Category: gardening

gardening · photos · quilting

Sunflower at Night

Wild Rose Quilter10 Comments

First, I need to give y’all a quick update on the baby girl, Riley, that was fighting e. coli.  She made it!  I don’t know any other details, teenagers are not the best relayers of info, but she is home.  Apparently, she’s been home for a bit, but he forgot to tell me.

I ran out and took these pics of the sunflower, Sunday evening.  Glad I did, as a storm blew in last night, and blew it over.  The stalk is pretty damaged, but I propped it back up and staked it.  I don’t know if it will make it or not.  I hope so, as it has more blooms yet to open.  I will look at it at lunch today, and make a decision as to whether I should just cut it and put it in a vase and hope the rest still open.  Here’s a ridiculous amount of pictures of it…I couldn’t choose a favorite to share, so enjoy!  As I’ve mentioned, I’m taking an online art quilting class…hmmm….

butterflies · caterpillars · gardening · Mark Lipinski · quilting · stash busting

Sunday Reporting

Wild Rose Quilter6 Comments

With the traveling this past week, there’s not much quilting progress to report.  However, I made some purchases while in Midland, but NOT fabric.  I went to Hobby Lobby in search of some applique supplies recommended by Sharon Schamber.  I bought some Liquid Stitch and some basting glue.  I also bought some Sulky medium weight water soluble stabilizer, for a freeform scarf project I saw on Fons & Porter.  Who knows when I will have time to play with it, but at least I have some stuff…lol.  I also went to Barnes & Noble and picked up the latest edition of Quilter’s Home.  Mark’s Quiltzilla article is hysterical! I also bought a mag I hadn’t seen before, Quilting Arts.  And I found a copy of The Persian Pickle Club.  I’ve already read it and enjoyed every minute. 

We had a freeze warning last night, and I had a little grape tomato plant that already had some blooms and two tiny tomatoes on it.  I carefully put some batting scraps over it and around it to protect it, and when I uncovered it this morning, I discovered that in the process of trying to protect it, I knocked off the little stem with the ‘maters.  Waaaa! And it only got to 34 last night…shoulda left it alone. 

Now, I’m hoping someone can solve a mystery for me.  I have this plant in the front yard.  It was here when we moved in…can anyone tell me what it is? It blooms early every spring.

Before I left town last Sunday, I was in my yard filling my bird feeders, and almost stepped on this in the grass. Thank goodness I saw it!

My first Swallowtail Butterfly of the year.  Apparently, it had recently come out of it’s chrysalis, and was trying to dry out it’s wings.  I helped it get to higher ground.  I’m glad I already have some parsley coming up, and I have planted some dill seeds already, just so they can lay their eggs on it, and I will have more caterpillars this year.  If you have found my blog, by searching for what kind of caterpillars are eating your dill or your parsley, they are Swallowtail butterflies.  Please spare a bit of your garden for them.  Give them a chance to find their wings.

It won’t be long, and I bet I have pics of it’s offspring munching happily in my garden.  Have a great day!

gardening · quilting

Sunday, Sunday

Wild Rose Quilter12 Comments

I guess I will tend to the stash report first, and just get that confession done and over with.  The fabric I mentioned in a previous post finally arrived.  So no stash busting here, oh no…only stash enhancing…to the tune of 45 yards.  But it’s so pretty…and it was so cheap.  The two bolts on the outside only cost me $2.77 per yard, with the shipping charges added.  The gorgeous Kauffman in the middle was $3.02 per yd with shipping added.  My justification for the light blue and pale olive green fabrics are that they will make fabulous backings for the quilts I am going to make with my current stash.  The Kauffman…well…I just love that one.  And I wanted it.  So I got it. 

I am going to try to work on getting a UFO finished this week, so I can finally subtract some yardage from my stash, before Judy kicks me out of the stash busting crew! Be sure to check out my new blog page on the tab above, Quilting Projects 2008, to find my new Stash Tracker page.  Thanks to Michele, for giving me this idea!

I went to the grand opening of a local greenhouse yesterday.  Not a new greenhouse, but new ownership.  I bought four patio tomatoes, which I already potted, and eight Mucho Nacho jalapeno plants,  four cherry tomatoes, and two grape tomatoes.

 

How about some pretty color? I bought three colors of daisies.  I’m going to give these a try in my front flower bed. 

