June -- Where Did it Go?!?

 Three days left and in spite of my good intentions to get at least one top quilted this month, this is as far as I've gotten . . . . . and that just happened an hour ago!?!  This is (I think) my last unquilted sample from several years of teaching with Gai Perry's fabulous book, Color From The Heart.

As I was pin-basting it, I thought about how to quilt it and what color thread to use -- have some good ideas already and was primed to start right away.

But apparently the family genealogist is using that table to organize files . . . yea!?!

Time to retrench the goals for today!

I have been knitting most days this month -- one pair of socks is on it's way to my kid sister for her birthday and these two projects are around the halfway point -- one requires no concentration and the other has a detailed chart that demands my full attention.

June has been all about my garden!  

It didn't require all the time you might think, but it did require all the energy I could muster some days and a state of collapse - physical and mental - was a daily occurrence.  The month reinforced my understanding that one can't add something to one's life without letting something go -- time and energy are very finite commodities, aren't they?

The garden tour was yesterday!!

Sponsored by the Northern Ohio Perennial Society, I was intimidated by the specter of "master gardeners" leaving their immaculate turf and well-mulched beds to point out my faults.

Of course, it wasn't that way at all!!

No one chided me for my "messy" insect friendly turf or lack of sweeping vistas.  The most frequent comment I heard was "it's so tranquil".  YES!!!

If you've followed me for a while, you've seen lots of garden pics and while it's peak bloom is a week off yet, it does look good right now.

The new front yard veggie bed is coming around -- I still have the smallest kale in the world . . . 

. . . .but the tomatoes are blooming and the beans are growing steadily.

I've given up trying to figure out how to move this vigorous purple coneflower growing up through a crack in the brick side walk by my front steps and added pots to capitalize on it's beauty.

And if you notice in the back, I've cut back my blackspot infested rambler -- that was hard!

But I hope putting my energy into sterilizing the soil around it instead of trying to manage the leaf damage all summer (very depressing) will build it back up -- we'll see??

This bear's breeches finally bloomed this year -- it's been there for about 5 years and I may have threatened it with bodily harm last year if it didn't start to flower.

My native honeysuckle which seemed to be a lost cause last spring has come back much to my delight and surprise.  Last summer, the trellis was covered with blue morning glories and I've fully expected a few rouge seedlings to emerge but nothing so far.

And here's a couple glimpses of the "tranquil" piece!!  

Not much bloom color yet, but quite lush and I'm loving my new brick edging!!

I figure I can just enjoy my garden this week and have more sewing time (once I get that table cleared off) plus the house tidying has definitely suffered.   

Peas harvested, and tub replanted with a new variety of zucchini.

First cucumber has appeared!

The currants are ready to pick, too!!

Our food pantry garden is starting to thrive but the weed pressure requires intense attention!

Butterflies are not abundant here so far this summer -- even the #/*? cabbage whites are scarce.  But I did find this black swallowtail as a caterpillar on some parsley and fostered her up to adulthood safely. Isn't she a beauty -- must plant more parsley!!

And of course, all posts must end with cuteness!!  

This is from an attempt to get a group picture with the triplets at our birthday supper early in June -- there is a long series of photos and we never got the "pose" organized but we had fun!!

Can't wait to get all five of my grands together next month!!

Get out there and finish June strong!!

Mary

P.S.  I have continued the hand quilting journey on my big dodecagon -- was hoping to share it with you then end of June, but I am impressed that I'm 75% of the way along.

Maybe the end of July???

Summer Distractions!!

High summer is upon us here in Northeast Ohio!

It's a season of color, happy little discoveries, and comfortable memories.

These little blue flowers (I'm told it's a weed) grew alongside the back porch of my first childhood home and ever since I discovered them in my current home's garden, I allow them to grow where ever they appear just because they make me smile.

Suddenly on the 5th of July, I discovered Monarch butterflies were leaving eggs all over my backyard plot of milkweed so the new rearing enclosure that was a Christmas gift had to be quickly assembled!

Now my mornings begin with cleaning the enclosure, reviewing everyone's progress, and bringing in fresh food.  With close to 70 caterpillars at various stages and a few new finds almost everyday, it's a good hour or more of pleasant work.   I can't determine if all these eggs are the work of one female or several, but for about 5 days, every time I was outside, there was a Monarch in my yard -- such constant presence is new for me.  The females can lay 400 eggs and I'm pretty sure she did!!

Now at the 15 day point, I'm seeing a few new chrysalis every day and should be releasing butterflies by the end of July.   

These likely won't be the generation that makes the big migration to Mexico, but they will parent that generation so I'm excited to be able to release so many!  If you live in the area and would like to stop by and see all this in person, let me know!

Then there was the big "we got married" picnic that my son and his wife threw!!  Both families worked together to set up tents, mow the pasture, organize tables and coolers and lights.  My son (in the hat) and his "dude buds" smoked a whole hog, a local farm-to-table caterer did the sides . . . . 

. . . . . and I rounded up a load of flowers and a bevy of nieces to make the table bouquets!

In between all this enjoyment of summer outside, I got caught up in a knitting project!?! 

I discovered Marie Greene of Olive Knits this past winter -- her sweater designs are primarily knit top down and seamless -- my kind of knitting!!  She challenged anyone who was game to a 4 day sweater knit-along beginning July 1 with a new pattern, The Beekeeper's Cardigan.  During a tidy-up of my knitting supplies in mid-June, I re-discovered a bag of my mother's yarn -- enough for a sweater?  

I swatched to test my gauge and get a feel for the design.

You know where I'm going with this, don't you?

