These glorious summer days are flying by, aren’t they? Today Jeannie and Herb Stufflebeam stopped to see us – Jeannie is a blog reader from Central Illinois and now I can put a face with the name!
It’s been so hot but today was better – and tonite the clouds have rolled in and we’re praying for rain.
I’m not too interested in vegetable gardening – as you can see. I had radishes and now peas, a few carrots, onions and I refuse to weed them.
I stand in the mess and eat raw peas – it’s perfect. Here’s Rick’s garden – haha! He loves to weed!
I bought a bunch of plants real cheap and planted them in the trough.
I also rescued two fiddle leaf figs – they are very sad looking and I’m just hoping I can bring them back to life.
I’ve been reading a succulent Facebook page and a death bloom was mentioned. I have two death blooms which will die soon and produce many “pups”.
I spend quite a bit of time every day, cleaning up plants, repotting and watering.
I finished this small quilt today – I think it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever sewn and is a complete failure. I didn’t realize my 1/4” seam allowance was so far off until I began piecing these borders. I should have used Thangles and then my 1-1/4” triangle squares would have been perfect. I decided to go ahead and quilt it. Another mistake because of straight line quilting – the triangle squares on one side should be directly opposite of the other side and mine were not. Sigh. I’m not proud of it but if I ever do it again, I made plenty of notes and the main one is THANGLES!!!!
I’ll bind it the first chance I get. Even old quilters can learn a thing or two!
Several readers have asked how Telly is doing – here she is in her favorite chair on the porch. We’d never know there was anything wrong with her – maybe there isn’t.
These days my life centers around what I can do in the porch – if I can’t do it out there, it likely won’t get done.
Love your project and your porch. Enjoy while you can.
Your porch looks so inviting! Hope you can bring the fiddle leaf fig plants to a healthy condition.
A refreshing post today. The quilts hanging around your house looks so happy.
In a week the trough plants will be big and beautiful. I’m with you in gardening. Rick, obviously, loves to tend to his. It is beautiful.
We haven’t seen goats, geese, and chicken pictures in a while. I hope all is well with them.
I found a new way to make 1/2 square triangles, called the accordion method. It is demonstrated on you tube in the Long Time Gone Quilt series. It is in Lesson 9, called Log Cabin and HSTs. Basically you cut squares about 1” bigger than the finished size of your HST. You sew the squares together in a particular way, eventually making a tube that sort of looks like an accordion. You make your initial cut between two squares to flatten out your tube, then you use a square ruler to cut your 1/2 square triangles to size. Minimal squaring up when finished. The beauty of this method is that no two 1/2 square triangles are the same. I haven’t tried it personally just yet as I just watched the video yesterday, but it is VERY intriguing. Looks like a great method when you need a LOT of 1/2 square triangles, and you will have no repeats. I am making the Long Time Gone Quilt and the NEXT section is multiple sections of 1/2 square triangles🙌🙌🙌!!! I will be trying out this method very soon. Check it out. Old dogs can learn new tricks🤗🤗🤗😉😉😉.
Rosie W – I need to look into that!
Rosie I too am going to watch that. Thank you for the tip
Love your trough and your quilt. Both are beautiful!!
I love your porch! I would spend all of my time out there in the spring, summer and fall!! I detest weeding a garden as well! My daughter loves to garden as does her husband, which is at our acreage. I will gladly water it, but I will not weed it! Thankfully they love to weed it! Now Rick definitely likes to weed!! No matter what our age and experience I’ve learned we all have something to learn in our quilting ventures! I like your quilt!
Love the pot in a bride’s basket!
Mary Hawk – I didn’t know it was called a bride’s basket!
Ha…on me. I have been trying to find “death bloom in a brides basket”. Trying to figure out that term. And, it only reminded me of the new bride that died shortly after her wedding and wore her wedding dress in the casket. Who was that? Someone from Woden or Crystal Lake? Way back in the 60s.
Linda from Estherville – you have a good memory – Colleen Hinders was her name and we were in the same confirmation class and yes, she was married one Saturday and was buried the following Saturday in her wedding dress. I graduated from Woden Crystal Lake in 1966.
I graduated in 1963 from Britt. Maruta Knaz is married to my brother.
Linda R Thompson – John and Maruta rode my school bus – what was your maiden name? Did you and I know each other in high school? My cousins, Mark and Doug Hunsley and Don and Tom Anderson attended Britt schools. And I took piano lessons in Britt from Marjorie Benzler. Pam Kerns is my neighbor now.
I’m with you on the porch thing! I do everything on the covered part of my deck, I prep all my veggies and spices out there for meals. I cut fabric and read it out on the deck. My kitchen is so hot even in the winter so I live on the deck.
Is the “death bloom” on a hen and chicks planter? I had some of those passed down for years and never saw a bloom on them. My mother in law had them outside year round in a concrete planter outside her front door in NC. Sadly they all just up and died for an unknown reason. I had done the same thing for years-guess they just tired out.
Debbie Miller – yes, the death bloom is on a hen and chicks plant – I’ve had them before. I don’t have a good sunny place outside to plant them in the ground and they’d likely freeze out.
Must be fun to meet your blog readers in person! Love the quilt behind you on the wall (flag and flowers). Is it one of your designs? Would love to have the pattern info.
