What's In The Box? And The Invaders Part II

This month the theme in my sewing space to move UFOs forward is WITB? - What's in the bag, basket, bin, box? Hopefully I will be able to empty quite a few bags, baskets, bins, boxes too. 

Several days ago this large flat rate USPS box contained four 9 inch finished Greek Key blocks, a big bag of 1.5 inch width green strips, bits and pieces and a bag of green scrap chunks to use in case there's not enough green 1.5 inch width pieces to complete 44 more blocks.

I started making the green/green Greek Key blocks earlier this year because I had accumulated a lot of green 1.5 inch width scraps throughout the last couple of years. 

Well, I've had a couple of rainy days so I ended up making 44 more Greek Key blocks. 

Now that I have a complete block set of 48 I'm hoping to assemble the top before year end because I've made it a goal this year to try to get any New Starts except for RSC projects to flimsy stage before year end. 

After I made my Greek Key blocks I had some small pieces left over so made a few six inch Potato Chip blocks...

...to add to my collection. 

Then the box after all that was still not empty

I did not need to use any of the green scrap chunks so those chunks went back into the green scrap chunk box. 

The longer and brighter strips went into my bin of novelty and bright strings. 

The rest of the longer green strips went into the box of scraps for all green with red center Wonky Log Cabin blocks. 

And the shorter pieces went into the box with other shorter for a string quilt. I found this free pattern for a quilt that is similar to a vintage one I liked.  I am not going to make mine following the pattern instructions but I'm going to use the template to make paper foundations for piecing strings. 

I usually make several string quilts when I dig into my strings - long strings go into a quilt first and as the strings get shorter they go into bags for string quilts that use shorter strings. 

Ok! So now you know what WAS in the box. And now the box is empty! On to the next!

And sew on...

Monday Musings at Brenda's Songbird Designs

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If you are in the mood...

Long Winded Gardening News

As I explained in Part I of the Invaders, one of the things I've been doing is trying to get rid of some invasive species that have crept into my gardens over the last few years and are threatening to take over some areas. Mother Nature has blessed us with some beautiful weather at a time when I need it! 

The Invaders

Part II

The Cottage Garden

The Cottage Garden is one of my oldest garden areas. It was pasture land when we moved here around 37 years ago.  It's where most of my roses reside.  This is the top half of the area. 

A walk through trellis of Trumpet Vine and Dutchman's Pipe is near the center of the area. 

And this is the bottom half of the area.  There's several pathways running through the cottage garden and a circle with a fairy garden 

The Invaders in this garden started out on the trellis - Trumpet Vine and Dutchman's Pipe Vine. I planted those near the trellis a long time ago. 

Hummingbirds love the Trumpet Vine when in bloom. 

The Dutchman's Pipe with it's heart shaped leaves is the host plant for the Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly. 

For the last several years both vines have been sprouting up everywhere in the cottage garden and have been trying to strangle and smother everything in their path. The Trumpet Vine is a woody species and difficult to dig out. 

This spot in the Cottage Garden between a Tree Peony and a Rose not far from the trellis was the worst spot. Both the Tree Peony and Rose had Trumpet Vine and Dutchman's Pipe growing up through their branches and wrapped around stems.  Any place a piece of Trumpet Vine falls to the ground that piece takes root.  So. I worked for several house on this area, cutting away vines and cutting the vine stump as low as it could go and then hacking at it with my heavy hoe. I then covered each piece with a can. (I've always covered woody vines and tree starts with cans. I don't eat many canned goods but several people who do save me their cans.) I hammer the can into the ground. Eventually the piece under the can dies. 

So there's my Tin Can Alley. I just planted some Oriental Lily bulbs in that area so maybe next summer after I plant a few other things in Tin Can Alley those cans will be hidden. 

One other invader in the cottage garden is Saponaria or Soapwort. I've been digging it out of my fairy garden and been trying to get out every last piece. All my miniature plants in the fairy garden are getting smothered and overrun by soapwort. 

"Common soapwort develops a robust network of underground rhizomes, which are horizontal stems that grow beneath the soil surface. These rhizomes continuously send up new shoots, enabling the plant to rapidly colonize an area and form dense mats that can outcompete other vegetation. Even small fragments of rhizomes left in the soil can regenerate into new plants, making manual removal challenging and contributing to its aggressive spread in gardens and natural habitats"

I started Saponaria or Soapwort from seed over 30 years ago and now it is very invasive and I'm constantly pulling it and digging it out of some of the places it gets into.  It is called Soapwort because flowers, leaves and roots can be used to make a gentle soap or shampoo. When the kids and grandkids were younger I thought it would be a fun plant for experiments. It's nice to know that if soap becomes scarce I have some in my flower garden. 

