Salvia sounds excellent! I have purple May Night and a pure blue one whose name I forget - perhaps Blue Hill. Both of these have been bulletproof and both have bloomed generously over a long period of time. I move them around the garden, and they establish easily. Truly great garden troupers. I think the blue-flowered ones would look good with my yellow and orange roses.

I If I'm not mistaken, speedwell is the common name for veronicas. I've been pleased with how well the short, ground-hugging veronicas have done for me here. I'd love to get one or two of the kinds that make spiked blue flowers.

The artemesia that I've planted here has grown extremely well. In its third year it verges on being invasive. I thought pruning it severely might slow it down a bit. But I think it just encouraged it. I have to plant roses in its path to get myself to train it correctly. Fortunately it romps slowly.

Steve - WOW, that is a stunning picture. I learned the hard way about artemesia.. I bought 6 of them to put in my pond area where all my blue roses are concentrated figuring the silvery folliage & the blue roses would look good. It did, until the silvermound overgrew EVERYTHING. I ripped them all out & planted them in a different spot earlier this spring & they're taking off nicely. I had 2 in the front yard in one of my iris beds where my Royal Raindrops crabapple tree is and I trimmed them down to the ground before they started to sprout. Looks like I killed one of them - don't think I'm going to replace it (will probably dig the other one out & put more salvia there). Been looking for that Red Fox veronica for a while, can't find it locally. Maybe some of the nurseries will have it now that it's warmed up & the threat of frost has totally past?

Quilt top I am working on for a friend. Her daughter is going to U of A and wanted school colors, red and blue.


Baby quilt for a friend's daughter. Can't remember if I posted this here previously.

I so admire anyone who makes quilts. Great job Susie !

Beautiful Susie....you already know how much I love your quilting!

It looks like painstaking work.

I'm not very familiar with quilting, but the designs strike me as being unique, inspired, rooted in the tradition but pushing a little beyond traditional bounds. Nice.

The red/white/blue one reminds me of a pineapple pattern & the green/white (gorgeous!) reminds me of a Drunken Path. My mom quilts.. first quilt she ever made me (and swore that she would NEVER make another one ever again) is a "tumbling block". I told her that I wanted green and so she picked out 3 green fabrics that were so close together that it was miserable for her to piece it all together! She did hand-stitch that one 100%, but the rest of her quilts she hand pieces & machine sews. I've got the Tumbling Block, Crazy, and.. oh.. I can't remember the 3rd quilt she made for me. I want her to make me a pineapple, but she'll get to it.. one of these days... LOL The tumbling block I had to retire as the pieces are getting very very thin & I am afraid they won't take another washing, so they're packed up. Why, I don't really know - I don't have anyone to pass them down to.

Thanks everyone. This quilting thing has really taken over my (retired) life. I love it. Of course, one can't keep these things unless they are used to warm or hang for decoration. So I give them away. Just finished the red and blue one today.

I really like the white and green pattern, too. I tend to REALLY love modern quilting so will saturate myself in the improv!

I'm going to post this in a few places because it is so worth viewing. The photogrpahy-video of pollination is amazing as is the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?f...