Buckeye Beauty Quilting Finished for One Monthly Goal

My One Monthly Goal for July was to hand quilt two more rows of this little Buckeye Beauty.  I quilted the remaining three and a half rows for a finish.  Next is to cut around the edges, choose binding (maybe those reds in a previous post--or not), and get it stitched down, both front and back, then was and dry for a complete finish.

This quilt will never win any prizes--it's a homey and homely utility quilt--but I hope it will find its way to some baby or toddler who needs the warmth it will provide. 

I'm continuing my search for backing fabrics for several different quilts, including Time Flies (looking for print with red/tan/black and hopefully related to time in some way) and Everyday Patchwork (seeking dark/teal green, possibly printed with other colors).  I love it when I can have the next quilt ready before I finish the current one. 

To keep with our 43-year tradition, we went to the state fair yesterday, the first since 2019 due to Covid.  We are so tired and sore!  We are having an enforced rest.  It would take an emergency and a surge of adrenaline for me to move faster than a turtle's pace today.  In general the fair was a disappointment but we did enjoy the natural resources with its prairie meadow flowers.  (Click on any of the photos below to enlarge and see detail.  The photos will open in a new window.)

I thought these delicate white flowers--whose name I do not know--were beautiful.  I think they are only about 1/4" wide.

It drizzled while we were there and I captured a photo with droplets of rain clinging to the leaves.  I love it!  I also like this plant's little seed pods.

This is Rattlesnake Master. I think its prickly globes are delightful.

I'm linking this post to One Monthly Goal July Finishes at Elm Street Quilts.  Thank you for hosting, Patty.  Please visit the link-up to see what goals others set and met in July.

I'm also linking this post to
> Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts and
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
Thank you for hosting, Alycia and Wendy.

--Nancy.

Out and About - Saturday's Snapshots

The dam at Madison Lake State Park...

runs parallel to the road.  What a surprise!

What is this thick, dense, beautiful ground cover?

We saw this quilt at a tiny restaurant northwest of the city.

I enjoy the carefree way the arcs were pieced.  Does this pattern have a name?

An appliqued and embroidered tea towel I left at the thrift store.  I love the aqua and green flowers.

Butterweed plant along a country road not far from our house.  The yellow is astonishingly bright.

A closer view of a butterweed plant.

German Village is an area just south of the center of the city where German immigrants settled.  Many of the homes are built of brick, nestled close to each other, and many of the streets are still paved with bricks.  The homes and yards are beautifully restored and maintained.  I appreciated these fences, one in front of one of the homes and the other alongside its neighbor.

Behind one fence we saw these peonies, perhaps the most beautiful peonies I've ever seen.

Wishing you a great weekend!
--Nancy.

Something New, and Something Old, too

I had several false starts on the background for this block and finally settled on the one above.  (Close-up below.) 

I still have to settle the placement of the pieces, including the leaves at the bottom, and trim the strips across the bottoms of the flowers, before I can start stitching the appliques in place.  The background for this block is 16½" x 19½", which seems huge.  I've never worked with such a large block and wasn't sure how to square it up.  I finally used the lines on my cutting mat.

This is a block of the month sew-along of Linda Brannock's "Flowers" quilt.  (I'm already behind a few months.  It feels like I'm always late these days.)  I love some of the blocks, others I could leave, but I thought there was plenty of variety to give me more applique experience without the challenge of creating the patterns myself.

I go through cycles of wanting to make my own patterns, then wanting to use ready-made patterns.  Both can be a challenge for me.  With the ready-mades, I struggle to use a pattern as is, often choosing to make changes.  And sometimes I find it hard to get beyond the colors the pattern shows.  When creating one's own pattern there is lots of trial and error to make it the way one wants or imagines, but then there's plenty of play and fun involved with that, too.

I went to a little quilt show a few weeks ago.  It was in a small town, inside a house that had become an art center.  There were perhaps two dozen quilts, most were folded over furniture.  The lighting was so poor that I didn't take photos.

