A day of doing nothing...........

I had such good intentions of doing something, anything yesterday but in the end all I did was run the dishwasher (and empty it) and fold laundry.  The rest of the day was wandering through the house and the yard.

I did put a few things in their proper places and unpicked stitches on a block I wasn't completely happy with.

So lets go outside and walk around after the rain was finished.  (It rained again after 10:30 p.m.).
This is the view of my favorite front section of garden taken from the paver path behind it.  It looks like I need to move the center Coral Bell closest to me a little to the right.  I just have to decide whether to do it now or wait until fall.

When I was preparing for the new front gardens I dug out a few plants I wanted to save.  There were 3 Red Penstemon and I'm happy to see 2 of them survived the move to the back garden.  I haven't seen any signs of the third one but I won't give up on it yet.

We are due to have some 90 degree weather starting Sunday so the Peonies will probably start blooming.  There is an ant working hard on the bottom of the big bud.  This is the early blooming plant, dark red.

I can see one of my lilac bushes from my dining room window.  If it hadn't been so humid yesterday I would have had the window open to smell the beautiful fragrance.

When the lilacs start to fade the Garden Heliotrope starts blooming with a very similar fragrance.  I have these in a couple places in the back garden.

Since this was my first year having Lenten Roses I wasn't sure what to expect.  I was surprised that the blooms are still there and looking good.  The other 2 plants are getting larger but didn't have any blooms this year.

Today I hope I can make a decision which quilt top needs to become a finished quilt and get it done.

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12 more strip sets sewn............

I had more baking to do yesterday.  Someone is going west to visit my great-grandchildren so I wanted to send some goodies with them.  I got to the sewing machine after I mowed the grass in the front yard.  Two days of rain are predicted and the grass would have been too tall if I left it.

Now I have 22 sets sewn and ready to cut into sections for at least 120 more blocks.  This quilt top isn't going to be finished this month.  Yes, I'm thinking about finishes because we are approaching the end of the month.  I need to get at least one more top quilted.

My pansies are loving this cool week.  A second orange one bloomed this week.  Since they were mostly buds when I bought them I didn't know what colors I would get.

The Viburnum blooms are looking nice but mine aren't fragrant.  I hear people talking about how fragrant their Viburnums are so mine must be a different variety.

 

Another layout option.........

 I decided to try another layout for these blocks.  I'm not sure I like it as well as the first layout.

(daylight photo, not true color.)

10 more strips sets were sewn last night.  Most TV shows are in their season finale shows this week so there were 2 to watch last night.

I was totally out of treats in the freezer for the past week so I had to bake last night.  Yes, I tested them but it took 4 before I was sure they were excellent.

I mowed the back yard grass yesterday late afternoon.  These are 2 of my hanging pots back there.  They are double petaled Impatiens.  I have a third pot and noticed that it had cracked (a pot saved from a couple years ago) so I had to repot the flowers and rehang it over by the bird feeders.

Some of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit are still blooming.  There are many patches of them in the shady area of the back garden.

I wonder if they self seed or if they come up by root every year.  I find them in different places each year.

The Dianthus in the back garden is in full bloom now.  The flowers are so much darker and it makes me wonder why the camera can't show that color.

Sunday project...........

I cut a few more triangles and got 11 more strips sewn for my Sunday only project.  I now have 73 out of 240 sewn.

My front gardens are filling in nicely.  It was all planted in June and July last year.  In the front center section I got a new Coral Bell that can take more sun and planted it in the center.  The one I dug out that was getting sunburnt is toward the back left, the yellow plant.  Click to enlarge the photo.  Several coral bells have flower stalks.

This front left section has filled in the best so far.

The other side of the porch is looking good too.  The 4 Sedums are getting big.  In front of them is a dark green and purple Coral Bell.

Here is a closer shot next to the porch.  There is the Annabelle Hydrangea next to the house, in front (left) is a Peony.  To the right of that is the Hardy Geranium with white flowers that I just planted.  In the front is the Perennial Dianthus and the fuchsia blooming Hardy Geranium.  I will be spreading leaf mulch here soon and it will look so much better.

