Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Summer Gardens

Hello Gentle Readers. July winds down with high heat and humidity.  As my Grandad used to tell me, "this is tomato growing weather." This year we planted one cherry, one Juliet - a small Roma, and one plant that produces medium sized fruit. Between the tomatoes and watermelon from a corner stand, we are getting plenty of lycopene.

In the pollinator garden, the butterfly bush blooms around a volunteer coneflower. A few yellow coreopsis bob in the sun. The lavender fades. I have seen only a handful of butterflies this year although the bumble bees thrive. 

Today's post is linked with Kat and the Unravelers. I am hand quilting this little quilt. It may seem odd to have a quilt on my lap in the summer but as an educator, I often used the less busy time to plan and sew. My sewing machine and the table for projects are on the edge of a large finished room in the walk-out basement. It's a cool well lighted place to work on a hot summer day. Previously I posted about this quilt here and here. I am making good progress. I have two blocks as well as some pain-in-the-neck sashing to quilt and then I'll attach the binding. 

I bent the rules on this quilt. I don't know anything about the maker of the flower garden blocks. I picked them up somewhere, either at a garage sale or in a second hand shop. They are neatly pieced and lay flat but the seam allowance was almost 1/8 of an inch. I used a blanket stitch along the raw edges to applique´ the blocks to muslin squares. There is no outside border because I used fabrics I had on hand. I am hand quilting it without a hoop so it's going to have a slightly puffier surface. I don't know whether I like that or not.  

Under the category of "What was I thinking?" I am quilting a twining ivy motif in the sashing. I had the template and thought it a nice compliment to the flowers but it can't be stitched in one continuous line. There is quite a bit of beginning and ending of the quilting thread, unlike the motif just above the template. Once quilted, it doesn't show on some of the sashing prints. In the beginning it was pain in the neck to stitch but I've learned to enjoy the stitching. I do love hand quilting and it's never too late to learn something about one's work. This is a quilt meant to feature the flower garden blocks and won't be used on a bed so it is a nice summer project.  

I am reading Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature by Farah Jasmine Griffin. In this book Griffin shares her understanding of the writing and music of her community. This nonfiction is organized around themes of mercy, justice, love, beauty, anger, and grace. In a rich thought provoking discussion, Griffin explores those themes from the viewpoint of the community as well as the literature. The memoir portions trace the legacy from her parents and family as well as the gift of her father's love of literature. He died when she was nine years old. Griffin is the inaugural chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department and a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. I hope she continues in these positions. She writes beautifully and makes elegant connections. If you seek to better understand the work of Toni Morrison, Phillis Wheatley, Fredrick Douglass or any other black artist, this would be a book to read. While some works she discusses are familiar to me, others are not. 

I'll leave you with a photo of a sweet little bouquet. I managed to find some flowers among the very weedy strip of perennial flowers. I hope you have a good week and see some flowers among the weeds. 


    

9 comments:

  1. First, what a sweet bouquet you foraged, Jane. I love the gentle mix of blooms. Your flower quilt sounds like perfectly wonderful summer project. I always prefer the "puffier," hand stitched quilts myself (looking at them, I mean, because I've never quilted myself). I love the twining ivy motif, and think it will be perfect to show off the flowers of the quilt. And the book sounds fascinating. Your book choices always inspire! Enjoy these hot, tomato-growing days, Jane. XO

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  2. I'm glad to hear that these hot, humid days are good for something! I'm not a big fan but I was hanging out laundry yesterday and the kids next door were having fun jumping on their trampoline. I resisted being a curmudgeonly old lady and asking them if they thought it was too hot for all that jumping, so maybe I need to adjust my attitude a little. I don't think that blanket stitching the flowers was "bending the rules"; I think it was honoring the maker of the flower garden blocks, even if they aren't known to you. It's a lovely quilt!

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  3. That is a lovely bouquet you've gathered --- so nice to see colors when everything here is a bit brown from all the heat! The quilt you're working on may be unconventional, but I think it's lovely. Hand stitching takes time but is a good reminder that that how all quilts used to be made.

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  4. The ivy quilting is beautiful. Sometimes SLOW stitching is just the thing to do in this hot weather.

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  5. Your little flower bouquet is lovely Jane. I picked a few snap dragons the other day...some of them are already wilting. The quilt will be wonderful. Like Kym, I have never quilted, but I like the puffier look. We have a quilt from Fletcher's grandmother's farm. It's too heavy to use (backed in wool), but I love seeing it on the back of a loveseat.

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  6. Lovely little bouquet and your description of the garden makes me feel like I am there. I applaud your quilting efforts. I am a lazy hand quilter, lots of straight lines that don’t need to be marked for me!

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  7. Your little quilt is so beautiful, and I love the little flower bouquet. You always seem to read interesting sounding intellectual things. I hope your week is going well. See you again soon!

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  8. As always, you provide the loveliest little oasis from the chaos of the world, Jane. Thank you! I have not hand quilted anything in years... but you are right, there is a soothing rhythm to the process. I find the same soothing rhythm in daily stitching... it allows me to slow down and be still... even if only for a half an hour, it makes a dramatic difference. That little "found" bouquet is just so sweet and I will join with Bonny in celebrating that this weather is perfect for tomatoes! (it might be the only thing good about it! Ha ha!)

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  9. What lovely soft colours you have gathered together in your little quilt, they definitely give it a floral country look. I often think as we age we need (and appreciate) that calming feeling gained from hand stitching -even something as mundane as sewing on a button……I know I do.
    Do I see Sweet Peas in your little posy? My mother’s favourite flower, one she could cultivate better than anyone I know

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