Winner Announced!

Let's pretend it's still Tuesday, ok!? Thank you all for sharing your fun plans
for the Solstice last Saturday. Sounds like everyone squeezed the most
out of the day!

The Garden Conservancy hosts a summer series called "Open Days" where gracious people open their exquisite spaces to the public. Who can resist! I had a really wonderful, inspiring day touring a couple gardens in Litchfield County with my sweet friend Denyse Schmidt. Here are a few photos from Bunny Williams' extraordinary grounds and gardens.

Denyse talking a stroll along the poolside
(she was hoping to "accidentally" fall in)...

A beautiful folly with tree trunk columns and a pine cone pediment...

Denyse and me being captivated by the same little blossom in Bunny's magical woodland garden...

This is the photo i was taking in the image above:

Such a beautiful planter and transition space that lead to...

... a compact boxwood parterre ...

... lovely combination of spent allium blossoms and giant hosta ...

...and a vegetable garden to die for!

So beautiful!! Can't wait for next month's adventure.

You probably didn't come here looking for another garden tour, though, did you? So without further delay...

You're the lucky winner of the Solstice Fat Quarter Bundle! Please email your mailing address to pete(at)katespain(dot)com and we'll zip that off to you today!

Thanks so much to everyone for participating.

xo,

kate

Summer Solstice aka: The Longest (Sewing) Day of the Year

Hi everyone! Can't believe the Summer Solstice is already here (it officially arrives tomorrow morning June, 21st at 6:51am EST). Hope you've got some fun plans for making the most of the longest (or shortest) day of the year. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, the days will only get longer now for you – hooray! We’ll be visiting family, checking out some gardens up in the foothills of the Berkshires with some friends, attending a local fundraiser concert for the public schools, and...weeding the garden.

Before the crab grass stakes its claim on all the cracks and pathways, thought i'd show you some photos of our garden from a couple weeks ago, along with some of my favorite spring blooms.

Here's the veggie area in raised beds that we built last year.

Because we've had such a prolonged and cool spring, it's been the best lettuce season i can remember in a long time!

We also had a healthy harvest of baby bok choy:

Here's a view of the flowery garden area with the flagstone patio and parterre we made last summer — i still kinda can't believe we took on a project like that. Crazies!

And here are the beauties of our spring garden...whose gorgeous colors and elegant shapes will continue to inspire me long after their blooms have faded.

The summer bloomers are already on their way, and so are the sweet peas! Stay tuned.

Almost forgot! to celebrate the Solstice, and to kick-off the summer sewing season, we're giving away a Fat Quarter bundle of...Solstice — my new Christmas/winter fabric line for Moda Fabrics!

Please leave a brief comment regarding something you like to do on the longest (or shortest) day of the year. One entry per person. The winner will be randomly selected on Tuesday June 24th.

Have a beautiful weekend!

xo,

kate

Predictions

Happy Chinese New Year … and Happy Superbowl-Groundhog Sunday!

This weekend, we’ll be galloping into the Chinese New Year — The Year of the Horse — and making wagers on spring’s arrival through the groggy eyes of a prognostically challenged groundhog!

Depending on which groundhog webcam you watch, (don’t miss this little guy’s crib in Nova Scotia) spring is supposed to arrive (somewhere) in 7 weeks. Shall we begin the countdown now?

On the same day the season's fate is in Punxatawny's paws, American football enthusiasts will be awaiting the fate of their favorite team in the Superbowl. Seahawks fans, beware, pop cosmology isn’t on your side this game!

I admit i'm not a huge football fan, but the Superbowl always seems to be a marker of the near-end of one season and the almost-beginning of another (no matter what Punxatawny says). The light around here has already started to shift and the days are a teenie bit longer. Yay! But it's been so cold that none of the snow has melted in our slumbering garden.

That's ok because lots of colorful flower-filled seed catalogs have been arriving in our mailbox over the past couple weeks and i've been piling them up for just the right quiet time to dream of warmth and to plot out some ideas for spring planting and gardening.

I've also been plotting out some new colors for another line of fabric for Moda! Here's a little peek of some of them...

Regardless, no time like the present. 

I hope you all have a smooth, adventurous ride this Year of the Horse — with good health, nurturing friendships, and swift strides toward your dreams.

Woah, horsey! Almost forgot...Daydream yardage should be shipping soon!

Please post and share photos of anything you make with this collection (or any collection!) on my Facebook page. Your creativity and talents bring me so much happiness no matter what the season.

xo,

kate

Despite the Blight

For all of us backyard gardeners, this year has been a particularly challenging growing season (to say the least!). Our hopes for overflowing bowls of gazpacho and salsa have been diminished to BLTs (not that that's so bad) and maybe, if we're really lucky, a few oven roasted tomatoes. We picked our first three tomatoes a whole month later than we did last year!
You may already know about the fungal blight that has devastated tomato and potato crops in the Northeast. It was a strain of this same fungus that caused the Potato Famine in Ireland (yikes!). And wouldn't you know, as luck would have it, our "experimental veggies" this year were...potatoes!

Since we were not sure that our crops had been infected, we thought it best to dig up one plant (reluctantly) to see. Fortunately for us, we found a beautiful handful of fingerlings that we ate for breakfast!