We aren’t looking at flooding but it is raining which will keep me from mowing.
Reader Photos
Remember those nice blocks I bought last winter? I finally set them together but hung it up folded over the French doors because I did not want to cover up this lovely hand stitching. Would you have quilted it?
I shopped at the thrift store today but just haven’t had time to take pictures of all – except this little bench which was $2. It will make a great plant stand.
For those of you who still have questions about where to find the comments, try going online to Country Threads Chicken Scratch. If that’s not successful, I have no other suggestions.
Your triangle squares are turning out really cute, Mary. So many pretty fabrics!!
Poor Connie! That dock is a summer spoiler, for sure.
Loved all the lavender photos in this post! Also, that arbor/bench made from old doors – so charming.
This was a great post. I love the clever use of the doors in the garden. And, the lavender, oh my! The bike with flowers in the double baskets brought back so many sweet summer memories.
When I was a young mom, I had a similar bike with those double baskets, which came in handy for helping the kids with their paper routes and bringing bags of groceries home from the store. I would put a rug across the fender for my toddlers to ride behind me with their legs safely tucked in the baskets. 😊
Thanks so much, Mary 🥰
Mary, All okay? It’s been a few days since we have heard from you. Hope all is well in your special slice of Iowa.
Enjoyed all the pictures. It is cooler today! Nice.
I’m also getting the latest comments at the beginning, too. It just makes it easier to catch up on the most recent comments. I’m also finding more ads to click on than before. Usually 10-12. Love all the lavender plants! Oh, and that green & pink quilt! How pretty! The little bench is perfect for plants! Very dry here in SW Ohio even though we’ve had a few good rain showers. My container tomato plants simply couldn’t get enough water so I’ve set the containers in a kiddie pool with plenty of water. This worked well last year, too! That mower will make your job of mowing so much easier, Mary! Thanks to all of you who shared pictures!
a late note to let you know i managed to put the borders on the quilt. laid it out to photo and one of the borders just waved and waved. i measured twice before i cut it. must have cut it wrong. it is now off and i will recut it tomorrow and try again. the binding is made and in the bag to go. whew! i did make hst and stitched some red squares for a heart. will go in another squares quilt using 3.5″ squares this time. we did get several down pours today of rain. noticed a second tropical depession is out there but still a week away so who knows where it will go. hopefully not here. supper was a nice tomato sandwich with mayo. my granny used to feed my cousin and i mayo sandwiches when i was 5. mayo must have been cheap then. hugs to all. patti in florida
Patti – your yummy sandwich is one of Connie’s favorites!!
Beautiful pictures today. Here in east central Iowa we got 2 inches of rain. We were dry. Now I can take some time off from watering.
Marie – we got 2-1/2” yup, no watering for awhile!!
Thanks for the pictures today. No mowing today. A day to take care of you!
Mary, I usually go back to a post to read the additional comments posted during the day. Am I crazy or is the most recent comments now appearing at the top versus at the bottom? Wonder if it is a setting that got reset. Janice in Traverse City area
Janice – honestly I have no idea because I don’t see what you guys see at all! I see a list of comments and if I go online I see the replies under the post – I never see a “leave a reply” box. I am literally no help at all!!
Janice B.: The comments started showing up in the top instead of the bottom for me too. Fine with me as I’m just glad they are showing up.
What beautiful pictures today!! Loved the door bench and the lavender. I had to take out one of my lavenders in the front yard. It got too much water this year from the downspout. One is still going strong. I may have to put one in a large pot so it won’t get flooded.
I only read the blog on my computer, and always click on the title of the daily blog. But even then some days the comment block shows, and some days it doesn’t.. Too much tech stuff for my pea brain, so I just go with the flow. Too old (81) to worry about the small stuff in life
Dorothy in W WA
Not being able to mow is frustrating. It all grows so fast.
What beautiful pictures today! I especially love the bike with flowers in the baskets and the pink and green quilt. Such soft, pretty colors, and the on-point setting makes a simple block look much more complicated.
