a blog about my quilting life...mostly

a blog about my quilting life...mostly
Showing posts with label sunporch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sunporch. Show all posts

Monday, June 28, 2021

About sunporches, gardens, and quilts

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Hello friends, 

We are deep into summer weather here in Pennsylvania, which means it is muggy and sticky and hot...thank goodness for air conditioning and pools, although the latter we just put up this past weekend and the water is probably a bit too cold for my liking at the moment...let's see how desperate I get ;)

We are enjoying our sunporch quite a lot! It is a nice place to sit and eat dinner, especially with the fan going or a breeze blowing. 


In our college town there are quite a few moving sales happening after graduation, so last week I was able to score this baker's rack for a good price.  


I have always admired baker's racks, but never owned one, so I had fun "styling" it for our sunporch!

This one has a rack for wine bottles at the bottom too, but seeing as we are not huge wine drinkers ( not to mention that storing the bottled wine in the heat would probably be a bad idea!), I decided that  it could hold rolled-up magazines perfectly! 





And if you ever have a chance to hang one of these hammock chairs, I highly recommend it! They are the perfect spot to lounge and relax...and maybe even have a little nap!

My garden looks so good right now...the Hydrangea bush that pretty much got destroyed by the fence crew is making a nice comeback. I wish that you could see the colors of the blooms in person! It is the most amazing periwinkle blue and I cannot get enough of it! I think other than Hollyhocks, these lacecap Hydrangeas are my favorite flowers....but then I can't get enough of daisies either....Hahaha! Just as with fabric, I can never have enough flowers! ( Did I mention that the lady who runs the local, temporary flower and plant tent in a local parking lot recognizes which car I drive? That's probably a bad thing, right?) 





Even with all the flower and plant adoration going on over here, I did manage to spend some time with my sewing machine this past week! I have been working on our summer sewalong project, and it has been so much fun to work on! ( If you would like to join in it is not too late, just click through my older posts and look for the "summer sewalong" titles!). It would make for a great scrap quilt, but I have seen some stunning versions from people in my FB group that are using a limited color palette, so really it would look great in any color way! Here are my blocks so far: 
 I started out making a scrappy version and then changed my mind and decided to use soft blues and pinks. That proved to be too boring for my liking so I started adding in some reds and bright greens and dark blues and now I'm much happier :). Some of my fabrics are pretty funky too...do you see those chickens? But I  like it and that's all that matters! 





I haven't decided yet what size I'll make the quilt, but it will at least be 36 blocks....as long as I have fabric I will keep going and I still have quite a pile! 

A few weeks back I shared a little embroidery that I started. I found the pattern in a Simply Vintage magazine and enlarged it just a little so it would make a good pillow size. It is not quite done, but getting there ( although I do think the humidity is slowly erasing the blue marker so I better hurry up and finish it!) 

Well, those are all the updates from the farmhouse for this week.
Wherever you are, I hope you are staying cool and comfortable and until next time~happy creating!
Monique

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Pottering about

 Hello friends, 

We have had the most amazing weather here in central Pennsylvania this past week~ warm and sunshiny...I am soaking it up! So of course I have spent most of my time outside, prepping my veggie garden beds,  dreaming of landscaping projects, and raking up yet more leaves ( will they ever end? We raked up piles and piles of leaves in the fall, but some of the trees decided to hang on to their leaves until now so now we are having to rake again...sigh).

It has been so nice and summerlike that I convinced hubby we should visit one of my favorite nurseries in a nearby town one afternoon this week. The drive over the mountain to get there was very pleasant, and then being surrounded by all the plants once there was heavenly! This is a town with Amish people so you of course see lots of buggies on the road: 


And lots of pretty farms and buildings....




Although the nursey didn't have its full selection of plants on display yet, they had enough for us to go home with a lovely, flower and plant-filled car! 
This will keep me busy for the next little while! Now to be clear, many of these I'm not going to plant in the ground quite yet because I can't trust that the weather will stay this nice....but I'm putting them out on the sunporch to harden off until the time comes when I feel confident they won't freeze at night.






Speaking of the sunporch, it had become a bit of a mess over the fall and winter months, so I pulled down the curtains to be washed, and then scrubbed the sills inside and out, wiped down all the furniture, and swept up the messy floor. Everything is fresh and clean again and we were even able to sit out there one evening and enjoy the birdsong. I have never owned a house with a sunporch before but if you ever have a chance to get one I highly recommend them! 








And of course, no sunporch is complete without a comfy quilt! 

Well, that is all for this week! I do hope that you are starting to see some warmer temps where you are and that you can enjoy some sunshine...it really does lift the spirit so much.

Until next time~happy creating!
Monique