I’ve had many people ask me what the secret to my beautiful gardens is… and really, there isn’t one. I barely weed, I don’t use fertilizers or pesticides… other than topping up the gardens with black soil and mulch every spring, I don’t do anything special.

Well, except water. Unless it’s rained, I go out every evening just before supper and give all the gardens a good drink.

And I love it because there always something new to see.

My pink Speedwell has bloomed. I have purple in the front garden, but it gets less sun than the pink one (which is in the side garden), so it hasn’t bloomed yet.

The pink Bee Balm has stopped blooming for now, but the Purple is putting on quite a show.

The Lavender is lovely as always.

Cupid’s Dart continues to delight me year after year. It was bought for 50 cents in a clearance sale the first year we were here. One of my best buys ever!

And another great steal was these Crocosmia, which I got from the dollar store.  This is the first year they’ve bloomed, and they are stunning!

This Cherry Brandy Black-Eyed Susan just has me in awe! It’s out front with all the coneflowers.

Also out front is this pretty yellow/maroon lily…

And this orange/maroon one. They were planted this spring, but sadly, as nice as they are.. they  are not the lilies I ordered. The bulbs must have got mixed up, but the place I ordered them from gave me a credit, so it’s not all bad.

My Casablanca Lilies out back are big and beautiful and white – just as they  should be.

And while the squirrels ran off with all the sunflowers, I purposely planted… this surprise one showed up in the Little Bee garden. I don’t think it will be a Mammoth Sunflower, but I’ll enjoy it all the same.

And last but not least… it’s raspberry season again!

 

Is there anything sweeter than a happy cat, soaking up a sunbeam?

Holy crap! Where did that come from? It’s almost a full sock! I don’t know what it is, but this new design (called Longbranch) is knitting like the wind.

Maybe it’s the combination of beautiful yarn (Twisted Top Cat …. ooooh cashmere!), my favourite stitches (lace, lace, lace) and my favourite colour (GREEN!!!)

And let’s take a closer look at that yarn…

The colourway is called Spriggand, and it’s a lovely mix of sage green with touches of blue and grey. It’s really making me want to play in the dye pots again… maybe this weekend.

Before we get into today’s post… the wonderful Natalie over at Bee Meadow Farms has taken in a sweet little stray who’s going to need a tail amputation…

if you’d like to help out, there’s a GoFundMe page set up to cover his vet bill. Full details of his situation are on the fundraising page. Once he’s all healed up he’ll be up for adoption. We appreciate any help you can give!

Now… to business.

A while back, I bought a jelly roll of these beautiful fabrics…

with the intention of making a lap quilt for the living room. Since I had an empty box and needed a new project, I went searching for a new quilt pattern for said jellyroll. I settled on Summer in the Park, and at first everything went swimmingly.

I sewed my strips together and then sewed them into tubes with no problems. Then I got cutting. And somehow, with I opened the triangles and ironed them into squares…

Well that doesn’t look quite square… does it?

So… I set to squaring them all up. An hour or so later, they looked like proper squares… but then I realized… about half were 8″… and the other half 7 3/4″…

Sigh…

Once I got them all the same size, it was time to layout…

But I made a bit of a miscalculation here. In the tutorial, they pair a pattern jelly roll with plain fabric. I decided to just split my jelly roll into colours and neutral and used what I had. But as you can see – that leads to trouble with the layout… i.e: colours side by side instead of mixed up.

After a little time wracking my brain, I was able to come up with a layout that worked…

It’s not quite like the quilt in the tutorial, but I can live with it! Though I think I’ll wait a bit to sew it all together… make sure all the bad luck on this one has run out!

Another pair done and dusted. And I’m so pleased with them. Just a nice bit of texture and a plain foot. The Alley Cat (in Strawberry Yogurt) really let’s the texture shine.

I think this would be a nice pattern for the men in my life, so I’ll be writing up the pattern with a man size too.

But now I’ve really got to get moving on the last three designs…

This past weekend was one for tradition. Namely the summer picnic at Sam’s parents’ place. I’ve attended almost every year since I was 12 years old, but this year was a little extra special.

It’s almost always held close to Samantha’s birthday, and this year the lovely lady to my right..

…turns 40 years old! Can you believe it? I can’t, and I’m only a year behind her. To celebrate, we wore matching outfits (Sam had recently discovered the comforts of the Old Navy Fit and Flare dress), and I presented her with the Superstar quilt. She was thrilled, which of course, made me very happy.

Sam’s two eldest took advantage of Dave’s presence for some impromptu ukulele lessons.

If it’s hard to believe that Sam is 40, it’s just as hard to believe that Lily and Owen are BOTH in high school. I was at the hospital the day Owen was born, and it doesn’t feel like it was all that long ago.

Little Miss Nora is turning into quite the beautiful young lady…

Though she’s definitely got her daddy’s silly streak.

Sam’s parents still live in the teeny, tiny village I grew up in. It’s really just two country roads with a bunch of houses, more or less in the middle of nowhere. When I lived there, the population was 500… and I don’t think it’s changed much.

Despite the people picnicking, there’s always lots of wildlife to be seen, so before we headed out there, I snagged Mom’s long lens. I was hoping to get a couple shots of the bluebird family that has been living there for the past few years. Sadly, they were shy this year, but I did get some fantastic shots of the woodpeckers…

A rose-breasted nuthatch…

And this cheerful little chipmunk

And though it was a terribly humid day, it was a wonderful filled with friends, food and fun… who could ask for more?

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve got quite a collection of coneflowers in the garden. There’s a few really good reasons for this. First – they are pollinator magnets – butterflies and bees absolutely love them. Second – the bloom like crazy. Though they don’t really get going until July – they bloom right to October. Big, beautiful flowers that last for days and days. And last – they come in a great variety of colours.

You’ve all seen my Strawberry Mango Smoothie Coneflower

With it’s lovely golden petals with just a touch of pink.

But I’ve also got Ruby Star

A nice bold magenta

And the standard purple coneflower

Which looks quite pink in this picture. In truth – it is very close to Ruby Star in colour – it’s just a touch more purple.

Out front, they don’t get as much sun, so the plants are a little smaller – but we’ve got a lovely white

Pink..

And orange

There are many other types of coneflowers, though they usually have to be ordered through seed/bulb suppliers. I hope to add at least a couple more over the next few years.

Oh – and one bonus reason to love coneflowers…

The bring in the finches too!

 

I am happy to say, all those little four inch blocks used as leaders and enders has really paid off. I’ve now got a box of 15 scrappy little four patches.

I’ve laid them out and it will be enough to make a nice lap-size quilt. Or at least it will be once I have the HSTs to match up with them. Unfortunately, I don’t have the material for that, and it’s going to have to wait until payday.

But that means I don’t have any leaders and enders for my current projects until then… and that just  won’t do.

Luckily, in some of the fabrics, I had quite a few four inch squares and I set them aside in sets of four and five.  It takes a little more organization than those scrappy four-patches but…

It looks like I’ve now got a nine-patch L&E quilt on the go!

It’s Friday the 13th…

Have you hugged a black cat for luck?

The four quadrants of Moda Love have come together and I couldn’t be happier. It came together much quicker and easier than I first thought. I’m calling this one Victorian Love Charm.

I wanted the centre motif to be floating within the borders, so I added two inches of plain white fabric all the way around. As shown previously, I’ve got two fabrics for borders, but I think I want a third, so I’m going to hold off on finishing this one until I get a chance to get to Lens.