Thursday, June 20, 2019

Flowers, Flimsy and a Finish

I'm getting a big kick out of the progress my perennial flower bed has made this season. I think this is the third year for most of the plants. 


Finished this flimsy. This border came together pretty quickly with the help of a rainy day.


And I finished cross stitching a snowman ornament, a Jim Shore design.


Friday, June 14, 2019

Morning Visitor


About 7:30 this morning...this critter came to call.

He didn’t seem to mind the dogs barking hysterically at him nor was he bothered by my presence. 

Friday, June 7, 2019

Simplifying a Quilt Design and Gardening

I thought I'd start with some quilting news...
gee...
that just hasn't been in the forefront of my activities for some time.  

I thought the "knot" border was going to be great for the scrappy top center I finished a few weeks ago but it is very time consuming to make those blocks and I was going to need 148 of them for two quilts. After two weeks of stitching a few minutes a day I have 16 done. Not enthused about making these blocks the entire summer.

So I took the time to make a mock up of the completed design using the Electric Quilt program.


It's a lovely border but after seeing it I didn't think it really worked with my center design. I also noticed it made the quilt pretty large, 84 x 100-inches.

After stewing on the design for a day, I dedicated some time to playing with EQ and here is my new plan for the border. 


I love this border idea...which I think is an original. I haven't seen it before so I'm taking credit for this discovery. Still a large quilt, 80 x 96-inches but this border should be much quicker to sew together.

Now back to what I have really been spending most of my time doing...extreme gardening. 

The sun has finally been making a regular daily appearance. But new this year are afternoon thunderstorms. Every afternoon for almost a week, gray clouds line up on one side of our mountain valley and make a lot of racket. Below is the road I turn off to my driveway. This is my regular dog walking view. Yucky gray clouds to the left.


My latest project is the entrance to my driveway. Clearing out brush right now and hoping to get a rock garden started.


I got my veggies planted last week. Lots of broccoli! 


And every year I have to share pictures of my Blue Himalayan Poppies. If these weren't expensive plants I would have them everywhere! 


We've seen lots of critters. I saw this small black bear on my way to workout one morning. 

 

Most of the critters are pretty camera shy.