The two best things about the show were quilter's yard sale (I couldn't resist) and this great old quilt which was folded over a railing at the front of the house.  The color in this first photo is most accurate.

I fell in love.  It was so scrappy and I thought the quilting was interesting, too, with its imperfect Baptist Fans.

The batting was very thick.  It was the kind of quilt I'd like to nestle under on a cold winter day.  Is super thick batting available these days?  It's interesting that the stitches were as small as they were considering having to go through so much thickness.

Also at the show they were handing out this flyer about folding quilts on the bias instead of with the grain.  I hadn't heard that suggestion before but I know that when I pull out a quilt that's been folded for a time it doesn't like flat as it did when it first came out of the dryer.  Nor do my quilt tops lie flat when I pull them out.  I'm going to try this diagonal fold and see how it works.

The next project I need to think about is which top to quilt and what backing to use.  I like to have a quilt in a hoop at home and applique to take in the car so I always have something to do.

I wish you well!

--Nancy.
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Lavender Love

I cut the stems of two little lavender plants this morning.  Their fragrance fills the rooms of our home and it smells heavenly.  I love all lavender but the flowers of this particular plant are luscious.  They smell more beautiful, cleaner, and fresher than any I've grown before.  I wish you could smell them, too. 

I almost missed harvesting them.  It rained yesterday and it must be dry to cut lavender.  Thank goodness the sun was out this morning.  If I hadn't cut the stems this morning the buds would have opened by tomorrow.  When harvested after the flowers open they fall off the stems and are less fragrant after drying.

I stripped the leaves and sorted the stems by length.  I was able to make five small bouquets to dry and two little lavender baskets.  The baskets are shorties, just 4" long, the smallest I've ever made.  I should have used narrower ribbon but I didn't have any.

Lavender season comes upon me all of a sudden.  I see the plants as I pass them coming and going in and out of the driveway but they don't seem to give much notice that they'll be ready to be harvested.  (Or maybe I don't pay close enough attention.)  It seems that overnight they turn from green to purple and then I have to put aside everything else and take care of them.  It creates a rush that belies the calmness lavender creates when one is preparing the stems for drying.

When I was cutting the lavender this morning there was another fragrance that was even stronger:  the honeysuckle that grows behind the lavender.  Its fragrance is sweet and strong.  They are unruly plants but I love them, too, and sometimes cut the flowers and vines and bring them inside.  Like lavender, their fragrance fills our home.

When people ask what my favorite flowers are I tell them lavender, honeysuckle, and lilac, all for the fragrance, plus columbine.  Not your common favorites, I guess.

Do you grow lavender and/or honeysuckle?  Do you love the fragrance of either or both?  Do you have a favorite flower because of its fragrance?

--Nancy.
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Lavender Baskets

I have been immersed in the heady fragrance of lavender today.  The flowers from this bush are paler in color than the ones in the photo I posted earlier but they are much more fragrant.  I don't keep track of the kinds of lavender I plant but this is probably English lavender and the other may be a Hidcote.  It doesn't matter:  I love them all!

These come from one large bush that I would have cut two days ago except for the rain.  It's really too late to just hang the stems to dry (if the flowers are open they drop off) and I can hardly stand to waste these fragrant spikes that bring so much pleasure with their memory of summer in the dark days of winter.

I decided to make some lavender baskets.  They are a wonderful way to preserve the fragrance of the harvest...

... but they each take an hour or more to make.  Below is nearly a whole day's effort and activity!  Perhaps they will be gifts to others who love their fragrance as much as I do.

I like this little tribute to lavender written by William Shelstone in his poem, "The School Mistress."  (Mickle means "much, great.")

     And lavender, whose pikes of azure bloom
     Shall be, erewhile, in arid bundles bound,
     To lurk amidst the labours of her loom,
     And crown her kerchiefs clean with mickle rare perfume.

I hope you have lavender to smell!

