one more step

You, my readers, seem to enjoy my pictures of nature in my yard, so here you go--

The flowers and leaves and fruit are like little gems.

I'm nearing the finish line with the Katy quilt, even though I already thought it was done. This bit of the quilting process didn't make itself clear to me until I had finished everything I had planned to do. I had outlined all the flowers and leaves, stitched on the binding and rod pocket, and finally acknowledged that little niggling voice in my head that had been telling me that the yellow border needed some attention. Since the quilt was no longer on the big frame, I decided that the best choice was to add some straight line stitching to help frame up the center design and keep that border flat.

So trusty Bernina came to the rescue! Five randomly positioned lines were just what the doctor ordered! If you are not a quilter and wonder about that odd looking foot on the machine, that is called a walking foot. It is absolutely necessary for this type of stitching through multiple layers, because it has a mechanism that "walks" along the top layer of fabric just as the feed dogs do underneath the fabric. That keeps the layers moving evenly--another name for the foot is the even feed foot-- and is also what I use when I want to match plaids or stripes. On the left side of the foot is a detachable adjustable guide bar that allows me to use the previously sewn line as a reference for guiding my new sewing line. It is kind of like the row marker on a corn planter, only in reverse, for all you farm girls. The planter row marker extends out to the side of the planter and marks a reference point in the dirt for the next row. Lessons from the farm pop up in the most unexpected places!

I have been outside digging in the dirt all morning, uprooting a heap of violets and yarrow that have multiplied beyond reason in my flower beds. They can be kind of tough to pull, especially to remove as much as possible of the root system. They had overwhelmed some of the other plants, so the thinning out has helped highlight some other nice plants.

This is one section along my front walk, now the walk is covered with everything that I pulled! This is my 3rd session so I finally feel like I am making progress and can see the end. All that bare dirt will need to be mulched and I can start planting and transplanting some other things. See those paver steps on the right? I put those in there probably 18 years ago, and they were completely overgrown so I had even forgotten they were there!