I love working with the fabric I am using for the circles of the Final Frontier. – some people think Fossil Ferns is a batik and think it would be hard to hand quilt as that is what I will be doing with it down the road – but whereas Fossil Ferns looks like a batik it doesn’t feel like it in the least – it feels like any other quilters cotton. I’m not even sure if technically it is batik or not.
Yesterday morning I was laying some rows out on the wall and noticed that I forgot a strip of sashing for the corner block, so next time I took it off the wall I got that fixed. All of the sides and corners are just folded over in this photo – the straight edge work will be done later – at that time I will also decide if I will put circles in those areas or not. As I was laying this section out and working on it I started to realize I might not need a total of 365 blocks for this quilt! Once the sashing is added it grows – possibly a second smaller quilt will be needed or maybe I will quit wherever the end of this quilt takes me and not make all of them? I do believe I am going to continue all week on putting together rows to see how it grows. I am linking to Esther’s blog – she is sharing the link up this week even though she is in Europe (from Australia) for her mother’s funeral – our thoughts are with her.
I got this far and quit for the day – the rows get longer and longer. I know I will run out of design wall space and have to resort to the floor every time I am stitching rows together. I am linking to Quilt Story today and Mrs. Sew and Sow.
I have about 1/3 of the row of clamshells left to stitch down and then the interesting part of the border for the Postage Stamp begins.
Two more blocks left to quilt on row #7 before I roll Winter Wonderland down once again.
The storms rolled through Arkansas again on Sunday night and Monday during the day but once again my part of the northwest quarter of the state didn’t get much – it was all the lower southern part of the state and some in the east. I think I dumped less than a quarter inch out of the rain gauge once again. The garden is watered for now. I bought tomato plants and some herbs yesterday and will get those planted today – I checked the forecast and there are no cold nights coming up – if I have to before the end of April I can cover things but it looks like all the cold stuff is out of here. I will need to get a bag of potting soil for some mint plants – by the way has anyone planted Lemon Balm and Lavender and what do you use it for – they both look like pretty plants for pots so I got one of each – do you have to pot Lavender though or can that be planted into the ground or will it take over the area?
I have planted lavender before and in the ground as a perennial so if it is hardy where I am you are quite safe. I’ve never had it ‘take over’ / on the contrary I think I’d need tons of it if I wanted it to show up much for a floral display so no worries there! 🙂 No clue about lemon balm, though 🙂
I grow lemon balm for tea and I always put it in a pot. It can be pretty darn aggressive here. I’ve not had much luck with lavender though.
I love lavender and have planted it yearly over the years. We live in northern VA and our lavender does not winter over, not does it take over. I wish it would since I love the fragrance. I have experimented with culinary lavender making lavender sugar and tea cookies. We still haven’t grown culinary lavender, we would have to special order the plants. Lemon Balm is good in tea. Good Luck with your herbs.
I’ve had lemon balm, it is an invasive plant, at least in my flowerbed. I finally resorted to spraying it with round-up to kill it. The lavender won’t over winter in northern Indiana. You are in a milder climate, go for it! Gretchen
Fossil Fern is not a batik. You can tell that by looking at the back side of it. Batiks have color all the way through the cloth where prints are on one side and only a portion of the color goes through to the back.
Final Frontier is looking great! I’m not normally a huge fan of sashing but it certainly works well here. Thanks for joining up with us at #scraptastictuesday
Lemon balm smells wonderful but is very invasive. I spent weeks 2 years ago digging up all that had spread. Put it in a container.
Morning Karen so lovely to visit again how I enjoy dropping in to your blog it always leaves me thinking about “What if” your Quilt365Circles are going to look fab on point with the black sashings. Every tome I see your wee circles I think how lucky I was to have seen them at the start and was able to join in this fun journey too.
Your clam shells are looking so fresh and make me think of our rainforest here. Looking forward to seeing the appliqué added now. You have had a busy week. Hugs Glenda PS Lemon Balm is a great refreshing drink chilled in the summer with a dash of lemon juice added.
Lavender does well in the ground at my place (southern MN) so I would think you would have great results (it can be quite a large bush…..be aware! But beautiful!)
Visited Esther’s place and left a few words. Such events are in all our lives at some point………………
Lavender should do well in your area. It can take the heat & does not need a lot of water. The plant can get quite large, but if you keep it pruned you can keep it to about 14-16″. My friend clips hers back to get the flowers & they re-bloom again & she clips them again. Hers are really nice & compact & make a nice border along her flower beds. If you do not keep them clipped back they can get quite straggly.
You have been busy Love the circles and the clam shells.. I have planted lavender in the garden it is so lacey and pretty smelling. You can dry it and bag it in organza bags and use it in your dresser or closet.. Have fun Bunny