I bought myself a new sign for the garden. 

Although I have to say I don' whisper to all the plants. I have some cuss words for some of them!

And sow on...

 

Carpenter Star Finish

It's a finish!

Carpenter Star

60 x 76

Big stitch hand quilted

In December 2021 I made 396 HSTs with 30s reproduction fabric scraps and Kona Snow (well, I think something other than Kona Snow might have gotten mixed in there too).  I then made 12 Carpenter Star blocks (also called Carpenter's Wheel, Dutch Rose or Double Star) that finish at 16 inches. 

In December 2021 I assembled the blocks and then decided it needed a border. 

Finally in March 2023 it got a border. 

And this month I've been big stitch hand quilting. 

This is the grand finale for this month's theme in my sewing space of "reproductions".  

Next month my theme to move UFOs forward is "WITB".   What's in the bag, bin, box, basket? 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Happy Halloween

The neighbor across the road puts on quite a display. It's all lit up at night.  We don't get any trick-or-treaters out here in the country but quite a few cars slow down and sometimes stop in the road to take in the view. 

***

Today is my granddaughter Isabelle's 22nd birthday! 

I can't believe she's that old. I remember her birth like it was yesterday. My husband had been on a chemo pump 24/7 for a week and developed a high fever that put him in the hospital.  The hospital has two campuses. He was on the West campus.   Meanwhile, on the East campus my daughter was in labor and after quite a few hours delivered a beautiful baby girl, Isabelle. It was kind of strange going between campuses to visit with my very sick husband and my first granddaughter while most of the staff on both campuses were dressed in Halloween costumes. 

***

I've finished three books. For quite some time I was stuck in historical fiction mode - mostly WWII historical fiction.   Now I think I'm stuck in Detective series mode. 

1. But Not Forborne by BJ Bourg. (Clint Wolf Mystery Series Book 10)

2. Water's Edge by Gregg Olsen. (Detective Megan Carpenter Series Book 2)

3. The Engine House by Rhys Dylan (DCI Evan Warlow Crime Thriller Book 1)

***

Rain today so I guess I won't be out gardening today. I'm still waiting for my Zinnias to set seed so I can collect them to sow next year. Looks like I might get a few seeds. 

It looks like I can collect some Four O'Clock seeds.  The flowers seem smaller than usual this year. 

I don't collect Queen Anne's Lace seeds. They sow themselves wherever they want. 

And sow on...

A Sweet Heart Top and Invaders

It's a top!

A Sweet Heart Deal

36 x 48

Earlier this year I was given 12 appliqued heart blocks in 30s reproduction fabrics that finish at 6 inches. (If I remember correctly, they were from Sherron). Since the theme in my sewing space this month is "reproductions" I thought I would do something with those blocks. 

I keep my 30s repro scraps separate from other scraps. (They are snobby scraps!) I dug into the scraps and found quite a few 1.5 inch width scraps leftover from making other quilts over the years. 

I also had some scrap chunks of what are sometimes sold as 30s repros but also as toybox or storybook prints. I cut a 1.5 inch width strip off of each of the chunks to add to my scraps. 

I used the hearts as the center of some log cabin blocks that finish at 12 inches. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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If you are in the mood...

Long Winded Gardening News

From the end of July until September I had neck pain and shoulder pain that did not respond to any exercise, massage, ice, icy hot or tylenol. I thought it was caused by stress. I finally went to the doctor in September because pain got progressively worse and spread to my legs. I could barely get out of bed in the morning.  Doc ordered some tests and gave me a referral to physical therapy. After the test results for inflammation markers were high I was prescribed prednisone for what doc thought might be polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and given a referral to rheumatology. The prednisone reduced the inflammation and I was almost pain free after a couple of days. I had to wait a month to get a rheumatology appointment. I started PT right away.   While I have been almost pain free thanks to the prednisone, I have been doing some frenzied gardening for several weeks while waiting for the rheumatology appt. for fear I might have something more serious than PMR, pain might return and I might not be able to work in my gardens as much as I would like. One of the things I've been doing is trying to get rid of some invasive species that have crept into my gardens over the last few years and are threatening to take over some areas. Mother Nature has blessed us with some beautiful weather at a time when I need it! 

