Make-A-List Monday - It's Getting Hot 'Round Here!

 

Hi, all!

We've had quite a change here since last week, when I was wondering if it was really May due to the 40 degree mornings we were experiencing. This week we will have our first 90 degree day of the year!  Oh well, such is life in Tennessee!  

Last week was a busy one, with much of my time spent working in the yard.  Let's see how the list went!

1.  Work on the front planters.

We made SO much progress with this project!  First up was this back corner, where we pulled out the English ivy that was running rampant.

I put in hostas where the English ivy used to be (after digging out the roots of the plants - whew!) and mulched the whole corner.  Moved some daffodil bulbs so they will be more clustered and less spread out next spring.  Added a bird feeder as a bribe/thank you to the mama bird in the tree for not attacking me while I was working back there!

Then my husband dug the holes so I could plant the boxwoods and crepe myrtles in the long part of the planter, and helped me spread the mulch.  Then he posed to help show it all off!

You can see the plants better here - and there's a new azalea right there in the foreground, too!

All those new plants look tiny now, but I'm hopeful in a year we'll look back on this picture and remark on the size difference!  And just for reference here's what it looked like before we started...

I'm not going to miss those two big bushes at all!

2.  Put binding on the last two graduation quilts.

Done (although I don't have pictures!)

3.  Work out the final details on my design for the 12 Days of Christmas in July quilt-along quilt.

In progress.  I have a design all worked out, but ran into a copyright issue that I'm trying to clear up.  Fingers crossed!

4.  Assemble the blocks I made on vacation into a quilt top.

I didn't get to this, as another project came up (more about that below).

5.   Straighten up the studio and clean up the remains of this spring's projects!

I did get a good bit of the mess cleaned up, although I then messed it up a bit more with another project that I still need to clean up.

6.  Put together one (or maybe two!) non-blogger update posts for H2H.  I've had so many emails with beautiful pictures, it may take two posts just to get them all in!

Thanks to Adobe Spark, I managed to combine many of the pictures into collages so that it ended up being only one post. But so many beautiful quilts!  Quilters are really generous people!

So that's how the list went.  But some things cropped up that weren't on the list this week....

...like this quilting and binding commission...

...and the next set of blocks in my Me Sew Happy quilt - see the large hourglass blocks?  And I've got the pieces cut for the small hourglass blocks too, all ready for finishing.  And a pile of scraps sorted by color to but back in the bins...

And I even did a little bit of cooking, making this great baked feta cheese pasta that's all the rage on TikTok these days.  I've linked a version of the recipe for you, but I also added mozzarella cheese pearls about halfway through the baking time.  Yummy!!  Also, I only had a pint of cherry tomatoes, and a container of feta cheese crumbles instead of a block, but for the two of us, it was just right.  

So a busy week, and a productive one!  Let's see what's on tap for this week now....

1.  Have a baking day with Lilli.

2.  Make the small hourglass blocks for my Me Sew Happy quilt and assemble the top.

3.  Put away the sorted scraps.

4.  Plant some colorful annuals in the front planters.

5.  Start preparing a project for vacation (in one month!)

That's enough to keep me out of trouble, I think!  I'm looking forward to our baking day - we are going to make these decadent looking desserts...

Of course, with my nearly-professional-baker granddaughter, we won't be using pre-packaged cookie dough and a brownie mix - she'll make them from scratch!  I can't wait to see how they turn out...

So now, I really really want to know - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah