Mushroom Stack and Whack No. 2

This and the next picture show the rest of the hexagons from the mushroom fabric.  Amazingly, they are all different -- 70 in total with the ones in the last quilt -- this was from a four yard piece of fabric.

Wanted to see if this fabric would be a good background for the blocks.

Finally decided that I wanted both the lighter and darker fabrics.  

I thought I would audition some fabrics for the borders.  I tried an orange/yellow print first and didn't like it but did like this mustardy print I found in my stash (and never liked all that well).  I still liked the purple/brown batik for the border.


I still have enough blocks to make another quilt this size and one smaller one with one remaining block (one that I didn't like very well anyway).

Finally got this stack and whack done.  This is the second one and I have hexagons for two more -- one this size and one smaller with one block left over.

I was tired of working with the above hexagons, so I decided to make some blocks from one of the other sets I had.  This pattern utilizes 8 repeats and is based on the kaleidoscope block.  There are 36 blocks altogether.  This is the first half done.  I will be able to make three quilts of 12 blocks each from these.  I have the perfect background fabric.  This picture was from my phone which isn't the best.

This is the fabric used in the above blocks.  This is a truer color than the above,

Webster Butterflies!

I had just not been seeing any butterflies this summer which is unusual!  My neighbor's butterfly bush has been blooming for a couple of weeks and still none of the usual visitors.  The last day in July that all changed and I saw several varieties.  I have been seeing the common Eastern Tiger Swallowtail males and females pretty regularly now.  This was the best view of a nice non-bedraggled one who still had his swallowtail!  They love that butterfly bush!

This is the first Monarch I have seen.  Probably more will come by but I think last winter in this part of the country really hurt the populations.

This is a very bad very distant picture of a rapidly moving Spicebush Swallowtail.  I usually see these pretty frequently up here and certainly down in NC.  They are quite striking.  This one never stayed still for a moment and wasn't interested in the butterfly bush.

This is a Skipper although I am not sure which one -- probably Fiery but maybe not.  There were a couple of them on the bush.  They are only about 3/4 of an inch long and very fuzzy.  I think a lot of people mistake them for moths.

This is the underside of a Red Admiral.  A few years ago there was a surge in these in one very mild spring.  The following pic shows a little bit of his top side but he wasn't in to opening his wings for me!

The top side looks very different than the underneath -- bright orange with the white spots on the bottom.

Had to add in some pictures of our hibiscus.  This is one of the tropical ones that my dh takes back and forth to NC each year.

 These next two are also tropicals.

This is the first of the perennial hibiscus which are huge (tall and the flowers are the size of dinnerplates).  I like the cranberry colored ones best but they aren't out yet!