I don't think it matters what your political persuasion is, at the moment these are difficult times for most of us. The covid-19 pandemic is still bubbling away around the world with its health and economic consequences, the death of George Floyd has also, quite rightly, hit the headlines bringing the actions and attitudes of US police forces to the fore, and with the US presidential election just 5 months away there is no escape from politics on the news and in social media. All these things, and more, mean that our attention is drawn in many directions at once making it hard to settle to normal day-to-day activities, I know I am still finding it hard to get projects finished, particularly the larger ones.
For me, my garden is my daily solace right now and I am happy to go out into it each day, see how each new plant has settled in and the progress it is making. I have tomatoes and peppers starting to bloom, the aubergines (eggplants), melons and cucumbers all seem to be putting on plenty of new growth and the basil seeds that I planted rather late have germinated and will soon be outside in the warm weather. There are also flowers making colourful splashes from their pots, attracting the bees and other pollinators to my patch and those of my neighbours.
The clement weather and easing of restrictions in Centre County PA has enabled us to have one or two friends over at a time for outdoor dining and conversation, a very welcome change from the quiet months at the start of our lockdown. This spurred me to complete a (very simple) project - a new tablecloth for our camping table. The fabric came from fabric.com and was on sale so I purchased sufficient to make some outdoor cushions too. I think this is a great improvement, don't you?
I made some progress on another quilt for Toys for Tots - this time a crib sized one (there will be two once I am done with them). I started with these two fabrics and with some careful cutting and a quick hunt in my stash, where I found an Egyptian style wheat ear fabric, made this:
Something that did make me smile this week was hearing that I had won a giveaway from the One Monthly Goal challenge on Elm Street Quilts and yesterday I was delighted to receive my prize from Paper Pieces - 1200 1" hexagons for English paper piecing! I have been happily wasting time looking at ideas to use them in due course.
Before I can even think of starting a long term handwork project I must get some other projects of the WIP/UFO list, so for June's One Monthly Goal I shall aim to get all these blocks (from my Feb 2020 OMG...) set on point to form the centre of their quilt. I am hoping that this will be the spur I need to get this project moving forwards again after it has been derailed by my lack of inspiration and concentration over the last few months.
I shall leave you with a few more pictures of my early June garden, including the radishes which have lots of leaves but no root swelling yet.
