Rainy Day Sewing!!!

Finally, a soft, gentle rain came down yesterday.  My plants look so lush and refreshed.  I had time to look out the window and watch the rain for a few hours.  I worked on sewing Bitcoin pieces together.  Bitcoin is a Bonnie Hunter pattern.

I thought I would work on this UFO because I need to get something on the longarm so that I have a quilted project to finish a hand-stitched binding.  I sewed and sewed.  I even put columns together using the leftovers when I made Baby Bitcoin.  After all that sewing I realized that I am about one third of the way done.  Sew... the sewing continues.  

I posted about my topsoil pile plants yesterday.  My husband likes a medium-hot yellow pepper on his cheeseburger once in a while.  He has successfully been growing peppers in buckets on the porch for years.  He and our son are responsible for this area.  LOL.

They seem to be very happy there.  Our son likes to water them.  It's okay for him to weed them because he can easily distinguish the plant from the weed.  BUT when he helps me weed he tends to pull EVERYTHING.  Looks like he has some weeding to do...

There are only about three medium-hot pepper plants on the porch.  The rest are bell peppers, those cute, crinkly red  sweet peppers, snacking peppers, and what I call my science project peppers that I don't really know what they are.  I buy a lot of my plants off of a trailer at the end of a local guy's driveway.  He has a green house that he plays with as a hobby.  He sells them for a donation at the end of his driveway.  It seems that he likes to experiment with different things each year too.  The fun thing I got this year is pumpkin on a stick.  (It's an orange eggplant variety that looks like a bouquet of pumpkins.). I'll get a picture of those when I weed that flowerbed hopefully this week.

Here's a little bed in front of the house.  It got a late start.  The marigolds in there are from the local guy with the greenhouse hobby.  There's a grape tomato plant there because visitors like my sister-in-law love to grab a handful when they visit.

Another fun thing my sister-in-law and I do is rescue plants from the almost dead rack at local stores.  Below is a miscellaneous potted plant, three yellow blanket flowers, and the sad tomato plant is the tomato in the above photo already snapped back to life.  I bought these all dried up on 5/30.

The mixed potted plant above bloomed on Sunday.  It's this pretty, coral flower.  I'm hoping the petunias that are also dry that I got last week cascade over it.  We shall see.  There's a marigold in the top.

As I drove the four-wheeler around I discovered our kid digging in the yard.  He loves to search for treasures with his metal detector.  He just happens to be hunting in a place where my husband's grandpa used to have a dump and then covered it with dirt to make it smooth.  Smooth no more.  LOL.

The Topsoil Plants

 If you've followed my blog for a while, each summer I post about some sort of new thing I try in the garden or with my plants and perennials.  The experiment for summer of 2026 is my topsoil gardens.

When my husband dug the hole for our house in 1997 he saved the good topsoil to various piles on the property.  This is one of the good piles.  Our local library gives away free seed packets in May of most years.  Of course I go get a paper lunch bag of seeds for free.  I scattered them back in May -- NOTHING came up!  I don't always have luck with seeds and am almost always better at planting plants.

Since I had extra seeds because they were free, I waited a couple weeks and tried again.  Woohoo!  Where you see one of the nine posts, something is growing.  Some of these will have vines.  We'll have to deal with that when we figure out what they are.  I had seeds for yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, and a weird white squash I never heard of.

I realized that what you mostly see in these photos are weeds.  I will take more time and pull weeds for an hour in the mornings.  Some of the best watermelon, pumpkin, and cantaloupe I have grown have come from areas like this.

Below is another area of what I call "good dirt".  When I sold my house when we got married in 2003, when I moved my things I also took my dirt from my compost pile.  The two acre lot had 100 trees.  I actually picked up the leaves every year with my lawn equipment and piled it on the huge swampy pile in the back of the property that butted up against a golf course.  We took three dump trucks of dirt out of that area and the dozed it flat like nothing happened.  These three stakes show me where the plants are growing.  I'm guessing it's watermelon and cantaloupe.

I had some left over zinnia seeds in a bag a friend gave me.  I'm pretty sure that's what these below are.

The library didn't have any flower seeds this year.

Below is the crazy wildflower area.  I have tons of wild daisies and these yellow things.  My husband said enjoy them for now but he will be spraying weed killer all around.  Don't worry... they will still come back next year.

This is another wild daisy area.  I'm hoping this area gets spared by the weed-spraying husband.  The pinkish purple flowers sprinkled in is crown vetch.

This weekend I moved plants out of the protected area (in a fence by the chicken yard to keep the deer from eating them).  I know it's not the right time of year to move the peony, hosta, or little blue iris, but they were taking up too much space in the protected area and I needed room for the other plants.  The peony didn't bloom well there anyways.  I don't think it was getting enough sun next to the other coop and had poor air circulation.

