Gobble, gobble

We saw the local flock of turkeys on the way home yesterday.  They are about directly west of where we live, maybe a mile.  They are out in this cornfield right past the last house at the edge of town.  The most we had seen till yesterday were nine turkeys.

But yesterday there was at least 13, maybe more.  They were busy looking for food and not paying any attention to us...I am not sure if we were even 75 ft from them.

I was trying to make noise to get there attention...I finally found a noise that would draw a little bit of attention.  I could get 3 or 4 to puff out their feathers and fan their tails.

I have better pics over HERE on my other blog...but cannot resist adding two or three or four more here.

**************
We have Lorelei for the next 3 days...so we are set to have a good weekend.  It has been a while since she was here for the weekend.  I cannot tell you how strange it is when she is not here.   

I hop you all have a nice weekend...

Not much happening...

I have had all those half square triangles on the design wall for ages...

(I would love to someday make a quilt like this...only I would use bigger half square triangles)

These were bonus half square triangles left from my daughters quilt top we finished in January of 2018.  Before my accident!  I finally sewed them into blocks today. 
***********
I might as well say it...I played with these blocks some more.

I wish I had used any color but gray to do those in the middle of the quilt.  I would say I was using what I had on hand.  But I have about any color you would want on hand!  I am thinking strongly of using this layout...if I do, I will name it Eye of the Hurricane!  LOL

Showing the process

I thought I would take a few pics of the process I have used to make the diagonal string blocks I have been showing.  Keep in mind that there are other ways to achieve the blocks...this is just the process I chose this time.

I start out with a foundation paper the size I want my blocks to be.  Next I chose a strip or string of fabric that will at the least cover the paper from corner to corner, put it on right side up.  I always tend to start somewhere near the center but you don't have to.  Wherever you start, make sure that your strip of fabric covers the paper, even when opened out.

Take the next strip and place it against the first strip right sides together.  The thing about starting with the fabric covering center...from then on as long as your fabric is long enough at the line of stitching, it will be long enough when the fabric is opened up for the next line of stitching.

I almost always use an iron and press the fabric open...

Just continue adding additional strips of fabric...

The purpose is to use whatever strip of fabric you come to...no picky matching....just a way to use little strips of leftover fabric that you couldn't use for much else.

Keep adding strips till the foundation paper is covered.  One thing I do that not everyone is does is that last little corner piece that is added....I try to make sure to cut it till the bias is in the seam and the corner edges are with the grain.  I don't know why I bother...all the rest of the edges will be bias.

I always turn over and use a ruler and rotary cutter to trim the blocks to size.

Before rotary cutters and rulers, one used scissors and trimmed to the size of the foundation paper.

Isn't it magic how it looks so neat with just four cuts.

And one last photo of the paper starting to be torn off.   I have used phone book pages, but with them you have to worry about the newsprint transferring  to your fabric.  Supposedly, after so many years it is cured and won't transfer.  Well, on these blocks I used some that was as old as 'that magic number' and while it did not transfer to the fabric, it did rub off on my machine bed.  I switched to the paper above for the most part.  It is blank newsprint paper...I bought it from Amazon.  I have used printer paper, but it is hard to tear off, even with the shorter stitch length I use in making these blocks.

I hope this was good enough to explain the process to those interested.