Where has May gone?

I don't know where the time goes but it seems that the weeks fly by in the blink of an eye! I must admit that I am a fair weather gardener and suddenly the sun came out and I took the blinkers off to find the garden merrily doing it's own thing and in desperate need of a tidy up and some new planting ready for Summer. So I have been torn between wanting to sew and wanting to attack the weeds before they took over. I love going to quilt shops to buy fabrics but running a close second is the garden centre, so many beautiful plants and interesting gizmo's saying "Please take me home with you" Our garden is well stocked but a lot of areas need renovating or in need of a makeover, a bit like me really but I find it easier to deal with the garden than me.

I spent 2 days digging out a huge amount of Japanese anemone that had spread from its allotted space and a huge patch of orange crocosmia. I'm not a great fan of orange and although I still have some around, the large bed was cleared. This has given me a clear canvas to do some new planting and this year I thought I would have a go at growing some penstemons. I bought 3 different ones and then delphiniums and a coneflower. I put in some gladioli corms and a whole load of busylizzies at the front and it looks much better! I love this time of year, the lilac is in full bloom and I took the next picture of the ceanothus and weigela as it looks soo pretty now.



Over the last few weeks I've been sewing a pattern called "Raise the Roof" by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. It's a mix of log cabin and star blocks and has been a lot of fun to do. I chose to use taupes for the lights and a mixture of dark greens and plums for the darks. The star blocks needed a bit of concentration to get the orientation right and consequently a few had to be frog stitched and rearranged. I've just about got the blocks together and now need to add the border so progress is being made! I really like how it is turning out so far!

Also I have been doing a stitchery block from a series called Polka Dot Girls by Bronwyn Hayes, she is an australian designer and I have fallen in love with all of her designs, they are such fun to do. I bought a layer cake from Moda Simplicity line and I will probably use that for the piecing around the blocks. They are all soft pastels and I can't wait to use them for this.


Well, thats all for this post, I have a busy day tomorrow as my son is coming home for the weekend and it's his birthday on Monday so I need to bake a cake!