Finished a small one................

I made the top for this quilt in February, using the 6" Bow Tie dies so the blocks are 3" finished.  All of the fabrics in the blocks are Kaffe Fassett collective prints, a large variety in the larger piece and in the triangles.  I think I would call this exuberant pastel because of the large scale prints which appear darker.  It is 34.5" x 45".

The cute print on the back is flannel that I found on sale.  The binding is a gray print I found in my stack of grays.

I used Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.

This is a better view of the backing and binding fabrics.  It feels good to get two baby quilts finished at the end of the month.  I have gifted so many that I needed to replenish my stack of them.

One little tomato is turning red and another has a little tinge of orange to it.  They are still small so I hope some of the others grow a little more before they turn color.

All of these tomatoes are on one plant.  They grow in clusters like the "on the vine" tomatoes you see in the grocery stores.

These Creeping Bellflowers look like pale pink in the morning light and become this beautiful purple in the evening light.  As much as I complain about them taking over the garden, they are pretty.

There are more of them in the back of this out of control little garden outside of my dining room picture window.  I love the purple and yellow amongst all of the green.

The Stella d'Oro lilies continue to bloom.  I'm seeing buds on my blackberry lilies in a different flower bed.

 

Quilting a small one....................

This baby quilt is only 36" x 45" so it didn't take long to ditch quilt it in both directions yesterday.  There is a lot of variety in the Kaffe collective prints for this one, small scale and large scale, very light pastel, and bold pastels.  There is a variety of greens and turquoises in the little triangle corners too.  I'll trim it today and choose a binding.

The tall Ox-eye or False Sunflower is blooming in the back garden now.  They are at least 4' tall.  There are purple Coneflowers back in that area too that will bloom soon.

Speaking of Coneflowers, this plant was literally 4" tall with a single 3" root when I transplanted it to this spot.  It always had one or two blooms while it was just 6" tall the previous years.  Last year it really took off and grew and this year it looks even better.  There are some bugs eating holes in the leaves.

This is the top view where I can count the buds easier.  I pulled my downspout extensions away from the downspouts so my neighbors can mow where they usually rest.  It isn't usually right next to this plant.

The red shaggy Coneflower is doing well too.  I haven't pulled most of the weeds in this flower bed because they are acting like a ground cover and keeping the moisture in the ground.  I did pull a few next to the plant right after the rain on Thursday and they came out roots and all.  I can only work on pulling weeds for a short time each day so the flower bed may never look tidy again.

Here is the saddest plant in this front flowerbed.  It was so pretty before this heat dome came and ruined it.  I will probably cut off some of the worst damage since it has a lot of leaves. 

The hostas in the back garden are in deep shade and have pretty much been spared the scorching.  Today is supposed to be a little cooler and lower humidity so they have one day of reprieve before the heat comes back on Sunday.

These are the tallest hostas and are parts from a hosta that was here when we bought the house in 1972.  It was huge and I split it in 1995 and gave away chunks and planted others.  I have split it and shared many times over the years.

This is one of the most common varieties of hosta and they are doing well under a tree.  They have lots of flower shoots already.  
 

 

Nature walk.......................

I went outside around 4 yesterday to take a few pictures of my crispy plants.  This Coral Bell was a pretty deep green and purple until 2 days ago.  The plant will survive but it will be scarred for the rest of the summer.

The Hosta on the right is starting to show signs of crispy areas but the other one is still looking OK. They are in the east sun until around noon.

This Hosta is in the shade about an hour earlier than the other 2 and has a flower shoot already.

The porch pots are doing pretty well.  The Lobelia in one pot looks like it might not make it and the Petunias in the front pot have no flowers currently.  They are the white with black veins variety.  I think they might come back OK.

The black-eyed-Susans are very hardy and haven't shown any signs of stress.  They are full of buds.

Around 6:15 p.m. yesterday a little tiny storm on radar was approaching and suddenly it was larger and we got heavy rain for almost 15 minutes, 1/2" in the rain gauge.  There were only scattered storms on radar all afternoon and it didn't look like we would get any so it was  a wonderful surprise.  We have gotten a little over 2-3/4" of rain now this month.  About 4" is normal.  This beats last month's 1.8" anyway.  Now maybe our half green/half brown grass will turn all green again.

Butterflies finished..............................

I got busy early in the day yesterday with the binding on this quilt.  It is all done by machine.  I'm going to round off the numbers and say this is 35" x 44".  Most of the fabrics are from the mid to late 1990s and early 2000s.

I think the backing fabric is from the same time period.  Most of the butterfly blocks were made in that time period too.  There were line drawings of them in a book but no patterns or measurements if I remember right.  The little hourglass blocks were used as fillers to put it all together.  Here is a post from October 2024 when I was getting ready to assemble the blocks in a quilt.

I finished knitting this dishcloth last night.  They always look like a wonky shape when they are finished but they square up nicely with the first wash.

 

Quilting finished, binding choices.....................

After looking over my bright stripe collection, I brought these over to the trimmed quilt to audition for a binding.  It has to look good on both front and back of the quilt.

These were the best choices with the backing fabric.

This one is okay with the front too although a little bold.

I think I prefer the narrow stripe since the quilt is small, about 34.5" x 44.5" (I think that is right but wasn't going to go back down to the basement to measure it).

Radar showed that we were in a storm area for about 40 minutes late yesterday afternoon but in the end there was only a slim coating of water in the bottom of the rain gauge and the whole driveway never got wet.  There are more hopes of storms in the next 6 days so I hope we get more rain that that in at least one of the storms.

 

Quilting and nature.....................

I have continued quilting on this baby quilt and am almost finished.  It is all ditch quilting and I just need to put a few more stitches in the background.  I hope to get it trimmed today and choose a binding fabric.

I went out early yesterday morning and watered everything and cut some volunteer tree/bushes that have been bothering me.

These are the Creeping Bellflower spires.  All of these are in the grass line along the edge of my back flowerbed.  It will be a mass of purplish blue flowers for a couple weeks and then they will be pulled out.

The Annabelle Hydrangeas in the back are doing fine but the bush at the front of the house is really in heat stress.

This is the stage of the buds on the Purple Coneflower plants in the back garden.  They are native prairie plants so they are drought tolerant.

The tomatoes have grown a little.  They don't like temperatures in the 90s.

The Evening Primrose was just starting to close up when I checked on them in the early evening yesterday. 

Hot, hot, hot............................

I know most of the US is under this heat dome and it isn't fun.  It's the humidity that is the worst part.

I spent most of the day working slowly, some quilting, some knitting, a little organizing in the basement.  One good thing happened; I found my missing Kaffe Quilts in Italy book which has been missing for several months.  I sewed 2 pieces of batting together with the triple zig zag for a piece 48" x 58".  I will check and see if that works for any of the small tops waiting in line.  If not, I'll add one more strip to it.

Last night I decided to check out what's in this box.  I cut most of these strips 15-20 years ago.

This is the top layer.  It looks like I have a good variety cut.

Yes, there is another layer below, more light fabrics under this end of it.  There are probably enough strips to make a couple king size log cabin quilts.  No, I'm not making any more king size quilts!  I made some 3" nine patch blocks last year.  I could add to that pile.  I'm trying to come up with some easy night time sewing.