Quilts & Flowers

Our gardens are coming along nicely.  All the hard work is now done, so it's a matter of sitting back and enjoying them for a bit.  I can't wait for nice, fresh lettuce to be ready to harvest!  And it's almost time for my favorite iris, Crater Lake Blue, to bloom.  My daffodils are now all finished and the first of the irises has bloomed.    The white 'Immortality' irises are just starting to bloomThis one is 'Batik' and is particularly pretty this year.
I was really happy to see that the tulips I planted in my future sewing room window well made it (no pests like rabbits or deer eating them).  Oddly, none of the daffodils we planted in there came up.  But it still looks nice.  It's a moist and almost totally shady location, so we put in a few hostas, a small Columbine, and a Heuchera.
Our vegetable garden is growing (or attempting to grow) lettuce, beets, broccoli rabe, green beans, cabbage, jalapeño, potatoes, cucumber, and strawberries this year.  It looks like I might get some pears from one of the trees we planted last year.  I was trying to Google information about what pears look like while growing.  If you just type "pear" instead of "pear tree" you get a whole lot of images of body shapes instead of fruit!!  Anyway, I'm pretty certain that those little globes in the center of the picture are baby pears.

In sewing news, I finished up my Paradiso #1 quilt this morning.  The backing print I used is one of my favorites ever.  And I love the hot pink prints in this line too.  The fabrics are all Kate Spain's Paradiso.  The pattern is by Cluck, Cluck, Sew.  The quilt measures 55" x 63". I originally intended this to match my living room furniture, but it doesn't, so if you would like to purchase this lovely quilt, please inquire.  :)

This week is check-in on our guild UFO challenge, so I'm scrambling to try to get some things finished.  I have one of two Bubblegum Kisses mini quilts ready to bind.  I tried some different continuous line/curve designs.   I'm pretty happy with how it turned out even though my orange peel segments are still pretty inconsistent.  The overall effect is decent.  The fabrics on this one are all Lori Holt Bee Basics and Bee Backgrounds.  The pattern is slightly modified from the one that came in the Sew Sampler box.  My finished size on this is going to be around 22" x 24".


I'm trying to determine how to quilt the second version and am hoping to have it done by Friday evening as well, since I listed them as one total item on my UFO list.  I also decided to finish off one of my partially complete cross stitch projects.  It's a Christmas ornament and I just had to sew on the beads and then do all the finish work on it.  I did the beads yesterday and washed it, so now it's just a matter of mounting it and finishing the ornament.  I haven't done the finishing technique before, but it seems pretty straight-forward.

I'm also creating a replica Gus Grissom space outfit for my son since he needs a costume for his famous Hoosier wax museum school project on Friday.  It involves a disposable painting coverall, a bunch of patches, some webbing, and some plumbing parts.  We didn't have school yesterday due to it being an election day, so we got a good portion done.  Still a ways to go though.  Hopefully tonight it will be totally done.

What are you working on this week?

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