It was driving me nuts to not have finished the Wildflower quilt top all in one day. So the very next day, Lemmy and I got to it.

We had to get the rest of that grey sashing on.

It didn’t take too long. Then all it needed was a couple of borders. Lemmy tagged in Burton for that job and left for a nap.

And Burton, you can see, was very excited for the finish.

I think the simple layout showcases the embroidered blocks nicely.

I’ve got a lovely grey paisley for a the backing

And more of the green for the binding! So I’m going to have to make a date with Mom to get this one quilted!

We’re in a bit of a lull in the edible garden right now. I can harvest carrots if I want, but I’m leaving the rest to get a little bit bigger (though I might pick some to roast up with dinner tonight).

The cucumbers are behind where they were last year, but I should be able to harvest some more this coming week.

This time last year, I was starting to harvest cucamelons.

I’m not overly worried about that because they will produce right to the first frost.

My yellow pear tomatoes are looking good – but obviously aren’t quite ready yet.

My beans are still looking small and sad.

But I did manage to get one bean! I’ll take that as a win in the bean department this year.

My peas are mostly done, but I’m still getting a few small pods here and there. They get eaten right in the garden.

One of my Sugar Babies broke off the vine,

It was nice and dark and dull coloured, and sounded hollow, so I thought it might be okay to eat – if not as sweet as it could be. We had some friends over so I decided to crack it open.

And sadly it was still white inside! One of the friends still gave it a try… he said it tasted like a cucumber! I’ve got five more on the vines, so they will stay there for a good whole longer. I also thought these were seedless, and as you can see they are not. Next year I’ll have to find a seedless version.

Still no pumpkins, but I’ve got a few gourds coming…. still lots to look forward to!

It’s full on sunflower season here!

I planted four types this year and they are all doing well.

This one is called Vanilla Ice Cream and it starts as a lemon yellow and fades to a creamier shade.

Velvet Queen is always a favourite of mine. This one is right by the front steps, greeting all visitors.

The sturdy Black Oil Sunflower is always bright and bold and this one is holding court in the middle of the island garden.

And last… my new favourite.

Cherry Rose! I’ll definitely be saving some of these seeds for next year!

The look you get when you promised them time in the studio… but you’re still sitting in front of the TV.

There’s a reason Burton looks so excited! The hot and humid weather has returned, so we finally got back in the studio yesterday. I took all the embroidered blocks and trimmed them up.

I framed them up with a lovely green floral. Then I got started with the sashing.

We managed to get half the sashing done before I had to pack up to head out to pick up prescriptions and get dinner.

Hopefully I can find some time before vacation is out to finish it up. Burton is pretty excited about this one.

It seemed like the butterflies arrived late this year, but they are definitely here in force now! I think it may be the best year for butterflies in the garden so far.

These Tawny Emperors are regular visitors.

As are these Hackberry Emperors. They are very close the Tawnies, just more brown than orange.

Speaking of orange, the above Pearl Crescent is only distinguishable from the Northern Crescent by the lighter patches.

The Northern Crescents are nice and bright orange.

It always takes a while for the Skippers to arrive, but arrive they have! Above and below is the same Fiery Skipper.

They look so neat from different angles.

This one is a Silver Spotted Skipper.

They don’t often open their wings when feeding (at least that I’ve seen) but managed to capture it.

And I was thrilled to capture this one in better shape than the last time!

Eastern Black Swallowtails are definitely one of my favourite butterflies.

This Red Admiral was in beautiful shape. I’ve been seeing a lot of them this year. I always considered them a more early season butterfly, but not this year!

These tiny Sootywings are new to the garden this year, but we’ve seen them several times! I’ve since learned that Celosia are among their host plants. I love Celosia and always have it in the garden now, so that’s probably why I’m seeing them.

And speaking of host plants…

I’ve discovered that my Honeysuckle is the host plant for this guy… the Snowberry Clearwing Moth caterpillar. He’s going to turn into one of my favourite visitors to the garden!…

These super cool guys!

I just love that my garden is part of the ecosystem!

While there wasn’t much time Friday or Saturday, when my company was finally gone on Sunday, I made myself comfortable on the porch and got stitching…

All that was left were the French knots, but there A LOT of them. I set it aside to make dinner, then worked on it a little later in the evening until bedtime, but it still wasn’t done.

