Midsummer’s Garden Party

Pink rosebuds

Blooming profusely!

Ever-changing garden beds

I’m afraid I’ve been hi-jacked by my very own garden this year. Each morning will find me out there very early, before the heat takes hold, watering and weeding and wandering around just savouring this wonderful season of  miraculous growth. We’ve just marked our ten year anniversary on this little piece of land we call the ‘farm’ and I can finally say that my gardens are where I’d like them to be – full of transplants that I brought with me from Calgary and plenty of new ones to fill in the gaps. The gardens are diverse and much, much larger than before, but I can say with confidence that they are now well established and thriving better than my old garden ever was before and just think, we worked on that old one for almost 28 years. But I think I’ve worked even harder on this place, to make up for lost time and to keep up with the steep learning curve of a brand new environment started from scratch, right down to building up the soil from a clay base.

Progress on the garden party quilt

All four borders are stitched on!

A peek at the back side.

I have been quite determined to keep up with my quilting commitments and try to fit in as much stitching time as possible each day. It is sometimes tricky finding the time to stop the work process to take photos but this particular project is just so photogenic, I can’t help myself! And besides that, it just looks so perfect hanging in the garden.

Oh, this quilt makes me so happy! It truly exemplifies all that I love about my garden and contains so many happy flower colours that it makes my heart sing when I look at it.

All four borders have been stitched on at this point but you can see in the second photo that there are still motifs to be added on at the corners, as well as more yo-yos and circles to fill in some empty areas. I also found a splendid Kaffe Fassett fabric which I’m fussy cutting big blooms from and I feel that’s really adding more flare to the garden party. I love how that last photograph, taken from the back of the quilt top with the morning sun shining through it, creates the most beautiful stained glass effect.

Now to be perfectly honest, I haven’t had much time for applique work over the past two weeks since, as you know, my quilting thread arrived and my priorities shifted. As of Saturday, that particular project (which is top secret and destined for the big show this fall) came off the longarm frame and I’m currently doing some blissful binding. Just to pique your curiosity…

A little custom quilting

...and a little more

I’m so excited to share this project as it is unlike anything I’ve ever done before and I truly pushed myself out of my comfort zone on the custom quilting. Sorry I can’t show you any more but you’ll have to wait until November to see the final results of this one.

In the meantime, happy stitching! carol xoxox