It's a top!
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...
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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."
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