This is a new area this year for plants.  I decided to plant in the ditch or around the poles where I can't mow.  The yucka are going to bloom this year.  I moved them a couple of weeks ago.  The buttercups bloomed.  I'm hoping the bee balm does okay.  There is also sedum, crocosmia, and blanket flowers growing in this weedy area.  Again, don't worry about those weeds for now.  We shall see what establishes here.  The soil seems to have some clay in it.  It is close enough to the house that I can get the garden hose to it.

The deer seem to really like this variety of golden-edge-leaf hosta.  

I found a bag of this stuff for $1 at the bin store.  After I watered it I sprinkled a dose of it on it.   I guess I should have read the instructions.  I was supposed to sprinkle it on the ground around the plant.  Hope i didn't burn the leaves with it or kill it.  This plant is pretty hearty.  It'll come up next year if I mess it up this year.

On a happy note, look at my strawberry planter that was started this year!  The pool ladder has cucumber vines on it.  There is also one of those crinkly sweet red peppers in the space where the 50 strawberry plants didn't fill the container.  There are petunias sprinkled in here and there for color.  I just planted the baby plants this week.

Here's the second planting of the two zucchini seeds that came up from the whole second pack.  I typically can't grow zucchini from seed.  Two plants is definitely all that I need.  I hope the zucchini doesn't grow off to the wrong side and weigh down the plant and rip it out of the ground overnight to its death.  I'll have to keep an eye on that.  This was the old kettle that my grandparents used on butchering day and to make apple butter.  The white stuff in the planter is egg shells.

Slow Sunday Stitching -- Making progress on THREE projects!

Currently I'm working on finishing the binding on this left-over hourglass block crib-sized quilt:

I only have to bind where the clips are for it to be finished.  This is definitely one for the charity pile.  I'm using three different binding left-overs for the binding.  Can't wait to run it through the washing machine to see how it crinkles.

I finished the Horsen Around quilt that I was working on last week:

I've attached the binding for my tulip table topper.  I can't wait to stitch it!

I do like the look and feel of this tulip table topper!  I used the last of my stiff self-adhesive batting.  I didn't think that it needed to use my good Warm & Natural batting scraps.  I had a scrap of the green dot binding left over from another project.

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

 

RSC26 -- Still Working on a Pink Project

 I'm still working on my pink tulip table topper.

It made it onto the longarm frame.  I was going to quilt it with circles because it was a small project and I wanted to test my theory of my longarm stitch regulator not quilting correctly (shutting off) during sharp curves.  I decided to just stitch straight vertical lines every half inch.  I LOVE this ruler that I have been using for years.  The longarm did not act up one time while stitching today.  Zero threads were broken!

The backing fabric for this project is a pink pastel.  Win, win.

I also made progress on my January (2026) RSC project with blues.  It's called True Blue. 

You can see the details for the True Blue quilt along at American Patchwork & Quilting site here.  I am hoping I can make it large enough for us by adding some creative borders. I know I don't really like the edges as they are.   It seems to have a little fullness here and there.  I'm not really worried about any of that.  So far it seems like it's laying flat enough for me to work in the fullness when it is quilted.  I'm still not a fan of making and attaching the strip pieces on the corners of this quilt, yet I do like the effect.  

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC26

Hummingbird Feeder #2

 I came up with a better way to hang hummingbird feeder #2.

I had a thin metal tape measure that I was saving to make snappy pouches.  I like this design much better than the sewn one that I did earlier this week.  You can see that by scrolling or clicking here.

I did see a hummingbird drinking from the sewn one yesterday!

Hummingbird Feeder Sewing Project

I bought two hummingbird feeders at Where Ya Bin (a place that sells returned and odd lot Amazon and Target stuff.  Two for 25 cents was a good deal to me.  They came with suction cups that didn't stick to the windows.  Here's my prototype piece.  

Can you believe that I broke TWO hummingbird feeders (not these) yesterday?  One was glass and it broke in the sink.  The other was plastic and the top was super brittle.  These feeders were at least five years old.  It was time to swap them out with new ones.  I think I prefer glass ones.  We'll see what is on sale at our local farm stores at the end of the season.  That's a good time to get them for next year.

I'm not sure if hummingbirds like all that fabric hanging.  The elastic makes it easy to open the top to refill.  It was one of those corners that go on the sheets to keep them on the bed.

It's pretty simple.  I finished the seams so that it didn't fray--like that really matters.

This is what it looked like when I got it.  It does have a nice ant moat that gets filled with water so that ants don't get into the sugar water.

The cats really like to lay in my seedlings of coneflowers and bee balm.  I bought a pack with a variety of colors of each on Amazon.  I should have separated them better in the egg cartons when I planted them.  They seem to have a different germination period.  Oh well.  I have plenty more seeds.  The little plants seem to bounce back after the cats are done using it as a bed.

I planted the petunias in the flats last night right before the expected rain.  It did start to rain around 8:10 pm.  We really needed the rain here.  Finally got it!  I remember when I was a kid going to Amish country with my mom to pick out large flats with really nice flowers in them for about $8 a flat.  These half flats were $6.97 each ($14ish for what you see here.). Roll with the times I guess.  The marker in the flat just said petunia.  I hope they are the wave version, but it seemed that I had to dead head the blooms.  I planted them in my strawberry planter.  Hopefully they will flow down and give it some beautiful color.  Stay tuned.

