Sunflowers

I've always loved Sunflowers ~ The way they move around to capture the sun, and stand tall.
A whole field of them is always breathtaking.
A few years after moving here, I finally was able to grow a few, which wasn't as easy as I thought, living in the middle of a forest.
The endless slugs enjoy eating the young plants, and getting them to grow past that stage took surrounding the plant with a copper band, and even then it wasn't a guarantee.

You can see the plastic container 'sleeves' with a copper band around the base of these plants.

This worked well enough for a second season with these lovely flowers.
But the year after that, I got lazier (busier) and just planted a bag of seeds, expecting at least a few of them would survive critters eating the seeds, letting some of them grow to young plants, which I could add the bands around.
Alas - by the next day, the hundreds of holes in the garden bed made it clear, it was a lost cause.
I haven't tried again since...but will again one of these summers.

I find it much easier to add sunflowers to my quilts!

Scarecrow Jane Quilt

Scarecrow Jane has one on her hat.

I'm going to share the story of Scarecrow Jane and how she evolved into a quilt pattern, in an upcoming post - isn't she fun?

Sunbonnet Family Gallery Sunflower Block

This Sunbonnet Sue is looking up at her Sunflower.
It's one of the blocks from my Sunbonnet Family Gallery quilt.

Autumn Garden Quilt

The 2001 Autumn Garden quilt design is one of my earliest quilt designs.

I love adding some 3-D items to wall hangings, like this sunflower and the other hanging items.

Homespun Harvest Welcome Quilt Wall Hanging

I really like my Homespun Harvest Welcome quilt. 

The Sunflowers in the corners make it so cheery!

And it was a wonderful way to display my homespun plaid collection of fabrics.

Homespun Harvest Cornucopia

And then used the homespun fabrics again for this companion project Homespun Harvest Cornucopia.

Happy August!