Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Tiny Needle Tuesday 7/16/24

 Hello All,


Greetings from the furnace!  Yup, Eastern PA is back to the VERY hot and sultry weather.  Yesterday was close to 100 on our patio.  Mabel goes out and collapses on the patio.  We do go out and bring her inside when we see her panting with her mouth open.  Sometimes that girl has no sense!  It has now been 4 weeks since we've had our lawn mowed.  There is no need!  No rain = no growth.  The brief shower we had Sunday that cooled things down to 80 wasn't even enough to be measured in our rain gauge.

The deer have consumed ALL of our gladiolas which had started to bloom.  Yesterday I spied one small dahlia that had opened, so I picked it and brought it inside before any creature would get it!


All of the other dahlia buds turned brown.  It is still only one dahlia plant that has produced buds (or even come up out of the ground).

The garden is not doing so well.  The eggplant has some kind of scale insect that is destroying the blooms, so no fruit.  The yellow squash plants have died.  Beans are FINALLY growing well and I picked one tiny pepper the other day.  Tomatoes are puny and not really ripening.  Fortunately Leslie brought us tomatoes from Bob's (her husband) garden:


I sliced one of the larger ones last night to go with our dinner and it was so yummy!

Meanwhile, it is Tuesday which means it's time for a Tiny Needle update.  I have a new piece that I am stitching.  It is from the book A Schoolgirl's Work by Blackbird Designs.  The design is called "Ann's Sewing Tray" (but I will not be making it into a tray).  Here is my start:


It is a soothing piece to stitch and I am enjoying it.  I'm using 40 count linen and DMC threads (1 thread over two linen threads).  Hopefully there will be more progress to show you next week.

I will see you back here tomorrow for Unraveled Wednesday!

12 comments:

  1. It's ridiculously hot here, too. The grass is all brown. I've been watering the flowers and veggies, but I don't care about the grass. Fortunately we're supposed to get some rain this week and the humidity is supposed to go down. Can't wait! The new stitching piece looks lovely and I look forward to seeing it take shape.

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  2. I'm so sorry to hear about your glads. What a disappointment!
    We've been getting little downpours that last about two minutes or so every couple days. Not enough to do much at all, so I still have to water my herbs--at least the ones that the groundhog is leaving alone. Sigh.

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  3. I'm sorry to hear about your glads and dahlias. It's been horrendously hot and the only thing that seems to be good for is drying laundry on the line in record time. Your new stitching looks lovely and I admire how you got the wavy border to match up!

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  4. Those. Damn. Deer. I'm so sorry about your glads . . . And I think dahlias are particularly tricky/fussy. Your stitching is so charming, Vera! Love the new piece.

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  5. We've had the rain AND the humidity! We had six inches when Beryl blew through last week, two inches yesterday and another three this morning. And we might get more this afternoon. My gardens are so overgrown! I really need to get out and weed.

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  6. Thanks for your nice note about my stitching (and I think I'm not going to do a LOT more Halloween; the colors do not entice me). I'm sorry about the hot weather and I'm sure Mabel is appreciative you looking out for her! And boo on those deer.

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  7. It's so hot. I'm out watering at 6 am and then back in for the day. My plants seem to be loving this heat-me, not so much.
    your new project looks very interesting. It reminds me of a wedding sampler I made for Daughter 14 years ago. Time does fly.

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  8. It is hot on this side of the state as well and just as dry! (I think it has been about the same since Steve mowed... everything is dead!) My tomatoes are coming... slowly, but there are tomatoes! The pepper plant looks to be a bust... not a single pepper in sight!

    Good thing your stitching start is so lovely!

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  9. we've had no rain for quite a while and our flowers are wilting away. Supposedly it's going to rain....let's see. Sorry about your flowers!

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  10. oh Vera, I love your new project (and I'm in awe of the threadcount - for both the linen and the thread)!

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  11. Bob has good looking tomatoes! Ours are like green golf balls. Nothing doing well but zukes here, and I think they wore themselves out.

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  12. I love the new piece of stitching. What a sweet little design. Darn those deer for eating the glads.

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