new quilt under construction

Recently between the walks through wonderful woodlands, fields and aquatic gardens I finished up this border on a quilt block.

Add a border block "basket weave" completed with Seminole diamonds and navy blue stripes. 

close up of my added border to the "basket weave" block from the swap. 

This month the felt wall has been loaded up with bits and pieces of burgundy and navy blue, as a theme I picked up from a border added to a swap block from the "add a border" group on flickr.com. 

my first improvisational block using the three burgundy diamonds left over

Keith's garden bouquet in the woods surrounded by vines 

another bouquet image showing poison ivy to the extreme lower left... 

More blocks developed in the next several days because I caught a particularly bad case of poison ivy while out on a photo shoot with Keith in our local park which is over run with the stuff. The irony of that was, I made a point of showing a stranger we met walking outside the park what to watch out for if he walked his dog in the park on the newly restored trails. Ha ha ha the joke's on me because I got the bumps and hours of itching misery to prove I know what it looks like but maybe not the sense to know that you can't wear the same shoes exposed to poison ivy later bare foot after stepping on the ivy vines. Anyway the next several July like hot days I needed to be bare skinned and in the house with cool air conditioning just to cope with my reaction. I tried to put that time to good use making these new improvisational blocks.

It's almost complete now after my second bout of poison ivy attacked me from our trip to the Stuart Signal hill trail last Friday. I don't know if this set of red bumps was newly acquired or just more from the original poison ivy oils on my old shoes, either way I have kept busy to keep my mind occupied on good things.

This quilt is going to be hand quilted with navy and burgundy perle thread #8 and I am going to use a wool batting for the first time. It is full of heirloom fabrics and a few of my favorite shirts. In particular the big plaid summer shirt of burgundy, red, white, baby and navy blue and a little pale yellow. Maybe you see some of your fabrics donated in the Wash. DC modern quilt guild's scrap swap? Thanks for all the good energy and good fabric scraps it adds color and patterns to my palette I wouldn't have otherwise.

Preview of the top improvisation #2 in burgundy and navy blue

Stuart's Signal Hill trail part two

Stuart's Signal Hill Trail head 

In Manassas overnight with Keith, today we decided, in spite of a steamy July kind of day, that we wanted to go to Stuart's Hill trail in the Bull Run National Battlefield Park for a nice long nature walk. Keith missed the first time and I really wanted to explore it again with him along to share my experiences. I got a few more photos of things I didn't see last time. Wild field flowers and stream side a very beautiful blue flower. We saw an adult pair of wild turkey but they slipped by so fast at the end of the trail I barely had time to see them. There was a most exotic crimson red and black ant that was as big as my little finger about about 1.5 inches long! He was moving fast too but I captured something to show. Different this time was the way I went roving up the other side of the trail I had missed the first time through a wood that had been hit by winds or a storm and felled a lot of pine and cedar.  We found lots of turkey feathers in a couple different spots along the trail. There were deer dashing off into the woods. Birds included a small flock of blue birds, several pairs of blue jays. We spotted a hawk and a couple woodpeckers too. There were lots of things jumping we didn't catch a good look at but it was hot and the woods are drying out now. Fall is sneaking up on us even thought it feels like the fourth of July today.

goldenrod

sweet everlasting

switch grass flowers pale yellow

purple gerardia

sunflowers

look closely for the gray "deer foot" moss between the blades of grass 

the edge of the woods the last field before  the trail to Lewis house. 

field seen from the edge of woods where the Lewis house stead was. 

back into the woods 

lichen on the rocks and bark in the woods 

 in bright sun the great lobelia's blue flowers by the creek 

by the creek blue flowers of great lobelia, lower right side

blue flower great lobelia at the edge of creek 

closer view of the  great lobelia 

remarkable grass going to seed 

Stuart's hill today 

brown and orange butterflies are called Pearl Crescents (Phyciodes tharos) in the grass field on white asters 

two of these pearl crescent butterflies were the size of a quarter or smaller

"red velvet ant" that raced along the trail running from my camera is actually a female wasp  

this wasp lays eggs on bumble bee larvae and have a sting that hurts so much it's also called a Cow Killer wasp.  

Keith marching along beside me on the trail through the field 

Proof I had company

there he is the little frog or toad that jumped on the trail