Bejewelled Hearts

Finally, I can share the little wall-quilt that I made recently.

My daughter and son-in-love celebrated 10 years of marriage on July 2nd.  Actually, thanks to His selfless mom keeping the three kids, they were able to celebrate for the entire week of June 29th through July 5th !

Romantic guy that he is, Tim arranged for them to be able to drive out to Washington State together, just the two of them, and revisit the beach where he proposed to her 10+ years ago.  In private, the two of them renewed their vows to each other, and enjoyed a short stay at the same resort as before.  It was a 2-day drive each way, starting from Oklahoma, but she says she's never enjoyed the trip MORE !

Ahhh......the after-laundering shot....all crinkly and luscious !

So, while they were out there, I was here quilting her wallhanging.  I mailed it Monday, and they got it on Wednesday.  She says that they'll probably hang it in their bedroom, which has softly colored apple-green walls.  And to quote my son-in-love, from Facebook....." Awesome! Thank you so much mother-in-love."   

That made me very happy, as I have referred to him as my "son-in-love" for years now, but it's the first time I've seen or heard of him calling me "mother-in-love" !

The quilt finished at 18 x 38 inches
 and was inspired by a quilt featured in McCall's Quilting Magazine's
January/February 2010 issue.
That quilt was called "Love in Bloom", and was designed by Judy Blok.
You can google it and see the original.

I know it's a bit of photo overload, but I just can't get enough of the photos !

The Hibiscus are blooming!

And they are quite beautiful, glory to God our maker !

This medium pink Hibiscus is growing out near the edge of my woods.

This one is my favorite, the only dark pink one that I have.

This one is my most prolific bloomer

This one is underneath and behind the mailbox, and I continually have to tie it back out of the way of our mail deliverer.  It will have to be moved this Fall.  Last year, it had a bit more pink to it than this year.

Rain, rain, glorious rain.......we've had lots of it !  The squash fell apart and curled up, but the cucumbers are producing fairly well.

Look at all that grass in there !   I told Hubby that I wasn't fooling with the vegetable garden, it was HIS responsibility, so.....Oh, well, he's enjoys it as is, so that's fine with me.

 I've made approximately 7 pints of sweet pickle slices, and we enjoy them with our supper.
The okra started really taking off, and now if we receive some dry heat, I'll be able to cook up a little mess for the hubby. (EDIT:  I actually was able to gather a little 'mess' just now !)

Sadly, the tomatoes are knobby little things, and some of the plants were ravaged by the biggest ol' tomato worms I've ever seen !   GROSS !

Peony.....I don't know what color !

And this is a Peony that Rose shared with me last month.  It looks like it is making itself at home, and I look forward to having my first blooming Peony next Spring !

Well, on the sewing front, I'm back to work on Jennifer's Contrary Wife top........after a short detour on another project !  I hope to be able to share pictures of that one as soon as I get word that it was received in the mail.

Just a quickie.....

.....it's bedtime, but I wanted to document the fact that my Morning Glories have begun to bloom.

And I splurged and paid full-price for 4 pots of Hostas tonight at WalMart.

Also, I shared some Seven Steps to Heaven (Obedient Plant) with a new friend from Facebook, and she surprised me today by stopping by with a beautiful clay pot filled with Lillies......FOR ME !

The Gladiolus has begun to bloom,

there's a new Lily beside the carport,

and these different "blackeyed susans".....

Also, hubby's Moss Roses have started blooming .

I'm working the snack table at Vacation Bible School every evening this week, so I need to get on to bed now, and get rested and refreshed for a new day tomorrow !

Blessings to all !

Contrary Wife quilt top

I finished piecing the center of the Contrary Wife quilt top.  I don't have room to lay it out and show the whole thing.

Now Jodie needs to pick border fabrics.......

pink solid outer border

green solid outer border or green print

pink print outer border

I have 2 more tops to make for her, both of which are couch-size, and then I think I will stick to a no-triangle-matching policy !   These triangles needed to match up perfectly in diagonal rows, and let's just say........perfect ain't happenin' no matter how many times I rip and redo !  But I gave it my best, I think.

On the gardening front, these new Hummingbird Vine flowers started blooming today.

  They are planted in my window boxes that usually just hold our Moss Roses.  Rose gave me some seed from a packet of seed that she bought; they are a member of the Morning Glory family.

My tall purple Phlox bloomed today too, but I failed to remember to get a photo.(UPDATE: photo at header)  I've managed to get 2/3 of the yard mowed over the last couple of evenings, with a bit of help from hubby.  The new self-propelled mower makes it much easier.

Hubby's squash plants and cucumber plants have already yielded a few fruit, and I muchly enjoyed a cucumber cut up in my tuna and mayo.  Rose took a couple of squash home with her today to boil up and turn into squash/onion patties for her son.  The tomato plants are loaded with knobby tomatoes, but it will be weeks before we are eating them, I think.

