Hello... well I do believe the weather has kicked into planting season... today it going to be 80 and the garden centers are finally getting in their inventory of annuals... marigolds, petunias, geraniums, cleome, coleus, etc etc etc... I didn't get a lot of stitching or sewing done this past week but I sure did a lot of shopping!! I've made at 7 or 8, I've lost count, separate visits to some of my favorite garden centers and this is what I've brought home so far... not everything is in these pics as I already had the window boxes planted up when I took the pictures...
a rough estimate of what I've hauled home is 2 flats of petunias, 3 flats of geraniums, 1.5 flats of asparagus ferns, 2 flats of marigolds, 4 flats of zinnias, 3 perennials salvias, 18 cleome, 8 different coleus, about a dozen fancy petunias, 2 Prince Tut ferns and assorted fillers.. and even with all of that I'm experiencing a big case of FOMO... fear of missing out... None of the places I went was fully stocked... I think this later arrival of warmer days has delayed shipment of plants... I know more will be coming it, but I want EVERYTHING ...and I want it NOW!! I am not a patient gardener... LOL What I've gotten so far will do my flower boxes, the edging on my beds, and a couple of other areas. I gotten very little for my assorted large pots and I haven't gotten anything planted in my new raised beds, but I do have stuff to put in them.
The alliums in the garden beds are going gang busters... they've naturalized and I don't think I'll be buying any more. The daffodils are dying back and I'm dying to get in and clean up the beds...but they really should be left alone for a while longer... but I've cut back a bunch as I want space for annuals. You can see some of the alliums in the pic above... and this is what I planted in them.
these pale yellow petunias with salmon colored gerniuums.
My peonies have a ton of buds on them and I have dahlias that are up almost a foot... yikes... I should definitely pinch them back a bit. I wish I saw more shoots from my cannas, I'm a bit worried that they aren't going to come back. If not I will go buy more as I loved the "wall" they made for my yard last year.
Now I need to pace myself...not only do I want EVERYTHING right NOW... I also want it all planted RIGHT NOW! My son helped me with the window boxes on Friday... and I got a pot of coleus planted up and some fancy petunias and did some clean up in the beds... we have more to plant today... and tomorrow I have a trip to another garden center planned which usually has a very nice assortment of the fancy petunias... I can hardly wait...
As I said there was a lot of shopping in last week but only a bit of stitchy stuff... I spent Monday afternoon sorting all my Tilda fabrics into color ways... this will help me doing the gradations for the spool blocks but I didn't get anymore of them cut out. Elliott wasn't interested in playing downstairs on Tuesday so I only got a couple of bow tie blocks done. Didn't touch the yellow sawtooth stars at all... and I have another Tilda scrap quilt in mind but I only cut a couple of pieces for it.
There is a bit of rain in the forecast for mid-week which may give me some sewing time. I know as long as the weather is nice I'm going to be out working in the yard... or going to other garden centers!
As for cross stitch I did get a little bit more done on the Teresa Kogut's Faith Hope Peace and Love...
I'm still undecided on the color for the alphabet... went back to the called for color for this block... but it's the block with the fewest letters so I'm not sure it's a good example...
Now I did get some FFO-ing done last Sunday... first off I did this little pillow with Queen Elizabeth II and her corgi... it is a called Corgi Love by The Snowflower Diaries and you can see it here... I stitched this sometime last year ... but last Sunday would have been the Queen's 98th birthday and it seemed appropriate to finish this...
now I didn't have enough of those yellow pompoms to go all the way around... but this little pillow will just sit on the shelf in this display so it doesn't show much ... and if I can find more of the trim I'll add it ...
and aren't the little figurines adorable? An online friend sent me a link for them... you can see it here... and I had to have them for this display.
And I FFO'd the pear from Annie Beez Folk Art Spring Green Pears... it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be ... the stem came from trimming a hydrangea bush in my yard... I forgot the leaves...and I don't think I'll add any...oh and there are suppose to be some stitching on the side of the peart... I may get motivated and do them...
And I finished the Pinker n Punkin Quilting Tulip House.... I'm very happy with the pink chenille trim on this one...
I made this BRIGHT tulip quilt back in 2017... the tulip is my version of the Tulip Patch quilt in Lori Holt's book Quilty Fun. I haven't hung this one in a couple of years but I got the urge to release several older quilts from their plastic bins and enjoy them.
So next week will be BIG on gardening... but if the rain in the forecast does materialize that would be a good thing in several ways... it would water in my new plants ... and keep me from over doing it... which will happen otherwise... LOL My younger son is a BIG BIG help ...he totes the bags of potting soil and the flats of flowers around the yard ... and he digs the holes for the marigolds and the zinnias... I put in some fertilizer and drop in the plant and give it a little pat down... it speeds up the process. I can do the raised beds and the large pots myself... I really do enjoy putzing with the flowers.
However some time spent with needle and thread will be a rest for my arthritic knees ... I know Rome wasn't built in a day but I sure would like to see my yard all planted up in a week! LOL
I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... last week I read several blogs that had me online shopping... bought some older Jardin Prive charts from 123 Stitch and some fabric off of Etsy... just trying to do my bit to stimulate the economy!
Hope your week is filled with the activities you want to do!! I'm off to play with some more plants, right after I take a couple of ibuprofen!
happy stitching-
carol fun
You do have some lovely projects on the go. And love the colours in your tulip quilt!
ReplyDeleteCarol, I always enjoy reading about your planting and gardening posts. What fantastic pictures you shared in this post! Your stitch finishes look awesome as does the tulip quilt. Have a wonderful week!
ReplyDelete