Wildflower Wednesday and Progress on my Hexagon Basket Quilt

Today\s wildflower is the Garlic Mustard plant, officially called Alloria Petiolata.  It's a pretty plant, but quite invasive in the garden.  It's in the mustard family - Brassicaceae.  But when it is crushed it smells like garlic, hence the genus of Alloria (Allum).  Actually I find it to be quite stinky, not like garlic at all.  It has white flowers on lovely green plants.  It is a biennial.  The first year it grows into a low, green plant.  Then it winters over and the following year it grows very tall and produces the white flowers.

I have the pioneers to thank for bringing this plant over when they came to Ontario.  It is now growing prolifically in my garden.  Last year I wanted to pull the little rosette plants out, but I couldn't reach them.  They seemed so small and insignificant, so I let them be.  But this year they have grown into a large clump of invasive greeness, that is stifling my Garden Plox at the back of my yard.

So yesterday I pulled a lot of them out.  They have long tap roots, like dandelions, but I have been assured that if I don't get the entire root out, they will not regrow.  These plants only propagate by seeds.  But a healthy plant can produce between 150 and 850 seeds. And the seeds can lie dormant for several years.  So if I don't pull them up, I will have a garden completely over run by these plants.  I have heard that they can be used in salads and the seeds can be used to season foods.  But I don't ever think I will add them to my cooking.

I am also working on my last corner of my hexagon basket quilt.  Only about a hundred or so hexies to go.

I am running a bit late today.  A massive thunder storm woke me this morning.  I was afraid the power would go out and my computer would be compromised, so I shut it down for a couple of hours.  The sun is shining now and I think it will be a beautiful day.  So that I can go out and pull out more weeds in my garden.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have two baby quilts that have to be finished in the next two weeks.  I can't show you the whole quilts, although I doubt if any of these future Moms even know about my blog.  But these quilts are not done anyway, so I'll just give you a little sneak peek.  The first one features Winnie the Pooh.  Can you guess what the theme of this baby's room will be?

 

I don't have much left to do on this one, only a bit of sashing and then the borders.  Then I have to piece the backing because it is not wide enough.  Hope to get that done today so that I can take it to my Tuesday morning quilt group where I can sandwich it at table height.  That makes things easier for me.

The next one is going to be kind of scrappy.  I am using all the left overs from Winnie's quilt and then some.  I think it will turn out cute.  It has to be finished a week after the first quilt, so I have not done too much on it so far.  I am doing the four-patches as leaders and enders.  So this quilt is kind of making itself.

This past weekend was a cold one.  We had frost warnings over night.  I don't have any annuals planted yet, so I don't have to worry.  Yesterday we had rain, sleet, ice pellets interspersed with beautiful sunny periods.  It was a strange day.  Today should be sunny, but the temperature will not go above 9C.  I am going to stay inside and quilt, quilt, quilt.  And maybe cook a pot of stew for tonight's dinner.  Stay warm if you live in Ontario!

Wildflower Wednesday and More Hexies

The flower for today is the Trillium.  This plant is the official flower for the province of Ontario. They are a beautiful early spring woodland flower.  The woods come alive when the Trilliums are in bloom.

Trilliums have three leaves.  The flowers are made up of three petals.  There are many varieties, probably 40 or more.  Trilliums are in the liliaceae or lily family.  These large white ones are Trillium grandiflorum.

I have a red Trillium in my garden.  I bought it over 10 years ago from the Scarborough Horticultural Society.  I planted it in my garden and hoped that it would multiply, but it didn't.  I still only have one plant, but I just love it.

Now onto the quilting front.  I have been working on my hexies - not a lot, but I did get a few more done.  The third corner section is almost done, just a few more white hexies to do.  I have started making the flowers for the fourth and last corner section.

Well back to my machine sewing.  I have to have a baby quilt finished in two weeks.

Yellow!