I plan to finish basting a quilt today, in preparation for quilting it. Basting is my least favorite part of the quilting process, but I find it to be necessary (no, I don’t have a long arm machine.)
That lavender is just beautiful. It’s not lavender, it’s purple! It must perfume the air all around it.
Pretty flowers and quilts today. I just love this blog.
I love that you’re letting the hand stitching show – I hope the maker of those blocks is smiling at that 🙂 The little bench is wonderful! I used to find good inexpensive finds like that (I’m in central Texas), but not for the past few years. And with regards to the bad parkers – I sometimes drive our truck, and I’m terrible at parking it sometimes. Since reading your blog, I’ve been known to do a 47 point back/turn to make sure I’m well between the parking lot lines. I thought you’d like to know that you are a good influence even if you don’t know it, lol. Send some of that rain to central and southwest Texas – we sure could use it!
Patty – I do know that the trucks are actually too big for the parking spots and I’m glad I’ve brought this to your attention. It’s maddening to try to use the parking spot next to someone who isn’t between the lines. If I were driving a big vehicle I’d park in the next block. From what I’ve heard this is not just a local problem – in Marshall, Minnesota there a group called Parking Pricks of the Midwest – hahahaha!!!! Can you believe it?
I live in Texas and would like you to just send a few of your rainy days down here! Wouldn’t it be nice if it worked like that! That’s an excellent deal on that plant stand that you bought at the thrift store! Our ‘thrift’ stores where I live are expensive! No kidding…there was just a post on our local Facebook page where people were complaining about the high costs. That piece that you bought would have cost $25 down here!
Jill – $25!! I wouldn’t have bought it! No way! I’m going to take a picture of a bag I bought for $3. On Etsy it is shown USED for $85!!! USED!! It’s a beautiful bag – I’m going to give it to Sam.
All the quilts are wonderful to see. I love lavender too and have it in my front garden as well. I started harvesting it this week to hang to dry. Once dried I have three different containers and vases I put it in to enjoy throughout the year. I also remove the buds from the stems to use in a lavender lemon shortbread I make and I make a lavender simple syrup that I add to club soda for a refreshing drink in the summer. I add lavender to my morning smoothie sometimes. I guess I just like all things lavender. Thanks for this blog, I also find the comments by pressing read on the blog.
Your lavender simple syrup. Can you tell me how much lavender in the recipe please? Is the lavender in a condition “before the bloom”?
Yes I do prefer to pick my lavender before the little flowers bloom but I do leave some on the plants to bloom because I know the bees love it. When I make simple syrup I use 1 cup sugar to 1 cup water. I bring the water to a boil, add the sugar and turn the stove off stirring to dissolve the sugar. At this point I add about four stalks of lavender that I have cut the stems off to about 1/2”. Hope that makes sense. After about 20 minutes I taste it. It needs to be quite strong lavender flavour because you only add a few teaspoons or a tablespoon to the club soda depending on how sweet you like it. If it’s not strong enough I just add more lavender. Enjoy. Can’t wait till I get home to make some
Thank you Teresa. I will certainly try this soon remembering to go for a strong lavender flavor.
I agree with you and, would not have covered the amazing hand stitching in the blue and gold quilt. Both sides are equally beautiful.
Are those lavender plants you pictured? The smell must be heavenly! I am trying again to grow a lavender plant this year but, I have too much shade around my house. I’m still giving it a try by planting in a container. I can always give it to my sister if/when it starts to fail.
For those who cannot read comments: I receive the post via email and there are no comments and no way to comment. However, in the upper right corner of the email there is a tiny line that says Read on blog. It is a live link and brings up the post with comments. Hope this helps!
I am loving all the photos.
Thank you!!!!
Donna, This is also what I was going to say. Once you hit ‘read on blog’, everything is right there.
What fun it is to see all the pictures of flowers and quilts!
