A Whole Lot of Pink-ness Going On

My last week can be summed up thusly: yard work and sewing pink. But I’ll elaborate and show some pictures to make it a bit more interesting. And if it isn’t enough pink for you (and even if it is), I would recommend that you visit Angela for Rainbow Scrap Saturday HERE.

We’ll start with the birds. I only finished these four this week; the remaining 3 pink ones will be stitched next week. Hopefully I can show you them all together after that.

Next I worked on my quarter log cabins. These are 6.5” unfinished, and this month I did 12. My pink scraps are nowhere near conquered, however. I still have some crumb blocks to make plus dozens of pink HSTs I need to trim up and do something with. I may have to come up with another RSC block to begin sewing in pink.

In checking out my RSC project spreadsheet, I noticed I had planned for 8 multi-colored bow tie blocks for my ongoing RSC bow tie project. Since we aren’t doing a multicolor month this year in the RSC, I took some time to sew up these 8 multi-colored blocks from my multi-colored scrap basket.

The bow-tie block in the upper left is a mix of hot pink and orange and “reads” cooler in real life than the camera shows here. If my count is correct, I only need 16 more blocks total, split among red, teal, and orange.

Last Sunday Cousin Kim and I sewed some zipper pouches. I made three of them out of some African fabric I’ve had on hand for about 10 years (plenty more where that came from). Luckily, I made mine first, because the process was a bit fuzzy and I did mess up. Instead of correctly boxing the bottom, I was not paying attention and instead - well let’s call it a design decision. It’s the one laying down (because it can’t stand up!) The bags I made for DDIL Kim and DGD Lauren are correctly assembled. And they’re identical except for the zipper. In the picture, one shows the front and one shows the back so you can see both sides.

In other preparation this week for my trip to Africa in July, my DIL, DGD and I all made our plane reservations. We will fly from Salt Lake to Amsterdam to Nairobi on the 8th-9th of July and return home in the reverse order on the 20th. I also got to meet half of the married couple who runs the non-profit we are flying with. Her name is Marilyn and she's a Utah native who married a Kenyan Massai man. She and her baby son are back in Utah for about a month due to the death of a family member (she’s an executor of the estate). We met up and I was able to buy myself a pair of killer-beaded Massai sandals (picture soon) that she brought. I also did some other shopping, buying 3 pairs of lightweight capris because all last year’s summer clothes are too big. More clothes shopping still to come - some tops and a hat at minimum.

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About 90% of our spring yard work is done, at least for the time being. Bruce has a few drip hoses to hook up and sprinkler heads to adjust. Once he puts all his work tools back in the shed, I can set up the patio furniture later in the week. And now that I’ve planted and set out all the flower pots along the front walkway, Bruce can run drip hoses to them.

This is my bleeding heart bush. It’s past it’s prime blooming time, but it’s still massive and beautiful. It amazes me how it springs to life from such a little bit of near-nothingness after dying back for winter. But still, it only gets second place in the Spring Comeback category because first prize goes to my rhubarb plant (picture next week). We were SURE that my brother Steve had cut it all out because the ground was bare. But no, up it came and now it’s huge again and bearing the best rhubarb in amazing quantities. I’d have to open a rhubarb store if we had one more plant like it. Sometime this week I’ll get a picture of all the raised vegetable beds and show you what we’ve got planted this year. Everything has finally made its appearance above ground. Let the growing begin!

Below is the east side yard along the house. The big snowball bush hides the chimney. For some reason (you can click to enlarge the picture), there was a lot of winter kill on the bush this year. It’s still blooming, but I was hesitant to do any trimming and shaping until I could see what was really dead and what might be late blooming. We plan to have an arborist visit in the fall to prune this baby as well as the apricot tree. I had one arborist lined up earlier in the spring, but he flaked out on me.

I don’t have a full potting shed, but I do have this potting bench area in the breezeway between the carport and the patio in the backyard. The old wire grids are from my craft show days. The potting bench was a $5 estate sale find a dozen years ago. I use S-hooks on the grid to hold my shovels, secateurs, etc. And there are wind chimes too. Always wind chimes.

This is Boomer’s resting place in a corner of the backyard under the apricot tree. The sleeping cat statue marks his grave. (See the picture of Boomer side by side with this statue here). That’s chives in the front. The tall spike flowers are allium. They’re past their blooming time, too, but I love the interest they add.

My garden plans for this week are to finish the flower planting. All that’s left is the alyssum and lobelia that I plant at the front of the flower beds. Once that’s in, and the patio is set up, all I have to do is a periodic weeding patrol.

As for my weekly sewing plans, PINK pretty much sums it up. I’ll finish sewing those birds, tackle the HSTs and scraps, and begin sewing the bajillion 4.5” hearts (actually only 54) for Megan’s All you Need is Love quilt. Wish me luck.

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