We're being invaded !

And I don't know what these bugs are, but they're making a mess of my beautiful Zinnias.

They're also eating up the Hazel Nut bushes that my husband enjoys seeing on our walks.  I saw groups of them on these bushes yesterday evening, and then when I got up this morning there were about TWELVE of them all over my poor babies at the mailbox !

I hope they're short-lived and move on quickly ! 
I know that everything has to EAT, but they've had enough now, and SO HAVE I.

Working with Jacob

Best galpal, Wanda Gayle, sent me a project that she had grown tired of.  She did SO MUCH of the tedious work, ........ piecing the blocks and cutting out tons of applique pieces.



In this layout, the ladders formed echoing diamonds.



I trimmed down the blocks today and lay them out on my sewing room floor.  I have the windows covered to keep out the heat from the sun, so these colors are not true.  I tried several layouts, finding each one had it's merits.......

With this layout, the ladders formed echoing X's.



I even found a layout that replicated a zigzag pattern !

But, ultimately, I went back to the original layout, which forms 4 X's.........although I did wind up piecing them into color blocks.

4 X's, separated into blocks of yellow, tan, red, and green

I'm going to do a little bit of studying before I decide where to go from here.  The original pattern, called Jacob's Garden, has a 2 1/2 inch sawtooth border, followed up by an eight inch black border which is filled with appliqued floral vines growing from baskets in all 4 corners. 

Here we go........

........pink, and purple seem to be the colors of this packet's flowers !

And I love it ! 

Pale pink, medium pink, hot pink, and even a salmony pink were the first flowers to open up. 

Now there are two flowers coming that appear to be purply pink.

SQUEEEEEAAAALLLLLL !

Gardening news........

I am still having trouble adjusting to my lack of ability to grow a yard full of flowers here.  I look back at my flowers from my yard in Oklahoma and wish that I could get those results now. 
Don't get me wrong......the area I live in is SO BEAUTIFUL.  The trees and foliage are SO LUSH.   But this trailer was placed on a hill and apparently the yard is based on rock and 'chirt' (do you know what that is.......it's a term that I grew up with), and I can't afford to supplement my flower beds with potting or top soil.

Having said all of that, I am looking forward to zinnias blooming around my mailbox this week.  I planted one packet of Zinnia seed, and one packet of mixed flowers. 

From the mixed flower seed, the only thing that I recognize are several Moss Rose seedlings.  And they don't yet have buds on them, but they're looking pretty good, too. 

I also bring home every wildflower that appeals to me, from our walks.......if I can get them to come loose from their place with roots attached. 

  I brought home LOTS of daisies and have planted them and golden flowers that are similar, along my back fenceline.     These are now dying out after blooming all of their buds, but hopefully they will return next year and beyond. 

My sister-in-law gave me seeds from her Wisteria bush/shrub and I have 3 of them coming up in this pot.  I think that I also have a Rose of Sharon tree started in there too.  I have planted seedlings from my Oklahoma Rose of Sharon trees several times, but have never recognized when they come up.  I think that they tricked me by looking like young Maple tree seedlings, and I pulled them.  I have never grown the Rose of Sharons from seed before, as I always found young ones sprouting out of the ground around my bigger trees, and I used those to spread around my yard and share with my deary, JodieAnn.   She planted three of them together in one hole, and after a couple of years, when they were big enough to bloom, she had 3 different colors, seemingly on one tree !   It was amazingly beautiful !
You can also see more of the moss rose seedlings in this pot.

Here at the end of the trailer, I have my few Irises, which finally bloomed for the first time this Spring, their 3rd year since moving them.  Jodie sent me some from Oklahoma two different times since I moved here to Tennessee, and I got them planted there this year too.  They are growing but won't bloom this year.   There are a bunch of wild Violets spread in there along with the Irises.  I forgot to photograph the other Irises that I planted in a few odd places.   A lady at a garage sale gave them to me.

In these photos you can see Blackberry bushes that I accidentally wound up with in my flower bed.   The Sprng that I moved here, in 2009, I dug up what I thought was a wild white rose bush, and transplanted it to this bed.   It bloomed for two Springs, and then this Spring, it bloomed again and then the blooms became berries !   I have been so confused, because there ARE white wild roses all up and down our road and behind us, and the blooms look exactly the same as the blackberry blooms.

  Anyway, these berries are just little nubbies, not lush-looking like the photo makes them appear.   But the bush has sent up more bushes in 3 other places in the flower bed, so maybe eventually there will be a nice little stand of blackberry bushes here.  It'll probably turn out to be the bane of my flower bed's existence, taking over everything with briars ! 

Anyway, that's my gardening news for now.  I'll try to get photos of the blooming zinnias this weekend, Lord willing !

Fruits of Fall--sensing a theme here.......

.........could we say that I'm working well ahead of schedule?

I've finished another Fall-themed quiltie, but, truly, I'm definitely NOT working ahead.  This poor little wall-hanging was started way back in the '90's sometime.  The pattern was contained in a calendar featuring a different wall-hanging for each month of the year.  I can't remember who the quilt artist or company publishing the calendar was.   It's amazing that I even held onto the project for this long, but, the point is, I finally finished it. 

The top is machine-pieced, and hand-appliqued.  It was hand-quilted in  small q-snap frames, employs cotton batting, and measures about 28 inches square.  I used a bright plaid fabric for the back of it.