How does your favorite garden grow?

Gardening is very important in my life. Watching things grow, is just so amazing. I love high contrast quilts and I also love high contrast in my garden.

The picture on the right, is the new garden path I put in my garden this spring. Every morning I enjoy my morning cup of coffee as I stroll along and enjoy the progress my garden makes daily.

 I have a large hosta garden under a tree by the terrace. I love hostas, they totally disappear in the fall as winter approaches, but then every spring they return.
I have two tree roses that bloom continously thru the summer, however, at the moment they are just coming back from their first show of color.

 I love combining my vegetables with some of my landscaping. My tomatoes are really doing well again this year.
I also added a couple of gardenia bushes last year, they survived the very hot drought stricken summer so I think I am safe.  The smell is heavenly, although they don't last near long enough.

 I am growing grape tomatoes for the first time this year. I pick a few yesterday, so they will go in our salad tonight.  I think they will be returning since they are cute, ripen earlier than the others and will be great in summer salads.

This succulent is so hardy, every year I pull bunches of it out in some landscaping in the front of the house just to keep it in check. So a couple of weeks ago I just threw, and I mean literally threw some around this large oak tree.  It started blooming this week, we will see if it survives the summer, I have a feeling it will. It seems to survive on the humidity in the air, and we have plenty of that!

Block five

I finally started block five for  Baltimore Garden. I have spent the last several weeks working on a secret project. I will be adding a post later this year with more information.
I decided to try a basket block, there are several in the quilt. I opted to make the basket as it was done on the original quilt, and not weave the basket. I found that a glue stick came in handy.  I used the back basting method of applique for the handles.  Today I will be adding the base to the basket, and then heading over to Kathy's blog   to see what others are slow stitching today!

Max

 One of my favorite favorite things is my dog Max! He came to us when  he was a little over a year old. His first owner loved him enough to give him up. He knew too, that Max was special. He wanted him to be somebody's best buddy, someone who had time to take him on walks and just have time for him.
Max definitely is special.  He constantly amazes me with the things he does. He loves to please, on several occasions he has gone out to do his number and on his own brings in the paper. He barks to let me know when the mail has arrived, and is very protective when the door bell rings.

I just had to snap this picture. Sometimes I think he forgets he is a dog!

Solutions!

This quilt top was pieced out of some scraps over five years ago. I will be the first to admit, that piecing quilt tops is not a skill that I have perfected, but I continue to try and improve.
This top was intended to be machine quilted, but that is another skill that never came together for me.  My love has always been hand quilting, and so alot of my later quilts are appliqued with alot of background to hand quilt. So, what does one do with a quilt top that isn't pieced very well?  So I pulled it out this week and  decided to Big Stitch it. I believe back in the day, quilts that were big stitched were called utility quilts.

The utility quilt was the quilt made to be used in everyday life. Those made out of bits of fabric and clothing and used on beds to keep the family warm.  It seemed a fitting way to quilt my not so perfect pieced quilts made out of scraps of fabrics from other projects.  I must say so far, I am really liking the process. I am using presencia #16 black on the cream areas and Guterman cotton thread on the patchwork. I am marking as I go, using a sliver of soap and a ruler in the patchwork areas. I am using a mechanical pencil and stencil for the motif in the light area.  I am so glad I have come up this solution, and am pleased so far with the results.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy's Creative Side is once again holding Bloggers Quilt Festival!  What a great idea to allow bloggers to link their quilt to an appropriate category and share their efforts with others in the quilt world.
 I have decided to link Amish Ice Cream Social to the hand quilting category. This quilt started as an effort to tame the scrap box. When it comes to quilting, I love anything that involves hand work, so my scrappy stars are appliqued onto the solid background, which allows for a lot of space for hand quilting. The quilt measures 74 inches x 74 inches.
So if your in need of some inspiration, you might want to stop over at the Bloggers Quilt Festival and see what others are doing.

 

 

 

 

Matilda's Tulip Garden

 

Well, I couldn't decide which basket block to do, so I decided to get the tulip block out of the way. It has gone well, although it did take some time to stitch all the stems down.   Along with pins I am using the aid of a glue stick to place stems on the block. There is nothing worse than getting your thread tangled on a pin and a knot forming just when you need to make a stitch. The glue stick really helps, although I still pin, but it nice to remove the pin when I am working in that area and know that the stem will not accidently shift. Warm weather has finally arrived and the air has come on in the house. But, that also means early mornings will be warmer and I love stitching in the morning on the terrace as I enjoy my morning coffee, so it should be a great week. As I finish the flower heads on this block, I will also go over to Kathy's Quilts to see what other fellow slow sticher's are doing!

Wordless Wednesday