The flowers of my gardens

This my favorite plant.  Double Many Bells.  I have two exactly alike and they are the only ones I even saw when I was buying plants.

Most of the plants are either Many bells or Petunias in a variety of colors.

There are two Geraniums, one Moss Rose, one Portulaca and one Mexican heather as well-Photos next week.

This red geranium has been absolutely gorgeous.

Here's the view down one row of flowers.

I do have some purples out there!  

The Hostas began blooming this week!  

This is the fourth summer for this garden and they have mostly reached their mature size.

Some are at least four feet across and the leaves overlap. 

That does not keep Quinn out of there! 

 I have added branches and sticks and large upside down flower pots in an attempt to keep her out. 

I don't even think there's room for her but she finds a way.  

It must be really cool in under those leaves cause when I catch her in there it's like she pops up from nowhere!

It's peaceful out on my patio with all the flowers around,

It's still cool enough in the morning to drink my coffee and watch the day arrive.

Sometimes, in the evening I sit out there as well but the bugs drive me inside.

Friday Night with Friends-the Virtual edition!

Actually it's always virtual but it sounded more fun this way!  I always sew on both my Thursday and my Friday nights-cause Cheryl is "Down Under" and it's confusing.

So on Thursday night I finished these:

Then began the twosies for the flip flop blocks.  On Friday I finished all those and began the foursies.

I should get them all sewn together today but then comes the spin, press and trim for what seems a million four-patches!  At any rate I should get them finished this week.

Otherwise, I finished ALL of the garden projects this past two weeks!  Now there is only: weed, water, feed, repeat!  Okay, I do have some small chores-laying the soaker hoses, and straw over the veggies (if the radishes and beets will ever get big enough!) In there fall there will be a few more projects but for now I'm done.  I'm planning to show you my garden tomorrow!

FNWF Chook Shed style!

Friday night (for me) was spent in a Zoom meeting with Chookyblue and friends!  Along with all the usual virtual folks over at Friday Night with Friends!  

I was such fun to actually see what bloggers LOOK like and to chat about, well,  Everything!

I worked at the backstitching on Ryan's stocking made some really good progress.

  I'll soon be flipping the page over!

On Saturday, as the Chookshed party continued I finished these for last month's RSC.

Hey, they're done!

Eleven flip-flop blocks. Which I find very fiddly and slow for some reason!

This last one is for the placemat set.

The photo's dark but the block is dark so it is what it is.

After I finished those  I worked on the Hashtags for this month.

All pretty in pink

I found 6 more strips today so those will also get done, maybe tomorrow.

I've been hard at work in the yard each day and it has gotten REALLY hot!

I'm pretty exhausted now!

Only two more blueberry bushes to get in the ground tomorrow.

Then one more project out there and I'll be finished until fall, 

well I'll have to water and weed and all that stuff.

Tomorrow, I'll be off to read everyone's blog from the big party!

  Isn't ZOOM amazing?!

What to do in June!

I'll begin with the garden/yard stuff which has some priority to it as the hot is arriving this week!  First, I'm going to install the remaining raised beds and get them planted this week. This will require a trip to the lumber store for screws and 3 more pickets, of course.  Then, I'm off to fix this mess.

 The ground has settled around the foundation so it's lower than the yard which means water could get in the basement-NOT good.  I'll raised the splash block, fix the hose hanger, divide the area from the main yard for ease of mowing, since I'm making a trip to the lumber place I'll pick up some pavers as well, and plant some flowers in there.  Sounds like a lot but I think it will go pretty quickly.

After that I'm going to take out the boxwoods on either side of the round spruce tree/bush.  You can barely see where the two meet and I think I will like it better opened up.  Again, something that will go quickly as I'm just sawing them off and leaving the stumps for a bit.

 After that it's the pesky walls!  One here and the lower part leveled.  I think it might take a bit of work to get it done.

 I want to replace that log with  timbers and add a bit of dirt there.  Plus that bed needs weeded, again.

For something different, I want to attempt to replace the fabric on this patio chair

 which also needs painting, if it works I'll replace the fabric and paint all the chairs on the patio at some point over the summer.  If it doesn't work, well I've not lost anything as the chair is useless as it is.  Since that's sort of stitching,  the goals there are much the same.  The hashtag blocks, the big blocks, the flipflop blocks, 31 rows added to the red, orange and black secret squirrel, and Ryan's stocking finished.Anything more is gravy.

Here's something to look at that doesn't need anything done to it!  I enjoyed my coffee out there this morning!

Blogger is doing weird things to the finished post!  I have no idea what it's going to look like until I publish it!

How did I do?

Does anyone remember when my garage looked like this?  So lovely, sigh.

  

                  Well, Now it looks like this.  Okay, I've cleaned up a bit but it's still a disaster!

Oh, well that's what happens when I do stuff involving saws, drills, and screws. 

From my yard and garden list I finished and installed 4 raised beds in my garden and have the other 4 ready to assemble, fixed a crooked board in the fence, and (not on the list added 2 new hosta plants and moved two.)  What didn't I get done?  I didn't finish digging out the gate area and building a small wall there didn't happen either, and I didn't get the wall built at the end of the hostas.  

In the house, I did build and install some new shelves in the basement for food and misc. storage. Moved the studio around and cleaned up the mess I made! Yeah, me!  I did not get the bathroom floor finished-I'm putting this one off for a while, I 'm not happy with my tile job so I don't want to finish it.  Will think on what I would like in there.  Not on the list:  moving the desk stuff back to the office and organizing up there.

