Not much progress to share this round, I even put some stitches in this morning to give you some progress at all! Any stitch will help to get this project done some day, so I’m happy with that 🙂
BEFORE
AFTER
Stats: 284 stitches, 24.7% complete
These photos were taken just now and you can see how dark it is outside and it’s only 1:30 pm! We’re under a thunderstorm at the moment and so I’m hoping my plants survive the winds and we don’t see any hail.
Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the SAL group has progressed with their projects! Join me by clicking the blog links below:
I can’t believe we’re already in June, halfway through the year! May was definitely a busy month in hindsight. I’m very happy how productive I was in gardening, stitching, and quilting. I hope you look forward to reading about all my works in progress!
GARDENING
I would like to start with an update on my seedlings. The Chinese Cabbage seedlings have continued to grow in nicely. I’ve been struggling with some bugs eating them and I’ve been treating them, but we have received lots of rain this month and it’s a little hard to keep up with the bugs. Some challenges I faced early on in May, were my transplants wanting to flower too early. Some ideas that I have on why and what I can do next time is to fertilize my seedlings earlier on in their indoor growing to produce more height and foliage growth. I think the small peat moss pots and late fertilizing kept my seedlings on the short side. Once they were ready to go outside, they were too small and ready to flower. I trimmed off all of the flowers to encourage more outdoor growth and I am seeing improvements.
My tomatillos started to really take off in May too! One of the transplants is outgrowing the other and I was worried this would keep them from cross-pollinating, but luckily they are both producing little tomatillos. These too started flowering too short, but I didn’t want to trim down the already short plants. Luckily, with all the rain and mild temps, the tomatillo plant has really flourished, put on more growth, and has lots of little tomatillos! I can’t wait to harvest them. I’m so proud of these little plants. The stems are thick and strong and I’m amazed these came from the teeniest of seedlings.
My strawberry plant from last year is doing quite well. I had only a couple of leaves survive the winter, but as you can see it has come back strong. The birds don’t bother the fruit and I was able to eat these two beauties at the end of May. The tomatillo plants are in the same bed and taking over the space quickly. They may begin to shade the strawberry plant, so we’ll see if it continues to produce in June.
Garlic was harvested at the end of May and they are currently curing in the shed. I didn’t plant has many as I usually do, so this was a small harvest. Regardless of how small the harvest, the smell is still amazing! I love garlic!
I shared some growth from my oakleaf hydrangea last time and check out the blooms they produced in May! I planted this last year in the Fall and was so surprised to see them bloom for me this year. I am struggling with those little pesky green beetles and they have eaten all the flowers by now. I won’t get to see the flowers transition to the maroon fall colors, but happy to see the plant doing well overall.
The garden was full of blooms in May. The clematis was full with buds and slowly one by one they began to open. Look at those vibrant colors! They didn’t fill in as full as I have seen in the past, but I was late to trim the old growth down this spring. With all the rain, my ajuga is full of lush new growth and I’m loving the purple and variegated green colors on the foliage. My new pink guara also has been blooming all month and my zinnias that I started by seed are starting to bloom now too! Pictured below is a shorter variety. I’ve yet to see my California Giants bloom, but they are coming for June!
As I was cleaning one of my flower beds and trimming off the leaves of the faded Spring daffodils, I accidentally cut my gladiolus stalk down! I was so upset with myself!! I did not plant these, but they mysteriously sprouted for me last summer. Do you think the squirrels planted them? Or maybe from the previous owners, but we’ve been living here for 6 years now. Anyhow, I quickly took my stalk to a vase of water in hopes that I would still get to see it bloom. In about 4-5 days I was surprised to see that it did! Look how beautiful they are! These two blooms came in at the end of May. I now have 6 blooms.
Here’s Petey helping me out with the soaker hoses that I added to the flower bed. I hope to do better at keeping my flower beds watered in the summer. I have been postponing the chore since we’ve had so much rain. For some reason Petey was obsessed with the soaker hose material and he made himself a little nest ❤
STITCHING
I kicked of May with a staycation for stitching and quilting. Mom joined me for a couple of days and we accomplished some good hand sewing progress. Mom worked on some hand applique and I picked up The Ones You Love by Teresa Kogut. Look at that sweet face ❤ The fabric is 32 count linen by Colour and Cotton in the color Cornflower.
Next, I put some progress into Purple Martin Apiary by Shakespeare’s Peddler. I’m stitching this on 40 count Lakeside Linens. I took a good amount of time clearing the black fabric of kitty hair and as soon as I set down my project there was a furry foot on it. I was able to finish the red beehive this time around.
I picked up Pumpkins Thieves by Madame Chantilly at the end of the month and am still working on it now to finish the week. I will have more to share with you in my June update, but below I was able to finish the flag, witches broom, and the start of my little witch. I’m stitching this on 32 count Vintage Maritime White by Lakeside Linens.
During my lunchtime, I’ve been working on this Journey of the Ark embroidery. I finished up the trees and birds and will continue onto the sheep and bottom border.
On the sewing side of stitching, Mom and I took a class together and made our own leggings! The class was my mother’s day gift to her and we had a great time. The knit fabric we used was from Cotton and Steel.
QUILTING
Progress on this next project has been ongoing since the end of 2017! I was commissioned to make a king size quilt for a family member and it has been a huge wip. On May 1st, I finished the quilt top! The top measures 108″ x 90″ and consists of 1,080 squares, 2,430 half square triangles, and 540 quarter square triangles . Are you blown away yet!? Here she is, the Moving Mosaic quilt by Amy Ellis. I’m currently in search of the perfect backing fabric.
As soon as the top was done, I picked up my next commission. This Rifle Paper Co. quilt is for my co-worker who’s been waiting for me to finish the king size quilt so I can work on hers. Made almost entirely by the Wildwood fabric line, we went with a simple patchwork design to show off the cute prints. I added two 1″ borders around the patchwork and finished the top with a final 5″ border. This was a very quick project. I’m ready to look for backing and get this quilt quilted asap!
That sums up my May! I hope June is just as productive. Until then, happy stitching and happy gardening!
I made some great progress this time around. I had a couple of days off from work and took the opportunity to put some extra work into this piece. I mostly spent time adding more grey to this bottom portion, then decided to move back up to the top for a little more color. Up at the top are various shades of green and brown. Very confetti heavy, I decided to do a mix of parking and finishing of colors within a row section. The top section slowed me down a bit, but I like that I have a couple of options for the next go-around.
BEFORE
AFTER
357 Stitches continued in this grey section
172 confetti green stitches
Stats: 529 stitches, 24.4% complete
Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the SAL group has progressed with their projects! Join me by clicking the blog links below:
