I was hoping to finally finish up the bottom of fairy’s dress on the weekend, but I didn’t quite manage it. There’s just a little bit of shading to do on the underdress.

Then I’m debating on which part to do next. The fox would be an obvious option, but I’m thinking I may move the hoop up and finish the ribbon and top of her dress. It would allow me to put away some of the floss bobbins, which are starting to get a little chaotic!

I guess you’ll have to wait and see what I decide.

The first quilt I wanted to work on at Mom’s was the arrow quilt.

It’s so nice to see this one finally quilted and bound. To recap, this is a quilt I conceived of several years ago (before we moved). I bought the fabric for it, and then it sat…. just waiting to be made.

When I finally set about to do it, it went together fairly quickly for the size.

Those arrows are very simple to make, and arranging them this way makes such a fun pattern. One of those that “Looks complicated but isn’t”

The back is a fun, cozy flannel on theme

And now it’s in the shop, ready for a new home! And yes, it is part of the 20% off sale!

The hot and sticky weather has brought an end to my lovely lettuce beds… it’s almost all started to bolt.

Only my mixed lettuce is left. I pulled everything else up.

That leaves lots of sun can now reach my pumpkins, squashes and gourds. And they sorely need it.

The pumpkin that I started from seed is a sad spindly thing (left), the one I bought already grown (right) is much better, but still could use some bushing out.

The birdhouse gourds don’t look too bad (left) but my lone little buttercup squash could definitely use some tender loving care.

My melon bed on the other hand….

Is absolutely thriving! They have just exploded this last week.

Elsewhere,

I was thrilled to come home and not only find flowers on my peas, but also some very small pods! When things get moving in the garden, they really get moving

My peppers and beans both have flowers

So it won’t be long for goodies on them too.

Over in carrotland…

The jury is still out on how well the starter carrots will do – but so far, it seems ok. Their greens picked up nicely. Hopefully the roots are doing just as well. The seeds that I planted late are starting to sprout too. I’ve got to keep these beds nice and moist in this heat if I want them to survive.

I started my zucchini a little late, but it’s finally starting to pick up.

And I was shocked to see cucamelons already! They didn’t do well last year, but the year before (the first year I grew them) they didn’t start producing until much later in the season!

And last…

I should be harvesting my garlic and shallots, but they are calling for rain all day. If they are right, I’ll wait until it’s a little bit drier.

Anything new in your garden?

I left for Mom’s on Tuesday, and came home late Thursday afternoon (more on the quilts later) and in the time, the garden changed so much….

Mostly it’s just because there’s coneflowers blooming ALL over the place.

And also varying types of Black-Eyed Susans.

And lilies

Of course, there are daylilies everywhere.

So much beauty all around.

But sadly… a war has begun once again…

The Japanese Beetles are back… and I must prepare for battle!

Is there anything sweeter than a cat in a basket?

Despite Furby and Rupert’s best efforts

I’m still not finished the first broken seed stitch sock.

I’m close… I’ve only got about an inch to go before starting the toe. I could finish it up quickly if I would just sit still long enough. And that time may be coming. The hot, gross, humid weather is upon us. Gardening will be reserved for early morning or after dinner… so that will leave more hours during the day to knit!

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! Today is our holiday, and I took the rest of the week off work, so I’m off to Mom’s to do some quilting.

In the meantime, Burton is going on his own Great Canadian Adventure over on our Facebook page (please follow along on his fun each day). AND, for the next 2 weeks, EVERYTHING in the shop is on sale for 20% off! (Reminder to our American friends… we’ve sorted out the tariff mess and are now once again shipping to you! Hooray!)

First there was a large one….

Then there was a very small one…

And then they came together….

And all existed peacefully until the small one got a little too comfy, and too close to the big one! Then the small one was suddenly and unexpectedly kitty-mittened, enveloped in a whirl-wind of paws and orange floof!

And suddenly I was stitching alone. But it was nice while it lasted.

But, I got a nice bit of progress done. And you will note, I had to move the hoop down to accommodate the lower part of the skirt. Still enjoying EVERY stitch!

