And the final answer is...

The original designer was right! The houses look better sashed. I kept the 5" finished dimension and used a combination of 1/2" sashing and 3/4" sashing to get my desired center dimension, 12" finished. My favorite house is the red one and my daughter, who is also my design consultant and business partner, loves the blue one. She helped with the fabric selections for 3 out of the 4 houses. The fabric selection is always the lengthiest part of the process and my favorite. Piecing the houses is quick until you have to get those chimneys and roof lines to fit perfectly! Now I have to make 5 more turkey track blocks and two more baskets and then the next border of the quilt will go on. So the last day of my son's visit was spent, you guessed it, hiking. To take my mind off my burning thigh muscles, I was educating everyone else on how to identify poisonous flowers. I guess I was boring them, because when it came time to really listen to me, they tuned me out. We reached our destination, a lovely creek, and the others decided to hike up it. They left me to take pictures, and the last thing I said was, "Just come back the way you came." After taking a few pictures, I got a little lonely and decided to follow them. Well, they didn't come back the way they went, and to make a long story short, they lost me. After an hour or so, I decided I was not going to spend the night on the mountain, and returned to the spot where we first separated. No family! Another 15 minutes goes by, feeling like hours by now, and I start imagining all sorts of horrible things happening to them. Come to find out, they came back a different way and when they didn't find me, they headed to the car. When I wasn't there, my husband ran up the mountain searching for me. Serves them right for not listening to what I said! Perhaps the extra workout will make an impression and this will never happen again! We now call this previously unnamed trail, the Lost Mom trail!





And the wildflower of the day is the poisonous Monkshood. Again, the name is so appropriate that I will surely remember it. I might have named them Prairie bonnets if it were up to me, but no one asked me.



Back to Turkey Tracks. I think I'll work on another green one. Now, which fabric to choose?...