Cutting, sewing, yardwork and music

It was a busy three days! I finished sewing together the first of the tops made with the leftovers from the 16 patch quilt. It measures 41" x 50.75"

I cut solid strips to go with the print strips already hanging on the design wall.

I sewed some of the strips together and sliced them into units to add to the next baby quilt top. I decided to turn the strips 90 degrees to see what that would look like. Here is the top with the two left side rows sewn. They shrank a lot!

I still have a pile of strips to sew together and piles of units to sew into blocks. Look at the design wall where I had all the strips hanging; it is almost empty!

Friday night my nephew had a show. They played for one hour to a sold out crowd and everyone seemed to enjoy the show. They got a standing ovation! The place they played was very nice. Load in was easy, there were VIP areas, food trucks, and the background was beautiful with all the trees.

Michael played one song while walking thru the crowd; people really liked it.

I spent at least 7 hours over the three days mowing, trimming grass and bushes, and pulling weeds. I spent the most time outside working on Saturday morning since the rain was to roll in later in the day. 4 1/2 hours of that and I was tired! It didn't stop raining until about 4 p.m. on Sunday. I needed to check on my plants in pots to make sure they were not drowning and since it was so nice outside I decided to do a bit of weeding in the cora bell bed. Here is the before and after.

It looks better, but I was not happy that the deer have been nibbling my plants. Well, that has got to stop so I decided to dig up some small Lenten roses and plant them among the cora bell plants. The Lenten roses are poisonous to deer. If they are rooting around especially at night they won't want to take a chance of eating a Lenten rose leaf. At least that is my plan. I will have to see if it works out.

I only transplanted eight plants and I think I need a few more. I know my big bed of Lenten Roses will have more little plants; I just need to crawl around and find them. The Lenten roses are slow growing so they won't get too big and need to be transplanted for at least 3 years. Right now this bed is a mess! I need to get the rocks situated, dig out the volunteer thing growing up there in the middle, dig out the grass and pull weeds. It is on my list of things to do.

The cora bell bed had come a long way in the last year. This is what it looked like last spring.

I did a lot of edging too. The back yard along the house needed some attention. Here is the before and after of the area by Lenten Rose bed. So much better!

The first roadside day lily bloomed

The coneflowers are blooming

The Shasta daisies are so close to blooming. It is going to be so pretty to drive up the cul-da-sac and see all those white flowers! I just have to make sure I dead head them this year so they will keep blooming.