Monday, June 29, 2020

Quilt Sashing Finished

I spent the last couple of days cutting out and sewing the parts for the sashing on the Xmas Log Cabin quilt. I used the cheater method shared on this website to sew on the points.
This fabric is the Holiday Flourish line from Robert Kaufman.
Time for some assembly!

Sunday, June 28, 2020

This Week's Blooms

It's time to post flower photos again. There are so many we've been enjoying.
Daylily 'Mandolin.' This was actually a freebie from Schreiner's Iris Gardens with our order last fall.
It's quite pretty.
Daylily 'Burnin Down the House.' It looks quite different than I was expecting it to look
but I'm hoping it will change as the plant gets more established.
I think this is a Calendula Resina I grew from seed.
(I planted 3 different varieties of calendula and they weren't all tagged.)
Our Pacific Iris 'Canyon Snow' has given us a second round of flowers.
Viola 'Orange Sun' I grew from seed.
This Jimi's Purple Haze Poppy is really tall. When I bought it in spring,
I didn't realize this variety was an annual. Luckily, it was inexpensive and
maybe we'll be able to grow more from the seeds I'm planning to collect.
The flowers on our Spirea Douglasii are finally open and the bees are ecstatic.
They appear almost drunk with pleasure when they're crawling around on it.
Cornflowers 'Black Gem' I grew from seed. They have tall and floppy stalks but the flowers are quite lovely.
I can't believe how large this Heuchera 'Peach Flambe' has grown.
It was a tiny 1.5" plug when I bought it just over a month ago.

Saturday, June 20, 2020

June Friday Night Sew In

I went and retrieved my dinosaur lap quilt from Bent Needle Quilts yesterday so I was able to finish the binding on it for the Friday Night Sew In.
It was quilted with Dino Jungle from Urban Elementz.
Unfortunately, I didn't save any of the print fabric for the binding, and I didn't have enough of the rust-colored batik, so I dug through my stash and found a dark teal fabric that matched pretty well.

Since I learned how to do machine binding last year, I don't bother to hand sew them anymore. Though, I have decided it's worth taking the time to hand sew the corners on the backside before I go through and finish the second pass. The corners turn out much more tidy when I take that time.
I prefer to make my bindings a little wider, but I didn't have enough of this fabric either.
This also completes one of my WOOFA tasks.

Thursday, June 18, 2020

New Holiday Quilt

I started work on my next WOOFA project. It's actually a double-sided quilt which includes a harvest quilt on one side and xmas quilt on the other.
I started by fussy cutting the centers.
But when it came time to start cutting out the rest of the fabric, I didn't feel like doing it, so I turned to finalizing the plan for the xmas quilt. Throughout this planning process, I probably designed about a dozen different xmas quilts in Electric Quilt but I just never fancied any of them well enough. But then I noticed a book on my shelf, Star Log Cabin Quilts, and I thought it would look good in reds and greens. The sashing could be finished with gold stars and would add the finishing touch.

Saturday, June 13, 2020

June Friday Night w/Friends #2

I joined Cheryll again for FNWF on the second Friday. I decided to put a narrow border around my log cabin quilt from last week so I could lock the seams around the edge. I am fussy about measuring everything and pinning at all the seams so it took me a couple of hours. This finishes up this task on my WOOFA list.
I didn't lay it all out with the border on for a photo, but here it is mostly finished three days ago.
I pulled out the fabric for my next project and was thinking about starting the fussy cutting for it, but my back was achy and I decided to call it good enough for the evening.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Yard Tidying

We've been slowly cleaning up the neglected areas of the yard.

This planting bed next to the driveway was overgrown with some groundcovers. I believe one of them was Vinca minor, but I don't know what the other was. We dug them out as much as we could.
Last year we added some sword ferns and this spring we added a tassel fern and autumn fern. Then I put in two poppy plants I picked up while shopping this spring. We had a spare Gordon's flowering currant so we put that in too. And there are a few violas we grew from seed. In fall, I'll add some bulbs.
And we cleaned up and planted another bed in the backyard next to the stairs down from the patio. It was an untidy mess.
Jeff decided to put in a scrap 2x6 to help support the slope and then double dug it. We planted in some plants that were grown from seed and a few purchased plants.
 We'll likely add some sort of groundcover, but we haven't decided what to use yet. I've gotten tired of ajuga. I may put in some strawberries.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Garden Scooter

I got a new toy to help with weeding. The seat height is adjustable.
I'm hoping it will ease the strain on our old knees. Now I just need to get excited about weeding. LOL

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Log Cabin Blocks Assembled

And it's assembled. Once I had the arrangement figured out, it went together quickly.

I'm planning to add a skinny border around the outside to help secure the seams, but I'm not going to turn it into a quilt for a while. I think I'll save it and use it as a backing for another quilt.

Once I've added the small border, I'll check it off the WOOFA task list.


Monday, June 8, 2020

June's Flowers

Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis 'Neon' and Calendula officinalis 'Orange King') I grew from seed.
Tickseed (Coreopsis 'Jethro Tull') I bought on clearance last year. It's pretty floppy. We tried to tie it up, but much of it flopped again.
Flowering Maple (Callianthe megapotamica 'Variegatum') covered with small flowers.
Yellow Sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa) we got from our blogger friend, donaleen.
I'm proud of this Johnny Jump-up plant because I managed to start it from seed.
I don't remember planting these Peach-leaved Bellflowers (Campanula of unknown variety) under the apple tree, but we may have at some point. I wasn't so good about planning in years past; I would just buy pretty plants and put them in the ground. They could also be volunteers because the neighbors have them in their yard.
The Clematis Jackmanii 'Superba' we just planted in March has started flowering. I'm sure it would have more flowers if it got more sun, but that bed is mostly shade. I'm glad it got as many flowers as it did.
Inca Ice Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria hybrid 'Koice') is looking lovely. I do not regret replacing the thimbleberry with this shrub in the rain garden, though it did get bigger than I expected. I planted the plants around it too close.

Saturday, June 6, 2020

June Friday Night w/Friends #1

I joined Cheryll for Friday Night with Friends again. I decided to work on my oldest WOOFA project this week. I started a quilt in around 2002 (yes, eighteen years ago) and I got as far as partially sewing some of the green blocks before I set it aside.

I spent Friday afternoon cutting strips into pieces for FNWF in the evening.
As planned, I spent Friday evening working on the blocks but then I got up on Saturday and continued sewing the blocks. By Saturday evening, I finished all 49 purple blocks.
This is my original planned layout for the quilt.
But then last week I fiddled around with the design and I am considering assembling it with the "center" offset.
I'll lay it out on a bed before I actually decide for sure how I want it assembled.

Update on Sunday: This is the likely layout. I decided that it would likely bug me having the "center" off-center when it was on the bed.