I’ve been spending some time in the gardens. Now that it’s October the weather has cooled down enough where I can actually do something without killing little seedlings. Now is the time in Southern CA to plant CA natives. I love the idea of natives but I really want edible stuff and to establish a food forest. That is my dream.
For my birthday this year, I bought an arbor and trellis. I planted a passion fruit vine I bought from a fellow gardener.
The passion fruit looks really good and I hope it flourishes.
my strawberry patch
The strawberry patch is filling in the holes. During the heat of summer it continued to fruit but the strawberries would shrivel up as soon as we got our 100+ degree heat waves. And I’ve not had a good strawberry since June. Even though our weather has cooled a bit we still have enough 90 degree days to dry those little babies up. I leave them for the birds and bugs and whatever else likes to come for them.
Fig tree
I propagated this fig tree from a friends cutting. Propagating is an adventure for me. I never know what will work. This fig tree was my second batch of about a dozen cuttings from fall 2021. It was the only one that took. And over time I transplanted it into a 5 gallon pot. This spring I was awarded with 3 figs. They were really good. So when the weather cooled, I decided it needed a better home. I hope it likes its new home and I get more figs next season.
Papaya tree
My dad started eating papaya this past summer because it’s good and it has a lot of health benefits. When I saw Papaya trees at one of my local nurseries I had to buy a couple of them. This is mine. I have since delivered his and both of ours are thriving. Since then I’ve seen papaya trees all over the place in my neighborhood while driving. I’ve seen quite a few with papayas waiting to be harvested. So I know it can be done in SoCal. Im not so sure about their area in NorCal as it is much cooler where they are than my home.
I always loved gardening but prior to 2020 we rented and moved often -every 1-4 years. So after several attempts early on I gave up on gardening. But since moving into our forever home I felt confident to try again. While I love the tomatoes and seasonal veggies, I want to have long term, semi permanent plants. So over the last year and a half I planted fruit trees and berries. Not pictured are some CA natives that I’m trying to add into the mix. The backyard will house my edible plants while the front yard will have non edibles but also hopefully pollinator attracting plants.
blueberries ready to be planted. These are not all mine. I happened to be a my fave local nursery – Sego in NoHo – and they had a lot of varieties. So I bought some for friends as well. Only 2 pictured will stay with me. red roger grapes (going off memory so might be wrong)Oregon Grapes – ca native (i believe despite the name)blue elderberry- Ca NativeGarlicMy strawberry tower! I just added 6 new plants to replace dead ones that didn’t make it over winter. Strawberries in grow bags from last year. These are doing really well but I want to transplant them to my strawberry patch. strawberry patch. This is located below my fruit tree containers and I want them to take over the yard. Or at least that side of it. more strawberries! new blackberry plant… it’s not dead, it was a bare root. I have 4 fruit trees planted in these containers. The one at the end is a mango tree, then a calamansi tree, not pictured is atis tree (which is not English and I have no idea what the English word is. I googled and it is Sugar Apple) and a pomegranate. Here’s the pomegranate and a sneak at the atis on the left.
Behind each fruit tree are 30 gallon grow bags with blueberries. 3 are a year old while the 4th is new this year. In SoCal we have to be careful and get varieties that have low chill hours so that we can have a successful harvest. Mine are still new but I have high hopes!
Don’t mind the mess but these are pineapples and I need to transplant them into bigger pots. Last summer the family and I got into buying a pineapple every week for several weeks. After eating them we planted the tops. This picture shows 4. We have one more elsewhere. We started with 6 so only lost 1 in all. I hope we can get pineapples next year and this summer we will again buy, eat, and plant! Here’s the sad state of my veggie garden right now and Tomatomania starts this weekend. I will be getting double the tomato plants from last year as well as jalapeño, cucumbers and zucchini’s.
Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it) – DONE
How I did last week –
Cross Stitch – I stitched on Gamer twice last week.
Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks. – I did my 10 rows on the Weasley sweater and I finished the second heel on my morning socks.
Gardening – watered the plans every other day or so
Quilting:
orange quilt top – get label and binding ready – done. I just kept going and finished the quilt. 🙂
simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue. – I’m back in love with this project. Another one of my guild mates is working on this and I love what she’s doing. It’s inspiring me to move forward on it.
Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A – I finished piecing all of Block A! So I set this aside while I worked on Grassy Creek
Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5 – which meant I was able to pull this out, figure out where I was on Clue 5 and keep going. I’ll need to cut more fabric on the small 9 patches to get this part of the clue finished. => I have cut some more fabric and will start piecing again.
This Week:
Cross Stitch – this week: Ariadne
Simple Days – I have two zoom sessions with the cool quilty people on Tuesday and Wednesday so I plan to do a little on both days.
Grassy Creek – Get the itty bitty 9-patches done. I will need to cut more fabric and I’m fussy cutting scraps so it takes much longer than strip piecing but it thrills me to no end to use up as much scraps as possible.
I have 7 -9 patches done so quite a few more to go. I’m doing these the long hard way to use the most of my itty bitty scraps. I plan to keep working on this for now and will not move on to dancing with the stars until this is done.
Dancing with the stars – figure out how many of Block B I need and start working on it. => haven’t done this yet.
I know I posted this picture yesterday. I think I can post another picture. 🙂
Short List – May goals
Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it)
How I did last week –
Cross Stitch – I stitched on the dragonfly 3 times last week.
Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks. – I did my 10 rows on the Weasley sweater and I finished 1 heel on my morning socks. I’m about a third of the way through the second heel. I was able to knit on my socks 4 times and on my Weasley Sweater.
Gardening – I did finish planting the seedlings I had. I also went to Sego Nursery and bought more cosmos, marigolds, rosemary, orange balm and lemongrass.
Quilting:
orange quilt top – get label and binding ready – done. I just kept going and finished the quilt. 🙂
simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue. – I fell out of love on this project. I worked on it a bit during my minigroup meeting but I used that time to work on the orange quilt top.
Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A – I finished piecing all of Block A! So I set this aside while I worked on Grassy Creek
Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5 – which meant I was able to pull this out, figure out where I was on Clue 5 and keep going. I’ll need to cut more fabric on the small 9 patches to get this part of the clue finished.
All in all, even though I worked a lot, I still go a lot of my crafting goals done. part of it is being super focused about what I want to get done this week and making sure I’ve got a list of things to do before each crafty session. Even if I only get 1 strand stitched on the cross stitch, that’s okay. I may not get done with it fast but I’m a process crafter so that’s 1 strand stitched.
This Week:
Cross Stitch – this week I get to work on Gamer again. It’s been months since I pulled her out and I’m not done with that second row. I’m almost done but I think I can get it finished this week assuming I stitch every day.
Simple Days – I only have one zoom session with the cool quilty people on Sunday so I plan to do a little bit on sunday.
Grassy Creek – Get the itty bitty 9-patches done. I will need to cut more fabric and I’m fussy cutting scraps so it takes much longer than strip piecing but it thrills me to no end to use up as much scraps as possible.
Dancing with the stars – figure out how many of Block B I need and start working on it.
Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it)
How I did last week –
Blooming Bouquets #2 Cheerful
For my cross stitch – Blooming Bouquets #2: Cheerful – I stitched 4 times last week and below is a picture of where I left off.
continue knitting on my morning socks and do at least 10 rows on my Weasley Sweater. – DONE
Gardening – Plant the seedlings Julie gave me, as well as the others I bought this weekend. 🙂 – I did get a number of these planted but I still have a few more to plant. We got hit with a brief heat wave and my seedlings wilted by the end of each day of heat. I had to water twice a day to keep them going and it looks like they will be fine.
