6/6/23

Pretty Peonies

Good morning, my friends. Once again, I'm writing fast. Sue and I are meeting up for breakfast, and so I have about 45 minutes to chat with y'all. Let's not waste any time, okay?

My day started with slow-stitching, as usual, and I took the last stitches on the Dwell in Possibilities piece. I was winging it (pun totally intended) with the colors, and I'm happy with how it turned out.


It's about a mug rug size. Eventually, I'll add some borders and turn it into a little wall-hanging. 

For now, I'm ready to start my next piece. This is the Summer Sun section of the Seasons quilt. It's hooped up and ready for me to take the first stitches. That will have to wait until later today or tomorrow morning.


There were some things I needed to do in the vegetable garden. Everything is still too small to make much of a picture. However, more color is appearing in the bee garden.


By the time I'd finished in the vegetable garden, the kitties were out to join me on my walk-about.


The fruiting things are coming along. I'm kind of excited about the blueberries this year. In an earlier post, I said I didn't think we would get more than a handful. Now, I'm thinking there might be two handfuls.


Some of the cherries are beginning to blush red.


When I spotted the deer in the field the other night, I thought she might have been looking for our apples. There are still apples on the tree, so apparently the she hasn't found them yet.


Plums are about olive-sized now. I won't expect these to ripen until the beginning of September at the earliest.


As for the flowers, I noticed there are roses forming on our tree rose. We rarely get any roses because the deer eat them like candy.


The lavender is heading up. This is exciting because we need lavender for our Bees Knees cocktails. The Bees Knees are a perennial favorite around here. Maybe today they will bloom.


Checking the peonies, the last peony is close to blooming. This one gets less sunshine than the others, and so it is always last in line.


Standing on the wall, I could get a birds-eye view of all the flowers. Below you can see Joker on the left and Coral Sunset on the right. To the left of this image and outside the frame is the cruel peony. We won't even talk about it.


Moving father to the left is the Fairy Princess peony.


Just before dinner, I went out again and found Garden Treasures had opened all the way. So pretty.


And here's a picture of the whole peony bed, in full bloom...except for the peony that shall not be named, of course.


In the sewing room, I made the next block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge/Homestead quilt. This one is called "Schoolhouse."


As I've mentioned before, I'm choosing blocks from the brochure I picked up when we visited Homestead National Historical Park last fall. This is what it tells us about the "Schoolhouse" block:

Settlers went West for a better life, and part of that better life was education. It was natural then, that the schoolhouse was often one of the first public buildings constructed in many communities.

The Schoolhouse block was often a variation of a house or church pattern. Most featured a side view of the building and were either pieced or appliqued. Depending on the skill of the quilter and time available to her, crosses in the windowpanes and outlines of the doors could be added.

During World War II, quilts were a way to raise money to support the Red Cross. The Signature Quilt was especially popular. Business people, store owners, and community citizens paid a small fee to have their names embroidered on quilt blocks. The finished quilt was raffled off with all proceeds going to the Red Cross. These quilts now serve as fascinating community records.

 Sadie helped by not helping.



These are the blocks I have for the Homestead quilt so far. They're different sizes, and so it will take some creative sashing when it comes time to sew them into a finished quilt.


With that finished, I went to work on the 21st Tiny House. For this, I instituted the one-hour rule. My hour included cutting the sections apart and selecting fabrics. When the sewing was done, I'd finished sections "C" through "F." Sections "G" through "O" are left to go. Sheesh. If I institute the one-hour rule for the rest, I expect I have at least two more hours of work on this.


For dinner last night I tried a new recipe I saw online from Half Baked Harvest. This is Zucchini Cacio E Pepe with Brown Butter. I know...it's an impossible-to-pronounce name, but was very easy to make, and very tasty. And I'll admit that rigatoni is one of my favorite pasta shapes. I used yellow squash in place of the zucchini, since Mike prefers it. Also, I used a three-cheese blend I found at the grocery store, rather than the parmesan and the pecorino-romano. Except for that, I made it just as written, and it was a keeper.


And that pretty well closed out the day.

When I came upstairs to write this post, Smitty asked me to let you know that he's having a terrible life again. 


Okay, and so we made it! Time for me to get on my way. Breakfast with Sue awaits my attendance. Have a good day, my friends!

7 comments:

Barbara said...

Pasta doesn't make you fat. How much pasta you eat makes you fat. ~ Giada De Laurentiis

Kate said...

The peonies are all lovely. Your moth stitchery is lovely. What's the plan for it? Is it part of a collection? Your house block reminds of one of those old English cottages with ivy all over it. Hope you had a nice visit with Sue.

Sara said...

I love pasta, and that one looks very tasty! Poor Smitty - what a tough life he has to endure. The info on the Schoolhouse block was interesting. I have a schoolhouse block quilt in the hands of a long arm quilter currently, and can't wait to get it back.

piecefulwendy said...

You said, "Jokers to the left" and I thought - her peonies are out of order. "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, and here I am . . ." Now I have that earworm going on. All that aside, your peonies are lovely (except for that one). I hope you and Sue enjoyed your time together!

Jenny said...

I can see how terrible Smittys life is, lucky cat! I always enjoy these peeks into your garden, and also what's on the menu.

karen said...

Smitty, you and your parents lead a Norman Rockwell life. Enjoy! Oh! and Sadie too , of course

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I don't think I've ever seen a 'fer-real' yellow peony so I appreciate seeing yours. Drove by a house the other day that had an entire row of white ones alongside their house and I thought why would they want ALL the same colour when there are so many other pretty ones out there.