More Day Lilies and a Table Runner

As I mentioned before, the day lilies are really splendid this year. First of all, our plants have matured and are now good-sized, with each plant having over a dozen stems, each with multiple flower buds. Secondly the spring and summer here have so far been quite wet and cooler than normal. Seems to suit all the growing things. These particular lilies are just about my favorite. The predominant color is cheddar with a throat of mahogany.

This is one of the flower beds with several colors of day lilies and lots of cone flowers as well. If I could just get daisies to take hold, I would be content. For some reason - even though others seem to have no difficulty growing Shasta daisies, they have thwarted my best efforts. The cooler and wetter than normal weather this year in the Midwest has another side. The ticks and other insects are more prevalent than I can remember in a long time. Out outdoor cat came home with four ticks in one week, forcing us to change the flea preventive that we use to one that also controls ticks. Since then, no more ticks on Mickey. We humans are another matter however. This morning, after a quick walkabout in the yard taking these photos, I pulled a tick out of my hair.

Here's a table runner, hand-pieced except for the borders, from a packet of 2.5 inch pre-cut squares. The light aqua background fabric is Grunge by BasicGrey for Moda. It comes in a wide assortment of colors and is my go-to blender fabric of choice these days.