Sorry friends! We’re already mid July and I’m barely getting around to sharing my June works in progress with you. Let me start off with some gardening updates as I have lots to share with you there.
GARDENING
We started the summer off with very mild weather. We almost reached 9″ of rain for the month compared to only 2″ in June 2018! So, as you can imagine, the garden was pretty happy. I’ve been introducing my cats to the back patio as they were raised as indoor cats. They know to stay within the boundaries of the patio, but every once in a while, curiosity triggers in and Petey will slowly start to stray away. He gets mad at me when I round him back in with some meows of disappointment. They discovered how comfy the patio chairs are and Neko will often lounge on them to bird watch with comfort. This time, she allowed Petey to join her. I was also able to harvest 3 more strawberries. I probably won’t see any more until the Fall.
The flowers I planted in the Spring have been doing quite well! I’m very bad at keeping up with watering, so the rainy June has been very helpful. I love the vibrancy of the Indian Blanket wildflower and the sweet pink dangling flowers of the Begonia.
I was so excited to find out that the Luna Red Hibiscus that I planted in the Spring also started to bloom. I was worried this plant wouldn’t make it due to the windy weather we had. The foliage was constantly getting torn by the strong winds and storms. But luckily, as you can see, she was resilient and bloomed!
Some other existing flowers that I’ve had in these beds showed off some of their blooms as well. Purple coneflower was just starting to bloom. I was only able to capture the soft colors of the newly formed coneflower. My Big Red Salvia gets bigger every year! She grows almost as tall as me with her flowering stalks. This doesn’t say much I guess… I’m only 4’11” 😀 Still, this beauty captures the heart of the hummingbirds who are passing through.
The tomatillo plants produced a lot of tomatillos! Hundreds of them! But unfortunately, they are smaller than a cherry tomato. Still, they are very sweet. I have a few bowls of fallen tomatillos that I want to roast and turn into a sweet and tangy sauce. There have just been too many to keep up with. I know for a fact, our residential possum stops by during the night to snack on them. The zinnias took off during the summer days and they continue to produce lots of flowers for me! I’ve been able to cut a few and display them in a vase of water on the patio or indoors. The last photo, of the burgundy zinnia is my favorite. Only 1 plant of the seedlings I kept are in this colorway. There are four different varieties and I mostly have pink ones. The red one is my second favorite.
STITCHING
I started to work on Pumpkins Thieves by Madame Chantilly at the end of May, which I continued to work on in June. I was able to finish the balloon’s flag and worked down into the carriage. Completed the cute little witch, variegated pumpkins, and the scaredy cat! This is such a fun project and I can’t wait to get back to it.
I also made some good progress on Christmas Dollhouse by Natalia Luneva. I had started the kitchen last time I worked on this and was able to complete it! I love the soft colors of this piece and I love the fabric too. The fabric is 32 count linen hand dyed by Colour and Cotton. The color is called tea leaves and it has a very soft green mottled look. I shared my progress on Instagram and the designer commented on my post! She offered to send me a finishing tutorial and I gladly accepted. I can’t wait to finish stitching this so I can follow her fun finishing tutorial and show you. It did cause a slight dilemma on the placement of my stitching on the fabric, but luckily I will have enough room and it should all work out nicely.
Slowly making some progress on my lunchtime stitching project, Journey of the Ark. I’m slow to work on this as embroidery triggers my tendinitis to inflame. I need to get some finger grippers, which will make pulling the needle through easier.
QUILTING
No actual quilting this month, but on a quilting related topic, I was asked to photograph our June Quilters Guild meeting. Our speaker was MJ Kinman and she shared her beautiful gem quilts with us and gave us an insight into her process. MJ even reached out to me to see if I would share the image below of her since she really like it!
Lastly, I decided to check out my local quilt shop and fabric audition some options for the backing of the Rifle Paper Co quilt that I was commissioned to create for a co-worker. Hopefully we finalize a choice so I can complete this quilt at the end of the month while I’m on vacation.
