More Baby Violets

Early last month I posted about the slow growth of this tiny violet baby:

The friend who had given me the original leaf this one grew from came to visit a couple of days later and presented me with more leaves from the same plant.

Today I checked on them and found that three of them have started growing new baby violets:

They might not be easy to see, but there are new little leaves growing on all but the one on the bottom right.

The tiny plant at the top of this post has also started growing, and now has twice as many leaves as it had back then.

I am going to have to find new homes for some of these violets.

Farewell to the Trees

On the 2nd of January I took this photo:

Tiny silver wattle, Acacia dealbata, trees just germinating. I apparently didn't write a blog post about them at the time.

They were part of our TreeProject kit for this year. We (and a number of other people) were growing them for a landholder near Lancefield who was hoping to have all the growers come for planting days to get the 4,000 trees he ordered into the ground. Then the virus happened, and put an end to those plans. He is isolating because he has health issues, and travel restrictions would make it difficult for trees to be transported, and community planting days are right out.

Today we heard from the landholder that a member of his family was going to visit him, and would come past our place to collect the trees on the way. Here's how the silver wattles look now:

Also visible, prickly tea tree to the left, and some grass. In fact 5 out of our seven boxes this time were grasses, rather than trees. We haven't grown grasses before.

The tree boxes were moved to our driveway and this evening someone came and took them away. Not the normal sort of hand-over! I hope the landholder manages to get them planted, and they grow well.

Sunrise

Sunrise this morning was beautiful. The sky was orange and pink all over. My camera didn't do a great job of capturing the colours:

Back in January I dug out my Celtic Solstice quilt which had been untouched for almost 3 years. I did a bit of quilting through January between Frolic clues, but then Mum had her accident and since then I have not touched it. Until today. I think I am out of practice, because this happened, twice:

After the first time I replaced the needle, and tightened the screw that holds it in place as tight as I could. But then it happened again, so I don't know what was going on.

Sewing and Sewing

Six months ago (although it feels much longer now!) we visited Hahndorf, where this print was purchased:

"Sewing (the artist's wife)" by Hans Heysen.

Over the last few days the lovely frame was made, glass was obtained, and today the print is hanging in my sewing room.


My 100-day quilt is now 5% done:

This is the Laundry Basket Quilts mystery quilt from a few weeks ago. Part 1 (4 blocks) on the left, and the first block for part 2 on the right.

Walking

This walk around the block is about 3km:

Although it takes longer than you might think. Hills, dogs sniffing things, and people stopping to photograph items of interest for iNaturalist observations, all slow us down.

New Project - 100 Day Quilt

A few weeks ago, Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts ran a mystery quilt over 15 days, finishing on 5th April. I saved the parts, although I didn't think I really needed a new project. Now I have decided to make it after all. The quilt consists of 100 blocks, and I will make them over 100 days, rather than the original 15 days. That will have me making the last block on 29th July, by which time I sincerely hope the current restrictions on human interaction will be over.

Here's number one:

I won't post a picture a day, but maybe once a week or so I will photograph my progress.

Autumn Colour

Flowers aren't the only colourful things in the garden at the moment. A few of the trees are putting on a display as well.

Cercis canadensis "Lavender Twist" is turning gold:

Berberis:

My Japanese maple, Acer palmatum "Osakazuki", got scorched over summer but the leaves have a bit of colour between the burnt patches:

The crepe myrtles are looking good. Several of them look like this:

And one of them is more red:

The ginkgo is greeny-gold:

Acer rubrum "October Glory" really should have been re-named for the southern hemisphere:

There is more colour ahead, as the liquidambar has only just begun to turn:

X-Plus

This may look the same as in my post of 7th April, but there has been some rearrangement, and now the blocks are all sewn together.

Completed Herringbones

On Monday I showed the herringbones all sewn together,and said I would probably square them up next. Yesterday, rather than just trim off all those triangley edges, I got very brave and sliced right through the top vertically, then sewed the two sides together. Then I sliced through horizontally, and sewed the bottom to the top. And didn't think of taking a photo until I had nearly finished the last bit of sewing:

In the photo above I have three more short seams to sew to finish the horizontal join; between the brown stripe and blue stars, between the two purples, and a very short one to finish off at the edge. You might be able to see that I stay-stitched the cut bias edges before tackling the joins.

This photo is just before I sewed the last short section:

Today I added a border to it. If you look very closely, you might be able to see evidence of the vertical and horizontal cuts. The same fabric appears directly opposite itself, at the sides and also at the top and bottom:

In the bottom left-hand corner you can see two pieces of the same orange fabric touching each other. One started off on the right-hand side before my "slash and join" exercise. Now this quilt complies with Vireya's Law of Scrap Quilts, first formulated in 2011; "No matter how careful you are about layout, you will always find two pieces of the same fabric beside each other after you have sewn the whole quilt together."

The Garden in April

The garden is covered in flowers at the moment. A lot of them are the same as last month, but there are a few new ones. I ran around photographing them today, and when I uploaded the photos off the camera I was surprised to find I had taken 76 photos. There are a lot of photos here, but not that many, I promise!

Blue chalk sticks:

Abutilon with at least three bees inside:

Chives:

Californian poppies:

Borage:

Viburnum tinus:

Red hot pokers:

Nerine:

Rosemary:

Buddleia:

Salvia mexicana "Limelight":

There are about half a dozen different salvias, but this one has the most amazing colour combination.

Osteospermum - African daisy:

Thryptomene:

Lavender:

Graffiti geraniums:

Zinnias:

Digger's speedwell:

Hakea "Burrendong beauty":

Not actually open yet, but they look pretty good even before they do.

Correa:

Forgot to look at the tag on this one and it is too dark outside to go and check it now:

Marigolds:

The lilac flowers in spring, but this is the second year it has had a few autumn flowers as well:

Another confused spring-flowering plant, the flowering quince (Chaenomeles):

Penstemon with dahlias and salvias in the background:

Lots of roses. This one is "Raspberry Tiger"

I'm not sure exactly what this ground-cover plant is:

(Huge thanks to Dee for identifying it for me in the comments. Cymbalaria muralis, Kenilworth ivy)

Also flowering, honeysuckle, hebes, windflowers, verbena, echevarias, strawberries, kangaroo paws, a few euphorbias, so many flowers everywhere.

And I almost forgot! The African violets are blooming profusely indoors:

Herringbones

All one piece now:

It ended up about 90cm square. I'll probably square it up and add a border to control all those bias edges. When finished it will be donated to the guild's Quilts of Love program.

The colours are a bit washed out in the full sun, but I like the back view with the sun shining through it: