Pumpkin Spice Maples

As I write, I can hear leaf blowers and kids outdoors attempting to deal with the last of the falling leaves. But there's been a few leaves dropping indoors as well. Like this beauty by Roberta. SO gorgeous against that navy!

There's been lots and lots of Secret Squirrel sewing happening over the past month or so that I will share with you in January. Amidst the process of dropping off and picking up at Roberta's for quilting, she tucked a Crystal Manning pattern called Pumpkin Spice Maple Leaf into my bag. 

Always up for another squirrel to chase, I decided to play with a few fall colours while they were in season. And so did she! (Don't you love the middle colour that looks almost like pussy willows?) She is much further along with hers than I am with mine.

She got right into it, trying different combinations, each one as beautiful as the last. Not sure what that bottom print is called - the one that looks like poppies - but it's right in my wheelhouse. Love those large prints to add lots of texture.

Then she had four. As in nature, each on different from the other, and each one beautiful in its own right. So she needed to figure out just what in the world she was going to do with them.

Add a little sashing and a few dark cornerstones and you have the beginnings of a runner.

Then that fabulous poppy fabric came back into play for a border.

And then the dark brow cornerstone fabric became an outer border.

Here's a closer look at those borders.

She's still ruminating about how to quilt it but I know that she will pick just the right panto. I'm also thinking that there's a really good chance that the gorgeous large plaid in the upper right corner of the fifth image of this post (the one with all four of her blocks) will show up in the binding....M