Quilting
finish quilting the orange quilt top – DONE
Simple Days – continue embroidering the 3rd block of the January clue – worked on this and I’m still working on it.
Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of block A – worked on this a bit more and I’m still working on it.
Pull out Grassy Creek and start clue – NOT done
This Week:
Cross Stitch – this week I’m working on my Dragonfly piece.
Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks.
Gardening – finish planting the seedlings I have. I will be making my bi-weekly trip to Sego Nursery, my local garden nursery that I love to go to and check out what they have. I’m looking for nasturtiums, more basil, more mint, and whatever else I find.
Quilting:
orange quilt top – get label and binding ready
simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue.
Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A
Cross stitch on Titania – I only stitched on her once.
Continue knitting daily on my morning socks and Weasley Sweater. I want to get to this 100% next week. – I skipped my bullet journal last week so I’m not sure how well I did. I believe I knit probably 3 times last week and for my Weasley Sweater I’m about 1/4 of the way through. It’s almost 1/3 of the quarter so I’m a little behind schedule.
Gardening – My friend Julie gave me some more seedlings so I’ll need to get those planted this week. – I planted one of the seedlings. I’ve got pole beans and something else to plant. I just can’t decide where to put them. I will need to determine that this week though.
Quilting –
finish quilting the orange quilt top – not done
wash the new fabric for the border of the Jan Krentz quilt – done
Judy Neimeyer – Double Wedding Rings – trim the pieces – done
Simple Days – embroider the 3rd block of the January clue – worked on. It’s not done but it’s in progress
Dancing with the Stars – continue piecing more of block A. – yes. I did this. It’s not finished but I’m working on it.
this week –
For my cross stitch – I’m switching projects. More on this another time. But my tiny decisions app picked “bountiful blossoms”.
continue knitting on my morning socks and do at least 10 rows on my Weasley Sweater.
Gardening – Plan the seedlings Julie gave me, as well as the others I bought this weekend. 🙂
Quilting
finish quilting the orange quilt top
Simple Days – continue embroidering the 3rd block of the January clue
Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of block A
I really want to cross stitch on Gamer! – Done I tried to cross stitch every day but I couldn’t do it. But I did a bit, and that’s all that matters.
continue knitting daily on my morning socks and weasley sweater.. and anything else I’m able to knit is bonus – Again, I did a bit most mornings and days.
for gardening – done. every day, I go out about 10am as my morning break. I water the plants, check on them and take care of anything that needs to be taken care.
For quilting: start quilting my orange quilt top. – done.
Go to the quilt shop and pick fabric for the border of my Jan Krentz quilt. – done
Reacquaint myself with dancing with the stars – done and grassy creek. – not done.
So I got a lot of a little bit done last week. and I keep working on it.
This week –
Cross stitch on Titania
Continue knitting daily on my morning socks and Weasley Sweater. I want to get to this 100% next week.
Gardening – My friend Julie gave me some more seedlings so I’ll need to get those planted this week.
Quilting –
finish quilting the orange quilt top
wash the new fabric for the border of the Jan Krentz quilt
Judy Neimeyer – Double Wedding Rings – trim the pieces
Simple Days – embroider the 3rd block of the January clue
Dancing with the Stars – continue piecing more of block A.
Another tough work week passed but I did get a lot of my to do’s done from last week. First and foremost, I finished the cushion project! Yay! I posted pictures on yesterday’s Sunday Stash post. But here you go again
I am regularly knitting on my morning socks and I’ve almost knit daily on my Weasley Sweater. I was able to spend some time Thursday with my knit group and got to my Tranquil Shawl and my advent blanket. Progress has been made!
In regards to my gardening, I made it to Green Thumb nursery and bought soil for my gardening project that I mentioned last week.
