weight. This will be a heavy quilt.)  I buy Warm & Natural by the bolt which is 90" wide, so I'll have the piece the batting ...

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