Hello Hydrangeas!

The first thing I needed to do yesterday was to get out and water the flower pots and fill the bird feeders. Since my last visit to the garden, the hydrangeas have stolen the show. The variegated one has several blooms on it.

 
Its neighbor to the left was the first to bloom. The bush is small, but the flowers are big.

This pink one is on the same plant.

To its left is the largest bush, and it too is flowering now.

Sometimes it produces flowers that are half blue, half lavender, or half pink.

Around front, the darkest wine is blooming now. We're still puzzled by the brown foliage on this one. We can only think it got too dry at one point, or possibly the week-long spate of hot weather in May burned its tender new foliage. Fortunately, the flowers were not harmed.

It is covered with flowers...its best year since we planted it.

Not to be outdone, the echinacea are making a strong showing. All three plants are covered in buds.

The tallest pink is nearly fully opened.

In veggie land, the cherry tomatoes are opening. Yes, I know that tomatoes are technically a fruit, but you wouldn't put them in fruit salad, would you?

Also, there are huge blossoms on the zucchini plants now. I have some recipes stowed away to try them stuffed with cheese and fried. They're supposed to be good that way. I kind of get stuck on the "stuffed with cheese" part. Oh yes, and then there's the "fried" part. Sounds like a diet killer, and I save the killer slots for desserts.

Here's the zucchini associated with the flower, and there are more coming. I've learned that each flower has a little baby zucchini behind it, but they only mature if the flower is pollinated. Come on, Pollinators!

When I was finished outside, I got to work top-stitching the Dancing Chickens and Flying pigs quilt block. This one has a little quilt on it, as did the last one. The little squares are added individually, and so I feel a need to "quilt" in the seam-lines since they aren't lined up perfectly.

For my reference only, I've noted the settings for the "quilting" stitch. This is stitch number 308 on my Bernina 750QE, but I've shortened both the length and width of the stitch for this purpose.

It took more than two hours, but I managed to get all the machine top-stitching finished. Now it just needs hand-embroidery. This will be next when I finish the barn block for Appalachian Memories. I was thinking about the design of this block. It's created by Anni Downs, and I believe she's from Australia. See the fence below the rabbit? Is that the rabbit-proof fence?

Smitty gave this quilt block his stare of approval.

I took a little break after that, but before too long, it was time to get back at it. I was determined to get a start on the Solstice to Solstice quilt. For weeks, I've been mulling over whether I should quilt each block individually. In that case, I would use different colors of thread on top and one color on the back. Orrrrrr.....I could do an all-over design. In that case, I'd quilt the whole thing back and front with grey thread. Then I remembered these pre-wound bobbins of grey thread my friend Ila sent a while back, and that helped make up my mind. I've never used pre-wound bobbins before, and so it seemed a good time to give them a try.

My quilt is large, and so I'm not sure five bobbins will be enough. If not, I have some grey thread that is nearly the same color. If I run out, I doubt anyone will notice the difference in color, including me.

Being a large quilt, it's the first real opportunity I've had to try out this quilt suspension system I purchased a couple of months ago. This is a system designed by Patsy Thompson, and you can read more about it right here. The problem with my sit-down machine is that the bulk of large quilts will often fall off the side of the table. It makes drag as I'm trying to quilt, but in the moment it falls, it also yanks the quilt off to the side as I'm sewing. So this system of arms, bungee cords, and clamps helps keep the quilt from falling off the table.

The one complaint I've had about it is that this hook is too large. When I maneuver the quilt, it can get raised up enough to come unhooked, and then the whole point of the contraption is lost.

Enter a Man With Some Pliers, and he squoze (yeah, "squoze") that hook together so that it won't come off any more. I wondered if there would be a time when I'd want it to come off, and there might be. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it because it wasn't working the other way.

So time will tell, and I'll have more to say about whether this is helpful when I've finished this quilt. For now, I'm just getting started, and I'm using a motif my friend Marei often uses on her quilts. I always love her quilting, and so I decided to give it a try. Marei helpfully pointed me in the direction of this video to see how it's done. It's called the "Double-C." If you can't see the video, then click right here.

And I was just barely getting started yesterday, but here's how it's looking so far.

And that's pretty much how I'll be spending my day today. I'm hoping to get well along...more than half way at least...by day's end.

This week is going to get a little busier since we'll get getting ready for our camping trip next week. Of course, housework is always part of the equation, but I'll need to do some laundry, do some grocery shopping, get my hair cut, do some food prep, and get packing. We're hoping to have our boat back for this trip, and we've been told we'll have it by Friday. Fingers crossed. If not, we've got some other ideas about how to spend the time by the lake.