Green green green on a Slow Sunday...

 Warning... this post starts out heavy on garden stuff but there is a bit of creativity if you scroll down... I'm a bit enamored with  my gardening at the moment... well more than a bit... LOL.. 

Hello - well it was pretty nice week... had a lovely lunch with my quilty gal friends, dinner with another friend and  the weather was semi- cooperative and I've only had to water a couple of times... and  more rain is  in the forecast which I will  appreciate... and speaking of things I appreciate, there is this...

again this year I was given the Mayor's Choice award for my garden/yard... I've lived here 10 years now and I've gotten a form of this award about 6 or 7 times (I forget the exact number) but the last 2 years I've gotten the top award... and it makes my little heart happy!!  But what makes me even more happy is when I'm out watering and people stop me and tell me how much they love walking past my house... that they purposely walk or drive by ... and how much they enjoy the flowers... and that is the reason I do it... I enjoy the flowers and I'm happy that other enjoy them too... my neighbor across the street Joan has mobility issues and can't get out much anymore... she called me to thank me for the flowers that she loves to sit by her front window and look at them... she told her son "it's like being at the Masters in Augusta".... wow!  Not sure I can rival that landscaping but it sure is a wonderful compliment. 

I do LOVE my little house... one of the things that kept me dragging my feet from moving 10 years ago was I didn't want to leave my garden... but I ended up with a much bigger garden!  It is this time of year that I look at the flowers and think " Carol, you jumped the shark"... everything is kinda wild... I put down paver stones in several places in the Spring to make getting into the beds and watering easier... and at the moment, I can't find them!..... the flowers are definitely unruly (kinda like the gal that planted them) and just grow where ever they want to... here are some pics  of what my little house in the middle of Deer Park looks like...

Starting from the driveway there is this wall of cannas & marigolds &  the giant grass plant I call Cousin It...

Walk around that living wall and you see this....cosmos, cleome, dahlias...

Keep walking to your left...more dahlias and zinnias...

A bit more....more zinnias and dahlias...

Now turn the corner to the other front  yard... cleome and zinnias...

Don't stop yet... keep moving to your left... zinnia, dalhias, cleome... you see the trend dontcha?

A little more...

I took this pictures early so I could catch the those yellow and hot pink morning glories in bloom...

And there was one more pic but I don't know where it went to... I am fond of that limey green coleus I the middle... it has recovered nicely from being chomped on by the deer ...

People often ask how much time do I devote to taking care of this, and by this time of year my work is just watering and deadheading...  in the Spring I do plant a lot of annuals but this year I opted for just throwing seeds down for the marigolds and boy did they take off... look back at that first pic with the orange cannas... now they aren't the low tidy profile of the ones you buy in cells at the  garden store ... they are about 18" high and very blowsy... not sure which look I like better but this was waaaay easier ... and the older I get the more I like easy... I am happy that  the dahlias I've planned in the yard seem to come back every years and are making quite the show... and the deer leave them alone... I did have some trouble with Japanese beetles for about a month but after that it has been okay... and I've discovered that those descriptions of how high a plant will get  on the seed packages have about as much truth as weathermen... all of the zinnia seeds I bought said they were  Thumbelina or some short variety but they are much taller than the package said...oh well... I'm hoping we aren't going to get another one of those really hot spells in August... I think one a year is plenty and we already had that ...

As for more green... I got my green bow tie quilt back from Delinda and I got it bound and washed and boy it is pretty... if I say so myself ...and  I do... I took a glamour shot of it using my neighbor's new fence as a quilt rack... it works great... just need to take the pictures when my neighbor is at work and his truck isn't parked in his driveway... 

I love this panto... it is called Elizabeth and I chose it to use on the American Jane runner I took to Delinda a week or so ago.... 

As for sewing I got 6 more blocks done on the FQ 4 Patch quilt with the Basic Grey Jolly Good fabric... 10 more to go...

every block so far is a different fabric....and the last 2 I've cut out are also different from what's on the wall.. I'll need 8 more block so those be duplicates... I'm gonna pick and choose as I put the rows on my design wall... 

I was good last week and not a single new chart snuck into  by house...LOL... now I have plenty of BIG projects to work on but instead I decided that what I need in my life is more chickens... this is Hattie... she's from Lori Holt's Chicken Club... and I don't believe I've ever seen a pink chicken, except for back into the 50's when they use to sell dyed chicks for Easter... but no chick was harmed here...  I'm stitching these on 16 ct Aida I dyed with Golden Yellow Rit dye... 

and after I finished her I worked on  Myrtle... she's quite hefty gal... LOL... 

I have to fill in her pattern and do her little chick and I'll be half way to the flock I want to stitch. 

My plan is that these are the only seasonal pieces I'm adding to this display... I want to concentrate on a couple of those BIG samplers....and  I've made plans like this  before only to have a squirrel race through my world and have me working on something entirely different... so take this with a grain of salt... I know I do... 

As for displays here's a  bit of what I've put out... 

My chicken wall quilt... it started out as some left over Lori Holt blocks done in American Jane fabrics... 

love the chicken!

and here you can see that new bow tie quilt on the back of the couch... I'm liking the cool greens for the hot weather...

This tier tray is a bit minimal... 

The cross stitch is from Nikyscreations  Summer Scissors....you can see it here. 

Now the small shelf unit has a bit more... 

 I do love the chicken mini quilt... and the Welcome Summer  from The Drawn Thread... 

Middle shelf has  Tansy Yarrow Rue from Pineberry Lane... a little chicken stack from Pinker n Punkin called Summer Chicks you can find it here and  Rise and Shine by ScissorTail Designs. 

Bottom shelf has a truck  which is a snippet from Fresh Eggs Farm and another adorable piece from Melisa at Pinker n Punkin Quilting called Bees, Blooms and Chicken which she so generously offers as a freebie and you can find it  here ... I so enjoy stitching her stuff... she's got a new house in the works I'm dying to see... 

In looking at these pictures I'm not happy with the color or sharpness of most of them... could be the lighting, could be the camera, could be operator error... sorry... 

So I have no definite plans for next week except to watch Elliott and take Nick to meet up with his friend Brad one afternoon.... hopefully I can  get that FQ 4 Patch quilt done and maybe the Hattie and Myrtle FFO'd... but I'm sure that plenty of stuff will happen that I hadn't planned on and will fill up my week ... seems to be the way every week goes anymore... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... hoping for some time to sit on the sunroom porch and stitch and maybe there will be rain to watch they forecast for this afternoon ... I'd like that... I'd like that a lot... 

happy stitching-

carol fun