As you know, one of the main objectives of my garden, in addition to just being beautiful, is to attract pollinators

And that means all pollinators – bees, wasps, flies, ants, beetles, moths and of course, butterflies.

The butterflies are kind of the crown heads of the pollinator world – the showy ones everyone wants to see.

Though the moths are quite interesting too.

We have tonnes of moths here, though they tend to be hard to photograph. Many are quite small, they move fast, and they mostly come around at night when it’s harder to get decent pictures.

They are also harder to identify, because so many are beige/off white and look similar.

The butterflies are also a challenge.

This yellow Swallowtail would NOT sit still.

I finally got shots of a different one eventually.

Though his wings were pretty ragged.

He hung out on the Black Knight butterfly bush for quite a while.

The white cabbage butterflies (like the one Relic was watching on Friday) are the most abundant in the yard. It’s not unusual to have several flitting about at one time.

The red-spotted purple butterfly was very nervous, but eventually settled in for a long sip on the Black Knight butterfly bush

And I caught it from a different angle a day or two later.

Beautiful from both sides!!!

And for this little Northern Crescent, I have to thank Kathy B.

It’s because of her that I planted Cosmos… and this little guy loved them so much it was easy to get a picture of him.

And then I got another one from a different angle a few days later.

This little European Skipper hung around the catio garden for quite a while one afternoon and I was able to get several shots.

This Silver Spotted Skipper is a somewhat regular sight around here, though he’s usually hard to capture.

But the dark purple Delphinium helped me out and held his attention for a while.

I caught this little Common Branded Skipper on the siding by chance.

I see these little Meadow Fritillaries quite often, but are rarely able to capture them.

This one had some damage, and I think it made him a little slower.

It’s to the point now that I don’t walk out of my house without camera (ie phone) in hand because I just never know who will flutter by.

If you start getting into gardening, and start watching garden shows, you hear them talk a lot about “architecture” and “structural elements”… and they aren’t talking about ornaments or actual structures (okay… sometimes they are but not usually).

They are talking about the structure of the plants themselves. You’re probably familiar with the term “deadheading” – cutting off spent flowers to make the plant look nicer, and encourage more blooms. There are certain flowers this is really good for – roses, dahlias, petunias, etc.

But for some plants, you can get a whole other effect by leaving the flowers, because they look interesting at every stage of the process.

The blanket flower is one of them.

It’s starts off as a tidy little green bud that’s almost a flower itself, and then blooms in a riot of colour, and slowly fades to and adorable little pom pom. The pom poms (which are seed heads) last quite a while before they fall apart, creating quite a bit of interest right through into fall.

The pincushion plant is similar, but on a much smaller scale.

And then of course, the iconic coneflowers.

The cone flower is probably one of my favourites, because that seed head turns brown and lasts for ages into winter. It’s also a favourite treat for the finches, who will come to eat the seeds as long as the are available. It’s not uncommon to come out and see a wee goldfinch perched on top of one. (They do it while still in bloom too).

Are there any plants in your garden that still look neat at the end of their life?

Sometimes, you are just in the right place, at the right time…

… to catch the perfect moment.

And half a second later, Burton pounced from nowhere and chased poor butterfly away.

For the last of the three baby quilts, I finally got to make something for a girl!!!! There’s nothing wrong with making things for boys, but secretly, I almost always find the girly stuff more fun.

For this one I dove into the stash and came out with a few fat quarters from a line called Sweet Pea, and turned out some dizzy daisies.

You’ve seen it many times before, as it’s one of my favourite blocks. The most time consuming part is the cutting (and even that doesn’t take very long). The blocks just whizz together.

And before you know it, you have a completed top.

With previous dizzy daisy quilts, I’ve always just sewn the blocks right together, but this time I decided to add a thin sashing.

And dressed it up a touch with some wee cornerstone flowers.

Then I gave the whole thing another border with the same star fabric I used for the cornerstone petals.

It’s not from the same line, but the colours worked pretty well and I had just enough of it. I call that meant to be. And speaking of meant to be…

You may recall this pretty flannel from the back of the Spring Kittens quilt. I had just enough of it to piece it together for the back of this one. And it couldn’t be more perfect!

Burton obviously agrees!!!!

So now, with all three tops done, I’ve made a date with Mom and her long arm. Next weekend I’ll be headed there to get these quilted and ready to send to be snuggled by new little lives.

Last week I shared mostly houses that we’re built around the same time as mine (1907), but also a few that were built in the late 1800s.

The town itself was founded around about 1835, and there are quite a few examples of fine Victoria architecture throughout the town.

Naturally, there are churches. Both of these I’ve shown before. The one on the left has a date of 1873, and is now a house. The one on the right has a date of 1880, and is still a working church. It has a “modern” addition making it much larger (the date of which is 1929). I think it’s interesting to see that while the have a similar style, the newer one is more ornate, despite being only seven years younger.

Like my house, you can see examples of the same styles, even in much older houses. These two are actually side by side. The one on the left appears to be left fairly original, while the one on the right has definitely had a face lift, along with an addition or two.

This one is just down the street from me. The Old Girl has definitely had work done to keep her looking so good. Also… in that “turret” window, if the curtains are open I can see and old treadle sewing machine.

And there are several styles of what I call the very “blocky” style Victorian. All with varying levels of wonderful Victorian detail.

This beauty is hard to see because of the trees.

But someone has paid a lot of love and attention to that gingerbread. The second picture is the view from the alley that runs behind it.

And on this recent walk, I found two more houses “related” to mine.