As mentioned yesterday…. it was time to make jam

While my garden wasn’t doing well in the strawberry department, the same can’t be said for the farms around here. On Friday, Dave and I stopped at our favourite farm store on the way into Sarnia. And I completely lost my mind, forgot how many quarts I need to make two batches of jam…. so for some reason decided two flats should do it. (I would like to note that I’ve been making jam on my own for at least 10 years now… I should know this).

Saturday morning, while all the jars were going through a cycle in the diswasher, I started prepping berries. And I quickly realized….I bought WAY too many berries. I had enough for FOUR batches. I was planning on making at least one batch for gifting at Christmas, but…I definitely did not need four full batches of strawberry jam.

While making the first batch, I was also messaging mom. She suggested getting some rhubarb and making a batch of strawberry-rhubarb – that would give me another variety to add to my Christmas gift baskets. She’s a smart lady, so once the first batch was in its jars, Dave and I hopped in the jeep and headed back to the farm store.

There, I bought entirely too much rhubarb (because I had no idea how much I’d need of that either!). I still had some raspberries in the freezer from last fall – it wasn’t quite enough for jam, but when I saw they had some pints of raspberries, I grabbed a couple of those too. And some aspargus for good measure (not for jam – but it went lovely with some steaks we had to bbq)

When I got home, I set to work making the strawberry-rhubarb batch.

Fun fact: I hate rhubarb. And don’t think you can sneak it in on me – I know it’s there!!! That said, it was neat to see how quickly it cooked down and became jam.

Afte that, I tackled the raspberry batch.

While strawberry jam is my favourite to eat, raspberry is my favourite to make. The smell of those raspberries just explodes and fills the kitchen as soon as they start to get warm. Nothing makes the kitchen smell better.

Once the raspberry was done, there was still more strawberries to use up. So two more batches followed.

There were jars EVERYwhere!

But the end result was three batches of strawberry (24x125ml jars and 12×250 ml jars) a batch of raspberry (13×125 ml jars) and a batch of strawberry-rhubarb (11×125 ml jars) and five 250ml jars to take to Mom (one strawberry, two strawberry-rhubarb, and two raspberry).

The smaller jars will be put into gift baskets for Dave to give away at Christmas to friends and service providers.

And as soon as my blackberries ripen… I’ll be making up another batch or two!

We had a wonderful storm pass through on Thursday. It did produce a small (EF0) tornado about 10 minutes south of us, which caused some property damage, but it also brought us a a full two inches of rain. As a result the gardens feel refreshed and thriving.

Despite the title, the only thing we are eating from the garden right now is still just the lettuce (sooooo much lettuce)

But the beans are thick and lush. It’s such a difference from last year when my beans struggled so much. They are just starting to get flowers, so we will be crunching beans very soon.

I’m not seeing flowers on the peas yet, but they are growing strong and tall.

I’ve already cut off the garlic scapes, and the lower leaves are starting to turn yellow. I’ll be harvesting garlic in a week or two. And the shallots won’t be far behind. I don’t think my shallot harvest will be as good as last year (probably because of the wonky weather) but I’ll take what I can get.

I was a little worried about my laundry basket potatoes when I first started this experiment, but they’ve really surprised me. Of course, the proof will be in the harvesting, and that’s still weeks off.

My cabbages are looking more and more like cabbages every day. In truth, I’m quite excited for these. I grow most of the veggies for Dave, but I secretly love cabbage – I love a good coleslaw. Dave likes his cabbage cooked – which I don’t mind, but it will always be slaw first for me!

I think I mentioned last week that I picked up some more melon plants.

My poor melon bed is going to be VERY full if they do well – we’ve now got three Mini Mikes (mini watermelons) a yellow fleshed watermelon, a cantaloupe and a honeydew melon! They are all looking happy and healthy so far. The weatherman is calling for a week or more of the sticky ickies so they will probably take off very quickly.

One area that’s not looking great, are my strawberries.

My new plants are doing ok (but not spectacular) and most of the old ones have died off completely. I think it might be time to pull all the soil from this bed and start fresh.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t planning on relying on this bed for jam supplies….

I got those from a farm not too far away. But more on that later tomorrow.