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Another hot humid day and not a lot of energy.  I did get the backing pressed and loaded on the longarm and put the batting on too.  Here is the whole photo of the quilt top.  It is 99" the long direction so it is filling the whole longarm rails except for about 10" on the right end.  The backing is 105" (99" + 6").  I think I have only quilted one other quilt this large so far.

My older A/C unit that we put back in the dining room window bit the dust Friday. 90 degrees and humid and all I had was fans.  My son had an extra small A/C that he didn't need at his shop so yesterday he took out the dead one and put the new one in the window.  Then I ordered another larger one to replace the one we threw out last year when my trim painting was done.  I drove 10 miles to pick it up at the big box store and it will hopefully get installed early this week.

This weedy mess is supposed to get dug out this week and new black dirt brought in.  This is one of 4 areas they need to do.  

Storms are predicted for this afternoon and evening.  I don't know whether to believe we will really get any rain.

A little nature...........

The pots by my garage are filling out nicely.  The Coleus will grow a lot taller before summer is over.

I spent a lot of time in the basement yesterday putting things away and pressing scraps...no sewing was done.

Here is the other pot by the garage.  I depend on the Coleus for most of the color in these pots.  The trailing vine has little purple flowers for some contrast.

I put some of my flower pots by the tomato garden along the driveway.  I have planted some Marigolds between some of the plants and I see a few of them coming up.

The Milkweed is in bloom.  This is in the garden that will be all dug up.  I see some holes in the Milkweed leaves but haven't seen any Monarch caterpillars.  I saw one Monarch butterfly about a month ago but haven't seen any since.  I don't see any way to transplant Milkweed with a root that just goes straight down in the ground.

 

A better photo................

I took my Kaffe orphan blocks off the design wall in the basement so I could get a better photo of this quilt top.  It measures 60" x 84".

For a little perspective here it is waiting to be photographed on a 96" wide x 84" tall double design wall.

I decided to get a photo of the Annabelle Hydrangea bush in case it rains.  As I watched the news and weather last night they were still undecided if we were going to get 1.9" of rain or none at all.

I planted one Canna bulb and it has 2 shoots coming up off of it. When I checked it last night it looks like the one on the left has been bent but isn't quite broken.  I wonder if the squirrels were playing with it.

The black raspberries are turning red.  Some years I already had ripe berries by this time.  I have the vanilla ice cream ready and waiting.
  

 

A little fabric fix...........

I "needed" some new Charley Harper fabric, even though I haven't made a quilt with any of it yet.  I did start cutting some pieces in early spring and they are waiting on a design wall in the basement for me to come back to it.

I pieced a backing for one of my larger quilts next in line for quilting.  I need to press it and then I'll start loading the quilt on the longarm.

In the early evening I planted the Peonies that I dug out of the front flower bed on Tuesday night.  I doubt they will bloom next year since they were dug up the wrong time of the year but at this point all I care is that they will survive.

Big rain predicted for very early tomorrow morning.  I hope we get the big rain but no hail or any other part of a severe storm.

 

Playing at the design wall..........

This is the new fabric that I think goes very well with the star blocks.  Simplest solution would be to use it for sashing and be done.

When I was trying ideas last year I was using a single row of squares as sashing.  Now I'm trying double rows.  This was my first idea.  Ok but a little chunky.

I changed the center to triangles instead of squares.

Then I switched the direction of the triangles to point out instead of in (as in photo above).  I only changed triangle in the center area, the ones out at the ends of the rows are going the wrong way.

Next I took away one set of triangles all around to make a smaller motif.

In outdoor doings, I mowed the shady back yard.  The grass in the front yard is half brown and crispy with the lack of rain so it didn't need mowing.  Work is going to start on my front flower beds next week so I went out to dig out the peonies which are the only thing left to save.  The ground is rock hard in front.  The ground in the back garden is so easy to dig.  This is the wrong time to move peonies so they may not survive but I at least was going to give them a chance.

The first tomato is small...but it is red.  It needs a few more days to finish ripening and I decided not to give the squirrels a chance to see it.  My little neighbor girl was outside too and I showed her one that was almost ripe on her plant.  She picked hers too and took it inside to the windowsill.  This is the earliest I have ever had a ripe tomato.  I looked back in my photos and found that in 2019 I had my first tomatoes on June 22.  Most years it is the first week of July.

Reviving an old project............

 I continued on with my pressing and cutting today and didn't even turn on the sewing machine.  I took down the last completed quilt top and got out these 6 blocks that I made early last year.  I got stumped at the sashing and just put it away.  I'm going to finish it this year...no more indecision.  I have lots of the triangle squares and plain squares to play with and also a new fabric that I may work into it.

Two of the plants in my porch pots have really taken over.  The poor geraniums are way down under the petunias and I can't figure out why they have stayed so small.  One of the vine type plants with purple flowers didn't like the extreme heat and sunshine and I'm not sure if it will recover.

Is it any wonder why I have so many Redbud trees coming up all over my property?  I have a friend who comes and digs out a few little trees now and then and plants them at his house and his friends houses.  Mostly I just cut them down when I am lazy and occasionally I have a lot of energy and dig them out.

Even the newest tree that I let grow has seeds this year.  If one comes up in a space that looks like it will fill in when one of the others die I will leave it.  Redbuds don't have a long life.  Only 2 of my current Redbuds have been here since I moved here 49 years ago, June 1972.  Some have died and others have replaced them.  I wonder if the next owner will just bulldoze the backyard and plant grass and fence it in for a dog.  It is such a beautiful wild shade garden back there.

Fun in the scrap patch..................

 

I had a fun day yesterday going through the box of scraps that I define as anything smaller than a quarter yard.  Small scraps and narrow strips are in a different box so these were sizeable chunks.  I cut mostly quarter square triangles in 2 sizes, 4" and 6" finished.  This is the 6" quarter square triangles paired with the 6.5" squares that I had in another box (a box of mostly squares cut years ago).

This is what they will look like when they are sewn together.

Then I cut some 6" finished half square triangles from 4 fabrics.  This is what the blocks will look like.  I went through the box one more time and pulled 21 more fabrics that are large enough to cut 4 triangles.

I went out about 8 p.m. last night and checked on my tomatoes.  This one is turning yellow but because it was getting dark out it looks darker than it is.

My Purple Coneflowers have buds now.  I see there are a few new plants in the back garden.  They used to multiply more than they have in the last few years.

This is my favorite Hosta.  It has grown a lot since last year and I had planned on splitting it but the heat came too soon and I'm not sure I'll have a chance to do it now.