Window installation is going swimmingly so far

On Tuesday, they did the three biggest windows (both living rooms, and the dining room) and the bigger of the two kitchen windows.

Yesterday, they tackled Dave’s studio – one good-sized window and the sliding glass door. They also got the downstairs bathroom and one of the laundry room windows done. And it’s all gone without any hiccups except one… the fearsome foursome…

Well, really, it’s mostly one…

As we did when the basement guys were here, we locked the cats out in the catio. The only difference this time around was the temps. The last two days have been disgustingly hot and humid. (Above 30C/86F). For Rupert, Relic and Lemmy, it wasn’t as much of an issue. But for the poor black Fluffbutt… well at about 2 pm on Tuesday, I went out to check on them, and the poor guy was laying in the shade just panting up a storm. He’s just got too much floof, and then black on top of it…

Since they weren’t going to be getting to the upstairs windows that day, I brought him in and closed him up in our bedroom with the a/c. He was much happier.

Since Wednesday was slated to be just as hot, and they were still working on the downstairs, I decided to just keep them all in the bedroom for the day.

And yes, you can probably tell by the project bag, I decided to hang out with them and get some stitching done. (Does that make this Tiny Needle Thursday?). Or at least I tried to get some stitching done…

Rupert wasn’t the only one put out about not being able to outside and play. Lemmy had a serious case of cabin fever and it started about five minutes after I closed the bedroom door. He harrassed all the other cats, got into all my stitching supplies, pushed everything off my dresser, and eventually I got him distracted with his favourite toy – a pop bottle lid. (Don’t ask… he’s weird). After a very long game of fetch (it’s not that far across the room so it took many, many throws to wear him out), he finally crashed and let me stitch in peace

As a result, it was a rather productive afternoon.

The butterfly is really starting to come together. I think I have six or seven colours left. There is a light at the end of the tunnel with this one!

Window installation continues today. I expect they will finish the downstairs (one kitchen window and one laundry room window left), and then head upstairs.

The weather is supposed to be cooler, so the cats will be back outside. I’m not sure what I’ll get up to… but I’ll let you know soon enough.

Thanks for all the comments on my Haunted Halloween wall-hanging… but just wait! There’s more!

Lemmy was definitely feeling a little jealous about the black cat….so we had to make one with an orange cat! As soon as the first one was finished, Burton and I set out to do the blocks all over again.

This time with fabrics from both Owl-o-ween, and leftovers from the Kitty Corn quilt. We got them all together, and left the borders for the next day.

Since this one is going to be for the shop, I wanted to make it a lap size quilt – something sweet and warm to pull over your legs on a cool autumn night.

The borders took pretty much all of Sunday…

But I think it was worth it!!! Here’s a closer look at the details.

This one was so much fun to make!

And the boys certainly agree!

First: A Happy 4th of July to all my American readers! Hope you have a fun, fabulous day.

Second: There’s no Tiny Needle post today. I spent the majority of the weekend sewing (more on that in a minute) and when I wasn’t sewing, I was working on cleaning and prepping the house for window installation week! Yes, that’s right! We are finally getting ALL the windows replaced. It’s a big job, and it’s going to take all week. I took the week off work so I don’t have to stress about moving things around as they progress from window to window. There’s 14 in all, plus a sliding glass door.

Since the house is going to be in dissary all week, I felt no guilt about taking the majority of the weekend to sew. I certainly won’t get anything done while the window guys are here.

So, first up was finishing the Haunted Hallowe’en Mystery.

It just needed everything sewn together, and then a border added. The border fabric should have been the same plum star fabric I used for the background, but I didn’t have enough. It was leftover from Fright Night, and I just squeaked by with enough for the background.

So we went with a plain black border. This one is going to be a wall hanging for me.

And Burton, of course! There’s no way he’s letting this one leave the house.

Last week was a good mix of rain and heat, and Edible Alley has pretty much exploded.

Nothing more than the snap peas though.

They are almost to the top of the rigging and have started to bloom – and such pretty white flowers!

The beans aren’t quite as tall, but they are blooming too! It won’t be long to bean time now!

The cucumbers aren’t climbing the rigging just left, but they are busting out all over the place. The leaves have gotten huge!

I have four squash plants!!! I’ve got some more seeds started, just incase these ones kick off, but I’m happy they are finally moving. They should grow pretty quick from here on out.

The chives and catnip are finally starting to sprout, but check out the parsley! It’s a little jungle. Now I’m not actually growing this parsley to eat – I’ve planted it for the swallowtail butterflies. Hopefully they will lay some eggs and we can watch the caterpillars devour this pot.

It did pick up some new strawberries plants. Home Depot had this bucketful for a very good price. I’ve got to split them up and plant them out into the strawberry box.

So things are doing quite well, but this experiment is far from over!

If June is the month for roses, July is the month of the lily!

And next to roses, lilies are my favourite flower.

I have Asiatic lilies, Oriental lilies and Trumpet lilies, and they are just getting started. The only garden I don’t have lilies in is the catio, since lilies are very dangerous for cats.

