In real life, this casts a shadow like a blue circle, but the photo doesn't show that. Because of the flash?

I watched a QA Workshop on Machine Needle Felting last night. It was very interesting and gave me some ideas for arty projects. I have a needle felting attachment for my Brother 1500, but I've never taken it out of the box. I don't want to switch it over until I finish my current quilting project, but maybe at some point around Christmas/New Year's, I can schedule some play time.

Progress?

I pressed the rest of the braids last night, but didn't add the ending triangles or trim them. Then I read in the book that you're not supposed to trim the edges until after you sew the separator strips on, to prevent the edges from stretching. Oops! At least I've only trimmed 1/2 of 1 braid. I can sew the triangles on 7 ends tonight, but then I have to clear some space to cut the strips and measure each braid. That may end up being a weekend project.

Fall

A beautiful fall day, sunny and crisp. I saw two pileated woodpeckers while walking this morning, the first I'd seen in quite awhile. I went back a little later with my camera, but there was no sign of them. You usually hear them, pecking away at a tree or sometimes the side of a house, and then have to look around to spot them. Later I raked leaves and chopped blackberry vines before doing a little more sewing.

I finished the last strips on all the braids. It's a little strange sewing them to just two sides; only one end matches and the other is left hanging loose. But they get trimmed later. I've only done the following steps on one end of one braid so far. First adding the end triangles:

And then trimming the edges to make a straight row.

The time change meant it got dark really early, and it already feels late. How long until spring?

Quilt Day Oct 09

Saturday was our semi-annual quilting day at Carol's house. Although my UFO list hasn't been getting any smaller, I knew I needed something to work on that was pretty simple and wouldn't require decision-making during the day. After looking through a number of books, I decided to try a French Braid quilt, from the book by Jane Hardy Miller. I started rummaging through fabrics the previous weekend, and by Sunday night had a pretty good idea of my general scheme. Then each night, I tinkered with it some more until I had the color run below.

During the actual day, along with talking with Carol, Melissa, Jan, Jani and Cindy (and snacking), I cut all the braid strips and sewed 8 out of the 1o colors on 2 ends of 4 rows. I had hopes of finishing up the rows on Sunday, but I was on-call, and got called 3 times between 2:30 and 6, so no go.

Nikki's New Cousin

Nikki and I went to Seattle last night, to see Boo, Evan, David and the new pup, Peco. Nikki's not always good with strange big dogs until she can play with them, but she is very tolerant of puppies. Peco was initially very defensive when this black monster charged in on his new territory, but in a few minutes they were play-wrestling. Here Peco looks innocent enough, while Nikki has a bit of a snarl. Peco is actually pulling on her ear.

Devil-dog.

Again with the ear, and Nikki just seems happy to take the abuse.

These are the calmer moments, when I could actually get a shot without blur. They played for a good hour and a half, providing plenty of amusement while Boo finished up with pie-making. Then we went out to dinner at Bing's in Madison Park. David had been back from the Olympic Peninsula for a few days and hanging with BT, Boo and Evan came home for the weekend to see him and go to a college fair. BT was off in Norway on business.