When Mom came, she stayed for a couple of days. I rearranged my studio a little, as she had brought one of her Featherweight machines – and we had a little sewing day. While she worked on some bowtie blocks, I finished the last two blocks needed for my Jubilee quilt
I still have to sew them all together, but laid out on the bed, you can see they will make one beautiful quilt top!
Once they are together I will build it out to a Queen-size quilt with a few borders.
Burton can’t wait! And neither can I! But it will probably have to wait until the weekend!
I had a very productive vacation last week – gardens were gardened, porches were painted, and stitches were stitched – in knitting, sewing and cross stitching…
I finished the top flora, and got a start on the bottom. I expect you’ll be seeing an FO post next week for this one. There’s not much left. I just need to fill in that flower, and add some leaves.
And decide to what to work on next… another butterfly/moth? Or something completely different?
A couple weeks ago, a friend contacted me. Their family member’s mother-in-law had passed away, and they were looking to find a new home for her quilting supplies. Would I be interested? Of course I would.
It didn’t compare to mine or Mom’s stash, but it was still enough to overflow my dining table. As luck would have it, I took possession a couple of day before Mom was set to arrive for a visit. So I waited to go through it all until she arrived. (That was hard!)
I won’t show you all of it, but Mom and I had lots of fun splitting it all up between us. There were quite a few kits, and I sent most of those home with Moms, though I did keep a few for myself.
There were several bundles of lovely coordinated yardage that I kept.
I was very excited by some flannel yardage. A beautiful butterfly print in two different shades. And enough yardage for backing – you know I love a good flannel back!
I also snagged this portable cutting/ironing board and a giant triangle ruler!
But the real prize….
A large Laurel Birch Cats Tote bag, with several pieces of Laurel Burch Cats fabric! You can see, Burton was super excited about that score!
Mom got sent home with several kits, some beautiful yardage, a jelly roll, a couple books and big bag of batting! We didn’t need any of it, but we’re happy to have it!
I mentioned last week that I had planted up all the seeds I had for the veg beds. And to my surprise, everything but the carrots has already sprouted! (Carrots do take a little longer to germinate, so that’s not a suprise.
On Cucurbit Corridor, we have…
Zucchini. I wasn’t planning on planting zucchini, but I did a seed trade with a friend and she sent some zucchini seeds, so I thought, why not!
Cucamelon. Apparently, Cucamelons can be on the tricky side to get going, so I’m happy to see this tiny sprout.
Gourds
and Baby Pumpkins. I’m really excited about the gourds and pumpkins. I’m hoping I get a lot to make as fabulous display on the front steps this fall.
All of these are planted on the outside of the Tunnel structure. And since there was room on the back, and the vines won’t shade out the back side for a while, I tossed in some more lettuce and spinach seeds. They should be able to sprout and grow and finish before they get shaded out.
Over in Edible Alley we have…
Japanese Cucumbers
Sugar Snap Peas
Three different types of bush beans! I love beans, they just grow with such ease and vigor!
and
Squash!
I’m so thrilled with how everything is doing. I think it’s going to be a fabulous year for the edibles!
It’s the time of year where every day in the garden is a new one, with something new in bloom.
Like these big, beautiful Oriental Poppies. I had quite the display of them at the townhouse, but they didn’t make the move, so I bought some new ones last year. This one is called Royal Wedding. But this one has done something a little odd. In addition to this white bloom…
It put up a couple of pale pink ones. I’m not complaining, because they are beautiful!
The second of my three Widow’s Tears have bloomed. I have the solid purple you saw earlier, this one with a touch of blurple, and another that’s white with a touch of red-purple.
My Geums are blooming. I have just these two colours, but I would love to get more.
My white Clematis is blooming. Sadly I lost one of my clematis vines (a light pink one), but this one is so pretty it makes the loss a little less.
Chrysler Imperial wins the honour of the first rose to bloom – though it’s a little sad and bug eaten.
It was quickly followed by Prairie Princess and At Last. As Last is a new one, and I’ve yet to decide where I’m going to put her. I said I wasn’t going to build and new gardens this year, but I think I might have to – or at least expand of of the existing ones.
This lovely peachy pink iris is the latest iris to bloom. Sadly, I don’t know her name because she was from a mix of pink irises.
All those foxglove seedlings I moved around last year are in full bloom and glory. I was a little surprised that they were ALL a bold pink. Foxgloves don’t always come true from seed, and quite often revert to white or a pale pink. But not these ones. I am a little sad – I do love the white ones. But it’s hard to be too sad with foxgloves EVERYWHERE!
