Slow Stitching Hexies and Garden Musings

 Well, friends, it seems that I am saying hello once again after a long absence. For the few who still visit, all these years later, you know that much has happened in the past ten years. I spent time recently scrolling through old posts, and I cannot believe that this blog began in 2008. That's getting dangerously close to twenty years ago! What a different world it is today. Not only for me, but the blogging community. It is very different from when I began blogging, as a way to stay connected and talk about quilts and gardening while staying home with my children-to now. I don't come across nearly as many personal blogs anymore. I miss those! I did eventually grow into long arm quilting as a business, but this blog primarily was a diary of those days and remained a way to document my quilting and gardening life over the years. Even the quilting community online has changed dramatically. Facebook and Instagram seem to be where everyone connects now. You can find me on both of those platforms, but I think I still have a place in my heart for the personal connection only found in silly little personal blogs. 

I have been sewing. Can you believe that? And not just a little bit of sewing. I've been my regular obsessed self with sewing. Right now, my obsession is English paper pieced (EPP) hexies.

    

I started these primarily because it was difficult to get myself in front of a sewing machine with a toddler in the house. It's still difficult, but as small children grow, things become easier. I paused on my blue and cream quilt mostly because I wasn't sure how I was going to piece those diamonds. Now I think I will EPP them. What accuracy! I used cotton thread because I had a dwindling spool of it for piecing, but then later read how wonderful bottom line works for hand piecing. While it was basically invisible from the front, I also couldn't see it very well for stitching! I resumed using the cotton, and though I can see the stitches from the front, I think they will disappear if I stitch in the ditch. I also tried some Glide thread that I have an abundance of laying around from my long arming days. It also stitched up nicely and the best part was-I could see it! I am undecided if I will hand quilt or machine quilt this though. It feels like it should be hand quilted, doesn't it? If for nothing else because it is hand pieced. I did buy some pink Perle cotton and wide-eyed needles to stitch it with if I go the hand quilting route.

And if you've visited my blog before, then you know I love gardening almost as much as I love quilting. I'm a plant collector. Some of you who collect fabric can probably relate.

There is no rhyme or reason to my plant collecting other than I focus on perennials and just a few annuals. I just love that you can throw a small baby little perennial in the ground, and it will grow back twice as big the next year and the year after that it will have given you more baby plants of that same perennial. So, what I'm saying is it's a thrifty way to grow a garden, if you care to be thrifty.

This beautiful iris was already living in this wild and sprawling garden bed when we purchased the property. It is blooming and absolutely beautiful! I love irises and have had many over the years in all the different homes I've lived in. I think I need a few more, don't you?

I went back through posts, and it looks like it was ten years ago that I planted pumpkins in my back yard! Initially that was why I named this blog "pumpkin patch quilter." Because I love to quilt, and I think I had the most fun growing pumpkins of all the things I have grown. There is something special about growing pumpkins with small children too. They don't care nearly as much about the flowers, but the pumpkins! Those are special and a symbol of fall fun! So, this year I'm trying my hand at it again. I planted Jack Be Little's, mini pumpkin gourds, and lemon-yellow sunflowers in this patch below. I'm going to plant some container zinnias in those pots, but I just haven't gotten out to do it yet. At this rate I won't have blooms until October. I better get planting. Today I spent most of my garden time pulling lily of the valley from the aforementioned sprawling garden bed. Boy does that stuff spread!

I think that is all I have to share for now, but rest assured, if you are still blogging out there and talking about your quilts and gardens-I'll be reading! I have really been enjoying playing in the garden and hand sewing. I won't bore you with pictures, but I've been organizing dozens of bins of fabric too. I'll share more on that later. There's a very long way to go on that front!