I had planned to show you my birdbath project today, but it involves a lot of painting, which I’ve been doing outdoors, as weather has allowed.

And it hasn’t allowed as much as I would have liked, so you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for the great reveal!

Instead, enjoy some more antics from the patrons at Squirrelington’s Fine Dining…

The look on this one’s face just cracks me up every time I see this picture!

Same with this one! She’s a regular visitor (we call her Little Mama, because it’s obvious she has/had babies)

She works hard to feed her family, and sometimes, it really shows…

This guy is another regular. We call him Double Stuff because he ALWAYS takes TWO peanuts when he visits

But here, he’s more content to pretend he’s a gargoyle.

Here he is with this extra booty.

And the squirrels aren’t the only one’s who stop by for a nutty snack

Squirrelington’s welcomes patrons of all colours and species!

As mentioned yesterday, I carved out some time to do some sewing on the weekend, and l am happy to say I was able get the top of the Bumbleberry Sampler together.

Nothing fancy – just some thin white sashing. You may recall that Mom did some beautiful geese in her outside border. Sadly, I did not. As pretty as it is, I didn’t have enough fabric leftover from the blocks. But even if I did, I probably still wouldn’t have made the geese. I was ready for this one to be done.

Instead, I opted for a pretty, but plain, ditsy floral border from the stash.

The blocks are 12 inchers, so just 20 of them add up to a nice sized quilt – about 66 x 80 inches). I’ve got a nice chunk of pink for the back, and this black floral (which is in some of the blocks) for the binding.

But don’t expect to see an FO post on this one anytime soon. I’m not doing to quilting. It’s going into Mom’s queue, so she can do some fancy footwork on it.  Not only does it take more time than the loops and meanders that I do, she’s already got a couple quilts to finish before this one.

It will be worth the wait!

It’s a long weekend here in Canada, and I’m happy to say we finally got a day of decent rain (with maybe more today!) That, and some other  (minor) issues, messed up my outdoor plans for the weekend, but I did manage to do some sewing (more on that tomorrow) AND finish up the first of the commissioned man-sock. (And we really needed that rain!)

If you’re wondering about the title, Bleeding Heart is what I named the yarn colour. Not after the flower, but because the colour reminds me of anatomical diagrams of the human heart. Kinda gross, I know, but that’s what I tend to think of when I see red and purple together.

It’s not my favourite combo, but it’s what the recipient wanted and I don’t mind it once it’s knit up. They blend a little, which eases their impact. And the colours definitely make knitting an endless man-sock more fun! Now onto the second!

The last of the Berry Sampler blocks has been completed, and I’m ready to put them together into a completed top! This isn’t their final layout. I just wanted to get a look at them all together.

They will have a thin white sashing, no cornerstones, and I’ve got a pretty purple print for the border. Hopefully I can get this one together soon.

For extra credit… here’s Miss Winnie enjoying Mom’s version

That bed is in their spare room, and it’s an ideal bird-watching spot for Miss Win.

How is it the first of August already? I know for many, COVID has made time crawl by, but I swear March was just last week.

I guess it’s because the virus really hasn’t changed a whole lot for me. I’m not overly social, and I already work from home. It’s made shopping a bit of a chore (I used to enjoy it, but not any more), but other than that, it really hasn’t altered my life. I count myself VERY lucky!

But, time is indeed marching on… I know it because the Black-Eyed Susans have started to bloom.

While they will still bloom for a couple months yet, to me they are  always as sign that we are on the downside of summer.

The coneflowers are still going strong

As are the butterflies that visit them

Tickseed, Bee Balm and Liatris are all in bloom.

We’ve also had our first harvest of sweet banana peppers and yellow beans. (And there’s lots more of both to come.) The pepper was cut up and put on homemade pizza, and the beans were boiled up and served with bbq chicken and corn-on-the-cob (I love summer eating!)

And I’ve made some small enhancements to the yard. Our local Dollarama didn’t have much left of summer yard stuff (can you believe they are stocking the aisles for Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en already!?!), but they had just four of these cute little solar lanterns left.

