A lazy day...........

It got up to 87 degrees yesterday and even though it was fairly low humidity I didn't have much incentive to do anything.  I went out after lunch and watered the tomato plants and hanging baskets.  I noticed this pink Peony with fluffy yellow center getting ready to bloom.

I played with some ideas for new quilts to start and didn't work on anything that is in progress.

Last evening I decided I needed to get out and plant this lime green Coral Bell.  First I had to dig out some good size clumps of new grass and transplanted them into some bare spots in the lawn.  I gave them lots of water so I hope they settle in well.

When they dug out the top 5" of soil with roots and invasive plants last year I told them not to remove my Annabelle Hydrangea and the Peonies in front of it.  I wasn't sure there were really 2 Peonies still there until I saw them blooming last night.  The pink one is in the back, the white in front.

The Annabelle Hydrangea has small buds now.  They should grow fast and be big blooms soon.

My dark color Columbine is still in a pot and over winters next to the garage wall.  It has been in this pot more than 5 years so I think I need to plant it this year.  I said that last year too and didn't do it.

It was starting to get dark when I took this photo so it was hard to get true color.  I think I should get a packet of mixed color seeds this year and see if I can start some more of them.

Today is supposed to be around 87 again with possible severe storms after 5 p.m.  I hope it turns out to just be a rain storm.

I will do my monthly recap tomorrow.  It will be small since I didn't finish either of the tops I have been working on. I'm really not looking forward to putting 320 small blocks on the design wall.  I think I'll try a couple more layouts before I get serious about a finished top.

 

The last batch............

This is the last batch of blocks, 54 of them.  I have more fabric paired up but am not planning on sewing the strip sets at this point.  I will  now take all of the blocks to the basement to start playing with layouts.  

For those people who ask, but have no link for me to answer you, this post talks about the size of the blocks.

The next Peony is blooming.  This is a single dark rose.  The other early one has a few more petals but isn't full and fluffy like the rest of mine are.  I didn't notice this trend in previous years so maybe I haven't been paying attention.

Right next to that Peony is my white Bleeding Heart.  It isn't doing much blooming yet and I don't see a lot of buds either.

This Mushroom or is a Toad Stool is growing in my front lawn.  I guess that proves we had several rainy days in a row last week.

More Pansies just because they are so pretty. 

I got some weeds pulled yesterday afternoon and trimmed some branches off my Viburnum bush.  It is blocking my view of the back garden.

Today is supposed to be the hot one but not terribly humid so I might go outside to work, and then I might not.  Time will tell.

 

Sunshine..............

We had a lot of gloomy weather last week so it was nice to see the sunshine in my backyard yesterday morning.

I touched fabric yesterday but didn't do any sewing.  I did laundry instead.

I pull out Spiderwort every year and this year there is the least amount I've ever had.  It is hard to get rid of.

The Tiger Lily area looks good this year.  The last 2 years all of the plants started drying up early because it was so hot and dry.  This year we are back to normal rain amounts so I'm hoping the flowers will last longer.

This flowerbed needs help.  There is a Sedum and a Coral Bell and Lungwort in there but also lots of weeds.  I'm hoping to clean it up this year.  

I did pull weeds in other areas yesterday.  Velcro weed and a couple others were prevalent in another area.  With the ground soft from all of the rain I was able to pull most of it out by the roots.

My perennial Dianthus is putting on a good show.  It has a lot more blooms than the annual in the back yard that self seeds.  I need to dig out some of the new grass that is moving into the flowerbed.

This Hosta is about 3' across now.  I bought it in a little pot about 4 years ago and it seems to like where it is planted in the back garden.

I planted a couple Hostas (that I had saved in pots) by the driveway between the areas of tomato plants yesterday afternoon.  There is room for one more so I may do that today.  

I'm happy to hear they are backing off on the forecast for 4 days of 90 degrees.  Now they are down to one (Memorial Day) with the other 3 days in the mid 80s.  Humidity is low now so it is comfortable out.  I'm hoping that doesn't change too much.

Thanks to all who gave their opinion yesterday on the orientation of the blocks on the design wall.  I'm thinking about moving down to the basement where I have a larger design wall to work on it now.  It will be cooler down there while we have some extra warm days too.

Same old thing.........

Are you tired of seeing the blocks for this quilt?  I have just 8 more groups of 6 to sew and the rest of the strips will get cut up for log cabin blocks.  This is the group sewn last night, 59 of them.

 This is one block from every combination I have sewn since I started on this project.  They are on the wall in the vertical position but I won't have room to build the whole quilt this way.  They will need to be turned sideways.

So that leads me to the question if they would look better horizontal in the finished quilt.  If so, then I could keep building the quilt as is.

Any opinions?

As I promised I went out and took a photo of the first blooming peony.  This is the early one and some others only have small buds so far.

This is my largest tomato plant and I see I didn't get all of the top leaf in the photo.  It has 6 little tomatoes growing on it.

This is the smallest tomato plant sitting next to a potted Coral Bell that  I bought on the last trip to the nursery.  I need to get it planted soon.  I think our rainy spell is over and the ground should be nice and soft for digging.

The white blooming Hardy Geranium is doing fine after being transferred from a pot (where it had been for a year) into the ground.  It will spread nicely and fill in a lot of that area.

 

How many blocks in an hour........

I decided the best way to estimate how much longer I'll be working on these blocks would be seeing how many I can sew in an hour.  The answer is 36.  Now I'll have to count up how many more strip sets are paired to sew and how many blocks are cut waiting to be sewn.  On the other hand I could quit making new blocks and just make a quilt out of those that are already sewn since I have more than 320, the amount I need for a 60" x 80" quilt.  I can just use all of the rest for another smaller quilt after they are sewn.

The red Weigela is getting ready to bloom.

I showed the tight Peony bud yesterday and thought it would bloom this weekend.  Well....when I got up yesterday 5 of the buds had opened into full bloom.  It's amazing how fast they start popping.  I guess those ants are working overtime eating the waxy substance off the buds.  After the rain this morning I'll try to take a good photo of the plant.

 

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.