This year I have been participating in the Stash Bee. The bee is run online with ten members of the hive making a quilt block from their stash as requested by the 11th member, the "queen". Here are my blocks for January through October. I'm the queen in November.
In January the hive "momma", Tracy, was the queen. She asked the bee to make bear paw blocks.
February's queen, Paula, requested this heart block in a bright color.
In March we made our favorite star block in coral and aqua for queen Lee. Of course, I made a paper pieced star plus two starlets.
For April's block, queen LisaJ designed a block based on the Carigan Saliere flag. LisaJ wanted a red, white and blue or navy blocks.
May's block as requested by queen Susan was called Celtic family ties.
In June, queen Rose asked for the block scrap bin geese in aqua with gray.
July's queen Meredith asked for help making a quilt for her son and soon to be daughter-in-law. She requested a strip and flip block in orange and blue, the couple's favorite colors.
In August Michelle asked for log cabins in blue and orange. She was going to mix and match them into bento box blocks.
An original block designed by queen Pam was our task for September. She left the color choices up to each of us.
In October queen Lisa requested a great granny block in red, white and blue for a quilt she is making for a military couple. I didn't notice until after I had sewn my block--I made a stars and stripes block.
And November is my month to be queen!
According to the calendar, the first frost could be here any day, but for now warm temperatures continue. We have two tomato plants still going strong producing as many tomatoes as we can cook and eat.
It's early October and the goldenrods are waning.
The honey girls are everywhere, frantically gathering the last bits of pollen and nectar. Winter is coming.
There are quite a few blossoms left on the cut leaf coneflower.
Though mostly just the seed heads.
It's aster season. We have at least three species growing around the house above Heck Creek.
The first is this tiny-flowered one. The flowers are about 1/2 inch in diameter and the centers are pinkish when the flowers are mature.
Then there is this white one with yellow centers and larger flowers, 3/4 to an inch in diameter.
And finally we have this blue one. It's flowers are in the 3/4 to 1 1/4-inch range.
The honey girls don't seem to have a color preference. They're buzzing around them all doing the final gather before winter.
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Scalloped ...
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| Patty-pan squash |
Last Saturday Ralph and I visited the North Carolina Ceramics Arts Festival in Asheville on the French Broad River. Since this was the first year for this show, it was a relatively small show, but with a wide variety. Ceramists ranged from sculptors to studio art potters to functional potters. My favorite of them all was Mike Hamlin.
I bought two pots from him. These were small pots--a little over three inches tall each.
The blue one on the left was inspired by an acorn. The green one on the right was inspired by mid-century Scandinavian pottery. Here they are keeping company with my Rose Cabat "feelie" pot.
A: I don't know, I didn't ask him.
Eastern box turtle, Terapene carolina carolina, crossing the driveway.
Turtle shell from the top.
This one is a male. He has red eyes and a concave plastron.
Turtle toes and tail.
Hey, look, there are no greedy mourning doves at the sunflower seed feeder.
The little birds can eat. Here's a male goldfinch.
A female goldfinch joins him.
And here comes a chickadee.
Those greedy doves have emptied the sunflower seed feeder again.
The titmice just feed from the flower itself.
A chipmunk waits below for droppage.
