Everyone has scraps to use up, but while cleaning a while back I noticed that I had lots of orphan quilt blocks from things I had made, or blocks that I made just to see how they looked put together.
I just got a navy blue fabric for the background and made borders on all the blocks that were an odd size. When all the blocks were the same size I sewed them together, with the navy background they sort of look like they are floating. I had enough blocks to make 2 quilts... This one is almost twin sized.

End of Summer Work

Finally all the yard work I wanted to get done this summer is done. Now I can go back to getting some sewing done. But at least I got to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the weather...when it wasn't raining.

Decided that this had to be redone, so spent the day digging out all the plants and pulling up the old black paper along with a truck load of mulch.

Pulled all the plants out and put them into buckets over night while we worked on leveling the garden and putting down new paper. And then started replanting the shrubs.

Got up early Labor Day morning and started to shovel in all the pea gravel and added the windmills and the ladder. Still have to paint the top part of the windmill as it is really rusty. Plus added the bird house.

Long view of the yard including the outdoor burner, and the side garden, rose bush, and rusty shed...but that is next years project.

Close up view of the pea gravel, and the accents, got the lannon stone back in place.

The propellers on the windmills are back on, the tall one is painted red and black. Still need a bit more pea gravel I think. It is only 2 inches thick, I would like it about 4 inches.

Another view from a different angle,

Got all this free gravel from someone else who was redoing their yard. So cleared the mulch out of here as well and added the gravel. Found an old paving block left over from one project or another, and painted it up to look like a lady bug..seems to add some color to the bed.

The bed of winter onions have also found a new home. The did not like the last spot and we did not have a good crop this year. So we will see how they do here. Also had an extra Hosta, so that got planted along side the onion bed till next spring when I find a new spot for it. along with a plant with bluish silver leaves. I got it as a house plant, but have seen them growing outside also, so planted that and will see what comes up in the spring and then will find it a better location as well.

This poor rose bush, I almost lost it, in it's former location. No sunlight. Here it rewarded me with a couple blooms, and even worked it's way up the trellis. Hard to believe it was only here for 5 weeks, it really grew.

This one did not need a lot of work, just tore out all the mulch and put in stone instead. Looks so much neater. Some of the projects could be done in a day...when it was not raining.

This was another problem area we decided to work on this year. Nothing grew around this tree, the roots were too close to the surface...so just added a wooden "box" and more dirt and solved that problem.

Next year it will be all tulips and Daffy's I hope. Will be nice to sit outside and sew and see all the nice colors.

This is a view from the back of the rock garden. This is as far as I am going with the planting, till next spring. Will see what comes up in the spring. I don't want it so thick that you can't see the rocks.

Finally managed to get the dirt put into the rock garden and have started to put in the ground cover. I put a Hosta in each of the front corners, hoping that they will help to hold the dirt in the corners. Then added the purple phlox and another ground cover that blooms yellow.

This year I can finally say I am not behind!

THE LIST!
Every year it seems like there is more and more to do...The list just gets longers and longer..This year I decided if I ever do finish the list, there will always be another one in it's place. When my kids were small I never had a list....Martha Steward definitly did not live at my house, she would have had heart failure! No one got sick from a "lived in" house, my kids had fun, we were spontaneous.
If I got the urge to go somewhere a day, we went, if the kids, (when they were little), wanted Mommy to play in the sandbox with them I did!
Then they grew up and had their own families, and somewhere the list arrived... I had more time when they were babies..
.Well this year I decided if I died tomorrow the list would not matter, someone else would be finishing it.
So this year I BURNED THE LIST!!
I have had a fun summer. I decided I wanted to work on my gardens, so I did. Can actually recognize some of my neighbors. In years past I was in the house all summer working my way though that list!
Today I am going to sit and read a book for the afternoon....This is so much fun, I should have thought of it years ago.....

This big old...(have no idea how old) pine tree sits on the corner of the front of our property, by the side of our house. It has been there for as long as I can remember. It was here even before I lived here. Even while I was in college, I can remember this old tree on the corner. And it could stand a long time more.....Then the electric company knocked on our door and said they would be moving their wires and would have to do a (bit of trimming) to the top side of our tree, for their wires.....I said how big a trim...well they really could not say for sure... Well we took a good look at our tree and it was not looking all that good anymore, a big maple tree is pretty close to it and in another couple years, would be growing right into the pine tree, plus there were big areas towards the bottom where the branches had already died for lack of sunlight. So we had to make a decisions here.........................

We made the decision......The electric company is taking down the entire tree. By the time they would have trimmed it for the wires, there would have been a big gaping hole in the top side of the tree...it would have looked just terrible! Plus once they started cutting, we noticed that a lot of the interior of the tree was dying.....The other bonus....since this was the electric company's idea we did not have to pay to have the tree removed...

Yes, that used to be our big old pine tree, now it just looks like another telephone pole! As soon as the trunk is down, well when I get to it that is, the clean up will begin. We get to do that, all the electric company did was grind up the branches, they even left the tree wood itself, but we have a friend who wants that..so it will be gone in a day or two..

We just left the mess till late spring when we returned from vacation. By then the city had started tearing up the street and putting in a new intersection, complete with new higher curbs and gutters.
They wanted to "level" the hill for us, but I told them no, I had plans for it.
I think the neighbors are getting a bit impatient waiting to see what I am gong to do with this mess.....they watched me start the raking...so many pine needles, I know the dirt is under there somewhere......

Still raking up those pine needles, got 5 big buckets of needles and ? altogether! I had the electric company leave me an 18 inch high stump when they cut down the tree.
Have plans for that eventually. The neighbors are still guessing what we are up to. Their corners have all been sodded by the city, only ours still looks like this.........................

Got a lot done since I took that last picture, the landscape timbers have been set in....hubby's job....the black paper and the rocks have been set....my job....I wanted more rocks but this is all we could find, rocks are hard to come by, if I get more along the way, will just add them. Still have to seed the lawn around the rock garden, but I will get to that eventually...whenever it stops raining....

this is the front view from the street. Still have to add dirt and the plants. The dirt is in a big pile waiting to be mixed with peat moss and shoveled into the wheel barrow and then distributed over the rock garden...(my job). Then I will be planting flowering ground cover......some purple phlox and a yellow flowering ground cover that I can not remember the name of at the moment.
I am still deciding what to put on that stump....any ideas would be appreciated.
When I get the dirt in and the planting done will take another picture so you can see what it looks like done.