Two Finishes

Today is my blogiversary! Imagine that! Eleven years of constant prattle about this and that...yammering on about every little thing...and here you are, my blogging friends. Thank you. It's been so much fun getting to know you. Just as an FYI, it's the last day to enter my giveaway. Head on over here and leave a comment to enter. Winner will be announced tomorrow.

It was a fairly busy day yesterday. I really wanted to finish up the bear quilt, and so I substituted Mr. Bear for my morning slow stitching. I'm still limiting myself to two lengths of thread to save my poor thumb. My thumb has improved quite a bit, and I'm feeling more optimistic about the final outcome. Nevertheless, I'm still limiting my slow stitching times. Yesterday's session took me around the third corner.

It seemed like a good time to take a walk around. There aren't many flowers left, most having already done their blooming for the season. The daylilies are still going great guns, however.

As they fade, their neighbors to the left, the echinacea, are taking over. I have three colors of echinacea, but this dark pink one is the only one blooming so far.

To their left are some hydrangeas. This variegated one gets full sun, and so its foliage can get a little cooked on hot days.

To its left is this blue one in full shade, and it is covered in blossoms right now.

I wish I could get a better picture of this potted calibrachoa. In the sunshine, it appears iridescent. My camera can't seem to capture that part of it. The bees love it too.

The tomatoes are doing well in the greenhouse. This is the one "slicer" we planted. The rest are all Romas for sauce. The tomatoes are about the size of racquetballs now. The white powdery residue you see on its leaves is sulfur dust to keep sucking insects away. I've found if I use it liberally and early, the tomato foliage stays nice all season long.

In the vegetable garden, I went peeking into the centers of the cornstalks looking for tassels. I was not disappointed. Several are starting to form now.

Another sunflower has begun to open. This one is called White Nite. I've had a hard time growing this one. Of the three I planted, only this one has survived. I'm a little surprised by its bright yellow color since pictures would have it a lighter shade.

Some of the other flowers still in tight buds have attracted some ladybugs in various colors.

Around the front of the house, the Black-Eyed Susans are getting ready to bloom. The squirrels have been digging in this pot, and killed off a few of them. I'm hoping to get a whole whiskey barrel full of these, but I'll probably have to plant more next year.

Finally, remember when I showed you the wisteria about two weeks ago? It looked like this on June 27th:

I mentioned then that it seemed to be growing about a foot a day. Now it has climbed high enough to begin wrapping itself around the horizontal wires on the front porch fascia. It continues to put out more and more tendrils, and we are training them to climb the pole rather than the tree to its right.

Okay, so back inside, I had canning to do. After I got the barbecue sauce simmering on the stove top, I decided to bite the bullet and get busy sewing apples to the farm quilt. When I had two of them finished, I looked hard at it. These "beads" are really buttons, and they seemed too large to my eyes. I wasn't liking where this was going at all.

I looked at some of the smaller apple "beads" and smaller trees and decided to bag this whole effort. I removed the two I'd sewn on. Then, I looked at the cow bell, and decided that wasn't necessary either. Looking at the whole quilt, I decided to call it finished. The binding was finished back on June 23rd, and so I'm calling it this quilt's finish date. It's my current oldest UFO (although not a record-holder, by any means). Now it is my newest finish, and I'm glad of it. I need to get Mike to hold it up so I can get a better picture, but here's how it looked when I finished sewing the binding.

It was time to process the jars of Sweet Cherry Barbecue Sauce by then. When they were finished, my yield was five half-pints. 

This is so yummy, and it's pretty easy to make too. It only takes three pounds of cherries, and so you don't have to have a tree to make it yourself. Also, it can be frozen if you're not into canning.

Okay, and I was determined to finish up the quilt binding for Mr. Bear, and so I spent the rest of the afternoon stitching, stitching, stitching. After turning the fourth corner, there was just a little more to do.

And that was my second finish for the day. It ends up at 41 x 51 inches.

Here's how it looks from the back.

This was my goal for July's

so I'll be linking up when the party starts at the end of the month.

There was still time left in the day, and so I decided to make up the last block for Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs. This one is called "Pleasures of a Peaceful Life."

This will be next on the slow-stitching circuit. I always wait too long to make up the block for slow-stitching, and so I wanted to get a head start. Smitty was on helper cat duty yesterday.

By day's end, it was ready for top-stitching, and that will be my sewing goal for the day.

There's grocery shopping on today's agenda. We can only put it off for so long. We'll be running a few errands on today's trip. I need to stop at the post office to pick up a box for mailing the bear quilt to its new home. Then, we need to drop off a box of junk at Goodwill. It's good junk, but you know...one woman's trash...and then we'll do our grocery shopping. There's one more canning project on today's list, and then the rest of the day will be spent sewing. 

I want to finish off the Sonora Desert quilt, but I'm still waiting for some fabric. It is supposed to be delivered today. Next up, I'll be making another block for the Ties & Tails quilt. Here's where I left it last time.

Okay...so another busy day ahead. What's on your agenda for today?