Sunday, May 21, 2023

Slow Sunday Stitching

This past week has had its ups and downs.  The down part involves my indoor plants.  I have been battling mealybug, first on one begonia, then it moved to most of my orchids in the living room for months.  I have treated them with alcohol, Neem oil, and a soap insecticide.  It got so bad that I had to cut the beautiful blooms off most of my orchids as the bugs were attached to the flowers.  The mealy bugs start sucking the sap out of a plant and eventually destroy them.  Then I found an online recipe which seems to be working for the orchids.  It consists of water, Neem oil, baking soda and 10 drops of Dawn.  They are still in the garage, being treated for dehydration, but the mealybug has not come back on the orchids.  

Meanwhile last week, just before I was departing for the Begonia meeting, I discovered an indoors string of pearls encrusted with mealy bug.  I tossed that out, there was no way to resuscitate that plan.  The next day, I checked out the begonias in the kitchen window and discovered 3/4 of them with mealybug.  I took those outside and went and bought some lady bugs at the local nursery and have been releasing some each evening, which reportedly will feed on mealybug.   It is warm enough, that those begonias are going to stay outside.  

One of the good things this week is that grandson Jaeger is home from college for the summer.  He came over and helped me put up my new triple umbrella to help shade my plants since my neighbors removed their shade trees to put in a pool.  


The foxgloves are getting really tall.  


I have spent part of the week pulling weeds early in the morning as it has been getting up into the 90's this week.   This is a wild morning glory that keeps going all over my garden, wrapping itself around my plants.


The third week of the month is always busy for me.   There is Begonia Meeting on Tuesday night, and then Wednesday was guild meeting.   This was the meeting they were handing out ribbons from the quilt show last month.  This was not a judged show, but all that entered received a ballot to vote on their 1st, 2nd and 3rd favorites in each category.  My mermaid quilt, "What Makes My Heart Sing" won 1st place in the Challenge quilt category, but I was the only entrant in that category.


This week I acquired a new grandpuppy.   Our granddaughter Kyleigh got a Great Dane puppy this week.   One of our friends' Great Dane had puppies.  Kyleigh's puppy's name is Maple and she is a female and the sweetest thing.  She is 8 weeks old. 




Grandson Jaeger came to my rescue again Saturday afternoon.   My walk-in closet's light burnt out Friday night, so I went and purchased new light bulbs.  They are this circular kind.  You need to put them in the brackets and then plug them in.  I am short, and I couldn't seem to find the right angle to plug them in.  Jaeger came over and figured out the prongs weren't spread apart enough and fixed that and was able to get them plugged in the right away. 


Now I don't have to use a flashlight to get my clothes out.  I don't think we ever changed the lightbulb in this lamp since we redid our closet many, many years ago.  

This week I was able to remove all the bad stitching I had made last week on my longarm and quilted the two little quilts for H2H charity drive this year.  For Slow Sunday Stitching this week I will be sewing down the two bindings.  


I was also able to piece one more H2H quilt. I plan to get this quilted this week and bound.  Hopefully will be able to mail all 4 of the quilts I have done the end of the week.


I will be linking up to Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.     Head on over and check out what everyone has been up to. 

This next week will be another busy one, with workday at my house, a hairdresser appt, hearing aid appt, and trying to get yard work done, and quilting.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!


6 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:20 PM

    Those mealy bugs sound awful! I hope you can eradicate them soon. Good thing you have a tall grandson to help you with those high up jobs that need to be done. Lovely quilts for charity! You do keep very busy! Gail at the Cozy Quilter.

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  2. Such a cute puppy, bet he won't stop growing!

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  3. I'm sorry to hear about the mealy bugs - I know how much you enjoy those begonias and orchids. I hope you can get rid of them! Hooray for finishing some quilts! Enjoy stitching that binding.

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  4. Ugh on the mealy bugs. Sounds like you've got a handle on it, and yay on the ladybugs. I've never seen a triple umbrella - you must not have any wind there. Your back yard looks like a lovely oasis. Jaeger is wonderful! I think "What Makes My Heart Sing" would win even if there were dozens of entries. Maple is adorable!

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  5. Look at those feet! He's/She's going to be huge. Love your latest donation quilt, and that you were able to get some things done. I'm glad your orchids will at least be mealybug free. Jaeger has grown into a real helper.

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  6. You have great patience to deal with bug infested plants. I just can't do it. Maple is adorable. Enjoy all of your quilting.

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