I learned quilting all by hand. We made our own templates, used scissors, a pencil, needles, and thread. We did only hand quilting, which I still do, though I use my sit-down quilting machine, too. If I get an unfinished quilt top, I only hand quilt it if it’s been hand-pieced, which I like to note on the label. My stitches aren’t as tiny as they were once, but I enjoy the contemplative process.
I have the honor and challenge of putting together quilt blocks that were appliqued in the early 30s, and I’m using my 1911 Damascus treadle. I’m afraid that’s as close as I’ll get to hand piecing at this stage.
Send some rain this way!
So many lovely quilts and outdoor pictures. The door bench with roof is wonderful! It is a so creative. I envy Kathy in NY her chance to have fresh blueberry sundaes. We went to Michigan one fall and learned it is also a big blueberry state. We found a store that sold all things blueberry – jams/jellies, sauce for ice cream, baked goods, etc.
Rain today so I think I will have time to start piecing a wall hanging. It has some 1 inch squares. What was I thinking? Oh well, it is small so it won’t last forever.
Vicki, your mouth will water when I tell you how delicious they were this afternoon. Vanilla soft serve in a big dish, filled with fresh blueberries, sauce, and graham cracker crumbs on top. $5. Sooooo good. I wasn’t even hungry at dinner but had to try their corn on the cob we also bought that is from Maryland right now. The kernels popped right off the cob and very good. San from NC likes to know fresh produce prices. Blueberries were $3.50. Corn on the cob was 3 ears for $2. And a big onion was a buck. Tomorrow morning we’ll walk over for breakfast egg sandwiches with their own bacon or sausage on a roll for $3.50.
I admire how skilled the hand piecing is in your blocks. I can’t do straight consistent stitches by hand. I probably could do big stitch quilting but haven’t tried it yet. So many nice pictures your readers share and deserve a round of thanks for letting us see their yards. We’re going to get some rain and storms tomorrow but need the moisture so I won’t complain. Blueberries are ready here and this weekend the farm market near us at camp is serving blueberry sundaes so we’ll be having them for sure.
Love the bicycle pic and the door bench pic; clever ways to reuse things. Love that pink and green quilt; so pretty. Great find with the 2.00 bench. We got some much needed rain. My first quilting class was hand piecing and hand quilting. The idea was you could take the hand piecing with you anywhere and work on it which I did. It is also very accurate. I don’t still hand piece but I do still hand quilt. No issues with the blog.
I love those hand quilted stars. Beautiful work. Inspiring. Love the flowers. We need the rain here in Ohio. Our lawns are burned from the extreme heat. Cool this morning. Waiting to hear from grandson Aidan when he makes it through the Crucible
Hi Carolyn. I loved teaching The Crucible. After he finishes, you might be able to find a movie called Three sovereigns for Sarah. It is an excellent depiction of the book and time period. Vanessa Redgrave is in it. I think it is available on PBS. The Crucible movie is awful—it has info in it that did not happen in or near1693 !
On another note, the quilts and plants/flowers are gorgeous! As always, Mary, thanks for sending!
Wow. Some days I am able to comment other days the system won’t let me. I am frustrated! I had wanted to comment on your new mower. I have that exact same model and once I learned how to back it up all was good. Those front wheels want to do something weird when backing up.
enjoyed the pictures today. clever idea with the doors and a bench connecting then a roof. i like that. rain may keep you from mowing but it will certainly make it necessary soon. i spent alot of time in my sewing area today. still finding places for things in the small area so i don’t have to keep moving things to iron or cut fabric. put together a batch of blocks with sashing. have the borders and binding cut so may get to do that tomorrow. then figure out a back but that requires a trip upstairs so it will probably wait. i’m glad you got your blocks together and made the decision to not quilt it. i don’t think my hand piecing was ever that neat. i was taught to sew on a sewing machine in home ec, never hand stitched until i made my first quilt – hand pieced and hand quilted – no machines allowed. i learned the ‘amish’ way and then learned how to do it on the machine and have not looked back. do big stitch by hand sometimes but lately have had trouble threading a needle. otherwise no news from me. hope the ad clickers show up soon, hugs to all, patti in florida