Barbara Firesheets – the applique piece is a Blackbird Design by Barb Adams and Alma Allen. Sadly we learned only yesterday that Barb passed away on July 4.
Thank you Mary. Sorry to hear about Barb’s passing.
I will watch the video on Long Time Gone and making HST, here is the link: https://youtu.be/O_jBpLXDSfY
I have never heard of a fiddle leaf fig or a death plant, I sure enjoy learning from all of you who posts and seeing new things. Mary, my garden would look like yours, lol Thank goodness for farmers markets. Hope you get some rain I know parts of Iowa are hurting.
I am with Kim and hit the many farmers markets around here. All I plant are tomatoes in big pots and the other veges I buy. I haven’t had any luck with herbs this year like in the past so that’s my sign to give it up. How nice you had a visit from Jeannie who follows your blog too. And sweet Telly enjoying the patio too as summer goes all too fast and being in the fresh air is a blessing.
Great pictures of your beautiful flowers and plants. Love your porch and glad you are enjoying doing what you can in that great setting. Thank you so much for sharing your nice quilt you made too.
Your porch is so relaxing! My blood pressure went down by ten just looking at it!
From here, your quilt looks great 🙂
I’m with you on the peas – there are never enough to actually bring in the house, so you may as well pick ‘m and eat ‘m.
LOVE your porch!
Asking for a friend… How to you clean the floor?
Judy A – I use the power washer on the floor in the spring and then just sweep it the rest of the summer – it’s concrete.
Guilty of eating the tomatoes off the vine !! Hubs just shakes his head, but he wasn’t raised in the country with a garden. Can still remember at my Grandma’s & Grandpa’s in South Texas, disappearing into the field to eat watermelon. Heaving them up & dropping to burst open, digging out the rich red fruit & sitting in the dirt eating. That’s until Grandpa came looking for us on the tractor !! Trouble trouble!! I can live on all the fresh veggies during the summer. Love toasted bread with cheese and sliced fresh tomatoes !! Thanks for your blog Mary, it is so enjoyable to read almost daily.
PamjTx – can you tell I don’t like vegetables? Haha! Nothing green passed my mom’s lips and this apple didn’t fall far from the tree!!
I laughed out loud seeing your garden Mary! But I bet those peas taste just fine! We just pulled up the pea plants that were in one of our raised beds. First time we’ve planted peas in years and they were awesome! Our regular gardens are struggling this year though. We were just lamenting last night that unless we spend a LOT of money on fencing and netting, we may as well not garden at all. The rabbits are so destructive this year not to mention the deer and the birds. We have seven or eight blueberry bushes but hardly get any for ourselves. We tried netting one year and almost killed an Eastern Bluebird! It was tangled up and we were lucky (or was it him that was lucky?) to have found him before it was too late. So, no netting and no blueberries for us. The corn is doing terrible. Only about a third of the seeds germinated and even the second sowing didn’t come up very well. Or maybe the birds got those too! Thankfully the tomatoes and zucchini are doing pretty well. Everything else is sparse but hopefully we will get enough for us to eat. I doubt I’ll be canning much this year. Does Rick sell his produce? Looks to be a lot! I just watched that video on half square triangles, what a great way to make those! So many creative people out there! Jan in MA
Janice Hebert – yes, you can tell I don’t like gardening in the ground which means weeding. When my peas are done, he’ll till it up for another year! I knew you guys would love the picture of my garden – haha! No, Rick doesn’t sell any – all he really has is sweet corn and green beans.
I know what you mean about if not done on porch likely won’t’t get done. I have learned to delegate & that everything does not have to be done perfectly or right now. Still doing PT three times a week.. about 98% back to myself. Still have balance issues but mainly when get tired. Supposed to still be using cane. Hope get Approval from neurologist to drive again when see next week. Have cats an & MRI scheduled for next week & another visit with vascular surgeon after that. Seems all I do is PT & doctor. Did work on hand appliqué piece & no problems with hand at all.Rick’s garden look great. ZLovr the trough garden. I see what looks like purple purslane.. bought 2 hanging baskets of that & have them here at my sons house on back porch plus two yellow ones, I just love the dainty flowers & fact are so forgiving.
Nikki M – hang in there, Nikki! We’re both too old to think it all has to be done, right? PT is not fun but so necessary – glad you’re feeling better!!
Mary, I love your porch and the green view. So relaxing. Telly and the kitty on their quilts looks like they enjoy the porch too!
When I gardened… I’d plant the rows slightly wider than my lawnmower and mow grass between my veggie rows… less to weed!!! Ha!
I covet your porch…we have a canvas screened gazebo on our deck that we put up every spring and we spend as many days as possible out there – breakfast, lunch, supper. The gazebo was necessary as our deck is on the south side of the house and there is no way to spend any part of the day while the sun is out on the deck without it. In fact, we lost a blue spruce on the east side of the deck and had to cut it down – we really miss that shade in the morning now. Your porch is such a lovely space, I would be sewing there all the time!! Rick’s garden is amazingly neat! Mine looks pretty nice yet….for the first couple of months anyway, but I love vegetables, so that makes it easier to take care of – and if I didn’t like veggies I certainly wouldn’t spend time at caring for them. I like your red/white quilt…it looks pretty nice to me!