Summer's Last Hurrah

The weather has been so gorgeous this week, and the flowers in the front yard are looking so good I had to share them with you. These are the azaleas blooming above the impatiens, aren't they just gorgeous? They will bloom until the first freeze gets them. Last year it was December before they went away.

As you can tell from this bed the impatiens are taking over.

Here are the periwinkles and caladiums. I had a young man come help me clean up the yard and get it mulched and ready for winter a couple of weeks ago, and it has looked so good since then.

Catching Up

Hello, everybody. Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. It was certainly hot enough here. I tried to stay in the a/c as much as possible. Not a lot of quilty stuff going on around here so I haven't posted lately, but I finally decided I better at least say something. I am doing some quilting stuff, but nothing that is showable yet. Just bits and pieces of things. And the Piece and Plenty takes lots of time, but I am working on that. Will post a picture of one block pretty soon. I am almost finished with it.

My version of what I took a class in on Saturday. It is called Mirrored Silhouettes. Of course I didn't finish it, I never do, lol.

This is the sample of the wall hanging I was looking at to do mine.

It's a few days late, but what is on your bed for July? This is my patriotic quilt that I made about 3 years ago (I think). It has hand embroidery, hand piecing, paper piecing, and plain old piecing. The quilting was done by a lady from Missouri named Penny Roberts and she did an absolutely wonderful job on it.

This is Roger and Laurie and Aud. Laurie is Keith's mother and is married to Roger. He is from Nepal and is one of the nicest and sweetest people I have ever known. Some of our young men could take lessons from him, that's for sure. Keith is very fortunate to have him in his life.

Here's Keith again, hasn't changed much in a month, lol, but he and family stopped by. It was good to see him, and he didn't have his Rock Band with him , lol.

Aud in the front yard pulling weeds (I only see one though, lol)

Apricot Lilies in the back yard

Asian Lilies, these things are about 4 feet tall.

What a Way to Spend a Sunday

I never did like rock and roll. Actually, I couldn’t stand it when I was young, and it still really grates on my nerves. The reason I am telling you this is because I am sitting here with a splitting headache that I have had off and on all week, listening to my grandson that is spending the day with me (he is 15 and lives in Dallas) playing Rock Guitar on his 360.

I made him watch the soccer semi final game and this is my reward, lol. I told him I must love him a lot to put up with that “s*&*”, lol. My ears are ringing. We will not smile until our braces come off he tells me, lol.

I have to show you these also. Some of the new lilies. I think I bought small ones for this whole bed.

And here are my favorite red lilies. They are so vibrant and deep, and when they die and you take the dead blooms off there is a red residue in your hand, the color is so intense.

A closeup of the white ones with a lavender ring inside of them. So very pretty and dainty looking.

The large bush you see in the background is a Banksia Rose. It bloomed a little this year, but next year there should be blooms all over it. We planted this 3 years ago, and it has taken it this long to get going. The soil in that corner of the yard is awful. If any of you remember Sharon had a picture of a tree with yellow roses all over it several months ago. Well that was a Banksia Rose. Hopefully mine will look like that next year.

And that is all for today. It is quiet right now, we are through with the Rock Guitar and just playing Halo on the 360; I can stand that, lol. His mother is on her way so he will be leaving shortly. I hate to see him go, I only see him about 3 or 4 times a year.

I hope all have a great week!

Quilty Things Going On and More Yard

These are pictures of some of the lilies blooming this week. The red ones called Red Volunteers seem to be in every bed, lol, I think they are living up to their name. They sure do mulitply fast.

This is block 1 of the Designer BOM from The Fat Quarter Shop. Of course I cut the background wrong and had to substitute, lol, I guess that is why I have a stash, huh. I got the finishing kit with the first block and this is going to be a very pretty quilt when it is done!

Making progress on the Piece and Plenty. I am loving this quilt, but goodness, there are a lot of hours in it. These are blocks 9 and 10. For some reason I have skipped 8, so I am working on that one now.

I finally got the 12 main blocks finished for the Web Sampler. Now to start on the house for the middle of it.

The latest batiks to enter the house, lol.

I am starting a new quilt soon that will be using batiks and I had them scattered everywhere so I decided I would see if I could sort them out. Ha! You see how far I got, but at least they are out of my closet and on a table so I can see what I have. And, I have too many, so I am not going to buy any more, lol.

Quilty Things and Yard Update

I really do quilt if anyone is curious. It is taking me a while to get back in the groove, but I am accomplishing some things. I have changed the quilt on the bed for the month. Have you changed yours lately?
This is Hemming House. I love this fabric collection and it looks perfect in this pattern.

This is my challenge quilt I did with Cindy, Lisa, and Nicole. I really do like the way it turned out.

This is the BOM that Kimberly has decided to tease us with for this year. I think it is made from the fabric I can see behind the picture of the quilt, and it is gorgeous! I have signed up and am looking forward to September when it starts!

