Quilty Update: Late October 2025

BUT FIRST!!!

I saw my first Tea Olive shrub in bloom. It’s an orange one. They also come in white. This plant comes to us from Asia.

The fragrance is just heavenly–like apricots. I just stood in front of it and…smelled. The official name is Osmanthus fragrans…with further identifications based on family species.

I’ve been obsessed with Rachel LaBour’s “Under the Maple Tree” sewalong. I’ve made a lot of progress, too.

That picture could be…brighter. I took it last night. Now I’m down to making more leaves, moving around blocks, and sewing everything together. In other words, there is a long way to go–25 or so leaves, for one thing. Boy is this one chewing up scraps. I love this 8-inch leaf block. It is so fun to make.

This as yet nameless little neutral “Stacks” quilt–a Tara Faughnan pattern from season 2 of The Color Collective years–is off the longarm, trimmed, bound, and has its binding installed. So I have night sewing once more. It’s so cute.

I’m running out of October days to also play with Tara Faughnan’s October Blocks 3 block, “Crosswalk.” Here’s where I am now. There is also a block “in progress” at my sewing machine.

The block on the right is going into that improv quilt growing on the design wall. It will be such a nice fit with those blocks.

And the other finished “Crosswalk” block is now installed on a 10-inch stretched canvas:

There are so, so, so many ways to manipulate this block idea and so many colors with which to play in this month’s palettes. My two finished blocks are made from the brighter fabrics; the in-process block uses some of the duller/softer colors.

Today is a beautiful fall day. I’ll walk, and I’ll be able to have my noon dinner on my porch.

Life is good.