The one on the left has very old faux brick siding, which I believe was made from asphalt (almost like shingles). I saw it more often when I was a kid, and usually in more economically depressed areas. It’s pretty rare to see it now, and if you do, it’s usually on old cottages/cabins.

The one on the right is true brick, and wonder if it was built with wood like our, and then encased in brick after, or if it was perhaps the predecessor to ours. Built in brick here, and then copied in wood which would have been quicker and more affordable. The brick instantly gives it a more upscale look.

With the help of some fantastic felines…

I’ve made some really good progress on my stitching.

The little black puffball cat is complete.

And all I have left is the rest of the table legs, and some background beige to fill in.

However, I’m going to set this aside for a little while in favour of knitting. I’d like to make some small baby things to tuck in with each of the three quilts. And, if I want to get them in the mail in good time, I’m going to need to devote every spare hour to it.

This, unfortunately doesn’t have a deadline, so it will have to be abandoned… but not for too long, I hope!

Before I went back to work after vacation, I spent Sunday in the studio, getting things ready. Work is looking to be very busy for the foreseeable future, and Dave always has tasks for me around the house. Sneaking in a few hours sewing here and there will be much easier if the pieces are already cut and ready to sew.

First up…. not too long ago, I found out my favourite cousin is getting married. She’s about a decade younger than me, and when I was a teen, I used to babysit her and her older sister a lot, as we lived just two streets apart. So as soon as I found out, I started planning a wedding quilt for her.

Her favourite colour is blue (with purple being a second favourite). I had originally planned on a more traditional blue and white quilt, but couldn’t really find any fabric I liked. So I started toying with the idea of batiks. That’s when Mom sent me pictures of a layer cake she had… as soon as I saw the purple mixed in, I decided it was a sign. I put in an order at the Fat Quarter Shop* for some complimentary yardage, and I’m going to make a Moda Love quilt, adding some borders to make it queen-sized.

Happily, I also have a layer cake of background fabric so I didn’t have to do any cutting to get this one ready to work on. There will be a lot of HST making in my future, but as the blocks are large (9.5 inches), it will go fairly fast once I do have time to work on it.

I mentioned yesterday that my Leader Ender project had reached a stage where it was no longer suitable to be worked as L/Es.

I’d been busy making nine patches for Pat Sloan’s Little Wishes quilt. With those all made it was time to make the star points. Pat did hers as HSTs (and scrappy) but I didn’t think I’d have enough neutral scraps for that, so I decided to do 4-at-a-time geese.

So everything is cut and ready to go for that. I just need the time to sit and sew.

And last, for the month of August, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour is orange. I rummaged through the scraps and came up with enough to make my block.

I am stretching it a little on what constitutes orange, but the overall feel is there.

Sigh…. so much to sew… so little time!

* Also part of the FQS order was this fun bit of fabric.

I’ve had an idea for a Hallowe’en quilt for a while, and I really want to bring it to life this year. The jelly roll is all orange and black and white, but I wanted to add a splash of pink, so I got the fun fat quarter bundle beside it. I’m not going tell you more than that.. you’ll have to wait and see…

My Leader Ender project has reached a stage where it is no longer suitable for L/E. So I needed something new.

I took inspiration from one of the blockhead blocks. I saw what someone else had done with it and immediately knew it would be great for a scrappy L/E quilt.

First, you make a whole bunch of these by snowballing either end of a rectangular scrap.

Then you pair two of them together.

Then you pair two of those, rotating one.

Then you pair two of those, and you have your block.

And while that block is pretty cool on it’s own. It’s pure magic when you start pairing it with so many others.

This one is going to be wild!!!!

While none of the sunflower seeds I planted made it (thanks Foxy squirrel), I did get several “volunteers” from the bird feeders.

They aren’t huge – the tallest is only about four feet high.

Naturally they attract pollinators.

We have lots of these little black bees here (I think they are type of a Carpenter Bee). The really seem to love the sunflowers. But they aren’t the only ones.

I found this big spur-throated grasshopper hanging out there the other day.

Eventually, as the seeds ripen they will also attract the finches and squirrels, both of whom love a good sunflower feast.

These aren’t the only “sunny” flowers in the garden.

This beauty is a False Sunflower. At the townhouse, a neighbour had a yellow version of it, and it grew in a wild mass. This one is new to me this year, and the company advertised it as a solid red version of the flower… obviously it’s not. But it’s still pretty. False Sunflower is also a native plant, and should bloom right through fall.

This zinnia I started from seed this year is red…. red as red can be! With more blooms to come.

This Helenium (aka Sneeze Weed) is a lovely mix of red and yellow. It’s another new on this year, and not terribly robust yet, but it promises to get better each year. I have a native solid yellow version of this in the catio – the plant is huge, but it hasn’t bloomed yet. (This one’s name is Sahin’s Early Flowerer… so that’s a good clue why the other one has no flowers yet).

And the black-eyed susans are blooming strong now… always a sign to be that summer is approaching its end.

Still, so many of these beauties bloom right until the first frost, so there’s still months left of garden to enjoy!

There was one other piece of furniture we brought back from Dave’s Grandma’s house, but it wasn’t something for us.

This cute little chaise belonged to Grandma’s Sheltie Ella. Dave’s uncle took in Ella, but he left the chaise behind. I had admired it once, saying I’d love to have something like it for the cats. So Dave’s Mom asked if I would like to take it home.

Naturally, I said yes, because there was a certain kitty I was sure would love it.

When we got it here, I took the cushions off and gave everything a good wash. That said, it must still have smelt a little odd. While Relic was immediatley interested, he seemed a little unsure about using it at first.

But after a day or two, he got more comfortable with it.

MUCH more comfortable.