I planted a strawberry tower. I originally planned to put strawberries in every pot but decided to plant some seeds in some of them. I’ll plant chives, onions, basil, parsley because that’s what I have seeds of. I also did all my normal gardening chores – fed the worms, turned the compost, put together the new compost bin! and planted all the seedlings I had to be planted. All in all, my gardening work is getting there.
For quilting, I was able to baste my orange quilt. I applique’d the center star and now all I need is to add a border. I searched my fabric stash and nothing went right with this so I plan to make a trip to my LQS, Quilt Emporium, to pick something out. I didn’t touch grassy creek or dancing with the stars. I did do some hand work and finished the first little bit of embroidery on Simple Days.
So now what’s next? This upcoming week, here are my goals –
I really want to cross stitch on Gamer!
continue knitting daily on my morning socks and weasley sweater.. and anything else I’m able to knit is bonus
for gardening – keep watering it, Saturday garden work: feed the worms, turn the compost, empty the kitchen bin into the compost and wash it. repot some of the plants that I potted before, plant some seeds. Put the mulch where I want it to go.
For quilting: start quilting my orange quilt top. Go to the quilt shop and pick fabric for the border of my Jan Krentz quilt. Reacquaint myself with dancing with the stars and grassy creek.
Wish me luck! It’s a short list this week as I’m being realistic and motivated.
Last week was an awful week of not getting everything or hardly anything done! I take that back. I got stuff done, just not much from my last Monday post.
There continues to be way too much to do and not enough time. In reality there’s just enough time, I just put way too much on my to do list and other things keep sliding to the top of that list pushing my crafty and garden items to the bottom. I really have to give myself some credit. Days have passed and all I can think about on this Monday post is that I didn’t get this stuff done. But, I got my first shot earlier in the week and I had to take it easy. I had the normal symptoms, sore arm, some nausea, and some tiredness. That explains it all. By Thursday I was feeling better, but that was 4/1 and the start of the new quarter which means I have quarterly tasks for work to do and I worked long hours both days. I made it on to knit night. So, what did I do from my list…
Monday – Last Monday my goal was to finish the hand stitching on the cushion project and I did! It was also my goal to plant the 2nd blueberry plant and I did! Today, my goal is to finish the cushion project! I have my minigroup, Nimble Thimbles, meets and I’ll be able to spend a few hours on it.
Tuesday – Last Tuesday, my goal was to plant the last blueberry and attach the welting/cording onto the front and back piece of the cushion. I did plant the last blueberry and I spent some time on the cushion but I only had enough energy to look for the fabric I wanted to use for the welting/cording. I may have pressed it, cut it and got it ready to attach. But the attaching did not happen. This Tuesday, I want to do some cross stitching. I haven’t cross stitched in a month and I want to get back to it.
Wednesday – Last Wednesday, my goal was to plant my last tomato plant and it didn’t happen. I did plant it on Saturday so that did get done eventually. A win in my book. This Wednesday, I’m hosting a new minigroup for newer members of my quilt guild. Those who have joined since the last part of 2019 have not had a real opportunity to meet our members because of the pandemic and I find joining mini groups the best way to form friendships in a guild.
Thursday – Last Thursday, I didn’t plan much because it was knit night and the start of my next busy season. This was smart on my end. This Thursday it will be knit night again, so my goal is to work on my knitting projects.
Friday – Last Friday, I was supposed to buy more potting soil because I was expecting some of my gardening purchases to have arrived by then. And they didn’t. At least not the item that needed the potting soil. So we didn’t go to Green Thumb nursery. They are supposed to arrive this coming week, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I’ll be needing to buy the soil this week. I could have gone to buy the soil last Friday but again, busy with work so I opted not to. I will need to go this Friday. On the quilty, crafty front I still have my orange top that I’m preparing for quilting. This is now the third weekend in a row that this has been on my list to do and I want to knock this thing out this week. There are so many quilts I need to quilt (I think 6) and I just need to do it.
