Star's Threads: I have a quest

It's been almost 3 weeks since I last posted, but I have a good reason - partially sewing related but mainly more of the "garden variety" excuse.

Last year for my birthday - yes, in 2013, my husband started building me a garden in the backyard. Now, this doesn't sound like a big undertaking to most people, but for us, it was a huge project. Because we live in a very rural area, we have deer that roam freely throughout our yard and munch on whatever they happen to like at the moment. This constant munching is a battle between us and the deer every year.

So my innocent vegetable garden couldn't consist of just a few beds in the backyard. No - we had to incorporate a very large fence (8 foot tall) around the beds and make it blend in with our current backyard landscaping - which was nothing at the starting point, except a big dirt patch. After many days of planning, mapping, measuring and "thinking like a deer" to determine our fencing strategy, we had a plan.

Here's our starting point. Our very plain backyard. We decided to place the garden next to our existing brick wall and incorporate the brick wall and the fence behind it as part of our deer defenses.

Here it is after some of the framework is in, the plumbing calculated for the beds, and some of the pea gravel rock hauled from the front of the house to the garden.

I certainly don't miss hauling rock. When the rock was delivered, the only place the rock truck could dump it was in our front parking area (yes, we have parking meters - a birthday gift from my husband a few years ago!). Many a night after work was spent shoveling and hauling. This is the pile after about 1/2 of it had been moved.

Here's the garden after one bed is in position and filled with dirt, all of the pea gravel rock moved and now, there was a pile of dirt in the front yard to replace the rock. Yippee - more shoveling!

We're getting closer. Here, all of the framing is done and we've purchased a screen door for the entrance.

Next, the metal fencing is installed and the finishing boards nailed to the outside. After the second bed was installed and the temporary "deer defense" erected on the remaining open areas between the brick wall and the existing fence, I started planting. To get to this point, it took us about 4 months of hard work last year, but it still wasn't finished. The weather was heating up and my husband was fed up with the project. I ended up producing more tomatoes than I knew what to do with and learned alot about herbs and cucumbers in the process. But remember, we still weren't finished.

So low and behold, 2014 rolls around and yes - the garden still isn't completed. My husband agrees that in the future, he's not giving me such elaborate birthday gifts that take a long time to finish. It's gift cards for me from now on!

For the last month, we have been working very hard to get this project finished and we are 99% of the way there! Here's the garden with the 3rd bed in and planted, the remaining fencing on the back almost finished, and everyone is a happy camper!

Here's a view from the inside.

By now, you are probably wondering how sewing relates to this at all. I titled this blogpost "I have a quest", but have yet to mention what the quest is. Well - here goes. "I have a quest to keep my work jeans going as long as possible." A good fitting, comfortable pair of work jeans is hard to find and when you finally do have them, when they start getting holes in them, it's time to start patching. I have patches upon patches on these jeans.

The patches all started out innocently enough with denim squares on the knees - but that was getting a bit boring, so I started grabbing odd bits of fabric out of my scrap bins as more holes appeared. I particularly like the leftover patchwork I incorporated on the knee area of the right leg. This was leftover from a quilt I made for my niece's first born child.

But then one day, I got a hole in the bum and wanted to do something a little whimsical with this particular location. I searched and searched for a patch looking like a pair of lips, but couldn't find one. I did find this lovely pink flower that looked quite fun so decided to place it over the offending hole. It's held up quite nicely over the last few years. Everything time I hear a hummingbird flying around though, I get kind of nervous - hoping it doesn't mistake my patch for the real thing!