Four was the perfect number to grace each of the  posts in my back fence. (Two for each side.) They don’t cast a tonne of light, but they look nice when the sun goes down.

I found this slightly different style to hang on the empty post out back (the post originally held Winston and his hanging basket, but he’s now on my Welcome stand).

For out front I grabbed the last four of these neat torch style

I assumed they be blue/white LEDs like the others…. so imagine my surprise when I went out that night and saw this.

Orange! And what you can’t tell from the picture is that they flicker!!!! Just like real torches. Now I wish I could get more!

And last – I upgraded the hooks for my hanging baskets out back

The plain style I had has been replaced by this pretty curlycue. (I have one on each side). As you can see, my Nasturiums are happy.

Mr. Cardinal approves too!

First – thank you for your condolences on the loss of our baby butterfly. But nature is all about balance, and the world needs wasps too… so, what can you do? Either way, it was a pretty cool experience and I definitely learned several new facts!

Now… onto business!

I’ve decided to make a DIY birdbath for the garden (more on that later this week), and as I was playing around with some ideas, using things I had around the house, I came up with a little set up that used a flower pot, and old china bowl, and some lake rocks (because the bowl was deep and I didn’t want little birds to drown).

I set it in the garden, and sat back to wait to see which feathered beauties would come to bathe…

Hmmm … not quite the creature I was expecting.

I regret to inform you that I will not be able to share the magic of a Black Eastern Swallowtail butterfly emerging from its cocoon with you all.

I came out the other morning to discover this.

I thought at first maybe a bird had raided it – we have a robin’s nest full of babies in the tree behind us, and the parents have been working overtime to keep their brood fed.

But then I did some research…

We knew about parasitic wasps that attack the caterpillars when they are feeding, but we figured since it made it to chrysalis, we were safe. Sadly not. Apparently there is another parasitic wasp that lays it’s eggs on the caterpillar while he is building his cocoon. Then they get built inside with him, and eat him up when they hatch. The tear a hole in the side when they are ready to fly away. He was basically toast from the minute he stuck his butt to that stick.

So all this time, I thought I was raising one of these…

But I’ve really been raising a whole bunch of these…

Nature is a cruel mistress.

As planned, I got the dinosaur quilt completed on the weekend.

It always amazes me how “finished” a quilt looks once it’s quilted and bound. It’s not much different from the completed top – just some poof and squiggly lines, but it really brings it up a notch.

It finished out at about 63″ square – a lot bigger than the baby blanket I had originally planned. It would make a good lap quilt, or an extra layer for a twin bed. There are a lot of fun fabrics in the the dino “prints”, but I really love the flannel I found for the back.

Not only dinosaurs… but woolly mammoths and saber-tooth tigers too! (And such adorable tigers!)

 

While it may not seem like it, work on the barnyard cardigan has continued. I’m through the back and working on the last front. The fact that it’s all in one piece makes it hard to photograph, and it’s not really an exciting photo anyway.

Beside which, any time I set it down for more than five minutes, it ends up under a cat.

As you may recall, I like to support the good work Natalie does over at Bee Meadow Farmwhenever I can.

One of the big things I usually do is send her a box of crafted items for her Silent Auction at her yearly open house. Because of COVID, and  limits on gatherings, Natalie cancelled the open house. It was a big dissapointment, not only for the yearly visitors, but also for Natalie and all her critters – it’s her biggest fundraiser, so it’s big hit to her rescue efforts.

One of the things I was planning on sending her was Les Chats Fantastique.

Since she can’t have a silent auction for it, I thought, why not a raffle?

Details are on her facebook page.

The quilt measures 42″ x 52″. It’s made with 100% cotton prints for the front (all cat prints), 80/20 cotton/polyester batting, and 100% cotton flannel on the back. It’s machine washable and dryable. The raffle is open to Canadian and U.S residents, and I’m covering the cost of shipping to the winner.

Raffle closes Sunday, August 9th!

So if you can, please spare a little to help out Natalie and her foster kitties! You may even get lucky and get a quilt out of it!