I love yellow!  The sunshine - how lovely to have several days of brightness in a row!  The flowers - yellows are abundant in my garden right now.  And quilts - this one is a winner!

a yellow pansy

I saw a quilt like this one on Emily's blog on her March 25th post, 'I've Got Sunshine'.  I decided to make something similar because I needed the bright yellows to remind me that spring was just late and would come eventually.  I love how it turned out.  It's just a flimsy right now, but I will sandwich it and quilt it before the end of the month.   Thank you Em, for your inspiration!

I call it my 'Ray of Sunshine'/

Daffodils are blooming everywhere.  These are from my back garden.  There are more in my front yard.

creamy ones with bright, yellow centres

yellow ones with yellow centres

white ones with yellow centres

Some early tulips.  These look reddish orange when in bud, but when they open their insides are a creamy, light yellow.

And my Ranunculus.  There are hundreds of species, including buttercups in this genus.  I planted it a few weeks ago, along with some potted tulips and pansies into the urns at my front door.  Every time I pass by them I am amazed by their beauty!  They are in the Ranunculaceae family.

some yellow daffodils with peachy, double centres

a neighbour's forsythia bush  

And, last, but not least, another shot of my Ray of Sunshine quilt.  After all, this is a quilt blog.

Wild Flower Wednesday - Violet Violets

It's been difficult to find wild flowers in bloom right now.  We had so much rain that it was hard for me to go out and hunt some down.  There are lots of dandelions in bloom, but I don't think you want to see those.  So I am showing you The Great Spurred Violet.  These are in the Violaceae family.

I have seen them in lawns, waste places and in the woods of the Highland Creek ravine.  I planted some in my garden years ago and was disappointed that they did not come back year after year.  I kept planting them each spring and hoping for more.  Then I sort of forgot about them.  That;s when they started doing their own thing.   Now my garden is full of these wonderful, little, violet flowers.  They volunteer themselves all over, even at the very back of the garden, by the fence.  Here they are crowded by Daffodils and Solomon's Seal, but they are doing well.

My daughter comes over to harvest the flowers, in early spring, which she 'sugars' and arranges on her triple chocolate cheese cakes.  These delicate flowers are edible and make the cakes look very festive and professional.

I have no hexies to show you today.  I have been working on the white ones, but they are sort of boring, so I won't show you until I have this third section done - hopefully next week.

Happy Spring everyone!

A Pretty Collage

Finishes for April.  I made a few of these in March, but only just got the sleeve or label on them. so I am counting them as an April finish.   Now that my machine is working properly I should have many more finishes in the future.

Finished!

Just a quick post to show my finished scrappy quilt.  A friend at our Tuesday morning group held it up for me so that I could take a picture.  I pieced a scrappy binding for it.

I am not sure how many finishes I had this month, but it was more than I have had in previous months.  Tomorrow I hope to do a collage of all of this month's finishes.

Still busy today.  Have to go to the library to return an overdue book, to the bank to cash a cheque and then to the grocery store to buy some marshmallows and Rice Krispie cereal.  I offered to make Rice Krispie squares for my DD's bake sale.  When will I ever learn?

Finishing Up

Went to the bridal shower yesterday.  Had a good time.  Met someone who looked familiar.  She sat down at our table.  It turned out that she is a member of the same quilt guild I belong to.  Small world.  My placemats were well received, by the way.

I posted those placemats on Saturday and linked them to Crazy Mom's Friday finish.  A lot of folks came by to look at them.  And I thank everyone who came, even though not many left a comment.  A special thank you to those who did.  I had 400 visitors since Saturday.  Incredible!

So what's on my design floor today?  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing!  Only a day away from the end of the month and I am trying to finish another quilt.  This one is scrappy, so I made the binding scrappy too.

I still have a bit more to quilt.  And then add the binding.

 But don't think that that is all I have to do today.  I will be busy.  It is my turn to bring a treat to our Tuesday morning quilt group.  I think I will bake a banana bread.

And tonight is the executive meeting of our guild.  We have already started to receive next year's membership applications, so I have been busy with that.

I also need to water my plants, since I haven't done that for a while.  I think that is all I have to do.  Gosh, it really doesn't sound like much when you write it all down.  I can do this!  I know I can.
Hope to be able to show you another finished quilt tomorrow.