In Grandpa's Garden

Growing up as a child I had a love of flowers. I first thought (after the initial I want to join the army and be a police woman) that I would like to do something with landscaping. I know this love of flowers came from my Grandfather. They lived in town but had a large backyard. This yard was filled with gorgeous flowers, and fruit trees. His flower garden was quite large and had a white picket fence surrounding it. It had walkways throughout and was quite lovely.
As a teenager I purchased a small plastic type greenhouse from a neighbor. Tore it down and hauled it home then re-constructed it. I didn’t have much luck with it. It was way too hot inside and most of my plants died. It was at this point I realized that I didn’t have a green thumb. But I wasn’t giving up! Upon graduation from high school I enrolled in the Indianapolis School of Floral Design. I loved working with and creating flower arrangements. I knew this was the work for me and gave 100% to my schooling. Upon graduation I found it difficult to find a job in the Floral Design field. Even though I had some talent at it, all the local shops wanted someone with shop experience. So I never did land a job arranging flowers.
Early in my marriage I found much enjoyment in growing herbs and flowers. I would dry them and then make wreaths from them and sell at the local craft fairs. Then my children started growing and getting busier and I no longer had the time for this. Now you wonder what all this is leading up to. Well it is leading up to my big weekend. It amazes me that a job I once loved, once thought I could do the rest of my life is now a job I don’t even want to spend a weekend doing. A few years ago a friend of mine gave me a bunch of perennials. She told me to plant them in areas around the house and by the time that Jess graduated from high school they would be spread out and look gorgeous. This did happen, but now 2 years later a few of the plants have taken over and it looks like one big patch of weeds. So, the big plan this weekend is to pull all these plants out. The ones I want to save I am going to move behind the house. The rest will go to the mulch pile. I plan on planting blue hydrangeas where the old plants were. I have a white hydrangea that I love and I have to put no work into it. That is probably why I love it! I have put this project off long enough and need to get it done! So that is what I will be doing this weekend! I wonder if that path in life would have worked out for me and if it would still be something I enjoy doing everyday. I guess I will never know.
The quilt above is a Pat Sloan pattern. I call mine In Grandpa’s Garden. I was contacted a few years ago and asked if I would make a quilt to hang at the White River Gardens in Indianapolis. It was to have a garden theme. I only had a few months to get the quilt completed so I went with a published pattern that I thought fit the bill.