Just a fat tabby boy…

…Living his best life.

I know… I know.. I mentioned the C-word on Tuesday and we aren’t even through Hallowe’en. But don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about THE BEST HOLIDAY EVER!!!!

I’m just not knitting anything Hallowe’en related at the moment. Quilting is another matter though.

You will recall that back in July (when I wasn’t supposed to be spending any money) I bought a bunch of Hallowe’en fabrics. Well Burton and I have the purrfect idea for the coolest Hallowe’en quilt ever. And it was time to get everything cut up for it if we want it to be done before the day comes and goes. (Really, we should have started last month)

Ever the “helpful” companion, Burton was with me every step of the way. So much so that I finally had to give him his own project box, just so I could get work done.

Normally, he’s not this bad, but he really seems to like being on the new cutting table. And I can’t really blame him, it’s so much better than the old one. And in the end, I did get all the pieces cut.

I’m afraid you’re not going to see much of this one until the top is together. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, and seeing it in progress would do just that.

However, I will be able to share my progress on my SECOND Hallowe’en quilt. That’s right… there will be two!

Last year, Mom got me an awesome fat quarter bundle called Kitty Corn. Things were way to hectic to make it then, but I told myself, I’m not letting another Hallowe’en go by without making this quilt!

I’m making another Chandelier quilt, and with everything cut, this one will go together fast! I hope to make some progress on it this weekend. Stay tuned!

I have been trying to walk everyday this past week. Sadly, I don’t seem to have much time to make any further than to the post office and back… but at least I’m getting out.

So this week… it’s all plants on my way to get the mail…

I love this great big hedge that surrounds this yard. They always keep it nice and tidy on the sides, so it never overhangs the sidewalk, but they definitely need to get a ladder or something to do that top!

On my route, there are two telephone poles that someone wrapped with chicken wire. It wasn’t apparent why until I saw the morning glories growing up them. The bottom 8 or so feet are cmpletely covered. They are looking a little worse for wear, but that’s probably because of how little rain we’ve had this summer.

Just down from that, the little verge garden I show a while back is doing very well. The marigold have been thrilled with the heat.

Rose of Sharon are not one of my favourite plants. I rank them along with hostas… but there are a couple of bushes along my walk that are just blooming like crazy. They also tend to attract Japanese beetles, which is another reason I don’t like them. I have enough problems keeping them off my roses!

Last week I showed you a planter just spilling over with petunias. Well I found these guys sprouting up in a weed patch, just under one of the town’s big hanging baskets. Some seeds must have fallen and these little guys managed to sprout.

One of the crab apple trees along the way is covered in these teeny tiny guys. I don’t know enough about crab apples, but they look rather small to me, and the tree doesn’t look overly healthy. But it could just be the dry summer.

And last… there’s still lots of green out there…

But there’s no denying autumn is on its way.

For the recipient of the duck quilt, I wanted to include a hat and booties (like I did when his sister was born), and I thought wouldn’t it be fun if they were duck-themed too???

So I went searching for a pattern. I found one, and started making it, but it really wasn’t working for me. But it gave me the idea that I could use basic sock math, and finagle something more like what I had in my head.

It took a little trial and error, but eventually….

… I got it! I am probably going to block them a little so the point on the toes are a little more pronounced. But over all, I got the look and feel I wanted.

I plan to whip up a plain yellow tuque to go with these, and then I have to make something for the recipient of the Fox quilt. Then I HAVE to get back to Dad’s sweater.

My Holly bush is a daily reminder that Christmas is not that far off…

… and purples!

It was finally time to get to work on the wedding quilt for my cousin, so Burton and I got to work making big HSTs for the Moda Love quilt. Thirty-six 9.5 inch HSTs to be exact. Working on two quadrants at a time, we laid them out on the design bed…

And we got sewing. (Well I did…. Burton went and had nap.) And before we knew it, I had those quadrants done, so I laid out the last two and they sewed up just as fast.

Then it was just a matter of rotating and sewing them all together.

As you can see, it gave us a good-sized quilt very quickly (72″ square) but we wanted this one really big.

