Yard Work

I have been busy and a bit behind, but the August edition of my PDQ Club is finally up on the Henry Glass blog.  Visit it and you can read about my new free project and enter to win a fabric bundle from Henry Glass.

French Memo board FREE PROJECT in the Jillily Studio PDQ Club

Many of you know that I have been working like crazy on the landscape of the back yard.  No, I am not doing all the work myself, but it feels like it.  It is just amazing how much time this is taking out of my life!  I have been out there everyday overseeing the project to make sure things go in the right places, and the different contractors are coordinated.  And it has been VERY time consuming trying to keep all these new plants alive when the water has been turned off for days at a time.

I know this is not quilt content, but it is affecting my quilt content, so I thought I would share it with you.  Here is a picture of our back yard before we started.  It was basically flat, but the grade was 20+ feet below my walk-out basement, so it was a problem.  We had truck loads (85+) of fill brought in to make our yard more accessible from the house.  It has been a BIG job.  So here are a few pictures of where we are now.  I took these photos just before dark, so they are not great, but you get the idea.

Looking up from the bottom level, that used to be the level of the whole yard.  We put a small concrete pad for basketball and tetherball on this lowest level, along with a trampoline.  It is the PLAY AREA!

The top level comes out from the basement of the house.  There is a patio and grass on this level.  See those trees and bushes?  I LOVE them!  Working hard to keep them alive!

 Looking down from the top level to where the trampoline will be.  Love these steps.  But it is a workout going up and down!  That beautiful green grass is my neighbors.  I can't wait to have my own!

On the top level we are having a fireplace built on the patio.  This will be the gathering place.  I look forward to roasting marshmallows and warming by the fire during sledding runs down the big ramp.  One of the best parts about the yard is the wonderful view.  I can see practically the whole Wasatch Front (mountains) and the Salt Lake valley below filled with the lights of the city.  

I can't wait to be done!  We have been working on this since March.  The dust is everywhere, on everything.  Soon they will finally put in the grass and I will be almost normal again.  (That is, if I ever was normal.) 

I imagine all the beautiful flowers and fabulous vegetables I will grow, and how there won't be a weed in sight.  

Well.  (Aren't imaginations nice?)

That is the nice thing about gardening in Utah.  Every year at the end of the growing season, the snows fly and cover it all up.  Then, when spring finally comes, you are ready to do it all again, and for some reason, you imagine a beautiful, colorful, weed-free yard.  It is that positive (but perhaps unrealistic) attitude that keeps us trying.  (Kind of like quilting, don't you think?)

We are so blessed to have this space to make into the yard we want for our family.  I can imagine the kids and grandkids enjoying playing together out there, and I can hardly wait.

I will show you more pics as we get closer to having a yard!  For now, be sure to stop by the Henry Glass site to see this month's PDQ.  And when you wonder what I have been doing all summer, you now know.