I did not finish in 4 days (but some gals did!?!) but if you follow my Instagam feed (@hueymary), you've seen progress photos.   This was the end of the two week knit-along -- I was at 44 hours at this point.  Today, I'm finishing the second sleeve and then will start the final ribbing bands. 

 It's been a delightful knit and I'm so pleased with the results.

I'll share a bit more about when I finish later this month!

I'm staying on my machine quilting schedule for the most part -- make steady progress every day -- though keeping tabs on this pot of "bush" cucumbers (they are now embracing the huge tomato plant in the adjacent pot) has been distracting.  It's behaving like a zucchini, hiding the fruit just under a leaf so that in spite of twice a day inspections, suddenly there's an almost too big fruit down there??

Then something has to be done with them -- refrigerator pickles this afternoon!

The black currants HAD to be harvested today -- I just have one bush so never enough to do anything significant.  This year, I'm going to try drying them like raisins -- should be either enough for a batch of scones (yum) or I'll use them for flavoring tea!

The drive to eliminate the invasive bindweed from this flower bed demands daily policing and on the morning tour four days ago, two cardinals flew out of the honeysuckle vine!  I looked more closely to see what bugs they have found on the vine -- they like big juicy bugs and can crack a beetle in a flash but no bugs!!  

They have built a nest!!

It's hard to see -- just a sloppy looking clump of grass and sticks right in the center of the picture that hopefully will last long enough to fledge their brood!

When I was out there working this morning, I was being watched!

The female has started to lay her eggs!!

According to Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds by Baicich and Harrison, she will lay from 2 to 5 eggs and begin incubating once the 3rd egg is laid (birds generally lay one egg a day).

Incubation takes 11 to 13 days!  

Can you see her?

So the next few weeks will be filled with lots of cardinal watching -- I've always wanted to discover a cardinal nest!!

FUN!!

While it's hard to be inside on the nice days, I am working on my "birth year" temperature quilt! 

 It just took an interesting turn, too . . . . . . all will be revealed soon!

 I'm keeping up with the #fussycuttingsewalong hexie project on Instagram.  I am currently piecing this large motif as the center of my masterplan for the 52 hexie flowers that will result from the group by the end of the year.  I've done some preliminary auditioning and feel (pretty) confident about the plan.

As soon as the center is finished, I'll share it here. 

If you don't see it, you know it didn't work after all!

I'm still waiting for ripe tomatoes and I hope this current season is providing you with lots of enjoyable moments, too!

Mary

NOTE:  I still am not getting comments e-mailed to me so I can't e-mail you a response but I do appreciate your comments and am reading them just the same!!  (Yes, I tried the fix several times and will keep trying.)

April Ends -- Progress on Most Fronts?

Just 5 days left of this puzzling month of April here in Northeast Ohio. 

If you read me regularly, you know I'm distracted from my studio in a big way during spring between birding and gardening.  Spring has been progressing at a breakneck pace here (thanks to global warming) and there have been moments of panic (that I won't get things done "in time") and dismay (that I'll miss something), but a Baltimore oriole just sang out in my back yard and in spite of the fact that he is almost two weeks early, I'm thrilled to hear his song!!

My enthusiastic white primroses are glorious right now!

The new garden trough is ready to plant -- I'm eager to see how this works for me!!

I appreciate not needing to bend over!! 

My son put new tubes in the tires and a new seat on my bike, so I'm ready to roll!! 

We organized the new rain barrel (more attractive than the big blue recycled one) by the back door and installed a rain chain -- hope that works well!! 

The dwarf crested iris came through another winter and are currently brightening the corner by the backyard sidewalk. 

The strawberry plants came through the winter in their boxes and are beginning to bloom -- we might have strawberries to eat by the end of May?? 

Check out the blue accents in these purple iris -- glorious! 

The pond is filled with American toad tadpoles (at least 300) and the marsh marigolds look brilliant in the mushy corner where the robins are harvesting mud for their nests. 

My trillium patch has escaped the notice of the local deer and giving me time to spray with repellant -- thank you!! 

I've forsaken my usual hand stitching/knitting in the evening to work at the machine in the studio the past week (something has to give, right?).

I finished this UFO to donate to a local group for their annual fundraiser in support of cancer research.  A set of 4 reversible placemats and coordinated napkins.

I started this as a demonstration sample using Marti Michell's Tesselating Windmill tool and a charm square pack -- love that tool as there is no wasted fabric!!  These blocks are 3" finished and the tool has a range of 2" to 9" with complete instructions. 

The backing is a wonderful Hoffman print I've been hoarding for who knows how long and isn't that stripe perfect!!  Just bought it!  Perfect example of merging 3 collections of fabric printed years apart together smoothly!! 

I also pieced the Plus a Star block for the Jen Kingwell Long Time Gone SAL. 

It took me most of two evenings to organize and cut the pieces?!?

I chain pieced the rows as always but when I started to get lost, I remembered a trick we figured out several years ago when piecing log cabin blocks and put it to use.  The bobbin is my "place marker" and indicates the next piece to be picked up for stitching.  As long as I remember to move the bobbin, it works like a charm.  (It helps that I had to move the bobbin to pick the piece up.)

Everything is in the right spot! 

And finished -- took less than an hour to stitch! 

Here's my progress so far!  3" Churn Dash blocks are up next! 

This morning, I loaded five boxes of "destashed" fabric and a box of quilt books into my SUV.  We are headed to my town's annual EcoFair Flea Market this Saturday morning (please no rain). It's in the parking lot in front of the Willoughby City Hall from 8 a.m. to noon -- lots of nice fabric so stop by if you are in the area.   

Now I can go bird the nearest woods for a bit before heading off to a 70th birthday lunch date (her's not mine yet) with a life long friend.

Looking forward to May!!

Mary