Love Entwined Start and Michigan Tiger Lily Start

I decided to start in a small way on Love Entwined, the 1870 Coverlet (see link to read about it) Esther Aliu's blog 

The center is a Mariner's Compass with small circles surrounding it.  I think there are about 32 little circles, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, I am starting to make the small circles because I haven't printed out the pattern for the Mariner's Compass yet.  I'm still reading about how to make it, and I know how to make circles, so that's where I am starting.  

Here's my fabric, and the start of many small circles:

I should have put a dime in the picture to show you the size.  The next time I will.  These little circles are very small, smaller than a dime.  How do I make them?  I trace around the pattern on the back of the fabric and before cutting it out, sew a running stitch with strong thread about 1/8 to 1/4 inch outside of the drawn circle. I cut the circle out, close to the stitching line.  By cutting out after sewing the gathering stitches, I have a bigger piece of fabric in my hand while sewing.  I pull the thread to gather the fabric around the pattern, and tie the ends into a knot.  It then gets soaked in water, and laid out to dry overnight.  I don't use starch or any other product.  I find that wetting it and drying it out will keep the circle shape good enough until I sew it down. When I am ready to sew it to background fabric, I snip a few of the gathering stitches, and pull out the pattern, and then reshape it into a circle and applique it down.  The circle pattern is from a set I have from Karen Kay Buckley, called "Perfect Circles".    

Michigan is so beautiful this summer.  Here's one example.

One of the native wildflowers of Michigan is Lilium lancifolium, commonly named Tiger Lily.  Since the Detroit Tigers are our favorite baseball team, I've been on a search to find some Tiger Lily plants to put in our yard.  Here's a picture of a Tiger Lily in bloom that I took this morning, at the building where the local quilt guild meets:

This plant has what different sources call "bulbils" or "bulbets" along the stem that can be collected and planted to produce new plants.  It will take at least two years to grow a flowering lily from the bulbils, so I am collecting some and planting them.  I used to have these flowers in my yard when my children were small, and I want to have some again.  Since they are native to Michigan, hopefully the deer will leave some for me to enjoy at the cabin.

Here is another picture of the bulbils along the stem:

Pure Michigan!

Love Entwined - I am Love Ensnared, Love Enamored, Love Engulfed, Love Enchanted!!

I do have my colors selected for Love Entwined.  They are all from my stash. And I bought a book about Mariner's Compass construction.  

My head is filled with LE, and I look at pictures and notes on the web about other people's progress, and I am itching to start mine.  Here's a caricature of what I'm feeling like this summer at the cabin:

I haven't started on it yet because I brought several other projects with me to the cabin, to work on and I plan on starting on LE when I get back to Virginia, but my head is filled with LE.

Here's my progress on the other projects at hand:

Knitting a baby blanket to give away with my Virginia neighborhood craft club's January giving events:

Status:  Almost finished.  I work on this while watching Detroit Tiger games with my hubby.  Detroit is having a great season, and I am knitting away during the games.  It will be finished soon.

Birds of A Feather quilt by Blackbird Designs:  I thought I had this square finished, but decided to add some turquoise leaves to it, because there is turquoise in all the other squares, and it needed it.  So this one is now finished.

I have another one finished:

The Birds of A Feather project was started by my friend Sharyn, and I am taking it to the finish line, using some of Sharyn's fabrics, and some of mine.  So it has Sharyn's batiks, and some of my civil war fabrics, so it's a fun mix.  I am happy with my progress on it, and am starting another square.

Next project I have with me is the redwork quilt, and I am working on this square (or I should say, I'm not working on it).  My friend Dee and I are doing this project together, and both of our last names start with "H" so this square is appropriate.  It is on the back burner.  I shall put it in the car to work on while I'm riding about, while hubby is driving.

Next, binding a Maple Leaf Quilt that will go on the upstairs king sized bed at the cabin:

It came back from the machine quilter last summer; I took it to VA to do the binding; and it's back at the cabin, still waiting to be bound.  I will get this quilt bound this month, and show you a picture of it on the bed when it is there.  I was unsure of navy or shirting for the binding, and still haven't decided.  I don't think it matters much, as it's just a utility quilt.

The latest doll quilt status is:  top is finished, and I need a piece of flannel to use as batting, and then it will be quilted and bound.  It was so much fun to do that I hate to finish it.

The last project in my hands is the local Michigan quilt guild is doing a raffle quilt with squares of birds, either paper pieced or appliqued, and they want them on blue sky background.  Since I had some birds from Sharyn's Birds of A Feather that I wasn't going to be using on my version of it, I bought a fat quarter of sky fabric and made four squares for the guild raffle quilt.  I hope they like them:

So the above are things I've been working on while my head is thinking about Love Entwined.  I don't really have six hands as my cariacuture shows, but it would help sometimes.  

I will close with some visitors to our front yard this morning.  There was a Tom and a Hen, a teenager, and two little baby turkeys. They must have had two broods this year, and only one is still with them from the first brood.  

It's not a very good picture, as they turned to go just when I tried to take their picture - a little camera shy, I guess.