Horsen Around Is Complete

Horsen Around is complete.  It measures about 45" x 56". 

The pattern is called Dinner Party.  I held on to these beautiful Horsen' Around fabrics that were given to me from Linda at Art in Search. until I found the right pattern to show off the fun prints.

My purple bellflowers were in full bloom.  I thought that was a great pic to show them off a little.

I found the paisley background print and the quilt backing in my stash.  I think they went with these fabrics great.  I still have several scraps of the Horsen Around prints left for another future project.

7 finishes this (Spring) quarter

Here's my Spring 2026 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Bit Con quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together -- size yet to be determined

2.  Rail Fence 3.5" RSC block -- 900 blocks needed/need arranged

3.  Piccadilly Circle -- Need a few more circle blocks

4.  Kite Girl --finished 5.28.26 -- 6th finish

5.  Folk Art Birds -- Need more birds and alternate blocks

6.  Hourglass Mini -- Needs a quilt back and then quilted

7.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

8.  Dicey -- Blocks need sewn together with sashing and cornerstones

9.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

10.  Red/White basket crib quilt --finished 5.15.26 -- 5th finish

11.  D9P Red/White -- finished 5.11.26 -- 4th finish

12.  HST -- Needs more blocks made and sewn into rows

13.  Red/White House in Center baby quilt -- finished 5.2.26 -- 2nd finish

14.  Fish -- a 12-block RSC26 project

15. Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

16.  Random Blue Blocks -- Hand Quilting -- In the hoop

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Horsen Around Crib Quilt (Dinner Party pattern)-- finished 6.17.26 -- 7th finish

19.  Horsen Around Scrap Quilt -- needs blocks cut and sewn

20.  Pink Houses crib quilt -- Needs blocks made

21.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery quilt) -- in the piecing process

22.  Christmas Memories 4-patches sewn, need more

23.  Dinner Party (school print blocks) blocks cut, needs blocks sewn

24.   Layer Cake Lattice -- pink blocks cut -- needs blocks sewn

25.  True Blue Sew Along (started 1/15/26) -- needs corners sewn to blocks

26.  Zip It Sew Along -- finished 5.1.26, 1st finish this quarter

27.  Classic Meets Modern QA from 2014 -- block complete, need sashing

28.  King Rosebud embroidery quilt --finished 5.5.26, 3rd finish this quarter

29.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #1 (pinwheels)

30.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (squares)

31.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (HST and a Square)

32.  Cheddar Jack crib quilt -- cat blocks are sewn, some 2.5" squares are sewn

You can find the 2026 Spring Ravelry UFO club here.

True Blue

I started this quilt during a quilt along in January, 2026.  It's called True Blue.  I made progress on it this week.

You can see the details for the True Blue quilt along at American Patchwork & Quilting site here.

Tulip Table Runner Flimsy Complete

Yeah!  I have something to put on the longarm.  

The pattern is Tulip Table Runner --a pattern by Amy Chappeli from Ameroonie Designs.

Can't wait to load this one.  I need a small project to test my theory on the stitch regulator issue.  I'll quilt circles on this one because it's small.  If I have stitch regulator issues like I anticipate, at least it is a smaller project and I will get through it vs. a queen-sized quilt.

Slow Sunday Stitching -- Dinner Party Binding

I'm working on the binding of my Dinner Party crib-sized quilt this week.  The majority of the fabrics were given to me from Linda at Art in Search..  The fabric line is called Horsen' Around.  

This is a fun one to bind as the quality fabrics are super soft.

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

 

This week was our son's 19th birthday.  Wow, how time flies.  We left him pick where he wanted to go and plan the road trip.  He picked a mini golf place that was one hour and 45 minutes away.

Here's a pic of my husband and I.  Man I need to start losing weight again.  It's been such a struggle.  I was a ketovore for about six years (2019-2025).  I just couldn't maintain it.  This is not he heaviest weight that I have been.  I joined Weight Watchers in February of this year.  I have GAINED 7 pounds since then!  I tried the "shots" for a year (last year).  I lost 19 pounds on that but gained it back when I joined WW.  Hopefully seeing this pic on my blog will jog my memory of what I need to do.  I'm lucky right now that my knees don't hurt like they use to and that I am still mobile.  I need to look at the positives.  I can work in my flowerbeds for hours at a time.  I'm slow, but I am way more mobile than my mom ever was.  Let's just call this my "before" picture.  I had a good hair day before this photo, but it got to hot before we took a pic.  LOL

Here's a pic of my husband and his sister.  She is such an awesome friend to me and the BEST AUNT our son could ever ask for.  She is his biggest cheerleader.

A good time was had by all.

On Friday when my husband was at work, Owen was treated to dinner and a movie with his friend.

Owen's friend's dad showed Owen how he uses AI to make a cool pic.  Yes, we saw Mandalorian (a Star Wars movie).  It was cute.