What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Is there anything more remarkable than growing plants? It's amazing to witness the astonishingly fast rate at which they will take hold and shoot up; sometimes, seemingly, overnight! This is the tale of "?". Take a look at the seedling on the far right in the greenhouse picture, it is labeled "?". (Truth being told here: I have "borrowed" that photo from our Pastor's FB page to illustrate this

Is there anything more remarkable than growing plants? It's amazing to witness the astonishingly fast rate at which they will take hold and shoot up; sometimes, seemingly, overnight! This is the tale of "?". Take a look at the seedling on the far right in the greenhouse picture, it is labeled "?". (Truth being told here: I have "borrowed" that photo from our Pastor's FB page to illustrate this

Our little goldfinch flock continues to visit the smorgasbord, and a few cardinals are now stopping by regularly. I think I have a mated pair and two of their juveniles. This is a juvenile male, he looks a little moth-eaten, with his baby feathers molting and the new brighter red ones growing. I’ve seen another female juvenile, and she was being fed by an adult. Pretty soon they will know how to get food on their own.

There is a pair of downy woodpeckers living nearby as well. This is the female.

When she scooted through the cage, more ...

Our guild recently held a retreat for 11 members at Febuary Hill in Jonesborough, Tennessee, run by the owner of Tennessee Quilts. We booked several days to sew, and chat, and eat, and shop. Some of us met for lunch before the retreat began, and we drove up at the same time. Arriving in the afternoon, I set up my sewing space.

Before I went there, I had to do something fun for the group. I got out some white paper bags and my stamping stuff. I used the roller to put a swirly design on the bags on the ...

Don’t you love a Farmer’s market? My favorite one in town is open for the season, and the bonus is that it isn’t far from the quilt show venue. If you come to the show, on your way home, stop by the Johnson Family Farms produce stand on the corner of Kanuga and Erkwood. Right behind the stand is a big field planted with all kinds of vegetables. Talk about fresh from the field!

They have a section with homemade food items, baked goods and local honey.

Heirloom tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, little grape tomatoes, and big beefsteak ...

Mornings have been delightfully cool, with temperatures in the low 60s F and even the high 50s yesterday (high teens C). Waking early, there are clear skies most days, but sometimes the humidity will cause fog in the valleys between the ridges of trees. Although the sky is light, the sun has not come over the mountains to the east yet.

It’s a good time to take a photo of the latest dahlia bloom, bright red with intense yellow stamens.

The begonias continue to bloom prolifically as well, masses of white flowers that the bees are loving.

It is ...

Standing at my kitchen sink earlier this week, I noticed movement in the front. Once again, the local black bear was making an attempt to get to the bird feeder. My Sweet Babboo has tie-wrapped it to the pole so the bear cannot shake it down and cannot reach it, but last time the bear bent the pole. So I grabbed the camera and stepped just out the door to the veranda to scare him off by yelling at him. He moved away quickly, and I used the zoom lens on the camera to get his photo as he went ...

I am happy it is September, and I know fall is coming because my toad lily is preparing to bloom. These buds are growing larger, and cascade down the leaf fronds. I have three pots of toad lilies in a three tiered stand.

There are going to be a lot of blooms this year. The leaves are turning brown in a few areas, and I think it is because they got too much sun. This is a shade loving plant, and next year I need to move it to an even shadier area of the veranda. Still, it seems happy ...

I had all good intentions of getting some sewing done this past weekend, but you know what happens sometimes to best laid plans. Friday was spent entirely on Shop Hop, visiting four stores over 90 miles apart, plus lunch with a group from our guild. The promised rainy day on Saturday canceled a car club drive, and I thought maybe I’d be able to spend some time on a new project. But as that day progressed, I got busy cleaning the house, and it just got away from me. I did a deeper clean than my usual, and it ...

