A Riot of Color

Our temps got up into the high 80s and low 90s yesterday. I did my garden work early—weeding the beans, mowing the perimeter, and trimming with the weed whacker. The pigs kept me company. At 11 a.m., we had our weekly “Coffee With the Pastor” Zoom meeting. This is a group of about six of us that have been meeting regularly just to visit. We talk a lot about gardening. And after lunch, I made another six loaves of zucchini bread and did some sewing.

The tomatoes are looking particularly splendid (or overgrown, depending on your perspective, as I never did get them pruned):

Once I got in closer and started looking, I could see that they are loaded with fruit, too. We’ll be in good shape for sauce this winter. They like this spot and do well here.

The beans have been a disappointment. Whole rows of them never germinated. We did have a lot of rain at the time I planted them. Perhaps the beans just rotted. The plants that did come up look great. The husband says that section of the garden has never produced well, which is true. We probably need to haul a load of manure or the rest of the compost into that area this fall to amend the soil. Having tilled in all that rotted straw will help, too.

Every year is different.

The lavenders are just starting to open. (My darker lavenders are out in the big garden; these are white and pink and are in the herb garden.) The salvias are almost as promiscuous as the lavenders and seed themselves everywhere, including into the middle of the lavenders.

The consensus yesterday during our Zoom meeting was that there are indeed fewer bees this year. My lavenders should be a buzzing mass by now. The fact that they aren’t is a bit disconcerting.

The bee balm has just started blooming.

I used to have a dozen or so varieties, but this one—I believe it’s ‘Jacob Cline’—is the only one left. Bee balm is related to mint and it really is too dry for it here. The other varieties died out. This patch is pretty reliable, though.

The raspberries are coming on; the husband goes into the garden every morning after letting the pigs out and has a couple of handfuls. I ate some as a snack after weeding.

Experiments with the Noon and Night block continue unabated. My design wall is very colorful right now:

I am still trying to decide which fabrics to use in the finished quilt. I am pretty sure it will have a black background but I don’t know if I want all solids or if I want the stars to be bright scrappy prints (30s reproduction fabric, maybe?). If I am going to publish the pattern, should I use an entire fabric line instead of pulling from my stash? I like the arrangement of the bottom block, where I used a different color for the center than for the small star points. Piecing the block so that blue diamond comes together perfectly is the hardest part. I wonder if the occasional mismatched point is because of something I am doing or if I’m going to have to lower my expectations a bit. The size calculations for my block units seem pretty solid and reproducible. I am doing all the piecing on Vittorio, my Necchi BF, and he’s working like a champ.

This is not a block for beginning piecers, that’s for sure. Even making the units bigger and trimming them down doesn’t leave a lot of room for slop.

I don’t want to get tired of this block before I start a quilt. My order of waxed canvas arrived from Klum House the other day, so I might start the Slabtown Backpack. I waited until they had the bright green that I wanted in stock. I think that will be a fun project. I made their Fremont Tote pattern last year and it was very well written.