One down, one more to go

The inner border is done, and today I began working on the outer border.
This is a template I drafted in two sizes. The thing I like about these linked hearts is that, while cables need to be gone over with six or more threads, this will fill the space with only two.

I was able to layer this quilt nicely so that it only needed pin basting. After quilting all the blocks in the ditch, I thread-basted the outer border and removed the last of the pins. I can do this border quilting without using a hoop. I can use a long thread without it getting caught on things.

The silkworms are still hatching out. Norie sent a supply of mulberry leaves from her area. This morning I walked to the supermarket one stop over, looking for some food items before they were all sold out and the crowds arrived. The shelves were still being stocked but shoppers were very few. Now I know why.. The stuff I was looking for was still not there. Not sure how to get the timing right. At least I could find more milk and a coffee refill... And taking a different route home, I found a few mulberry trees in the gardens along the way home.

Mulberries are considered "junk trees" here in Japan. I am not sure why, as they are not so big as to take up much space. They attract small birds and the berries are delicious. Of course they don't all ripen at the same time so wouldn't be good for harvesting. They might be considered messy, but there are lots of persimmon trees that drop their fruit making a much bigger mess.

The park where I do most of my weeding has one young mulberry tree hidden behind a row of evergreens. The leaves are a nice size and shape for harvesting during silkworm season. From the fall, construction of two new houses began in the north side of the park fence, making that one tree a bit more visible.

I asked Leia to make me a sign to hang on the tree, saying the leaves were feeding silkworms, so please don't cut it down.

I am hoping if the tree is discovered by the gardeners, they will leave it alone.

It is strange to me that those hired as "gardeners" really don't seem to have any skills of tending a garden.
Mostly, they rake the leaves up into a pile, and when the weeds get knee-high, come out with a weedwacker and cut everything off ... spreading the weed seeds all over.

I have never seen them bend over and pull a weed. In fact, I have come to doubt they know which items are weeds.

These beautiful flowers are getting ready to put on a show.

Maybe the gardeners will be taking a stay-home break and we will actually get to see the blooms, but this is about the time each year they all get whacked off about two inches above the ground.

See why this rescue looks so happy?

They don't really ask for a big plot with tender loving care, just a place to hold their bulbs and greet the spring.


This week, as I go through fabrics looking for certain colors or designs among the gifted stuff,
I come up with all kinds of scraps, cut in weird shapes and bunched up in a heep of other bits and pieces.

I often pick out some to iron out and trim.

This scrap had a lot of useless bits, but I cut it up into as many squares as would fit, and tossed the rest out. I think one 4 inch, one three inch, two twos and 2 ones.

Those all went into the scrap tins and I have been seeing a number of scrappy quilt patterns that might inspire their use.

I have been having trouble lately with the comment section getting a bunch of spam.
I talked with my guru son, who was going to help fix it, but things I had removed earlier in the week, came back again.
I wish there was just some way to block those spam comments. I wonder if the "new" blogger would do that. I hesitate to go there and get myself in an even bigger mess. Ah, well, nothing is for sure, but change!