Pansies and Shabby Chic Placemats

My favorite time of the year, planting time. I have been pacing myself this year since I have a new and different garden. I have garden beds this year and rock landscape so no weeds! Or easily managed weeds I should say. I want to plant things that look great together and like a cozy cottage garden. One of our local nurseries had an open house last weekend and I had a great time (even though I smelled too much and got terrible hayfever, from which one I don't know yet- probably something I bought) anyway they had a great selection of beauty. My daughter and I participated in a herb growing and cooking class that was all about eating great food made with herbs! I haven't had that much fun in a long time. We had watermelon, onion, and feta cheese salad - with a few other ingredients to top it off and it was wonderful! A great artichoke dip and my other favorite was a thick tomato slice, cheese and a large basil leaf. Wonderful. I bought lots of pansies, alyssum, a columbine and some herbs to plant. There is another open house this weekend and I will be attending to see what they've got. I will probably haunt the nurseries this year just because, like libraries, they are one of my favorite places to be. I also tried quilting again, more like patchwork. I thought I would do a shabby chic look and make some placemats with frayed edges and such. Well I definitely need to preshrink my fabric first and hem the placemats, but I loved how the frayed flower turned out. Think I will try them again with the improvements and see how they turn out. I need to figure out how to fray my seams, I love that look. Washing didn't do much.