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.
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.
If there’s one thing I’m learning, it’s that when Dave wants to go “antiquing” but I’m not in the mood, I really should just give in. Because that’s when I’m going to find awesome stuff.
Let me set the scene for you.
It was Friday afternoon. I got out of work early to run some errands, and wanted to get back to the house before dinner to sneak in a little sewing before I had to make dinner.
Dave came along, because he needed to make a few stops too. It was pouring rain, and I could feel the beginnings of a weather migraine. I wanted to do nothing more then finish my tasks and get home.
Dave wanted to check out ALL the used/thrift shops along our way. I agreed to go to one. It’s one of our favourites – the little second hand place in Strathroy.
It has a small outdoor area where they keep garden stuff/windows/stone building supplies, etc. Despite the rain, I headed out for a quick look.
And there it was…
I have been looking for a small rattan/wicker conversation set for the catio porch ever since I got my rattan lounger. I have a metal patio table and chairs on the porch presently, but I wanted something that would match the lounger and rocking chair.
If you’ve ever looked at rattan furniture on Kijiji/Marketplace, you’ll know, despite the fact that most of it is old and well used – it retains a fair bit of value. So I was super excited when I saw the price for the set was just $50. I can’t even get a cheap bistro set from Walmart for that!
But it gets better. When I got to the counter, she told me all their outdoor stuff was 50% off!!! That’s right… I got the whole set for just $25!!!! Can you believe it? I still can’t.
I have to move some things around on the porch (and finish painting the darn space!) and find anothe spot for my metal table and chairs, but someone has already approved the new addition.
Continuing the highs and lows of the food-growing adventure:
The beans appear to be doing quite well. The smaller ones are “Tender Beans”, the bigger ones are “Long Beans”. At least I think they are because I got my packages mixed up and I’m not 100% sure they are labelled right.
There are MORE carrot sprouts!!! It’s not many though, so I sowed some more seeds. I can always thin if I get too many.
And behold!!! One tiny squash sprout. And I think there’s another one coming up too… though it might just be a sprouted maple key, so I’m trying not to get too excited. I’ve sowed a few more squash seeds too, because I’d really like four plants if I can manage it.
The grape tomatoes are doing well – nice and lush and bushy.
The peas are exceedingly happy with their new rigging and I think they are growing even faster than before.
Still no signs of life from the chives or catnip. And though the strawberries still look excessively sad, I did get one ripe berry
It wasn’t the sweetest, but the hot dry start to the season didn’t help. I definitely need some new plants.
And mother nature saw fit to bless me with another gift.
If google is correct, this spikey plant growing up in the pussywillows is a black raspberry (a native plant, probably pooped out by a bird). If it is, I’ll relocate it (and the two others around the shed) to a better spot with my other raspberries.
