We did it!!!!

Burton, Lemmy and I banged out another top for Yule-y.

We cut up a panel, made some coordinating snowflake blocks, and BAM! Instant top!

Working with a panel can mean a very quick-to-put together top, because you’re not making a million small blocks. But depending on what you do with that panel, it can also mean a lot of quilt math.

And they way I did it… TONNES of quilt math! And I definitely didn’t get it all correct, so there was some ripping. But still – I managed it in the end.

Here’s a closer look at the details of this one:

Now I have three Christmas-themed tops ready for quilting, along with backs and binding cut and ready to go.

And there’s still two weekends left to the month! I probably won’t get another top done this weekend, as Saturday is Dave’s birthday. But I might be able to finish one before the month is out. Either way, I’m thrilled with the three I’ve managed to complete!

Despite Burton’s supervision …

and “help”…

I haven’t quite finished the second sock.

but I’m close. I’m just a few inches from the toe. If I can get a couple evenings this weekend to do nothing but work on it, I can have it wrapped up by the weekend.

“I’ll hold your yarn for you!”

Some progress has been made on Mr. Moth! Not a tonne, but it is visible progress this ime.

I finished up his long tail pieces, and filled in more of the hindwings. The only purple I have left is filling in the veining. The “eyes on his wings are done in oranges/reds.

But he’s definitely beginning to resemble a moth now. And this pattern is much easier than all the thin lines of the butterfly I did.

This coming weekend, I should be able to finish up that purple, and start on the blue/teal of the forewings.

I said I was done expanding the gardens this year… but apparently I wasn’t.

You see, several weeks back, when I expanded the strip garden at the side of the front yard…. I had to put all the sod I dug up somewhere. Normally we bag it and drop it off at the transfer station, but that’s a pain (sod is HEAVY!).

But… the front lawn had a large dent in it from when we had the dumpster on it when we were doing renos when we first moved in. It made mowing the front lawn a bit of a pain. So I decided to fill it with the sod (upside down so it would naturally compost), some extra topsoil I had. I raked in some grass seed and tried to keep it watered.

But trying to grow grass from seed in the high heat of summer… the weeds grew. The grass didn’t. But then last week I realized I had a pile of plants sitting out back, in need of a new home. So I got to work. I pulled the weeds and the small amount of grass that had managed to grow, and got planting.

So now I have a little island garden in the middle of the front yard. It’s filled with two roses (Garden Party and Tournament of Roses), a peony, a Coneflower, some Veronica, a red poppy, a delphinium, and a few annuals (Dahlia, Cosmos and African Daisies).

It doesn’t look like much now… but by the end of the summer, I think it’s going to be amazing. And I’m sure I’ll be expanding it next year!

Anyone who has gardened for any amount of time, will tell you that gardening is an eternal experiment.

And what works for one person, will absolutely not work for another. While I do wonderfully well with plants in the garden – I have terrible luck with starting seeds indoors.

I thought I had it all figured out this year. I got a good set-up, I didn’t start my seeds too early… but it was not to be. A few months ago, I showed you my sad broccoli and tomato seedlings.

By mid June, the broccoli was totally toast, but there were two tomato seedlings still holding on. Decided to put them outside in the relative shade of the woodland garden to see if they would get any stronger. I’m happy to say one of them did -and the other day I potted it up into a bigger pot.

While it’s nowhere near the size of the cherry tomato I bought from the garden centre, but it’s coming along nicely. And at this rate, I will probably get some tomatoes off it by the end of summer.

The rest of the seedlings were flower seeds.

There’s one sad little Cupid’s Dart that is just taking FOREVER to grow.

But it is doing better outside than it was doing inside, that’s for sure.

In this one we have Delphinium, and the right… I can’t remember. I think it might be Canterbury Bells. I just put them outside a couple weeks ago. By mid-week the remnant of Beryl came through, and dumped almost six inches of rain on us.

The poor things (along with several other things in the garden) got beaten down pretty good. I’m hoping at least a few of them bounce back.