Lots more to sew.............

This is one block from each combination that is sewn so far.  I think I have about 275 blocks sewn.  I still haven't decided on a layout and just put them up in color groups for now on the design wall.

This is the last bunch I have paired up.  All but 2 piles contain 4 strips of one value and one strip of the opposite value (dark/light).  There is enough here for 32 more combinations which is about 176 blocks.  Some groups will yield 5 blocks and others will yield 6, depending on the length of the strips so I'm just estimating the total.  Since I only need 320 total I wouldn't have to sew all of these.  The other option is to make one larger quilt and use the rest in another quilt some day.

This is the last tomato to plant.  A friend grew them from seed and gave me one.  I may just move it to a larger pot for now.  We got almost an inch of rain yesterday from near midnight to just after lunch.  It was only in the 50s and low 60s after being 85 the day before so I was inside all day.  It looks like low 60s for most of this week.  I actually enjoy that more than high 80s and 90s.

 

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

My lilacs are the late variety and I think they are Miss Kim variety.  I planted 4 bushes in November 1994.  One died about 8 years ago and the other 3 are right outside my bedroom window so the scent is heavenly for about a week.  They are about 8-10 feet tall now.

The annual Dianthus that self seeds in the back garden is starting to bloom.  The flower is a much deeper rose color than it looks here.

The very pale pink Weigela is starting to bloom now.

This is the other pink Weigela that is in full bloom now.

Now that all of the grassy part of the Wild Onion has died down the star flowers appear.

I got one more tomato plant in the ground and also planted a Hosta and my white blooming Wild Geranium.  There were buds on the Wild Geranium while it was in the pot from last year so I hope the transition to the ground isn't too much of a shock for it.

I thought I would show the three different kinds of cactus I have.  This one is the Easter or Spring cactus, rounded segments.

This is the Christmas cactus with the scalloped sections.  This is the one that is blooming now.

This is the Thanksgiving cactus with the pointy sections.  These last 2 are marketed as Christmas cactus at most stores.

This is a side view of the Christmas cactus bloom.  You can see the base of the flower (the green part) is much larger than the base on the Thanksgiving cactus blooms.

This blossom is smaller than the ones on the Thanksgiving cactus too and is more similar in shape to the Easter cactus.  I'm basically going by information I found on the internet with an illustration of all 3 types side by side.

Trial layout............

I sewed 9 sets of blocks from the cut ones I showed yesterday.  I took some of the ones sewn earlier and put them up on the design wall to get an idea what the layout should be.  I don't know if they should be color grouped or just all mixed up.  They could also be changed to a horizontal layout, or both, rows of vertical and rows of horizontal alternated.  Meanwhile I'll keep sewing strip sets and finish making the blocks.

I mowed the side yard and part of the front yard late morning and finished up the rest of the front yard in the early evening as it was cooling down a little.

This is one of the pots in front of my garage.  The Sweet Potato Vine is supposed to be a smaller variety so maybe it won't be dragging on the ground this year.

This is the other garage pot.  The really dark Coleus don't show up well here.  They look as dark as the dirt in the pot.  They will get really tall and filled out as summer goes on.

I planted 5 more tomato plants in 3 sessions yesterday.  One is at the back of the house in the area where I dug out a Peony last year.  The other 4 are along my driveway.  I'm going to plant some Hostas along the driveway too because it is getting shadier at the center of the area, between the 2 groups of tomato plants.  I have 2 more tomato plants to get in the ground.  Every year I say I will buy fewer plants and then I end up with more.  I figure the extras are insurance in case some of the plants don't produce much.

The Allium flowers are blooming.  I'm not sure who planted them.  One is on my property now where they used to be all on my neighbor's lot. 

The Bleeding Heart is getting tall but only has the very beginnings of flower buds.

Here is a close up of the Columbine I showed yesterday (taken from my dining room window).  This time I was just inches away from it.  My dark blue Columbine disappeared last year and I don't know if any of the deep rose colored ones are out there yet.