Ready for company

The cookies are baked The tables and design walls have been cleared
The art quilters can have a review of any of the unfinished pieces made in the last 8 months.
It is raining early this morning and supposed to be muggy all day. The cool front can't get here soon enough for me. Have a great Monday everyone.

Staring at the wall

When I got my first sewing machine in a cabinet in 1959 I promptly placed it against a wall so while I was sewing I was also staring at the wall. For many years after because of space restrictions it continued to face a wall. In the 1980's I finally had a space of my own and my sewing machine cabinet is placed so I have my back to the wall and I am looking out into the room. I have never gone back to facing a wall. It feels like I am joining the activity in the house this way instead of turning my back to it. I think there is a Feng Shui thing about not having your back to the doorway of a room. I never liked anybody sneaking up on me and scaring me either. If you want to see my set up click on STUDIO on the LABELS list on the right side of my blog.

And now you can see why I am not cutting anything currently. This is the mess on top of the cutting table. There are all the left over pieces from several of the last projects, a plastic bin on its side with pieces and parts of experiments, a pile of crazy pieced blocks, and a multitude of other things.
We had some nice rain yesterday, and maybe during the night. This is what I saw when I looked outside this morning. There are rain drops hanging from all of the leaves and blossoms. Click for a closer view.
More blossoms, more raindrops.
Today I must finish cleaning for my art quilters group tomorrow and bake 2 batches of cookies. It is still really humid out even though it isn't real hot yet. I had a good visit with some of my cousins at the funeral and lunch yesterday. It is good to connect with the family. Thanks for all of your condolences.

More garden

I am cleaning the basement for my art quilters group for Monday so I did sew 2 more blocks but will not play any more with the design until after Monday. My cousin rolled his big diesel pickup earlier this week and passed away from injuries. Yesterday was visitation, today is the funeral. I did get outside to take some pictures yesterday though.

I think this one has a Siamese twin/quintuplet thing going on with its flower stem. I thought this one should have multiple flower stems that would shoot up in several places, but these seem to have bonded.
Maybe this one always blooms like this and I never noticed it before. Close up below.
This is one of the ditch lilies in the back corner. There aren't many plants with buds on them yet.
And here is the regal beauty that blooms in the front garden. There are a ton of buds so I'll show a mass view in a couple days.
One of my friends commented on the variety of flowers and plants I have. I have mentioned before that I didn't even get into perennial gardening until 14 years ago. Once I was introduced to a few plants I started shopping for my new flower bed. I bought one of each of about 20 different plants each year. I figured out which ones grew at my house and which ones I wanted to dig out and get rid of. I learned most of the plant names by looking at the variety at the greenhouses every year. I won't pretend to know everything about plants but I sure know more than I did 14 years ago.

Garden walk

I never made it to the sewing machine yesterday. I had errands all morning for my parents and an embroidery club meeting in the afternoon. In the evening I called my best friend from high school to catch up and talk about our upcoming 50th class reunion. That pretty much took up the whole day. I did go around the house and take pictures of the current blooms though.

This is the Rose of Sharon bushes up next to my house by my bedroom window.
Here is a close up of the flowers.
This year the purple cone flowers are really pretty. Usually they turn to a faded pink shortly after blooming. Maybe we have had just the right amount of rain for them this year.
I had purple and pink balloon flowers at one time in the front garden. Last year I think I saw a couple pink blossoms but most were purple. This little plant is a volunteer. I didn't realize they would re-seed. I know they don't usually survive if you move them so you should plant them where you want them.
This plant is happy amongst the crabgrass along my little path through the garden.

Latest layout

This is what I had up on my design wall last night. It was hard on the neck to try to visualize this from the straight picture yesterday. After I tipped my head on an angle about the 10th time I decided I had to actually try it, and I put in the newest blocks that I have made too. I might just use half blocks for setting triangles If nothing else seems to scream "use me".

Doing more cutting

Yesterday I decided to cut my favorite Martha Negley prints, also from the same company as Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs. 
I had intended to border some squares with these twig strips but then I thought maybe I want them for sashing instead.
I put the red twig stripe up there in the beginning when I was experimenting and I was too lazy to take it back out. I didn't get around to trying it on point yet. Still cutting more fabrics..........

8 more blocks

I cut some more center squares from some of the biggest Kaffe and Philip Jacobs prints and more strips from some of the newer small prints. I'm not sure if I like the very lightest prints in there. I may be making 2 quilts.

Or try it on point instead of straight..............