And while I haven’t had much luck starting seeds indoors, I do just fine when I start them direct outside. Most of the edibles – with the exception of the potatoes, shallots, broccoli and cherry tomatoes – were started by seed direct in the garden. And they are thriving.

I planted waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many beans (I’m going to have to freeze some), and we can barely keep on top of the snap peas.

And I planted these (Zinnia’s and Bachelor Buttons) in the pots a couple weeks ago. I expect to see blooms in a couple of weeks.

And these sunflowers were just planted last week. I planted them in the big tall planter after I pulled up the spinach that had bolted.

So what’s the verdict? I’m not going to try starting seeds indoors any more. It’s direct or nothing for me!

July is pretty much the peak in the garden. Everything is just exploding all over the place!

The lilies are busting out all over the place.

As are the daylilies

We’ve got Coneflowers galore

I’ve got two different sizes of Black Eyed Susans

And these beautiful two-colour fancy ones

Many of my native plants are thriving.

There are so many beautiful things in bloom, it’s hard to pick a favourite.

I’m thinking of changing the name of the catio yard to “Lemmy’s Stomping Grounds”

And by stomping… I literally mean stomping

Here he’s stomped a pile of sedum down.

This is the Pearly Everlasting he stomped all over.

This is a Coneflower he’s stomped down.

And he’s stomped down the top of the Mulberry stump.

It’s not that he’s making a nest, or a comfy spot to lay. I’ve watched him do it. He runs at top speed, dives into a plant, then stands there and stomps up and down with his back feet like a rabbit. Then he runs off, and does it in another spot.

“I do not know of what you speak, madam – I am the picture of innocence and feline perfection!”

While I didn’t have a tonne of time the weekend for sewing (just Sunday), I was determined to get another Christmas top together.

It took a little prep. I did all the cutting the weekend before. And I stole an evening after work to sew up some blocks.

Then I was able to hit the ground running on Sunday and sew the top together.

It’s not a huge top – Just 49 blocks, so it didn’t take too long to sew it all together.

I added a few thin borders, and built it out to a respectable 57″ square. Perfect for a small lap quilt

Here’s a closer look at those fabrics.

Aren’t those fabrics cute? I only had two fat quarters of each of the prints, so I had to get creative with how to use them. I think I did pretty good.

I had several yards of the red polkadot fabric so that helped. And I buy plain white by the bolt, so I had lots of that.

So… that’s two tops complete before the middle of the month! That’s excellent progress in my book! Can’t wait to see what I manage this weekend!

Compared to my poor moth, the second sock has definitely seen more love. We’ve had a couple doctors appointments, and I’ve managed to blast through almost all of the leg.

I’m almost ready to start the heel. I was hoping to have the whole pair done by the end of June, but if I finish them by mid July, I’ll be happy!

Not many stitches were stitched this weekend…

Many stitches were ripped on that left-side tail, and then re-stitched so they were correct, but that’s all I managed to complete.

The main reason is we were gone for a good chunk of the weekend. Friends of ours in Long Point were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. So we took the Big White Whale for a long drive (two hours) and celebrated with all their friends and family.

Along the way, we stopped a little food truck/farm market for lunch. Dave also grabbed some pepperettes, and this gnome decided to follow us home.

I think I’m going to have to paint him white though, because as you can see, he doesn’t show up so well in the garden, lol.

By late afternoon we made out destination.

I took the fancy camera and shot a couple pics of the old girl from their front lawn. (They live on an absolutely amazing plot at the start of the causeway, overlooking Long Point Bay)

Another reason I took the fancy camera is an amazing place for birdwatchers. You may recall that Dave’s Uncle Bill’s wedding was held here a few years back. I didn’t have the camera then, an missed out on some amazing pics of Turkey Vultures nesting in one of their trees.

Unfortunately, the vultures weren’t there this year… but I did get some cute Purple Martins

There was a lone swan out on the bay, but my long lens wasn’t quite long enough to get a really good pic.

Between birdwatching and socializing, we didn’t get home until very late that night – which mean no stitching until Sunday. It was worth it though – that moth isn’t going anywhere.