After three years, my Baptisa (False Indigo) has finally bloomed. I was a little surprised, because I thought it was the yellow variety – but this dark purple is just as lovely!
And last, I’ll leave you with this magnificent stand of Lupins. They take my breath away every time I see them.
I have always loved making toys, and I thought this would be a nice, quick project. I’m using some of the handspun Mom made for me. It’s a lovely mix rusty reds, browns, beiges, and orange. Perfect chicken colours in my opintion
I haven’t gotten very far. This is the first tail section. And I’ve just started the second. I did think I’d finish him by the end of the month. But that’s coming up awfully fast!
I am happy to announce that I have been diligently painting my porch…
The reason it didn’t get done last year was because by the time I got around to doing it, it was too hot. The porch roof isn’t insulated, so when the sun beats down on it, it really heats up. I was melting trying to paint and quickly gave up.
Unfortunately, it’s once again already too hot (we were in the high 20s this week with a good amount of humidity). But this time, I got smart… I started painting first thing in the morning. And instead of trying to get it all done in one day, I’d stop around noon when things really got hot.
It meant it took more days, but it left my afternoons open for other things… like sewing!!!
And Burton was very insistent we get in there and get caught up on our Blockhead quilt. Hard to say no to that face!
We aren’t quite caught up, but we did add two more blocks to our quilt.
Which bring out quilt up to 11 bee-utiful blocks! And definitely more to come!
I was able to get some stitches in this weekend. And as a result, I got about half of the stitching done above the butterfly (and as you can see, I had to move my stitch minder gnome to the bottom of my piece).
There’s still some work to do on those leaves, and a flower to add… but this one is inching ever closer to the end!
I believe I already mentioned that I’m on vacation this week. There’s only a couple things I really want to get done while I’m off work. 1st is paint the inside of the darn sun porch. It’s a total chore and I keep putting it off. 2nd is getting some real quilting time in.
But… both are hard when the sun is shining because I just want to be in the garden.
There’s lots to see including newly bloomed irises. This one is called Burgundy Party. My white, and dark purple irises are pretty much finished, but this one, and the yellow/white reblooming iris I have are going pretty strong.
And of course, there are more to come.
In the fall, I planted a mix of alliums – it was supposed to be a mix of mid-purple, light purple and white.. but so far, I’ve only gotten two types.
This nice, very tightly packed mid-purple one. And this…
It’s petals are thinner and spikier – and as you can see by my hand – they are pretty darn huge! I think there’s at least one white one coming, but who knows – it may only look white in bud.
All my ornamental sages are starting to take off. I have them in several shades – this white, a light lavender, a bright pink ,and a nice purple. The bees love them, and they bloom on and off all summer.
So far, we’re having a fantastic showing of Columbine. Despite these guys.
They are Columbine Sawfly (a cousin to the ones I get on my roses), and they completely defoliate the plants (though they leave the flowers.) It usually doesn’t kill the plant, but it does make it look rather sad. Happily the leaves will grow back, and we may even get more flowers later in the season. But I will be on the watch for these guys next year.
And my lilac have finally bloomed. Tinkerbell is on the left, Bloomerang on the right. Bloomerang is right beside one of my garden benches and it’s nice to sit there and enjoy her scent.
The Widows Tears (also known as Spiderwort) are blooming and as you can see, they are a favourite of the bumblebees.
Over in the woodland garden, the Jacob’s Ladder has bloomed. It’s a very pretty flower. But the one thing I’m super excited about in that garden…
Pink Forget-Me-Nots! Did you know there was such a thing??? I did not! So you bet your bottom dollar I snapped that one up fast. Another blue one came along too. And since then I’ve found more growing among the daylilies in the fence garden. I have no idea where that one came from but it’s very welcome!
No flower on this one, but I was very happy to find it at the garden centre last week. It’s a trillium. A native plant and one I’ve wanted for a very long time. And the pot I got had three plants in it. They are now disbursed among the Woodland Garden.
These will be too – just as soon as they are done blooming!
This lovely thing is a purple Verbascum. It was one of the clearance perennials that overwintered in the raised beds. It’s now moved to the outside of the catio (it replaced a mum that died off) and it seems quite happy there.
And it’s Lupin time! I was a little disappointed that this one out front was yet another dark purple one (I was hoping for a different colour) but it’s still pretty – and I had no lupins out front.
I’ve got two different purples out back, and this pink one inside the catio.
And as pretty as all these are – there’s so much more to come. The roses are budding up, there’s more irises waiting to pop… the peonies should flower soon, the poppies all have big heads… every day is a new discovery in the garden
Wandering Cat Studio 