Flowers !

A new Lily has started to bloom near my carport.

I bought these as bulbs last Summer, and expected them to be pink and white, like Stargazer Lillies, but they surprised me.  They have an irridescent quality to their coloring in these photos.  And, they are very tall, like my Easter Lily.

This red Asiatic Lily bloomed out at the mailbox, just the one bloom on that plant.  Still, it so beautiful !

The Black-eyed Susans have begun to bloom, and I have them scattered in several places.

These are my Giant Daisies that Rose shared with me from her yard

I added more plants to my shade garden and it is actually starting to come together.

This is Spiderwort. and Rose gave it to me along with lots of Delphinium, I think it is.

 The Petunias are doing well, but don't like all the mud splashing up onto them.

 I love all the purple, but they are already going to seed, so they won't be blooming much longer.  After they are finished, there will be several flowers from the seed that I scattered out there,

These are what the seedlings will look like when grown....they are a great companion to the purple.

 and then, hopefully, the Hibiscus will bloom.  They haven't been big enough before this year--they grow quite slowly out here with less direct sunlight, and I'm not sure at all that they WILL bloom.

I had a somewhat unwelcome visitor last week.  3 times when I opened my shed door, there was a 3-foot-long black snake curled around the base of my sack of composted manure !  I haven't seen him in a few days now, but am ever watchful when I re-enter that shed !  There were mice in there that I would gladly have him eat, but I'd rather he stayed out of there, really.  I've tried to patch up the openings that I've found where I think he may have come in......I just hope I haven't trapped him INSIDE.

I really have been doing some quilty work, just don't have enough to show for it yet.

Working outside

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day after the recent rains.  Everything is growing like wildfire and there was grass to be mowed.

My gold and burgundy Asiatic Lillies are blooming at the end of the trailer,

and

 this is an odd Lily that I bought at Wally World a few years ago.  It's coloration reminds me of sidewalk chalk.  I thought I had dug up all of this to move last Fall, but some of it remained behind and came up again this Spring.  That's a good thing, because I never got around to replanting the bulbs I dug, and they didn't make it !

Looking at Betsy's blog today, I was inspired to set my round pavers into the ground at the back steps.

 I've had them sitting there on top of the grass for probably 2 years now, and she made me realize that it would be easier to mow across them than around them !   I did not think about trying to level them, and I found afterwards that water wanted to pool around them, so I've tried to channel it away.

I've added moss in between the stones;  I hope I've improved that area.  Thanks for the motivation, Betsy.



This section of flower garden is at the edge of my yard, against the woodline.  I bought composted manure and top soil to add to this shade garden this year.  I tilled in it roughly a few days ago, just trying to loosen the soil around the things that are already planted there.

 Today, I sprinkled the manure all over, and then the topsoil.  I planted some Petunias that I found on clearance at WalMart, even though they say that they prefer full sun.  I hope they do well there. It gets maybe 4 hours of direct sunlight per day this time of year.  I've been playing around with that area for 4 years and never quite made it into a GOOD flower garden.  I added a Coleus near the back where it is shadier,  and a Hydrangea, lately.

Hubby provided another 12 Miracle Grow spikes for shrubs and trees, so now all of the Rose of Sharons, Crepe Myrtles and other things are fed.  I treated the Hydrangea with the Bayer product that I bought for Black Spot disease, as it had started again.  The rose bush was treated on May 10th.

Yesterday I got all of Jen's Contrary Wife quilt top cut out after having to replace the background fabric.  And, today I received another project from Joide, with 2 more quilt tops to piece.  These two are couch-size, so I am looking forward to doing them, but first comes the queen top for Jen.

It's raining ! Praise the LORD !

And it is supposed to continue throughout the week, which is good timing because I have another commission to work on for Jodie Ann.  It will be a quilt top using the pattern, "Contrary Wife/Ornery Husband.

 It takes rain to keep me from doodling around in the flower gardens all day !

A quick tour this morning produced a few pictures.

This Lily is one that was here when I bought the place, but I think that this is only the second year that it has bloomed although this is my fifth summer here.

 The color of the orange is SO GORGEOUS, just a bit different from Tiger Lillies.

Hubby's garden plants are growing well with the exception of the little okra seedlings which don't seem to have changed much this week.

The tomatoes have bloom on most of the plants.

 The squash is blooming this morning, and has little baby squash all over the place....of course, we usually lose the first few to rot, and then they start to produce good, big specimens.

The cucumbers put out little 3/4 inch baby cukes, and then began to bloom.  He has put out SO MANY that I hope I'm able to can a few jars of the sweet pickles using the recipe that I tried two years ago.  They were a refrigerator pickle recipe that didn't have to be pressurized.