'Round the Mulberry Bush ~~ a finish!

Several weeks ago while we were at Rory and Meggan's house, we noticed lots of mulberries in the tree in their front yard. Later, while we were in Iowa, we saw another mulberry tree covered in berries. 

They are a mess! Delicious, absolutely! But a mess--on the ground, on clothing, in the kitchen. Everywhere. The birds love them--and birds leave droppings. So, messy. 

Before leaving for vacation, I finished a small quilt top in blues with touches of orange and set it aside to quilt sometime this summer. Here's the link to the original post. (I wrote a quick tutorial about how I keep blocks in order in that post, should you need some ideas for keeping blocks organized.)

I loaded the quilt just before leaving for Beta Convention in New Orleans and even managed to maka few stitches. I had decided to quilt the white in straight lines and the blues in circular motifs. 

The entire quilt is made from scraps or stash fabrics.  When I sewed the top together, I also sewed the binding using a few strips of blue and the pieces of orange that were left. Pressed in half and laid aside, it made for a quick finish! 

My Beta cohort and I returned yesterday afternoon, so I was able to get about an hour of quilt in. Despite several interruptions, I managed to finish up the quilting and then came home from supper with some of the kids to attach the binding.

While I was working on this quilt, I kept thinking of the mulberries on those two trees and the tree in my parents' yard when I was a child. Of course, berry picking as children, we sang the nursery rhyme and that came to mind a few times. It was easy to name this sweet quilt, which happens to fit into the nursery rhyme series that I worked on a few years ago. 
Here are two verses from the song:


          Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
          The mulberry bush,

          The mulberry bush,

          Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,

          So early in the morning.

          This is the way we wash the clothes,

          Wash the clothes,

          Wash the clothes,

          This is the way we wash the clothes,

          So early in the morning.

From there the song goes on about getting other chores done. Maybe I should consider a "This is the way we sew the quilt..." verse. 

	Quilt Stats
Name:	'Round the Mulberry Bush (Scrap Quilt)
Size:	42" square
Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics--blue, orange; Stash fabrics--Kona Off-white solid
Backing:	Pieced stash fabrics in neutrals/blue/indigo
Binding:	Scrap strips in blue and orange
Pattern:	scrap slabs in blue made into HST's
Quilting:	Custom Free Motion Quilting – straight lines in white areas and circular motifs in blues
Completed:	June 2016

Eventually I was ready for a photo shoot. I enlisted help from Jolie, one of the granddaughters. She's 13 and fun (or silly) and loves the camera. She is not afraid to be caught making ridiculous faces. 

So that was a bust! But we had fun and you get some idea of what the quilt looks like. 

Linking up with Kaja and Ann at AHIQ Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts TGIFF at Celtic Thistle Stitches Confessions of a Fabric Addict