As if I didn't have enough to do, I started another BOM that has been going on a couple of months . This is a Bits n Pieces pattern, but the picture I took of the pattern is not any good, so this is a picture of the BOM that I took at the quilt store. This quilt store is not online yet, but is in the general area of OKC.

Along the way I managed to take a class in making a rope bowl. I had the wrong day down for the class, and the store owner called me, so I didn't get there until the class was half over, but I did manage to make a small bowl and I got the idea of how it is made. This was kind of fun and I want to make some more.

Ok, these last 3 pictures are yard updates. In spite of getting brown spots when I put down weed and feed because I didn't do it right, the yard is finally green and most of the flowers in the front are blooming except for the Azaleas. They will bloom again in the fall.

New pink lilies that have bloomed in the back, the red ones were mismarked I think, lol, and that is why they ended up in this bed.

And these are the lily plants that I planted 3 weeks ago. If you look closely you can see how much they have grown.

Hope your week is going well!

Pictures of My Yard

I got the last of my lilies planted tonight, finished up by flashlight, lol. It is getting too hot to do any planting, but I haven't been able to do much during the regular planting season with my eyes like they were then. Anyway, the yard is showing itself off in bits and pieces. These are my favorite for the last few days.
Not sure what these lilies are called, but they are multiplying at a rapid rate.

This is my rabbit that hides in the flower beds, lol.

Peonies from a few weeks back. They don't bloom long, but here again, at least they are starting to grow some.

More of the lily "farm" in the back.

My amarylis has finally bloomed completely. It won't last over a couple of days and then it will be gone, but it is so gorgeous while it is blooming.

Closeup of the white lilies

This is the bed I planted the lilies in tonight. Pulled up some of this stuff because I am not sure what it is, but Miss Muffet is hiding behind the roses, which are blooming again.

And that's all for now I think. I will try to get my quilt stuff I have done posted in the next day or two. Hope everyone is off to a good start for the weekend!

It Certainly is Bright Out Here!!

So this is what it looks like in the sun. I feel like I have been on an extended walkabout, only, in my case, it would probably be called a sleepabout. I want to thank everyone who has inquired as to my eyes and how I am doing. I am much much better. Not healed completely; there is still some inflammation going on. I have an interim pair of glasses with updated lens and that has helped.

So far not much sewing going on; I am trying, and I am sure gettting good at ripping. lol. I do have some quilty things to show, but today is just gardening and grandchildren.

When we moved into this house 6 years ago there was only a patch of bedraggled orange lilies in an overgrown area in the back side yard. I had 2 weeks to find a house and this was the one that suited us the best for the criteria we needed.

The yard we left behind in Texas was just beautiful. We had moved into a new house there and I had landscaped the yard over a period of about 5 years or so and I had planted flowers etc out the wazoo. I still miss that yard. Anyway, all that to say that this yard has taken lots of patience, trial and error, and downright screaming to get it to the point it is at. I am still not finished, but some of it is coming together.

These are some of the mature lilies I planted 2 years ago. They will bloom in another month. And we always plant geraniums in these long narrow pots every year.

These are 22 new lilies plants I just received. I order my daylilies from Oakes Daylily Farm in Tennessee. They are always huge and I have never had any problems with them. This bed will have mostly pinks and purples in it. I don't know whether they will bloom this year or not, but at least they are in the ground.

Verbena in the front by the walk. Planted last year and has really grown.

This is in the front yard. The Stellas are going great guns and that pink flower is an Amarylis. I love them. In Houston I had about 10 of them. They aren't supposed to grow here, but I stuck one in the ground 2 years ago after it had bloomed in the house, and lo and behold, it is blooming! I am still jumping up and down. It hasn't fully opened yet, I will take another picture soon. This bed has lilies and Gerber daisies and some some other stuff I don't remember, lol.

This is the beginning of my irises. I order 6 from Better Homes and Gardens last year, and this one was the first to pop out. They have finished blooming for the year, but I am going to try to plant some more for next year.

This is the orange lily mecca. We have transplanted lilies twice now, and they are so thick I need to do it again. Some of them are almost 5 feet tall.

And then, poor Ms Katy has a broken arm. She fell off of a picnic table while playing. The ortho doc had to put 2 pins in her bones right above the elbow. She is going to be fine, but that has been quite an ordeal all the way around. I don't have a picture of her in her pink cast, but her mother has promised me one. And this is one of the things that has kept her mother from giving us a rundown on the CF Great Strides and a picture of the quilt winner. Hopefully soon. (Are you out there, Dana, and reading this?)

This is Jackson, my oldest grandson. He just graduated from highschool. I was trying to get a decent picture of him, but as grandsons are not good subjects for pictures, he wasn't allowing me to. So this will have to do. He is going on a Mediterranean Cruise this month and is very excited about it. He will be going to OU this fall so I will probably see a little more of him than I have been.

And that is enough dribble for one night. Hope everyone's week is going well!