 In stitching, I finished the hash tags, actually I made more than usual.  I've been making 10 each month and a light bulb went off when I realized that 100 6" blocks would leave me with a 66" square quilt - I don't like square-I decided to make whatever fabric I came up with.  Once these are cut they go really fast chain piecing.

The big blocks are finished.  When we did Light green for RSC I made a bunch of little 1 1/2" four patches before I found the leftover blocks so this time I did some light, bright and dark greens.  I didn't get the flip flop blocks finished yet but I will this week while I cut pink.

  I did complete the next segment of the red and Black Squirrel project and I did begin the backstitching on Ryan's Stocking.

 I didn't get any other stitching finished.

Cooking wise I made this shrimp and veggie pasta dish from a Cooking for Two book.  I ate it for three meals! I also tried a Chicken Curry from that book which was tasty but bland.  they were both good and I will make them again. I will adjust the spices in the curry. I made Raisin Bread, Cinnamon Rolls and Japanese Milk bread in Sourdough versions that I liked and sourdough waffles that I didn't like.  So I more than covered my goal of two new recipes!

I din't get any non-fiction books finished although I did read a bit in one.  

All in all I did quite a bit but I found that I didn't much like the pressure I put on myself. Plus, lots of things fell through the cracks and that just can't happen for me to be happy.

Will definitely have a goal list for next month but I think it'll be less ambitious.  I want to take time to just enjoy sitting on my patio reading and looking at my flowers among other things.

At work in the basement

 In the basement, where the studio is, I have a long skinny room.  I holds the furnace and hot water heater and is stubbed in for a half bath.  Since it's unlikely that I will ever install said bath  there's a lot of room just hanging out not doing much of anything.  I had basically dumped all the empty totes etc from the move in there but it was a mess!
As I've decided to develop a bit of a food stockpile I knew I would need someplace to PUT it as my kitchen isn't much for storage.  So, one day last week I hauled out all of the boxes and empties and measured the space for shelves.  I decided to follow Ana White's plans for making storage shelves using 2 by 4 studs.  I ordered 22 8 footers and some 3 inch self-tapping screws--those have to be one of the greatest inventions EVER!  Sunday, I set about making them.  Can I just say that carrying all those 2 x 4's to the basement was no fun.  When I got to adding them for the self itself I realized that I didn't order enough so today I picked up 11 more but it is finished!  The totes on it have craft stuff or food in them all labeled.  It is so tidy, I love it!

Of course, I still need to deal with this!

 Most of it will be organized and stored under the stairs.
Some of the ones with no lids (or lids with no matching bottom) will be let go in the recycling or used to haul things for donations.

Then there's this mess!  After watching Leonie Maree's (on the Facebook group Love and Hugs form Australia) lovely video on using pool noodles to layer your quilts I just had to try it and it needs a long table. Not to mention the pool noodles which can be found at the local Walmart!  Fortunately, my two IKEA cabinets are on wheels so I re-arranged the studio.  I have to finish cleaning that mess up as well.

Why does cleaning always make such a mess?

 

This week's work and Friday Night Stitching

 First off, the two large garden beds are in and planted.  Building the frames was easy- loading in dirt and compost not so much!  (It took 14- 40 lb bags of top soil and 5-40 lb bags of compost to fill each one!  My back hurts even though I drove the truck back closer to them!
I have tomatoes, peppers, and basil plants in and seeds for green beans, cucumbers, squash, radishes and beets.  Small amounts of each but enough for one!

Lettuce is up in a planter, another couple of weeks and I'll be eating it!  IF it warms up!

 All week long I've been working on this piece and it was part of my Friday Night Stitching.  Almost finished with the candies!  There's a ribbon and a big star yet to go before I can begin to back stitch.  I'm excited to be this far!

 All week long, and last night I worked at sewing the rows to add to the secret squirrel.  I began adding them to the finished part last night.  See the yellow pin?  That row is in up-side down!  Un-sewing is never fun but I'll get it turned around later today.  I realized this week that there was NO WAY I was going to have enough fabric for this thing. Panic, dread, fear, I know I bought this a couple of years ago so there is no way to get more.  I decided to hope that I could get something that was the same basic color even if the pattern wasn't the same (these squares finish at 3/4" so pattern isn't really such a big deal.)  So, yesterday I took my mask and headed to the Quilt shop hoping, I mean REALLY hoping, that I could find something.   I DID!  I will mix the two reds and two oranges together until I run out of the original and finish in the new-that way it won't be so obvious that I changed fabric.

Several of you have wondered what in the world I'm doing here.  The piece I'm working on goes on the bottom of this.  It is a mathematical mosaic.  That's all you get to see, except the bit I'm working on!



I did bake bread again-comes around about once a week- this time plain white bread, my Granna's recipe converted to sourdough.  Again, I had more starter than I needed so I tried some sourdough waffles.  I wasn't impressed, will just use my old faithful waffle recipe from here on out.  Last night I made a Chicken Curry in my little 1.5 Quart crockpot.  The crockpot's adorable!  The curry was okay but too bland, I may make it again after reading other curry recipes and tweaking the ingredients some.  Since there is only one of me I'm always looking for recipes that have been downsized to 2 servings or that I can freeze in individual servings.  I've more than met my goal of 2 new recipes this month but there will be more, I'm on a roll!

Today, I have to mow, AGAIN. Happens every week about this time.  Later, I have an order to pick up at Lowe's for more raised beds and some shelves.  I won't go in, they will bring it out and load it for me.  Of course, I will have to UNLOAD it when I get home!  The shelves are tomorrow's project. Then stitching.  Not so busy this weekend.