transects and quilts

 I got four transects done today (I am now up to 9 of 12 completed). It was a LOT cooler - we had a cold front come through and some pretty intense rain yesterday, and then overnight it got down into the 50s, which it almost never does here in June, so I went out early and worked until almost noon.

I got what (in the original project) we referred to as "big meadow" done. The next to last transect there was the hardest one I'd done - sumac as tall as I was, and lots of snags that were partly burnt under the vegetation (this was where the most intense fire went through, I think) and there was poison ivy

At least it's done, and it was good to have to wade through the tall stuff on a cooler day; I bugged out early last time because I was feeling shaky at the end of the second transect.

I also went and did the one over alongside the stand of (mostly) winged elm that's out there - this stand is a little bit of an anomaly, given how low-diversity it is.

Didn't see much cool stuff; it was mostly invasives at both locations, but on the way out, I did finally spot a basketflower:

Came back, showered, ate lunch, faffed around a bit. Went over to campus and read an article about the philosophical underpinnings of Clements and Gleason and while I'm not sure I accept ALL of the conclusions the author made, it did say some sort of....wild....things about the mindsets of people in early 20th century ecology. 

This evening, I started hand sewing down the binding on one of the two finished quilts I have. I made the bindings on Sunday, and got the first one machine-sewn then.

This is the unicorn-and-castle quilt that I sewed during "lockdown" (FSVO "lockdown" - we never really did lock down here, though I did, for myself)

The backing is a celestial print, and the binding is another celestial print (it's stiffer, and has glitter sparkles on it - pretty, but it would not have made a comfortable backing on the quilt, I prefer the softer backing I chose):

I am thinking about next quilt tops - I have a jelly roll of bright pastel prints and a plain-white jelly roll to put with it for a pattern out of a book I have, it would be minimal "big" cutting, which is attractive. But I also have some seventies-ish fabrics that I plan to use for something like one of those "recut" four patch quilts (where you sew four patches or nine patches, and then subcut them and put them back together).