Flowers and FNSI Results

 Here is a section of my as yet unweeded, unraked flower garden. I am in process of removing the forsythia bush...mainly because it does too well in this spot and overshadows everything else lol. It has beastly deep roots.

This was originally a vegetable garden but when I changed places of work, I no longer had time or energy to consistently devote to tending my gardens, so I removed all the raised beds and bought perennial bulbs and plants at discount prices. In here I have muscari, various types of lilies, daffodils (various types), tulips, astilbe, several types of hostas, and other plants I can't remember off the top of my head.  My ultimate goal was to create a perennial garden that blooms all summer long. Over time most of these perennials will  spread on their own, but they take some time to do so. So for the times the garden appears sparse, I add annual flowers like petunias or marigolds. I love these flowers because they are extremely hardy and so much less susceptible to frost which we can get right into June and again in September. The growing season here is so short, but I do love gardening.

I also love day lilies and have many throughout my yard. To demonstrate how hardy, and virtually indestructible they are, here are some that are in my son's old kiddy pool awaiting transplanting. They have been waiting about three years now, and yes, they do bloom here as well. Hoping I will get around to replanting them this year when we finish putting up the sections of fence along the road way. My forsythia bush will also be moved to there as well.

Okay, finally, let's get down to my FNSI...although I am showing only a small portion, I did get quite a lot of work done...

This is actually the reverse of my project, and it is easy to see why this has been dubbed "chicken scratch" embroidery. I had been doing some cross stitch prior to this project, and I found it difficult to get back to the imperfection of chicken scratch...I mean in cross stitch using aida cloth, each stitch is pretty much identical to its neighbours, in chicken scratch there is so much more room for variation in each stitch, but it really is quite lovely when done...not so the reverse of the work, but that too is acceptable =)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I worked this weekend, but also managed to finish opening the pool. The filtration system is set up, finally found the vacuum head attachment, the filter basket, etc. Tomorrow, if the nice weather continues, I will vacuum the pool, and I picked up gas for the lawn mower and, God willing, that will get done tomorrow as well. I also picked up some marigolds and cascading petunias for my hanging baskets and window boxes, as well as the earth I will need. Maybe I'll even have time to get to that tomorrow as well. Then I can take more photos....yay!

Holes, Holes, Everywhere!

Vickie M., I'm pretty sure you didn't, but thought I'd ask just in case...did you catch and relocate that armadillo that was playing in your garden?

Here is why I ask...

 sew creative, wavy patterns,

and even making tiny holes.

I am sure it cannot be my precious squirrels, for they have not touched even one tulip bulb (of which I hear they are rather fond). My beautiful perennial gardens do not seem to have been touched. One whole side of my yard remains, as yet, unscathed.

I suppose it could be a vole. They are not large, and I know for certain I did not get rid of all the white wormlike grub thingies from my yard last year. Could that be it?

I suppose I could take my photos to the local garden centre...they will likely be a good source of information. All guesses welcome...speculation adds to the fun...so bring it on!

Welcome to Quebec . . . Canadian Quilters Blogathon

If you are here via the blog party, or just because you may have taken a wrong turn....

Welcome!  

I live here with my husband, 16 year old son, and 70 year old father in a quickly growing village, about an hour's drive outside of Montreal. We used to be more rural, but that is quickly changing...progress eh? I guess I'll become "okay with change" if and when we get ourselves a serious fabric store!!

I love to dabble in many things, and am seriously proficient in none. I like knitting, mainly dishcloths and other small projects, a tidbit of crochet, cross-stitch, sewing---skirts for myself mainly, and of course curtains and such. I am sew hoping to finally teach myself to knit socks sometime this winter...seems I knit them inside out and can't for the life of me straighten them out LOL

I also love to garden---perennial flowers, vegetables, small fruit trees. My favourite time of year is Spring. I find it amazing to watch the world come back to life after such a long deep freeze...and of course I get to play in the dirt again...the joy of any gardener.

 Marigold started from seed

 I just love the variety of colour of lilies...

 

and of irises.

 Last January we had such a deep freeze...everything was coated in ice!

I am a newbie to the quilting world. I have one quilt completed...a gift for my sister-in-law.

I am seriously not a photographer but the love that went into creating this quilt was beyond enormous; and so many prayers for health.

The second quilt in my 2 quilt arsenal is not yet completed...but somehow will be for my son for tomorrow...

He just loves Dr. Who and the 50 year anniversary special is tomorrow.

Thank you sew for stopping by. I have really enjoyed this Blogathon...there are so many creative sewers, crafters, and quilters out there. Thank you for your inspiration!

Thank you to 

for hosting this blog hop...and for supplying so many wonderful prizes!