So we got to work cutting and sewing borders and before long…

I had to take it outside because it was too big to show it all on the design bed. 90″ square now. I really recommend this pattern if you want to make a big quilt in a hurry.

Now I’ve got a date with Mom at the end of the month to get it quilted, in plenty of time for the November wedding!

The weather is still quite warm and wonderful here, so things are still blooming nicely. And the front porch mums have bloomed.

And I dressed the welcome sign up for the season too.

Of all the butterflies that have visited my gardens over the years, the Monarch still reigns supreme as my favourite. But this year, it remained incredibly elusive. For the first few weeks of summer, I didn’t see any at all. Then, when I did start seeing them, the did NOT want their picture taken. It seemed I was forever trying to gets pictures and failing.

I took consolation in the fact that I was able to get pictures of them in caterpillar form.

In the garden, I have four seperate milkweed plants… one pink Swamp Milkweed, one Orange Milkweed, and two (volunteer) Common Milkweed. (Which I let grow as soon as I realized what they were).

On those four plants, I counted seven separate caterpillars since mid-August. While I hadn’t seen many Monarchs, they’d definitely been making good use of the Milkweed when I wasn’t around.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see where any of those caterpillars went to build their cocoons. (They can travel up to 30 feet from their milkweed plant.)

But last week, I started noticing A LOT more Monarchs fluttering about the yard. I think it’s mostly because of the White Butterfly bush. I dont know if it’s the location, or just the breed (White Profusion), but it’s easily three times the size of the Dark Knight Butterfly Bush. And it’s just covered in blooms!!!

You can see it reaches over the catio fence, which is seven feet high. It’s grown through the catio fence, and is on both sides. It’s wonderful, but next year, I need to move some plants around to account for its size. But back to the monarchs….

They absolutely adore it! It’s not unusual to come outside and find two or three flitting about at once.

They are busy filling up for the long trip to Mexico, and the Butterfly Bush has lots of fuel for them. And I know there’s no way to tell…

But I like to think that at least one or two of them are former caterpillars that grew up in my garden. And letting me get close enough for a few good shots is their way of saying thanks!

A beautiful cat in a beautiful garden… is there any more perfect bliss than this?

Sunday was grey and rainy, and while I could have/should have done some housework, Burton and I got busy catching up on our Blockhead Blocks instead.

With these two complete, we only needed one more block to have enough for a decent size quilt top. So we decided to come up with something of our own.

How about a heart? As you can see, Burton thought it was a grand idea!

And now we have a full 30 blocks, perfect for a nice big quilt. That said, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get this one together. I’ve got to get working on the wedding quilt… not to mention my Hallowe’en quilt! And then there’s that pesky housework I should really attend to as some point…

Once again either the heat, or just a busy day have kept me from doing as much walking as I would like, But I managed to get out on lunch to check the mail yesterday, so here are some random things I saw on the way to the post office…

The welding shop on the corner has some beautifully talll sunflowers. It makes my little volunteers look rather pitiful and I have a bad case of sunflower envy.

Just down the street, there’s a house that has these beautiful planter boxes at the end of their walkway. They used to be in shade, but they took out a tree this summer (sadly, it was the crabapple that I loved so much this spring) and now the boxes get sun all day. They are obviously thriving because of it.

All the red petunias the town planted are thriving. We see a worker from the town going around watering them all a couple times a week, so they haven’t had to worry about our lack of rain. That said, my petunias are doing almost as well – I’ve got a couple massive clumps in the catio… though nothing quite as spectacular as this planter (and all the others about town).

And in the “downtown” where the post office is, there’s a little pub. As soon as the weather gets nice, they block off the side walk for their patio. To compensate, they turned two of the parking spots in front into the sidewalk (there’s enough parking in the area that this isn’t an issue). I love how they have it decorated with the planters. But the really amazing part, is that all that wood is removeable – they disassemble it and pack it all away come winter.

And last… just a little random thing…

… part of this sidewalk cracked, and love how this little creeping weed has thrived and filled in the spaces.