The Invaders

Part I

Native Wildflower Garden

Golden Glow Rudbeckia

This little patch is one of my native wildflower areas.  Long ago it used to be a second vegetable garden. That's when we used to have a green house and grow salad crops and herbs and flower for drying to farmer's market as well as hold down full time jobs. That all ended when my husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and the year after that the greenhouse roof caved in because of too much snow.  After John was cancer free for 5 years he turned this area into a blackberry patch. Those were the days he made wine and beer and I made lots of jams and preserves. We had an orchard, grape vines and wild black raspberry patch too. 

Then after John started suffering a lot of side effects of the radiation he had during cancer and could no longer drink alcohol and when I was still working full time and helping care for grandkids I had little time for gardening and the area became a weedy patch.   A few years before my retirement in 2017 I decided to research and experiment with native wildflowers for this area.  I started my flowers from seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery, I have found they have excellent information about germination, preparing beds and what pollinators are attracted to each plant.  I've added a couple of new wildflowers each year to the area and was pleased with the results. 

I think it was four years ago that I was looking for a native wildflower that would grow in shade, I bought some Wild Golden Glow (Rudbeckia Laciniata) seeds. They did do well in shade. 

They can grow to seven feet tall. They started nicely filling in the areas where I sowed the seeds . 

But this year they are taking over and smothering the rest of the flowers. I guess they not only do well in shade they do well anywhere!  I guess I neglected to read "Wild Golden Glow is rhizomatous and can be aggressive so may not be suitable for small landscape plantings."

So, one of my frenzied gardening tasks has been to dig out the Golden Glow from all but the shady area where I wanted it to grow. 

My tools for the job. (I buy several pairs of gardening gloves in Spring and I'm down to my last pair. I've been pulling out cockle burrs from here and there and my gloves are covered in the darned things. If I had a spare pair I'd throw these away.)

One bed finished and my echinacea, coreopsis and yarrow might live again.  I had some Liatris in there for a couple of years but one year a mole decided to dig around and kill it all. 

Another bed finished.  It has some wild asparagus and Queen Anne's Lace that just appeared there as well as obedient plant  and echinacea I started from seeds. 

Obedient plant isn't very obedient. It's laying on the ground instead of standing tall. 

I still have some work to do in there and other invaders to take care of. Stay tuned. 

And sow on...

***

I've always been interested in medicinal uses of plants and have a lot of herbals.  

I found some of the latest research at the University of Iowa.   "Roots of Medicine is an interdisciplinary project featuring a collaboration between the College of Pharmacy, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, and community members. It joins the College of Pharmacy garden (View in Google Maps) with historical resources from the John R. Martin Rare Book Room at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences and databases from the National Institutes of Health. Each plant has an identification tag with the common name, species name, and a QR code. If you point your phone’s camera at the QR code and click the link that appears, you will be taken to a webpage with information on the plant’s historical and modern medicinal uses and a feed of the most current research."

Latest research on Wild Golden Glow Rudbeckia

Old World Finish

 

It's a finish!

Old World

67.5 x 81

  (Make an OLD WORLD quilt | step by step sewing - YouTube

I started making Old World Blocks back in late September 2023 from  civil war reproduction fabric bits and pieces. 

December 2023 I had a complete block set of 30 blocks. 

January 2024 I assembled the top.

I quilted it on my sewing machine with horizontal and vertical lines. 

I was also going to add diagonal lines through each block because I thought I needed some quilting in the center of each block. But I really wanted to keep quilting at a minimum and very simple. I had some brown #10 crochet cotton and decided to use that to tie the center of each block. You can't really see those brown ties in the centers in the photos but I like how that looked and was just the right touch. 

The back and scrappy binding. The backing looks washed out in the photo. It's actually a woven and faded looking fabric in a couple of different browns. I bought the yardage a long time ago when I was still working (I retired in 2017). I remember it was on clearance at Hobby Lobby for around $3 per yard and all that was left was 6 yards. I finally found a good use for it - the selvage said it was called "Antique Texture". 

And sew on...

***

Oh, we have had such beautiful weather. I've been working nearly every day out in the gardens. Lots more on that later when I catch my breath.  For now here's some flowers I saw blooming today.