Garden Update and Omaha Vacation

 We went to Omaha last weekend.  We went to the Strategic Air and Space Museum, the Henry Doorly Zoo, Union Pacific Railroad Museum, the Joslyn Art Museum, and the Lee Simmons Wildlife Safari.  I did not take very many pictures with my good camera except at the wildlife park.

This week I finished a quilt that was given to a friend.  The cats approve.

The garden is filling in nicely.

My first dahlia is blooming.

The dwarf sunflowers are pretty.

I also planted a box of zinnias and bachelors buttons.

 I really like the nasturtiums and will have to plant them again next year.

Two weeks

I have met my goal of taking pictures of the garden every week, but I did not get anything posted last week.  The side garden and shade garden look the same.

I like when I get garden visitors

It is always amazing how fast plants grow in a week.  the 1st picture is last week and then 2nd picture is this week.

I am ready for tomatoes!

I think that the kale is such a pretty color.

We will soon be having beans!

 '
In the flower garden the daisies are blooming, but they are floppy.  I will have to do some researcher into why this is.

My favorite flowers are starting to bloom.  I love snapdragons.  Most of these are self sowed from last year.

I also love phlox!

The pot up front is doing well.

 The peach roses are still beautiful.

The thread leaf coreopsis are not doing as well this year.

Currently the orange day lilies are going nuts.

Gardening and Quilting

This week is hot here in Iowa.  I saw the forecast and knew that I had to get the majority of gardening done early in the week.  I planted some more peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, and squash.

The side garden still looks about the same.  The Anabel hydrangea is starting to take, but some of the hostas are looking a bit sad.

All but one dahlia are up.  The day lilies are starting to bloom.

The roses are still going strong.  The white roses are starting to bloom and so are the coral ones.
 

These turn pink when they get older.

In the main garden I saw the tiniest grasshopper.  The cat mint looks great right now. I can not believe that this is only its second year.

 Soon we will have tomatoes!

In quilting news I won 1st in viewer's choice at the Pella Area Quilters' Guild Tulip Time show.

 I had several other quilts in the show also.

Red and Turquoise Pineapples.  A Bonnie Hunter design.

The block of the month I created for my presidential year in 2015.

A finish last year.  I created the star blocks from charm packs.

I also made this with charm packs.

This is a bed runner and pillow.  It received 5th place in functional quilts.

A Christmas double wedding ring bed runner.

A scrap quilt that did not use up much of my scraps.

 In other quilt show news... This year I made the raffle quilt "Quadrille".  I also won the raffle!  I buy tickets in other people's name and the ticket drawn was one I bought in my grandmother's name!