One of my neighbors (whose property I pass when I go walking) has a lovely flower garden in her back yard.
I can't get her array into one photo so I tried to squeeze it into two pics.
Tree with English Ivy in another neighbor's yard; I like the contrast between the rough bark and the green leafy layers.
Yet a third neighbor has some Coleus planted in the center of their cul-de-sac circle.
Rose of Sharon or Hibiscus seems to be flowering everywhere in our neighborhood now.
Near those colorful Coleus are these bright Caladiums.
A lavender hibiscus blossom I picked from the open space verge to enjoy at home.
I have been struggling to help my niece Kimmie move into the condominium/apartment we bought in Wilde Lake Village, on the north side of Columbia. Kim, bless her heart (as we southerners say:), is an incipient hoarder and has about twice a much 'stuff' as she has space for ... it is very hard for her to sort out and pass on even the smallest of her possessions. We've been working on that and she is making choices, setting priorities and weeding out 'things' - but it is a hard exercise for her. I have total sympathy! I tend to amass a surplus of 'stuff' for every project and then have left-overs that must be dealt with. :P
The heavy hot days of summer do not make our errands any easier. Kim is 31 and has quite a lot more stamina for the heat than I do at more than twice her age. I tend to wilt pretty quickly, even when I do manage to focus on staying hydrated and so on. Sigh. Right now the air conditioning in the apartment does not work - we had a repair woman (my first!) in this afternoon who found that the blower motor in the condenser is not working. Luckily it is not too expensive a part (maybe $350 - compared to the $10K cost of a whole new a/c) so I feel like we've dodged a financial bullet. Whew! It will take a week or so to get the part in and installed. Happily, we did manage to find a good tower fan for Kim at the local Tar-jay so she was ok with the wait. LOL.
I managed to attend my Faithful Circle Quilters Thursday morning meeting today (probably the first time in a year I've gone - I usually manage to get to the Monday evening meeting about half the time). The group was picking through the final bits of the sewing goods of a member who passed away recently. I picked up some nice ribbons, yarns, silks, and lames (that's luh-may, not lay-m). Pretty goodies!
I have pieced 12 string blocks (9", unfinished size) for my Halloween quilt project - which makes me about half way through making them. 11 more blocks to go. :)
This is an example block - each one is different. I have a pile of various width strips I cut from the leftover fabrics of making the 56 'floating Economy Square' blocks from the most recent Gudrun Early (GE Designs) sew-along. I think there are maybe a dozen different prints in the strip pile so the blocks will be varied (I LOVE scrappy:). Can't wait to get them finished and trimmed so I can start to sew together the borders to finish the top. I do have a pretty border fabric I like/bought to sew on after the patchwork borders are joined to the panel. I think it will be a cute quilt.
Tomorrow is Sewing Together Friday with Barbara and Patty. I am SO looking forward to sitting and working on my sashiko Crab panel embroidery while I catch up with B & P!
:) Linda
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