Last year, my lily turnout was terrible thanks to an infestation of the Red Lily Beetle. But I got out there early and frequently this spring, picking off any adult beetles, and destroying any eggs/larvae I found. I still had some damage to the leaves, but it was enough to keep the pests in check, and the flowers to bloom. So far, it’s just the two above (Royal Kiss and Tiny Double U), but there’s lots more to come – all the ones I brought from the townhouse, plus many new ones planted last fall and this spring.

And then there are the daylilies

This one is Stella D’Oro. She’s the small, but prolific one you see blooming in parking lot verges, and office building gardens everywhere. Practically indestructible and blooming right to the frost, it’s the ultimate “low maintenance” plant.

She’s always the first to bloom. But not long after, came Purple D’Oro.

It’s pretty, but not really purple, which annoys me. I hate it when they do that… but still, it’s pretty.

I think I have at least a dozen different daylilies… maybe more, as I added several new ones this spring. The next few months are going to be amazing.

And just because July is here doesn’t mean the roses have stopped. One of the things I insist on in a rose is that it must be a repeat bloomer.

The high heat of summer will slow them down a bit, but it won’t stop them.

And then of course…. there’s EVERYTHING else in bloom. I mentioned that I have quite a few Tickseed (Coreopsis now)

That one on the bottom right is brand spanking new. I haven’t even put it in the ground yet. I got it at Home Depot, and I had to restrain myself from buying two others they had (a pale yellow, and another red/yellow variety). I may go back and see if they are still there when they start clearing out the garden centre.

The reason I love them is that they bloom right to the first frost.

Same with the coneflowers

They are just getting started. I’ve got quite the collection of them now so there’s lots more to come.

The orange milkweed I had didn’t come back, but the swamp milkweed is doing beautiful this year.

I also have more volunteer Common Milkweed that popped up in the fence garden again. (Last year I had three, this year there are six). And I’m pretty sure there are already monarch eggs on the underside of a few of the leaves. I will keep a close watch for caterpillars.

And check out this little surprise. Last year, I started some lupin seedling in an attempt to get some more lupin colours. I managed to get two to survive long enough to plant into the catio (thanks to the meddling squirrels). But they didn’t seem to take…

Until I noticed on a few weeks ago, growing in the shadow of one of the Tickseed. And it’s finally bloomed!

A beautiful pink!!! I will relocate it when it’s done blooming because it’s not in the best spot. It was a lovely surprise, and hopefully a sign of many more wonderful things to come in the gardens.

Here we are on the first day of July – and it’s not just Canada Day… it’s time for a new quilt for Burton’s chaise. Especially since I didn’t get around to making him one for May or June.

I didn’t have any specific plans for those months, but I did have one for July. I knew I wanted to do something with maple leaves for Canada Day. I started looking at Leaf blocks, but ended up coming across this gorgeous panel by Stonehenge Fabrics.

Happily, Lens Mills carried all the fabrics in the line, and I was able to pick it up on one of our trips to Chatham months ago. Because the panel was big enough as is, I didn’t do any piecing. Just sandwiched it together with this cute beaver stripe I got for the back

I quilted it with a wide grid of straight lines and that was that. I wasn’t able to bind it right away, so I laid it over the quilt rack behind my chair until I could get to it.

And apparently Burton just couldn’t wait that long for me to finish it. Every night until I worked on it, I found him laying up there. And when I finally did get to stitching the binding down.

He was right there in my lap. Happily, his quilts never take long to bind, and soon enough, it was on his chaise.

Ironically, though this was the easiest of his quilts to make (since there was no piecing), it was actually the priciest – the panel and the backing fabric cost almost $50! All his other have been made (mostly) from scraps.

But, only the best for this patriotic Lord!

Poor Lemmy…

He wants to know why he has no place on the sign….

Things are starting to settle into a somewhat normal pace now. And I’ve even had a few evenings free to do some knitting

I’ve decided to be good and not cast on anything new until I get the body done on Dad’s birthday sweater. It’s just mindless knitting, round and round, so it’s perfect for after work when I just have no brain power left.

The Hallowe’en fabric Burton made me order arrived, so we carved out some time to catch up on the mystery quilt-along.

First was the bat block

Then we fussy cut some cute trick-or-treating kitties to make the star blocks.

Next up was the cat that started this whole thing…

And last… a haunted castle!

And here they are all together.

Now that we’re caught up, we are waiting for the final clue, which is the setting instructions (though we’re already pretty sure who it’s going to be laid out.

These blocks were so cute, and fun to make – I think you can see why I wanted to take part. And it didn’t take terribly long… I broke it up over two afternoons, but easily could have made them all in one day.

And that’s a good thing…

Because Lemmy is insisting I make a second one with an orange cat!

In good news, I finished the great floss reorganization

The bad news is, I need a bigger organizer. There’s no room for all those greys at the top. And it doesn’t include the 16 or so colours I’m using on the butterfly. They are pulled out and in my project bag.

And speaking of that butterfly…

I’ve actually made progress on it! I’ve only gotten through six of the colours, but if you squint just right, you can get a sense of the shape of the wings. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s nice to finally see some progress on it. I can’t wait to get to the outlining – this is one where the outlining is really going to make it shine.