Two Little Finishes

The third little block for "I Believe in Snowmen" was finished yesterday, and so I'll put this project aside while I make my way through the list. When I pick this one up again, I'll be stitching the final three of the embroidered blocks.

With that finished, I made my daily trek to the greenhouse to wet things down. Along the way, I checked on my favorite blooming things. This is the fourth rhododendron to bloom. Most of its flowers have opened now.

Just getting started is the fifth and last of the rhododendrons to bloom. This is my favorite...the dark purple.

On my way to the greenhouse, I noticed the poppy again. In the image below, you can see all the buds that remain to open. It's going to be so much fun watching it. Do you think the peonies will bloom before it is finished?

Also, the golden chain tree is almost in full bloom. It has a lot of flowers this year. It's a rather scrawny thing...only planted two years ago, and then it had to survive falling over this past winter. It has only flowers right now, with no foliage to speak of. There's a big fir tree in the background, and so it's a little hard to differentiate between the two.

This is its most open flower. It still has a ways to go.

This is our third attempt at the golden chain tree. The first we planted was doing fine, but then fell over dead one day. I forget what happened to the second one...something similar I think. Both were planted in the same spot, and we believe it was too wet. This one has been relocated to higher ground, so I'm really hoping it will go. If not, we'll probably give up on the golden chain tree.

While I was standing there, Smitty came loping along. He was preparing to take a nice dust bath to wash off the Advantage on his neck furs. The kitties had a bad day yesterday.

I've switched out the suet feeder for the one that will frustrate the starlings. And look...there's one now. Don't you suppose he's mad about not being able to devour the suet cakes in a single bite?

Yesterday some blueberries we ordered arrived at the house. For now, they're hanging out with the cat grass and sunflowers in the greenhouse.

There's a place behind our garage where some butterfly bushes have become ridiculously large and ugly. (I now understand why butterfly bushes are banned from nursery sales in Oregon.) We're going to chainsaw them out this year. (By "we," I mean "he.") There are some raspberries growing there as well. Since Mike can't eat the raspberries, they're kind of a wasted effort, and so we're going to replace the whole landscaped area behind the garage with some blueberries. It's the one berry Mike can eat without problems, and I'll use them for chutneys, desserts, and baked goods. It's a logical choice.

Back inside, I finished off the top for Sweet Land of Liberty. When I wrote last, I was still deciding which fabrics to use. The fabrics I'd discussed seemed the best choices, and I added the little navy star cornerstones.

For the binding, I'll use that same red star fabric. The back will be from some scraps of this large star fabric.

This was the back for Mumm's the Word, finished back in 2017. This is my one other attempt at big stitch hand quilting. I didn't learn my lesson the first time.

Sweet Land of Liberty was my goal for May's

and so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month.

For today, I'll get going on the stitching of the next "saucer" for Pieces of the Past. I'm looking forward to moving this along. I've loved this quilt since the first time I laid eyes on it.

There are a couple of things I need to do around the house, but then I'll get going on the quilting for the Shop Hop quilt. This is another one I'll be happy to get into the finished column. The quilting will be pretty simple, and so I don't think it will take more than a few days before it will be ready for binding.

Mike had to report for jury duty this morning. Yeah...can you believe that? Jury duty is pretty easy in our county, and we thought (mistakenly) that with the quarantine, it was unlikely he would be called. Well...wrong. He's required to bring a mask or have one provided. He's taking the one I made for him a few days ago. Also, they assured him they're practicing social distancing, but somehow neither of us finds that very reassuring. I'm just surprised they'd be going ahead with jury trials with everyone in masks and spread out across the courtroom. How does that even work in a "jury box"? I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me any defendant in a criminal trial would have a good case on appeal if the trial is held with everyone's faces covered by masks. Whatever. As with so many things, no one consulted me when they embarked on this folly.

So Mike left this morning with his mask, a couple of Clif bars, and a little bottle of hand sanitizer. That means I have the place to myself for today. I should be able to get quite a bit done. We're back to our Oregon drizzle and gloom, and so I probably won't spend much time outside. It'll be a good day for sewing.