The Surgery

I managed to work on a few green hexagons while students were practicing for an upcoming performance.

Ha!  I didn't realize until I posted this pic that one day this month was "wear green" day.  A staff member is retiring.  Green is her favorite color.  

A pink flower was made too this week.

Hope I didn't scare you when I mentioned "surgery" in the title.  I only got a little green stitching during this busy week of school.

I need to remember to throw an eye into my bag to help the turtle with that too.  Poor stuffy.  He is definitely well loved.  Students in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seem to love to "read" to him.  One student is sad that the turtle had surgery.  I'm thinking that might be the student that tried to make him into a puppet.

Here's his before photo:

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC25 here.

The Osage Orange Tree

This year in lieu of taking the comprehensive final Environmental Science exam, our son had the option to do a leaf/tree identification project.  There were about 26 trees that needed to be found.  Luckily we started before Mother's Day and completed the project a few days before school was finished.

Each photo had the dry erase board with the tree name written on it.  He had to show the leaves of the tree.  This tree is kinda the "joke" of the packet to me.  The little card says, "Thank you for your order!!"  I purchased the last tree that we could not find on Etsy!  Thank you Etsy for coming through again.

This may have been the nicest plant I have ever received that was shipped to me.  It as packaged in common materials such as a cheap paper towel to keep it moist, great soil mix, newspaper, tape, and a plastic bag in a box stuffed with newspaper so that it didn't get shook up too much by UPS.  Look how moist and fresh those leaves look!

The Etsy shop is here.  It's called BlazingStarButterfly.

We planted it in the protected area of the chicken yard.  They shouldn't bother it here since they have so many of my other freshly transplanted plants to tear out outside of the little fenced-in areas.  They really did a number on my corabells that I finally split and transplanted yesterday.  After the tree becomes established I will transplant it to a better area where a larger tree can grow.  This tree is known to us as a hedge apple tree.

School was out on Friday, 5/23.  I think it's funny that I got a text from the school at 8:15 that morning saying that it was the last day of school for some students.  Luckily I'm a mom that's on top of that stuff.  Some students still have exams this week.  Our son did the alternative projects.  I think this tree will be a nice high school memory in the years to come.

Happy Memorial Day!

Slow Sunday Stitching -- Cross Stitch Temperature Tree?

I started a new slow stitching project -- a temperature tree.  I figured I would work on stitching the tree portion this year or 2026, and then add the leaves the year after the tree is complete.  It definitely qualifies as a S L O W stitching project.

This project is going to be kept in a bag in the behind-the-seat organizer in my truck.  There is a perfect pocket for itOur son has activities planned for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for at least 8 weeks.  These activities last 1 to 1.5 hours.  If I'm not running errands such as getting groceries, I'll be happily stitching.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.

 

Slow Sunday Stitching -- And Some Flower Photos

State testing had me back in my hall monitor/runner spot for sewing.

I think I like making individual hexies and then stitching them together when I have sets vs. the "Bonnie Hunter" way.

Below are some of my flowers that are growing.  Pardon the weeds...  School has been keeping me busy.

Forget-me-nots, a poppy, cat grass, Crocosmia.  The "holes" in the "purple stuff" (possibly called clustered bellflowers) (which are just green now) are where the lisianthus of various colors are growing.  I've never grown those, but hoping for a great year.

I bought the little roots for this light purple plant on eBay about two years ago when another quilter posted a picture of her pretty mounds of it in her flowerbed.  I forget the name.  This bed needs weeded really bad!  The first year I weeded this area I forgot that I had this planted there and pulled a bunch of them out by accident.  Oops.  Glad they came back!

Foxglove (ferns and iris).  The foxglove really re-seeded itself this year.  I dug tons of little starts of it out of the driveway and inbetween the cracks of the rocks and planted them in other parts of the property.  We shall see how they grow.  It seems like they don't care what quality of the soil is where they start. I can't wait until these bloom.  I think there are a few shades of pink.

One of my favorite color of costa -- with it's weed friends growing all around.

Bee Balm (between pink and purple)

Lupines (pink I think). I had a red one, but don't remember where it is or if it survived the winter.

Phlox? (saved from the field...when we realized that some of our stuff wasn't on our property.)

Hosta, lamb's ear, and lemon mint... and some lamb's ear that isn't doing so well for some reason.

Hostas and light two-tone lavender iris

Baloon plant (lilac color) and rose campion behind it

My first poppy that bloomed this year!  This one is from the plant that I split at Thanksgiving.  Behind it is yellow things behind them... oh I forget the name of those yellow things every year.  (They often bloom when the "purple things" bloom.  LOL)

Bachelor Buttons.  Other purple things.  LOL (different from "purple things"). The reason why I have this flower is because I was asking my friend for "purple things".  She gave me this one--which isn't the one I wanted.  I have two pretty bunches of these.  They were started with just one flower on a big root only two years ago.  I successfully split them this spring.  I think the centers of this flower are pretty.

Buttercups hiding in the yellow iris that needs to be thinned dramatically after they are done this year.  I forgot what they were when they came up.  I split them to make more.  This type of post helps me document what they are for when I forget what they are next year.

I've tried for a few years to get my lilac-colored balloon plant to split or grow somewhere else.  Last year I just tried throwing the dried out flowers on the stems in the flowerbed.  It worked!!!  The pretty varigated leave is seedum with a purple flower.

Better photo of the too big yellow iris that will be thinned and replated in the orchard after blooming.

Calla Lily with a varigated leaf.  This is my first year for this plant.  I bought it and split it.  I felt I needed more things with a bright red/magenta tone.  I know I need to dig it up after the season. ... and see that baby poppy growing on the left?  Woohoo!  I've had trouble planting poppies in the past.  Again, I threw down seeds after they dried from the poppies last year.

Another gorgeous purple flower -- Columbine?  Not sure on the name of this one.

More Columbine.  The leaves are similar to the darker one above, but the flower doesn't have as many layers.  I still think both are possibly Columbine versions.

That's all for the pics of THIS "protected" flowerbed.  This is a dog kennel that my sister-in-law gave me.  I keep it in the chicken yard area.  Plants in this fence are protected from chickens, ducks, and deer.  This is where I put "cherished plants" that I haven't grown before and experiment with planting things until I am sure I can grow them.  The soil is wonderful here.  It used to be an old garden that I fenced in to raise chickens.  I have a garden hose nearby so that water is available and I don't have to carry water.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.

 

 

Dicey Blocks -- Green -- RSC25

Here's a Dicey block in green:

...and another photographed with poor lighting.  LOL.

You can read why I started this quilt here.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC25 here.

Dicey -- Light Green

 Here's a Dicey block in light green:

You can read why I started this quilt here.  I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC25 here.

Dicey --Bright Green -- RSC25

 Here's two Dicey blocks in bright green:

I like the "Wonder Bread" dots and the monkey neutrals.  The watermelon, olives, and flags are fun too.  I haven't really figured out how big this quilt will be.  I'll just keep making fun blocks in the meantime.  Six blocks time ten months of colors would be 60 blocks.  We'll go from there.  Right now, a 7 x 9 setting might work.  There will be sashing (most likely 1.5"--1" finished) and cornerstones.

I also finished another block in red.  I still have the red "6" Dicey block to finish.  I need to hit this one with the iron to get rid of my marking pen.

You can read why I started this quilt here.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC25 here.