Thursdays' Three Free, Five Fledglings, Two Bleeding Hearts, One Basket Case Quilt

I have had a good week and by good I mean productive as per a retired old lady. Played ball and walked the dogs a lot, cleaned and refilled the bird feeders, dug around a bit more in the garden, tidied the pesky cupboard and flotsam drawer. I also washed our bed pillows. Do you do that?  I run them through the machine with clorox and then again with no detergent a couple of times a year.  We don't have fancy ones that might need dry cleaning.  I swam a little too and took photos as well.  It goes without saying there was time well spent with needle and thread. 

Look at these faces! Despite our removing nest material from the eave over the front veranda, the Eastern Phoebe persisted and proceeded to raise her family there. This was almost directly in front of the front door so we used the back door further along the veranda to give her some privacy. By easing open the front door, I was able to take a couple of photos-I didn't want to spook them. 

All along we assumed there were three birds in the nest.  Not till they started to fledge did we realize there were five! They each took a turn sitting outside the nest for a couple of hours before leaving. This took a whole day for them all to fledge. It really must take a lot of gumption to make that first flight.

The next day I heard them chirping in the big trees at the end of the veranda and saw the parents still flying about. They are moved on now and it's a little sad to see the empty nest. But it is nice to have our front door back.

I had dug up and divided the white Bleeding Heart bush. This article was very helpful. It had more than enough roots to divide which you are supposed to do every 5 years I read - in that article. One part got planted in the back yard 

and the rest on the right side of the house.

 I'm happy to say that they both "took" and even produced flowers. Fingers crossed they return next year.

I think I mentioned I've decided to use the  Elm Street Quilts Monthly OMG link up to finish old WIPS. The one I've chosen for July is this one, Basket Case, which is a 2020 project. This was stitched with a free basket pattern from kind Michelle at Michelle Ridgeway Designs. The greys of the background fabrics are not as dark as shown here.

The center medallion was my own choice and all those fussy cut flowers are just tacked down with a running stitch. I plan to anchor them all with a little blanket stitch embroidery and then get the whole thing quilted. More hand work. But I don't mind as I do have the dresden blades for Wheel Within a Wheel being machine stitched and moving right along.  

Speaking of baskets, there are more in my future as I ordered a kit from Norma Whaley of Timeless Traditions to stitch a small and beautiful wall hanging. Basket Love can be seen here.

I love everything Norma designs as I've mentioned here on the blog before. More about that later.

Time for Thursday's Three Free

From the creative folks at the Live Art Gallery comes a pattern download and tutorial to make a lovely Summery Pillow top using their way of making flying geese. I never tire of flying geese projects and would use this for a table topper. 

Bev at Flamingo Toes cleverly combines quilting, embroidery and a little DIY know-how to create a wide variety of lovely items. She also generously provides quite a large supply of free patterns for every season too. I thought this one a pretty little mini quilt to stitch and it was in the RSC June colours too which could easily be swapped for July's purples.

And for my cross stitching pals, By the Bay Needleart, the folks behind this gorgeous design that I've ogled for a long time...

there is a page of lovely freebies to be found HERE.

That's enough for this rather long post; hope I did not bore you! I have thrifting news for next time.

So happy to link up with Not Afraid of Color, Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and  Quilting Patchwork Applique.