Finishing touches

I only need to make eight more perfect  cirles to finish off the centers of the flowers on block 6 called Eliza's strawflowers.  The flowers in this block had four layers so they were quite labor intensive.  They are far from perfect, but that is alright, in the garden not all of my flowers are perfect so I  rather like them that way. I was pleased enough to sign and date my block, that took a bit of bravery, after a week of stitching on this block.

Progress on Baltimore Garden

I thought I would share some photos of the different steps in making one of the layered flowers in Baltimore Garden.  My hat goes off to Barbara Burnham for the wonderful illustrations and directions she included in the book Baltimore Garden.

Since I have had a couple of requests I have included the blocks that I have finished so far.  Five out of twenty five, completed! I must say, I am really enjoying stitching these blocks.  As always, I am learning a lot as I go.

Layered Flower

Slow stitching Sunday is here again. How time flies! I am working on a layered flower for Block five of Baltimore Garden. I plan on doing a post on the process of making this flower later this week. For now, I am going to head over to Kathy's Blog and see what everyone else is working on today.

Happy First Day of Summer!

Two of my favorite things:  Quilting and Gardening!

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!