This weekend, I finally am getting to my garden planting. Usually I’ve put seeds in peat pots weeks before now, and planted my pots with annuals in early May. Not this year, so I had some catching up to do. My plants that survived the winter in the sunroom were moved to the veranda, but the other pots were still empty, and I didn’t have anything for my hanging baskets. I had swept the flooring of pollen, but it still needed a good wash before filling up the pots. So, after we played pickleball on Saturday morning, we ...

Tomatoes! The garden continues to be the most prolific I’ve ever had. I am amazed at how well the new location is for them, lots of sun means lots of tomatoes.

Clusters of cherry size tomatoes are all over these vines.

The Cherokee Purple vine has three fat ones in the process of getting ripe. I threaded the vine onto the veranda railing to keep it from cascading down the backside of the planter where I can’t reach.

Heirloom variety tomatoes are growing too, these make larger ones with lots of flavor.

Last weekend I talked about how ...

I had a friend ask me the other day of I was ever going to post again; that's how long it's been since I've updated here! Sheesh. It's not that I haven't been doing anything, that would be the simplest explanation; actually, the exact opposite is the case. I'm going to bring the blog up to date, but it will take several posts to accomplish that. At last post, I was pulling blocks-of-the-month out

I had a friend ask me the other day of I was ever going to post again; that's how long it's been since I've updated here! Sheesh. It's not that I haven't been doing anything, that would be the simplest explanation; actually, the exact opposite is the case. I'm going to bring the blog up to date, but it will take several posts to accomplish that. At last post, I was pulling blocks-of-the-month out

Hot and humid has been the norm this month. Usually July is the hottest month of the year here, but it seems like the heat is lasting longer this year. The plants love it though, with lots of flowers both ornamental and on the veggies. My purple petunias continue to provide colorful displays. I saw a hummingbird stop by them this week, but didn’t get a picture of it.

Petunias are one of the best flowers to attract hummingbirds, and much less expensive than the torenias that I’ve used before. In the hanging pots the pansies gave out ...

Hot days gave way this week to milder temps, which certainly felt better to me. I usually just suffer through August, watching old classic football games to distract me from the heat and looking forward to September. I’m excited about the fair, and a few other things planned for that month. On the veranda, I got three toad lilies from Bullington Gardens, and eagerly await some blooms in September too.

In the garden planter, a pie pumpkin is growing behind some large leaves, suspended off the ground. It is getting close to being ripe enough to pick.

Nearby, another ...

It was a week of flitting from project to project. Somehow my concentration was a bit off. Early mornings were cool, but the days warmed up fast to hot and humid. On the bird feeder this week, a mom cardinal brought her son. You can see he is almost done molting his baby feathers and is coming into his full red color. The tips of his wings are still grey, and a little fluff is still visible at the top of his tail.

A rainy beginning of the week gave me plenty of time to play in the basement. I ...

It is exciting to see what is happening in the vegetable garden now. Many plants are bearing veggies and tomatoes. I still don’t know what this one will be. I thought the shape was closer to a spaghetti squash, but it seems to be growing more orange, so it is likely a pie pumpkin. We’ll see as it gets bigger and more ripe.

I have three acorn squashes, all in different stages. Two are pretty small like this one.

Another one is getting close to harvesting size.

I think this one will be a butternut based on its ...

The floral show continues in June with daylilies and more coming along. I am delighted with these snapdragons, so many pretty colors and such a profusion of blooms.

Medium pink above, and the lighter pink below are side by side. The yellow ones behind are coming into bloom too.

Of course, I love the purity of the white ones.

On the veranda, I need to cut this geranium back and root the cuttings, but it is blooming so well I have been reluctant to do this yet.

In another pot, the purple pansies are still showing their happy faces.

The ...

The Honey Fig tree is doing very well. Next week I will remove more grass and add mulch.

This is a pine tree seedling David got from Lowes. They were giving them away. The tree stump it's sitting atop was a dead pine tree that had to be removed.

The bougainvillea is really doing well. You can't see but there are several bright pink flowers on one stem.