"Know that you can start late, look different, be uncertain, and still succeed." - Misty Copeland
First noticed these daylilies blooming here in our neighborhood this weekend. The weather was glorious (as it so rarely is here:) - mid 70s to 80s in temperature, blue skies with a nice breeze, low humidity. Wonderful!
If you click on the photo, you can go read about growing daylily flowers that will bloom prolifically during the summer months and how to cultivate them. There is an astonishing amount of genetic variability in daylilies - there are many, many different varieties with color, shape, petal edge and other variants. Fun and worthy of exploration!
Saturday my friend/neighbor Patty had a big branch (really the entire top of a tree) come down on her yard from a neighbor's tree. It hit the ground so hard it was dug in several inches so Hugh and I went down to help her remove it. Took a lot of work and tools but we finally managed to cut enough off the BIG branch to get it out of her ground and onto the neighbor's yard where it belonged. Whew!
After that, I had a Zoom meeting with my modern quilting buddies. It was so very nice out, I took my iPad onto the back deck and sat in our new furniture. I tried to do some sashiko embroidery but the wind started kicking up so much I had to cling to the iPad to keep it from blowing away. LOL. I found the embroidery panel (pre-stamped ... well, printed - it was a cyanotype print of a famous Japanese picture called the Great Wave) when searching for something else in my workroom. I have no idea where I bought/got it - have no memory of the acquisition at all. Shrug.
Sunday afternoon was the scheduled meeting of Sew&Tell. Since it was also Father's Day here in the US, attendance was down over the usual. Even so, I enjoyed seeing my friends a lot! I took the sashiko along and finished the embroidery on it while I was there. I decided to make it into a pocket/purse (I need something small to hold my phone when I wear something without pockets:) and began making that there, too. I'll share a photo when I finish making it as I have forgotten to take any in-progress shots.
I'm grateful that my stomach is not bothering me any more as part of our meeting is always pot luck (I took chicken salad, broccoli salad and pistachios). I enjoy that meal as it is a chance to eat things I would not usually encounter in my daily life - we have broad and eclectic eating patterns in our group. :)
Today was yet another beautiful day. Patty and I decided to take a drive to Annapolis (maybe 40? minutes away to the east) to visit the quilt shop there - The Crabby Quilter. It has been some time since I was in the shop (though I did buy some lovelies from their vending booth at the Faithful Circle quilt show last month) - which was looking very nice. A HUGE bonus with our trip was the Robbyn, my old fabric manager, was working today. I have not seen her for almost three years and I adore her - so it was lovely to collect some hugs and catch up with things in her life.
I am obviously thinking to do more hand work this summer as I bought THREE pre-printed sashiko panels:
The first two are table runners - one on indigo fabric and one on an Oriental red ground. The last one, the crab, I first saw on Sunday afternoon. Kathy Fain from Sew&Tell brought one to work on and it really caught my eye. I got the last one the shop had in stock (lucky me!). This part of Maryland (Baltimore region and the Eastern Shore, especially) is known for blue crabs; like lobster in Maine, blue crab is the local speciality food. :) I think they are fascinating creatures (don't like to eat them, though, even after all these years here in MD) and like the design quite a lot. :) This ought to be enough handwork to keep me busy during the heat of this summer, eh?
Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice - the longest daylength of the year and the official beginning of summer. I have to make a post to Instagram for FCQ ... other than that, I hope to SEW all day.
:) Linda