Sewing, knitting and garden

     I've been working in the garden at the house over the last 2 months.  We created a pretty planting bed in the back yard with a lemon tree, a lorepetalum bush and some plumbago plants.  Its a lovely place for your eyes to rest while sitting in the glider on the patio.  I cleaned out a bed of jasmine that was overgrown along our north fence to make way for a lovely shade garden.  That took about 5 days working about 2 hours a day.  I'm currently working to connect more of the front yard bed to some bottle brush plants we put in on Memorial day.  It takes some time to rip out good grass by hand.  Im slo make some more little concrete tables for various uses in the yard.  They are so cheap and easy to make.  

     The last 5 days I took the old curtains from my craft room and made a ruffled bed skirt with them.  I used up most of those three curtains making it especially fully.  I added some scraps of pretty fabrics in at unmeasured intervals to give it some interest.  It was a bear to make but I love the look.  I was able to use some of the hems I already had in the curtain for the bottom.   I did gather it by hand because it was so long.  I stuck adhesive velcro to my bed frame and sewed velcro to the skirt.  I love the look.

Summer is Over

     We will have further warm weather but the extreme heat should be over. 

     

      I spent the summer working in the front yard extending the flower bed and weeding and watering our north bed of flowers.  To extend the flower bed I had to dig up all the grass by hand.  It was a job.  I haven't quite finished.  I will do the remaining areas over the winter.   Here' a picture taken earlier this month.  The coleus plants are huge.

       I also weeded our back flower beds we created and spent some time making borders around planted areas and digging up star Jasmine vines to clean out another area to make a bed for some native plants that are shade loving.  I helped DD  dismantle two raised beds that she built about 5 years ago.  They were too big and they disintegrated, so we took the rotting wood apart and spread the garden soil throughout the front and back yards to fill in low spots.  

  I'm starting to craft again.  I knitted two ear warmers with lavender yarn and knitted a six foot long scarf to go with them.  Purple is my new favorite color.

  This week I finished making 13 little crochet pumkins to make a banner to hang in the pass through from the kitchen to the den.  This was fun to make and super easy.

       I have a halloween tapestry project I will be starting this week.  Its the Wicked Whiskers tapestry by Blondie Knots.  

  

Copper Wire Garden Jewelry

 I watched videos on YouTube on how to make copper wire plant jewelry.  This was fun to make.  I made three others with beads and some aurora borealis crystals.

Wallhanging

 I saw a wallhanging with the word quilt spelled out in squares so I made a small version with 1.5 inch squares.  Not the best but I can always fix the design when I get the chance to do it again.  

 

Still Nesting.

     I replaced the dull green curtains that covered my closet in my craft room with a pretty blue and white floral.  I finally decided that my craft room colors will be blue and white.

     I also put a blue felt heart banner up over the closet door.  I have two other blue heart hangings in here.  Pictures below.  

    I'm hoping I can get organized in my craft room soon so I can sandwich and quilt a few quilts.  I think I have 5 tops that need to be finished.  Not including the blue and white hexie quilt I only have one row sewn together on.  

Foundation Paper Piecing

    I bought this star pattern from Ten Cow Quilts on Etsy.  It was a very nice pattern.  I made this star to place on the back of my denim jacket.  I used fabric from my stash and it was fun to put together.