Busy.............................

 

My friends came back early yesterday morning to dig some more hostas and Lungwort/Pulmonaria.  They didn't get this Hosta though.  All of the ones I can see from my kitchen window are still there in the back garden.  One flower bed way over in the back corner had hostas overlapping each other and covering up some small ones.  Most of the Lungwort plants were along the front edge of the bed so I'm glad to see them removed.  I have dozens of them growing in other places.  After they left I got the hose out and watered all of the tomato and cucumber plants again.  With temperatures around 90 the dirt dries out fast in the pots.  Later in the day I did more cleaning in the basement and got some things back where they belong.  I also pressed all of the Snail's Trail blocks.  I didn't get any more fabric pressed or cut.

The Coleus plants are doing great this year.  I like the variety of colors and shapes of the leaves.

This is  my view from my mailbox which is near the corner of the driveway and garage, looking toward my front porch.  Since I have not been able to do much gardening it has become quite wild, but at least it is colorful.  I need to dig out a lot of this in the fall.

The odometer on my van reached another milestone yesterday.  It turned 74000 on Dec. 23, 2024.  I averaged 53 miles a month, a little over 600 miles a year.  The van is 22 years and 3 months old.

Four of eight new blocks.......................

Eight new blocks were sewn yesterday, these 4 and their duplicates.  I went down to press more fabric but ended up trying to put the basement back in order after the water seepage a week ago.  I still don't have the design walls up because I need to put clean flannel on them and it takes me a long time to get it done.

This is the assortment of fabrics so far.  The duplicates are in a stack on my sewing table.  I now have 28 of 36 blocks made.  I will need 35 for a 5 x 7 layout so I will be able to eliminate one block, whichever ends up being my least favorite.

The Sun Sugar tomato plant is about 2 feet above the 5' cage now.  It still hasn't filled out much.  There are several little groups of tomatoes but none have turned color yet.

This is in the late afternoon with the bright sun on the Purple Coneflowers.  This is the 3.5' - 4' tall prairie coneflower compared to a lot of the shorter plants available at garden centers.

This has been the best assortment of plants in my backyard hanging planters.  The last 2 years I probably didn't keep them watered enough and this year we have had more rain.

More of the Tiger Lily buds have bloomed.  I have a larger group of these by the birdfeeders but only one plant has bloomed back there so far.

Two new blocks.................

I got 8 more blocks cut and 4 of them are sewn.  Here is one of each of the new ones.

10 of the 20 sewn blocks with the duplicate blocks in a pile on my sewing cabinet.

Here are the combinations for the next 2 blocks.  I thought I might get more sewn but I did some gardening instead.  I cut off lower leaves on the tomato plants and some dead leaves on the cucumber plants.  Then I put some fertilizer spikes around the plants.  Last I turned on the hose and gave them all a good drink.  I also cleaned out the cement birdbath and filled it and filled the bird feeders.  It was more comfortable outside yesterday although still a little humid early in the day.

8 of 16 Snail's Trail blocks.........................

All of the blocks have been pressed now and this is one of each fabric combination.  There are 10 more combinations of 2 fabrics left to cut and sew.

This is the previously posted photo of all 18 combinations.  I didn't have much energy yesterday so I didn't get any more pressed to prepare for cutting.  I plan on cutting 4 more pairs today.

This collage shows the previous Snail's Trail quilts that I have made.  The one on the left was made in 2017 and I experimented with alternate plain blocks in 2 different fabrics.  The one in the center was made in 2019 and is also brown fabrics but paired with mostly beiges instead of gold and rust like I have in the newest project.  The one on the right was made in 2023 and is proof that this isn't just a masculine quilt block but could be made in any type of fabric.  These were cut with the 12" GO die.  I also have the 8" die but haven't used it yet.  

6 blocks times 2....................

Eight more fabrics got pressed yesterday and four new blocks were sewn.  Since there are two alike of every combination, I'll just show one of each from now on.  I will be able to design one half of the quilt and then repeat the same fabrics for each row for the second half, usually in a different order than the first rows.  The basement is warming up since we haven't had a cool spell so ironing the fabrics has to be done in short sessions, in this case 8 fabrics at a time.

As I go around the corner of the house on the way to the backyard I pass the Weigela bush with the red flowers.  There are always a few branches of stragglers after all of the rest of the bush is done blooming.

This is the latest start I have had for ripening tomatoes.  These are Rutgers which usually ripen after the 4th of July and Early Girl varieties.

These are on the second Rutgers plant.  

The Jack be Little pumpkin plants are growing.  These are the little decorative pumpkins.  I was too late to plant big ones.

The spotty rain showers missed us yesterday and there is a small chance of some rain today.  I think I'll be safe setting up my design walls again.  I have to put a clean flannel covering on one of them and then tip them upright.  It sounds easy but I'm short and the foam 4' x 7' sheets are tall. 

Done but no formal portrait..................

I finished the binding yesterday morning but my design walls in the basement are still on their sides, leaning against a table.  The design wall on the main level isn't quite large enough to display it.  Rain is forecast for today so I'm waiting to see if more water seeps into the basement before I put the walls back in place.

I cut 8 of the blocks for the Snail's Trail quilt and got 6 of them sewn yesterday.   Most of these print fabrics are from the 1990s.

I noticed the first bud has bloomed on the Tiger Lily so went out to take a few photos.

This is the section that is all False Sunflower and Purple Coneflower.  It is just getting started with all of the blooms.

This section was in the shade and the coneflowers are more vivid here.  I had to cut a lot of bindweed off the plants.  It was strangling them and tying them together.

The Hosta bed is partially in the sun but by late afternoon is all shade.

This was my treat last night.

I like to put the colors in rows and I hit the jackpot in this package with all 6 colors.  I'm not so OCD that I need all of the little m insignias turned the same direction.  Do you line yours up too, or just eat them?

 

Finally sewing again..................

I did some die cutting and then came up to the studio and started sewing the binding on the Marca Derse Other 16 Patch quilt.

I was thinking about hand finishing the binding on this one, and then I asked myself, do you really want to do that?  The answer was no, so I have 2 sides finished and 2 to go today.

I ran into an old friend I used to share plants with and she mentioned she had a bunch of hostas die.  I had been looking for someone to come and dig out some hostas because they are crowding each other in my back garden.  They were covering part of my path through the garden too.  They purchased bags of topsoil to fill in the holes where they dug out some plants.  I used to dig them up myself and pot them and give them away.  This time I didn't have to do any of the work.