Backyard Landscaping

Frank [our landscaper] who we've known for over 20 years decided

this project was big enough to bring out the heavy duty

machinery.  Thank goodness he did because to move that

mound of bed dirt would have taken lots and lots of man hours.

That's one thing about Frank's crew is that they work

 and they work hard.  Frank isn't the cheapest landscaper

here on the eastern shore but I can guarantee things

are moved and re-planted perfectly.

There was one plant we just didn't have room for and that was

our beautiful Thunder Head Pine.  I believe one of the guys

took it home for his yard.  That makes me happy. 

The Thunder Head Pine is what you see in the 

middle of the bed that Frank is working around.

All planted and mulched.  We may stick a few more plants

in the bed when spring arrives but what we have in there

now will fill in nicely.  I did get 3 packages of spring bulbs to

plant and will hopefully get that project done this week.

I love this bed being closer to the house.  It's simple

but adds interest to the yard when looking out from the house.

Our view from the back porch.

The vanilla strawberry hydrangea plant flowers are starting to turn.

Being closer to the house it's nice to be able to see them.

The landing strip!  We had Frank do a single strip

of tilled earth to mark our property line.  Wilson ordered

two different blends of wild flowers which have all

ready been put down.  We have our fingers crossed they

will winter over and pop out in spring.  I had the crazy idea

of planting a row of daffodils as a marker of our property

line until we decide what we want to do permanently.

Berries of the Winterberry bush.

The ginkgo tree ... we are hoping this one makes it.

An interesting fact in case you didn't know ... a ginkgo 

tree drops all its leaves in one day.

I went looking for mum's and rescued the last 

cone flower plant from Lowe's.  Fall officially starts tomorrow!

 

4 Quick Charity Quilts

While my Bernina was in the spa for service I decided to

do a little re-organization my fabric.   I pulled a lot of pieces

leftover from other projects and cut them up in various

size squares and 2-1/2" strips that I could use for

scrappy bindings.   Outreach has these tops already for the

next step in the process.

Just how many stitches registered on my Bernina: 5.6 Million

While I did buy this pre-owned all of these were not mine.

At first I thought that was a lot of stitches until I read a post

on the Bernina 700 Facebook group when someone posted

a whopping 70 million stitches on her machine.  

The nautical quilt I thought about keeping but decided not to.

I already have a box full of tops that need to be completed 

[some day] and decided not to add to the pile.

I'm working on a new pattern called "Tea Time" from Donna

Jordon of Jordon Fabrics.  It has nothing to do with 'tea' and

I wonder how in the world do the designers of patterns come

up with these names.

 

Lancaster: A Quick Trip & Pine Cone Lodge Flannel

My sister and I decided to take a quick trip to Lancaster for 

a little fabric shopping.

Another way of life.

In the buggy ... a little girl with her dad.

A field of sunflowers.

I didn't buy a lot of fabric which was very unusual for me.

What I did find and buy were several 'flat folds' of fabric for

$3.99 per yard.  There is no cutting a 'flat fold' so what's there

is what you have to purchase.  This was purchased mainly

for all the charity quilting I do.

Pine Cone Lodge 

Was my fabric from Jennifer this month.

It's a 2-ply flannel which is so much thicker and better 

than you will find in JoAnn's.

I only received a 1/2 yard cut so I made two lap quilts.

To view the Pine Cone Lodge collection please visit the

Henry Glass & Co., Inc website at:

https://www.henryglassfabrics.net/pine-cone-lodge-2-ply-flannel/

 

Backyard Bed

 

This little pink crepe myrtle is from a volunteer seed that

found it's way into our yard.  We moved it from the back

bed to join the other white crepe myrtles.  I'm thinking

in the spring we may make this area into a mulched bed.

The workers will be here tomorrow morning to finish

up the new bed.  They have a full days worth of

 garden maintenance work to do for us.

We love the way the new bed looks from the back

 porch as well as from the front yard.   We

decided to have our landscaper make the bed about 2

feet larger figuring it would be cheaper to make it

bigger now than in the future.  If you know us we will

be adding a few more new plants in the fall.   

Last Week: Projects Completed

Tooth Fairy Pillows

Last week was a busy week in the sewing department.

The Tooth Fairy pillows will be going to my cousin's

grand daughters with Halloween pillowcases.

Rag Letters

I mailed a big and heavy box to The Child's Haven.

Rag Letters are perfect to make with leftover fabric

and batting.  I sent one set to see if the instructors

liked them as well as if they felt they could use them.

30 small masks for the kids.

4 Fall Napkins

6 Fall Napkins

There were 10 Thanksgiving placemats I had left after

I donated 14 to Outreach to pass along.  I'm on a kick

to clear things out of my sewing room and get it

organized a little better.

The 10 placemats & 10 napkins went to The Child's Haven.

They have two auctions scheduled and are looking

for items to add so I'm trying to do my part.

To jazz the placemats up I did a different fancy 

stitch which runs down each side of the placemat.

This panel was only $2.95 so I purchased 4.

How could I not!!

This went to Rebekah [my contact at The Child's Haven]

to give to her grandson Palmer either now or at Xmas.

The batik quilt is from the last collection of free fabric Jennifer sent.

I sent this out to The Child's Haven for an auction item as well.

Jennifer sent me my fabric selection for this month.

It's called Pine Cone Lodge and it's flannel.  I have a

half yard of the entire collection so I'm trying to decide

what to make with it.  In the meantime ... I'm working on a

few simple quilts for Outreach using odds and ends 

leftover from other projects.

 

30 Kid's Masks

 

The Finished Mask

I haven't mentioned that Blogger has a new platform which I don't

like at all.  When I take pictures from my computer into Blogger they

are download from the first photo to the last photo which is the way

the old Blogger would actually post them onto my new post page.

In the new format for some reason Blogger takes the last

photo and makes it the first photo on my new page.

I'm not happy about this at all!

So what this means is ... instead of me showing the steps of a

project from the beginning to the end it shows the end to the beginning.

I know there must be a way to change the order but I haven't figured it out yet.

The Child's Haven requested more masks for the kids so I sent them two different

sizes to see which one worked better.  The smallest of the two is what

they felt worked the best for the age kids they have.

Making masks is an okay project until you have to set the elastic 

in place on the sides then it becomes a little tedious.

I'm hoping 30 kids masks will hold them for a period of time. 

While I know they must have other sewers supporting the school

I also know you can never have enough of anything when it

comes to school age kids.  

Making Kids Smile

These are my cousin's three grand daughters

showing off the items I made just for them.

Over the years I've discovered little girls love the

colors pink and purple and unicorns and mermaids.

I love sewing and it's double the fun when I know who

the recipient[s] will be.  In simple terms ...

the smile of a child is priceless.

Happy Labor Day Weekend