Mostly Gardening

Not a lot of sewing has been going on here.  We now have four windows replaced.  When the last two were removed, there was a small amount of water damage to address.  I suppose it could have been a lot worse. The big chore for me was dividing all the irises that formerly occupied the garden under three of the four replaced windows. Luckily my husband pulled all the plants out and my kids helped me to separate and bag all the irises. I think there were well over 300 rhizomes by the end. I gave some to some of my quilting friends and we put the rest at the end of the driveway with a "free" sign. It took a while, but we did end up giving away every single one.

I replaced some of the irises with new plants. I would like to add in a bunch of spring bulbs, but of course that needs to wait until fall. Plus, my husband will be digging through that garden again in the not too distant future, so I went really light on the replacement plants and completely avoided that area. Oh, and I have more plants in my front gardens to divide, so some of those will help fill in as well.
One day last week was super windy. We went outside and found that one of the trellises had flipped right over on top of my little tree. I did not know that those green garden stakes could bend at a 45 degree angle like that. My little tree is still a bit worse for wear.  Fingers crossed that it has a full recovery.


Our veggie garden is going strong--at least in the greenery department. The lettuce is just about done. The peas are ready for harvesting right now. The beans are getting blossoms.  I think I saw a blossom on the tomato. The peppers are finally starting to grow.  The few beets that came up have put on a lot of greenery. The cucumbers are finally starting to grow--the first few didn't make it and we had to re-sow. I have two dill plants starting.  None of the chives came up. Our surprise sunflower is setting a blossom.
Here is a view of my front yard. My lower garden looks really lush. In reality, it really needs to be weeded, the spearmint is still out of control, and there is a ton of milkweed.  And still very few butterflies to be seen.
I went to the dentist last week. I was glad to see that the flowers at a house along my route were still blooming. This place is simply stunning every single year. I figured I had missed their display what with staying home all spring, so I really appreciated seeing it.
A quick check of the nesting box yesterday showed three of four baby house wrens. This morning they were all gone.
I finished a few more units on the For the love of geese quilt. I need to get a move on--this ring and the inner portion are my June OMG and time's almost up.
I also quilted a king size quilt made by Amber.  
We've removed the robotics from my Juki and I quilted Amber's quilt free hand yesterday.  I had forgotten how wonderful the Juki on its own (minus the robotics equipment) is. It was so light and responsive. I guided the quilting with just one hand.  :)  

My Juki is still for sale. It is a fantastic FMQ machine with a beautiful stitch.  

Meanwhile, my new, bigger machine has made its way from Iowa to Indianapolis over the last week. And I get to wait another week before the delivery company can bring it.  

Google has made more changes to the Blogger platform. I still do not like it. My font does not display properly. The labels part is finicky.  Also, I HATE the way the photo upload is currently working. I can do one at a time or place all photos in at once, only I cannot change the order of the pictures with that option. Also, I seem to not be able to view the HTML anymore. Viewing and editing the HTML is necessary for photo quality, amongst other things. UGH.  #fixblogger

Speaking of Google, I did an image search for a pantograph yesterday and every so often a picture from my blog was interspersed. How weird is that? This screen shot shows the first few results. My son's frog mini is in the bottom center. As I scrolled, more and more of my photos came up, and they were not related to my search. SO. WEIRD.




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