Little plants................

I noticed my cute little yellow Coneflower was blooming yesterday.  It's about 10" tall now.  I have a wide overhang on my house so it really doesn't get much rain unless there is wind with the storm.

Yesterday was the first full day for the Begonias in the pot so I expect them to look better in about a week.  I have to admit I didn't plant them until 10 days after I bought them so they were very root bound.

I got the last 2 packages mailed out from my 6th destash sale.  There are still 3 packs of Cherrywood fabric left (#2, 12, and 13) and a Karen Stone paper piecing pattern, An Unusual Feathered Star.  I'll be moving the photos of the sold items over to my third blog, You Missed It: Already Sold, this weekend.

My slump month?..............

Usually every summer I have a couple months where I have few or no quilt tops or finishes to show.  The last 2 years have been the exception with something to show every month.  Last year I had 11 finishes in the first 6 months and this year I had 20.  I think this is more of a time of contemplation, what I really want to make, what fabrics I really want to use.  While I contemplate I go out and pull weeds and talk to my tomato plants. I also planted some little Begonias in a pot yesterday.  I forgot to take a photo.

Yesterday I opened the box of Marcia Derse scraps that had the larger pieces in it.  I wanted to check what was in there before I start cutting off of yardage.  Today is supposed to be a beautiful day so I may be outside again.  I'm making good headway on the weeds in the back shade garden.

Preliminary sewing................

 Since I don't have a solid plan for this quilt, I'm just sewing some blocks to play with.  First I went through the trays and chose all of the fabrics of which there were at least 12 triangles.  I sewed several batches of them last night.

This is the rest of the sets of 12 triangles paired and ready to sew.

This one is upside down and I didn't notice that until I was typing this post.  This one has stripes and 6 are horizontal, 6 are vertical.  I had to lay this one out to see if I want to use the rest of the stripe fabrics.

The other 2 kinds of blocks are the same height, just less columns.  I need to press the squares today so I can sew blocks together and then go to the second stage of the design, whatever that may be.

I was outside for 2 sessions yesterday.  It was humid.  The first time I pulled out Creeping Bellflowers and Creeping Charlie from an area in the garden.  The second session was trimming the third Weigela bush.  I found a couple more volunteer trees growing in the bush so they had to go too.  So now I have trimmed all 3 Weigela bushes and 2 Lilac bushes and I don't have plans to trim any more.

What's next..................

I don't have any definite plans for a new project (3 in cutting stage right now) so I pulled out the trays of Marcia Derse triangles that I cut from scraps a couple years ago.  I have more scraps that I could cut up too.

There is a fairly good variety cut already so I can go ahead and start sewing and cut as I need more variety.  They are 2" finished triangles.

3 trays full of triangles, probably enough for a baby quilt, maybe a small one.

My destash sale this week has been very successful so I spent a couple hours preparing packages for mailing yesterday.  There are still 3 packages of Cherrywood hand dyed fabrics left as I type this, also 1 Karen Stone paper piecing patterns with papers.  Everything else, including the 4 items from last week have been sold.  I have a huge empty blanket box now.  I might resume in August to destash more but will take a couple weeks off now and do some sewing.  I have missed the hum of the machine.

Short sleeves..................

I like short sleeves in the summer and I don't wear knit shirts so it has been hard to find what I need.  I finally decided to buy long sleeve shirts and cut the sleeves to the length I like. 

Yesterday I mowed half of the lawn in the morning and the other half at 7 p.m.  The rest of the day was spent sorting through the Cherrywood hand dyed fabric and grouping it  for my second destash sale this month at Wandaful Quilts.  I also moved the remaining 4 items from the #1 sale to the new post.  This will be the last sale this month.

End of a busy week....................

This past week was so busy, no time to think about much except being on time for appointments and getting my Internet company issues resolved.  I guess I did get a binding done too.  My Grandson got both new Comcast units hooked up, put in the 2 eight foot bulbs in my studio and assembled a 4 step ladder with side grab bars for the few times I need to use one.   I was wiped out by last night.

I went out with my camera to see what has happened in the gardens.  The Zinfin Doll Hydrangea blooms are just starting to turn pink.

The bush has grown so much.  This is its 3rd year in this garden.  There are a few blooms at the bottom that are still green.

The Annabelle blooms start out lime green, then turn white and now are going back to lime green.

The little Flare Hydrangea, that I got for $8 at the end of the season last year, has 3 blooms. When I bought it, it was past blooming so I never saw what the blooms will look like.

This is as far as it has bloomed so far.

The tiny Yellow Coneflower near the Hydrangea is the tallest it has been since the first year it was planted.  It has 3 buds.

The tomato plants have stated growing faster now.  The tall one in the back is the Sun Gold cherry tomato.  The 2 in front are Early Girl and 4th of July.  I have had tomatoes off all three.

The 4 plants in pots are doing well.  I put cardboard down to make a flatter spot for the pots but I think the drainage isn't as good.  We had almost 4" of rain from Saturday through Tuesday and some of the leaves are turning yellow on the plants. That is a sign of being too wet.  All of the plants have lots of green tomatoes on them.  In the pink pot is a volunteer Azalea bush that I will give to a neighbor.

I'll finish my tour with a view across the back garden.  A few of the tall Tiger Lilies got broken off in the storm either Monday or Tuesday night.  Closest to the camera is Oxeye Daisy and Purple Coneflower.  Beyond the bird feeders are Black Eyed Susan, Tiger Lilies and Purple Coneflowers.  There are some Brown Eyed Susan plants that will bloom soon.

Small bits of time..............................

I don't like days with an appointment in the middle, breaking up time to work on anything.  In the morning before I had to leave I was looking through this bin of Cherrywood hand dyed fabric.  It is all from broken up packages of gradations, usually 8 quarter yard pieces.  I plan on grouping some of this for my destash next week.  The back story of why I have so much of it: Dawn Hall, the inventor of the process of Cherrywood dyeing, was the niece of my friend who owned Quilting Books Unlimited.  I went to Houston in the late 1980s to the big show to help my friend selling books and Dawn's fabric was introduced to the world of quilters at our booth.  I bought almost every pack that Dawn dyed in those early days. I used some of it in this quilt.

Then I left for another town and stopped at a big box retailer for 2 eight foot fluorescent bulbs because 2 are burnt out in my main floor studio.  Then on to my appointment and finally home 2 hours later.

Later in the afternoon I started looking through my larger pieces of batik fabrics for possible backings for 3 throw size batik tops.  I see some possibilities and will do some measuring today.

I went out and pulled more of the creeping Bellflowers that are past their prime, more to do yet.

Today my grandson is going to stop by and hook up some new equipment that Comcast sent to me.  For what I pay every month I would think the company could come hook it up.  Oh, they will, for $100 a visit.  Oh, and a little more rant.  As I'm carrying the 8 foot bulbs to the front of the store to check out I find the only lanes open are self check.  I stopped in front of the "pick up" desk where 2 people were working.  Finally one of them looked up and asked if she could help.  I told her I couldn't self check while holding 8 foot bulbs.  She very graciously offered to help then.  I told her 83 year old ladies should be waited on from the time they walk in the door.  Then she said you don't look like 83.  Well that made my day.  Rant over.