--Nancy.
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Sweet Lavender

Here’s your sweet lavender, sixteen sprigs a penny, 
That you’ll find, my ladies, will smell as sweet as any.

Lavender Sellers’s Cry, London, England, ~1900

Yesterday I cut the stems of three young lavender bushes, not yet a foot in diameter.  The longest stems were just seven inches.  The buds are a beautiful, deep purple and their fragrance is sweet, fresh, delightful.

Despite their small size, they are just as fragrant as those grown by their older and larger neighbor.  You probably can't tell the difference but the bush below is about 3 feet across.  When the stems of that plant are open and ready to be cut I'll probably make some lavender baskets.

I hope you have beautiful, fragrant flowers to enjoy.

--Nancy.

Honeysuckle and Roses

I wish you could smell the flowers on my honeysuckle vines!  Their fragrance lightens my spirit and brightens my days as it wafts through our open windows.  Heavenly!  It's one of my favorite parts of spring. 

The flowers of the honeysuckle are small and unobtrusive.  The roses, on the other hand, like to show off their bright flowers but are more private with their fragrance.  They keep it to themselves unless one is close enough to put a nose into a bloom.  Certainly, the rose blossoms add beauty to the view.  What a perfect marriage:  honeysuckle for the fragrance, roses for color.

My husband calls my honeysuckle a weed but it's not one of those wild, invasive honeysuckle bushes.  It vines oh-so-pleasantly wherever I choose to plant and train it.  My daughter and I built the trellis a few years ago.  We didn't realize how heavy the vines can become or we would have built something stronger.  One of our other trellises broke in the heavy snow a month or so ago.  We'll have to cut it back to remove the old trellis and start the vines growing again.  I suggested we wait until after they bloomed so we could enjoy their scent for a month.  My husband agreed:  I think he likes my honeysuckle vines too even though he teases me about them being weeds.

I hope you have beautiful flowers and fragrances to bring you joy.

--Nancy.
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I Thought I Would Love It - W.i.P. Wednesday

The Children's Garden quilt is nearly finished but sometimes my fingers need a break from hand quilting so I decided to work on another project.  The blocks for this Sunday Morning quilt were in progress with almost enough blocks sewn so it was the first obvious choice. 

I finished stitching the last few blocks, cut them to size, then laid them out in random order on the floor.  The blocks will finish at 7 1/2".  There are 120 blocks, so 10 blocks by 12 blocks.  If I stop here with this many the quilt will be about 72" x 90".

I've seen other "Sunday Morning" quilts and loved them.  I thought I would love this quilt.  But it's lacking something.  My husband thinks it's peaceful.  I think he's tired of the bright colors I usually choose.  I'll let it rest for a day or so before deciding whether to do something about, with, or to it or whether to just stitch it up as is.  What do you think?

Outside, my flax has bloomed.  The plants are light, feathery, wispy, but when the lavender blue flowers bloom they practically glow, especially against the plant's green/blue foliage.  This is the plant from which linen is made.  It's a beautiful beginning for a beautiful fabric.

This is a post for W.i.P. Wednesday, hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks for hosting, Lee.

Blessings to you. my readers.
--Nancy.
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Good Morning, Sunshine!

I hope you have a great day!

The Fragrance of Lavender

This is the harvest from my single lavender plant. It was cut from the bush before the flowers were fully open so as to preserve the fragrance and to keep the buds on the stems.

I wish you could smell the fragrance. It fills my home. I hope Heaven smells like lavender. (But then, when the woodbine is in bloom, I hope the same thing.)

I often weave lavender baskets. A friend once asked me to show her how. She decided it was just too hard. One does have to manage keeping 15 stems in order without breaking them and also keep the ribbon smooth, neat, and unsullied.
This lavender bush -- or shrub -- is not mine. It grows at the Arboretum at the University of Kentucky. It is probably 5 feet across. The horticulturist was very proud of it.
Lovely, lovely lavender!