May was a very busy month. Yards to mow, crops to plant, hay to make, garden to plant and, of course, quilts to piece. I’m going to start with quilts first.
I made good progress in May on unfinished projects. Besides the Medallion quilt top I showed you several posts ago, I’ve finished a long time Zig-Zag 9-Patch project that was started many years ago. The intent was to use up older fabrics but this didn’t even put a dent in the stash. He will be gifted to a friend who will add borders and hand quilt him.
I embroidered these quilt blocks years ago. They came 6 in a package but there were only 3 packages available. Using one of my quilting stencils, I marked and embroidered 2 more to make 20 blocks. I’ve cut pieces for flying geese to make the side borders wider; the geese will be leaders and enders for the summer. There will be another border after the geese, but just one step at a time.
I had to take a break from quilting on Red Radiance. My fingers got too sore and developed some cracks. Ouch! But I could applique.
The light green sashes have been attached and I started appliquing the hearts. Sometime I’m going to get a good photo of this crib quilt. I know I cropped this photo. I guess the computer wanted to show you the green grass!
With those projects out-of-the-way, it was time to pick up Jane again. I prepped the top row of triangles, started sewing and here they are. I’ve made a few changes. One of the changes was to eliminate the annoyingly narrow white borders that were on some of the triangles. I just cut the pieces longer and extended them into the seam allowance. I need to cut out the alternate plain triangles so the whole row can be sewn together before prepping the next row.
We were able to plant all of the soybeans in the early part of May but corn planting was halted because of rain. When the soil was dry enough to plant the rest of the corn, the hay was ready to be mown. Forty acres of hay made 155 bales which were wrapped. We would have like to have dry baled some hay, but they were calling for rain and we didn’t want to risk getting it ruined. That was the right decision. Hopefully we will be able to dry bale the next cutting. And we did plant the rest of the corn the same week.
Soybeans were no-tilled into the corn stubble in the field south of my garden. I will be showing you their progress over the summer.
I haven’t been very enthused about gardening this year but everything is planted now except for the winter squash. The early planted vegetable are doing fairly well. Some of the early green beans didn’t survive the light frost we got the middle of the month. After the crops were all in, the Farmer was able to help in the garden. My tomato cages never stay upright when the tomato plants are mature. They always fall over because of the weight. The Farmer pounds a fence post into each individual cage to keep it upright.
This year I’m experimenting with growing green beans on this curved fencing panel. (This was also a Farmer job) The idea is the pole beans will grow up the fence and the green beans will hang down so I can easily pick them and save stress on my knees.
The amaryllis bulbs have been transplanted into the garden. I try to keep the soil from the pots intact and set the roots/potting soil into the hole, cover with soil, then mulch. They normally just sit there for several weeks and I worry that I’ve killed them. The roots are growing into the surrounding soil. Once the roots have spread out, they send up new green leaves. They have all survived.
The west end of the garden 
is planted with broccoli plants I started and transplanted into the garden. Once the plants are full size, I’ll plant winter squash seeds into the paths between the broccoli plants. About the time the broccoli is finished yielding, the squash should really be taking off and spread over the broccoli plants, I hope anyway. On the east side of the broccoli is a row of early red potatoes. Yukon Gold potatoes were planted later and haven’t popped up yet. As you can see, we’ve been receiving plenty of rain.
This is what happened in May here on the farm. What is happening this first week of June? We’re busy making memories with 6 of our grandchildren!
I’ve also completed the rest of the triangles for the right side border for the Jane Stickle quilt. These 6 triangles all have applique of some sort, some more than others.
Gretchen's Little Corner 