And lastly, some celosia.  I have no previous experience with this plant, but I thought it was really pretty, and am going to put some in a pot in the front flower bed, along with some rose of sharon moss or something.  You can click on this pic and make it larger if you want a better look.

I still don’t have the gallery thing completely figured out.  I can post several thumbnails at once, but I haven’t figured out how to mix the two options.  I can still only either add one pic at a time, or ALL the pics for one post in one bunch.  Are you supposed to load them all at once, then move them around with edit?  Anyone know?  I’ll see if can relate what I’m trying to say more clearly.  I loaded the fabic pic first, individually.  Then I wanted to load the vegetable pics all at once.  There were two of them, I loaded them together, went to my post and typed in the gallery command.  Previewed my post, and they were there, but so was the fabric pic thumbnail, which I didn’t want.  So, I had to delete that and add them one by one.  Make sense?  So unless I want all the pics in one spot on my post, like down at the bottom, which I rarely do, what good is the gallery option? I must be missing something…

My plans for the rest of the day are to work on getting the binding added to the Wild Onion jacket that I made.  Then I can get that yardaged out of my stash, and it can go to it’s new home with my Mom.  I am going to work on the piecing of the commissioned log cabin I’m working on.  That has a May deadline, as it’s a graduation gift.  Those will be good projects to work on while I watch NASCAR at Texas Motor Speedway.  Of course, I will be doing laundry in the middle of that.  Guess I better get going and get busy!

daily life · gardening · photos · quilting · trees

Just Yard Stuff Pics

Wild Rose Quilter8 Comments

Well, I don’t have anything new to report on the quilting front, so how about the rest of those piddling around the yard photos I promised.

This is my little plum tree.000_4550.jpg

000_4610.jpg000_4609.jpg I just thought these leaves at the tip top of it looked pretty.  Reminded me of pretty fabric, or a pretty art quilt. This pic is just to give you a perspective of where they are on the tree.000_46141.jpg  Day lillies that came from one little sprig, in a stryrofoam cup, brought home by a 1st grader, for Mother’s Day.  These are also one of the things that make me happy when I see them.000_4587.jpg000_4598.jpgAnd lastly, a hosta blooming.000_4616.jpg

butterflies · caterpillars · daily life · gardening · photos

Caterpillars & Dill

Wild Rose Quilter18 Comments

As some of you know, I have been fascinated by the caterpillars I discovered earlier this year, eating my dill.  A little research told me that they will turn into beautiful swallowtail butterflies.  I was having so much fun watching them munching away.  I would watch them grow, from hatching out of their eggs, to big fat cats, about ready to go into their cocoons.  One evening, I informed my husband that a whole new batch of babies had hatched.  I had about three or four big ones left, and then varying sizes in between them and the hatchlings.  I went out to the dill patch during my lunch hour the next day, and all the big ones were gone.  I figured they had gone off to make cocoons.  Then I noticed the babies were mostly gone, as well as the others.  I found a couple midsize ones, laying on the ground wriggling around dying, with their little orange protector things sticking out on their head.  They poke these orange antenna looking things out when they are threatened, and they emit a bad odor.  I have no idea if they were attacked by ants, wasps, or just what was happening to them, but I was sad.  😦  So, to try to make this long story a little shorter, some more hatched, and I found them dead not much later, just hanging there on the dill.  More eggs have since shown up.  This time, I’ve been waiting for them to hatch.  We did get rid of an ant bed that had appeared under the dill, also, just in case the ants were the bad guys.  I went out and cut the dill stems that had babies on them, and yes, I brought them inside.  So far, so good.  I have left a few outside, to see if they fare better than the others.

These are some of the ones I brought indoors.

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These are pics of ones outside, and then, as I was taking a picture of them, I realized how really pretty the dill looks, and just starting taking pics of the dill.

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000_4505.jpg    000_4510.jpg   000_4530.jpg

000_4505.jpg  So then, that started me off on one of those “run around the yard and see what else I can find to take pictures of” sprees.  Therefore, over the next few days, I will be sharing pics with you of the things that caught my eye.  Hope you enjoyed the caterpillar-dill show!  There will be progress reports 🙂 .  I leave you with one of my favorite pics, that I took earlier this summer of a couple of the big ones.          000_4436.jpg