Saturday – Garden – feed the worms, turn the compost, put together the new compost bin I purchased from the city (because I didn’t do this last week) and plant more of the seedlings I have to be planted. And, set up the garden purchases that should have arrived. I want to work on my Jan Krentz quilt, the Grassy Creek quilt, and my long term UFO, Dancing with the Stars by Linda Ballard. Linda will be at our guild sometime in 2022 so I want this quilt to be done for me to show her.
Sunday – We normally zoom from 10-1 every Sunday but I’ll probably spend most of the day in my sewing room finishing up the cushion project and reacquainting myself with some of the other projects on my list – most notably, Grassy Creek, my Jan Krentz top that is really almost done, and possibly Dancing with the Stars (a Linda Ballard UFO from 2012).
I didn’t get my homework done for my cushion class in time for our Sunday class. But it’s okay. I’ll go over the details another day as it’s Monday and it’s time for this week’s plan.
Last week went well in that I did the things I planned to do. There was just too much to do and not enough time to do it all. So this week, here’s the plan. This is garden heavy because it’s spring and in Los Angeles, spring is a short time before the full heat of summer.
the loan blueberry waiting for its friends
Monday – I’m still hand stitching the Jasmine blocks for the cushion project. I’m almost done and hope to get this done this day. I also want to spend an hour in the garden as its spring and I’ve got a lot of planting to do. Right now I’ve got a couple of blueberries to plant and my goal would be to do one on Monday and the other on Tuesday.
Dragon fruit has been planted and placed in it’s home
Tuesday – We have a number of home projects that are happening this day and I’m not sure how much of that will spill on to me and my time. I do not know if I’ll be able to do anything. But I hope to get an hour of gardening in so I can plant the last blueberry as well as spend an hour on the cushion project. By this point all 3 pieces of the cushion should be ready to go and the next step is to attach the welting/cording to the front and back pieces.
more plants waiting to be planted
Wednesday – So, I think I’ll have enough soil to plant another growbag with my last tomato plant that needs planting. I have 4 currently planted. My mom thinks that’s too much and she’s probably right but I love home grown tomatoes and it’s been years since I’ve been of the mind to plant them. I’m trying 2 new to me varieties that I purchased at TomatoMania. Next step in the cushion project is to make the handle, zipper pieces and attach the strip of flying geese. And if the time is available, connect that piece with the front.
Cala Lily found in my front yard
Thursday – Knit night so nothing else is planned. This is also April 1st and the start of my next busy season. I’ve got quarterly reports and tasks that I need to get started on and while I don’t like working long hours or even on the weekends, I’ll be working overtime and over the weekend to get some of these things done and out of the way.
One of the pepper plants waiting to be planted
Friday – Head out to Green Thumb nursery before they close at 5 to buy more potting soil for my remaining growbags. I am expecting some other gardening purchases to arrive by this point but we’ll see if I’ll be able to do anything other than buy more potting soil. On the quilty, crafty front – I still have my orange top that I’m preparing for quilting. Last week my plan was to spray baste it and I didn’t have time to do that. So I hope to get that done this Friday.
Saturday – Garden – feed the worms, turn the compost, put together the new compost bin I purchased from the city, plant more things, set up the garden purchases that should have arrived, etc. etc. And on the crafty front, pull out my cross stitching for a bit. It’s been almost a month since I’ve touched these projects and I’m itching to get back to these.
a close up of the blueberry plant
Sunday – We normally zoom from 10-1 every Sunday but I’ll probably spend most of the day in my sewing room, finishing up the cushion project and reacquainting myself with some of the other projects on my list – most notably, Grassy Creek, my Jan Krentz top that is really almost done, and possibly Dancing with the Stars (a Linda Ballard UFO from 2012).
One of my favorite pictures from our trip to Fresno’s Blossom Trail
Happy crafting, friends! Wish me luck with the gardening as this is something I’ve not done in many years. Now that we have a forever home, the gardening bug is stronger than ever.