A renewed passion

I have begun cross stitching again. I am gratefully back into a season of life that allows me to craft again. I have been sewing, cross stitching, knitting, crocheting, and dreaming of future projects. It has been almost two years with no crafting. I think I may have been in a real low spot, because creating little things is such an encouraging endeavor.

Anyway, I am baaaccckk. Thank you Lord!Here are a few photos for you.

This was a gift for my granddaughter's 4th birthday in April. A crayon roll...

 for twistable crayola crayons

 and an apron (front)

 (back)

 for crayola twistable "pencil crayons". This project was a lot of fun to make, because I learned to make my own bias binding from an online tutorial, as well as this apron. Oh, and of course the crayon roll was a free online tutorial as well.

 I belong to a Yahoo group called "Monthly Dishcloths" where we receive 2 free patterns per month. They are KALs; one on the first of the month, and the second begins the fifteen of the month. We receive emails over about 5 days with approximately 10 rows per day. The cloth design is a mystery until completed. We have made some very pretty cloths.

 I love knitting these up and either using them myself or giving them away as gifts. I had stitched some simple crochet ones, with edging, but it seems I never took any photos. I donated them all last month to a fund raiser at the Day Centre my father attends. They raise funds for various activities for those seniors who attend the sessions weekly. I also crocheted a wheelchair wrap which I donated to them early this year as a prize for the resident's bingo session.

 I also love to garden. My irises came up beautifully this year. God sure gave us beautiful things to look at!

 Finally, I have resumed cross stitching. This is a bookmark I made last week...back view first :)

 And here is the front. Personally, I prefer the King James version of the fruits of the spirit, but this was a free design. I'm thinking of giving this one to my mother-in-law.

And I am currently working on the following free design...As Ye Sew So Shall Ye Rip

I'm onto the backstitching now so hoping to complete over the weekend, but there is a lot of stitching to do.

First Sightings

Today is a day of firsts. Spring has been sprung from winter's grasp...we won't count that tiny bit of snow left on the side of the house where the sun doesn't really reach.

The dandylions are coming out. Pretty yellow things that herald the coming of butterflies and bees. Speaking of butterflies, I saw my first of those this year. Sized between a quarter and a loonie.

Something I saw, heralds the coming of my lilies. I saw my first red lily bug. Last year, I left them alone thinking something so pretty couldn't be harmful. Harump!

I did manage to have some pretty blooms as you can see in the photo below. However, if you look closely at the photo, you will also notice holes in leaves and closed flower blossoms.

 In the next picture, if you look at the leaves, you will see a picture of the horrible destroyer bug. The ominous red lily beetle. This innocuous looking little beetle mated on all my asiatic lilies, left awful looking clumps of slime covered slug like babies that ate everything. Metamorphosed and started mating and procreating again. EEEWWW!

 You can see the "babies" on the stems of this plant, and the results of their destructive tendencies.

This year, I researched the life and habits of the red lily beetle. Seems my best shot is to get out there in spring, and seek out the beetle and crush each one as I find them. So today when I spied my first beetle I picked up two leaves off the ground and crushed the little thing between. Squeemish, but totally doable considering the alternative.

Then I went to the next section of my garden where I planted lilies and set out to seek and destroy. By the third beetle I decided to forgo the leaves and just did it bare handed. Totally gross but I do not want to lose my lovely plants again this year ( I read they only get worse) to some mettlesome little bugs that do not benefit my garden in any way. It didn't take long to get over my squeamishness. This is an out and out war. If I cannot control the beetle infestation, I will have to get rid of my lilies and I am not quite ready to do that.

I have lots of the standard orange day lilies. These don't seem to be bothered by this particular pest. The local IGA had a sale two years ago on the asian lilies and since they are perennials that increase in size each year I just had to have them in my garden. Their beauty however, comes at the cost of a tiny beetle.

My plum trees took a bit of beating this winter.

First we had snow and ice:

 Then more snow in between these two pictures. And then, more ice as seen in the picture below.

Here you can see that we had plenty of snow. The worst is that the snow banks were going down and we had a major dumping her. I took this picture of one of the dogs just to see the level of snow. He really had to crawl to get into his house.

Here you can see some of the broken branches before I cut them off.

There were quite a few. One plum tree has only the top two branches left. And many trees in our cedar hedge will need to be staked in an effort to bring them up straight again. The snow was so wet and heavy that it bent over the tops in the first snow storm, and the second snow storm caused many tops an branches to pass the winter caught in the resulting snow banks.

 Here is a gratuitous shot of a marigold plant started in early March that is now getting ready to bloom. When I hold the plant to my nose, like tomatoes, marigolds have their own distinctive smell and it so reminds me of a warm summer day.

 Have a great day.