Monday morning I worked in the garden until it got too hot, then I joined Burton in the a/c and he helped me get through the last of the knots!

We got it done fairly early in the afternoon so I decided to start block 20 (the last block!!!!)

It was a much simpler pattern, with far fewer French knots… and by dinner time, it was done!!!!

So that’s Block 19 and 20 complete! There’s no more blocks to make! Can you believe it??? I still have to turn them into a quilt, but I am sooooo pleased to have the embroidery all complete.

Because… it’s Augtober now and I’m DYING to start a new stitching project…

It was a busy weekend over here. Friday good friend Aneesha arrived by train. We were up early Saturday morning… making a whole pile of food!

Best Friend Samantha, her daughter Lily, and another friend Sarah joined us in the afternoon for a day of girl chat and eating! Sadly, the above picture was the only picture I took! We were too busy enjoying each other’s company.

And don’t worry – Dave was kept busy too.

He and neighbour Bronson were busy adding lattice to the top of the the fence! (We did let them join us for snacks and dinner.) I think it looks fabulous!

But with all that activity, there wasn’t much time for crafting. Thankfully, I’m on vacation this week, so I should be able to sneak some in. All the gardens do need a good weeding though!

We are coming into the season of garden abundance. At least when it comes to the eating

The summer raspberries are almost done (we will get more in autumn), but the Blackberries are just getting started. The berries are quite small, but it’s the bush’s first year so I’m hoping they get bigger. The blackberries I had at the townhouse were HUGE!

I feel like the cucumbers are slow this year, but they are coming. If you compare the garden to last year, we’re a week or two behind this year. We did have a much colder spring.

I have decided that I’m 95% sure that squash bred with the star-shaped gourds.

It’s darkened to a deeper shade of yellow-orange that matches the gourds. Sadly that also means it’s most likely inedible (and quite possibly toxic). Despite the fact that it’s grown exponentially in the last week, I’ve decided I’m going to pull this particular vine. No point wasting good nutrients on something I won’t eat.

Sadly, none of the pumpkin or gourd plants seem to be producing female flowers. Same with the zucchini. That means no fruit… I’m going to have to do some research to see what’s up.

What is going well in the garden…

are the potatoes!!!! I went out the other night and dug them all up. Harvesting potatoes is like an edible treasure hunt! It was so much fun watching that basket fill up. I didn’t actually weigh it, but I’d say I got around 10 lbs of potatoes from my little 3′ x 3′ x 11″ raised bed.

The biggest ones were about the size of my palm – making these just perfect for boiling and roasting. I got them all washed, dried and put away in our potato bin.

Since I harvested the potatoes for me, and Dave doesn’t love them, I pulled a few carrots for him. (The caterpillars have moved on so no worries about disturbing them)

I’m always thrilled with my carrots, and this year is no exception. Dave prefers to snack on these raw, so I’ll probably pull a few every couple days for him. And maybe some extras for a nice roast dinner with some of those potatoes!

August is here and though the heat and humidity get to me, it doesn’t really seem to bother the garden. The daylilies are in peak form

The asiatic and oriental lilies are almost done. All but this one.

It’s called Big Smile and that’s just what it gives me when I see it.

Yellow becomes a pretty dominant colour in the August Garden

I’m just loving that last sunflower. It’s called Cherry Rose and I’ll definitely be saving seeds to plant it again next year.

Speaking of seeds…

The zinnia mix that I started in the seed snail in spring are doing beautifully.

It’s a lovely mix with several colours and styles.

Here’s another of my favourites.

Globe Thistle! As you can see, I have it and blue and white and I adore both. It is on the prickly side (not terrible, but not the softest plant) but its worth it because those flower heads just look so cool! (The birds also love the seed heads)

The heat has put a bit of a damper on the roses, but they are still popping out here and there.

This bright pink one is new… and it’s very special.

It’s called Miss All American Beauty. It was the favourite rose of an old friend who passed last year. We shared a passion for roses and when he died last July, I knew I wanted to get a hold of this rose and plant it in my garden in his honour. I thought I was going to have to order it from one of the specialty sites… so imagine my surprise when I found it in Walmart this May! And now it’s blooming around the anniversary of his death. Clearly my old friend is looking down on my garden from somewhere.

Of course, this is all just a glimpse of the August garden.

It changes day by day – each more beautiful than the next.