Archive for April, 2007
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
Finally, the snow is GONE!! Here are some pictures of the meltdown.
After a couple days, we still had a lot of snow left on Thursday. The storm was Monday, with snow falling all day on Tuesday, also. Even with temps above freezing each day, the melting was slow. If you look close, the right picture has my paint board in it on the right side (plywood covered with vinyl, on sawhorses). In the summer it is where I paint my fabric. Also, near the middle of the picture is a white sink that my youngest son came home with one day. I think it will work great for a studio sink, when I get a real studio space, someday.
By Sunday morning, here is how much snow was still left. Some of the drifts were really deep. By the time I got home that evening, The snow was gone! Finally!!
Today, I went out with my camera and got some pictures of what is blooming, and found some great surprises!
Here is a shot of 2 of my flower beds, in the front yard. I have my work cut out for me, and really am looking foreward to getting them back into shape this year, after many years of neglect. They are huge, as can be seen by the sizes of the trees in the upper bed.
Snow Glories are one of my favorite flowers, they are a brilliant blue with white centers- about 1" across. I was surprised to see how much they had spread in the past years. I usually only have seen the ones in my front yard, and didn't get to see the other gardens, while working so much.
Left picture is of my shade garden, looking from the woods. The Snow Glories and Scilla are seeding themselves even in the grass, I love what they are doing! I have alway dreamed of flowers covering the ground between the trees in this area. I love what is happening here! Right picture is of the neglected rock garden that had the crocuses blooming in it weeks ago. I love the blue!! I have loved rediscovering my own gardens.
Pulmonaria on the left, is a great early blooming perennial in a garden under black walnut trees in our back yard. The flowers start blue, then fade to pink. The right picture is a closeup of another great blue flower- Scilla. Their flowers are held on the plants in a drooping fashion, with less white white in the centers than the Snow Glories.
This is the shade garden from the yard, looking down into the woods. Right in front, is a gully that has been washed throught the garden from all the rain and snow melt rushing through. Last summer, we had a smaller gully there filled with stone, that has washed away into the woods. You can see the blue of Snow Glories and Scilla that are getting larger each year. Yea!!
My dream is to have this garden become a natural looking area, full of blooms all year. I will be trying some more perennials here to go with what is already planted. The gully forming where I had planned a path, is causing me to look at doing things differently than originally planned.
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Tags: blooming, blue, flowers, gardens, spring
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Thursday, April 19th, 2007
Here they are! (pardon the threads on the design wall) These two little guys (or girls) have been giving me grief since I finished them. They are 5×7" each, showing beaded flowers flowing over the top of a stone wall, and seemed to need something. I had decided to cover mat board with fabric, stitch them on by hand, and frame them, but was dreading the process. Then I got an idea from the Quiltart list. Sometimes it pays to be wasting time…..or, learning things, on the computer. A post mentioned mounting quilts on stretcher frames, like paintings are. Well….. It just so happens that I had purchased 2 different sizes of pre-stretched framed canvases (I had no idea what I was going to use them for, when I bought them). After playing with different background fabric colors, I decided on this fabric that I painted last summer in deep shades of rose, blue and green (are there any other colors?), applied in a diagonal pattern.
I centered the quilts on the pieces of fabric, and machine stitched them on, using clear thread. I stitched just inside the couched yarn binding. I then got out my "sissy" staple gun (It's small, but it works), and stapled the fabric to the canvas covered frames (I even kept the back neat). The canvas gives nice support behind the quilts, and with the fabric stretched over the sides, they look great without frames. The best part- no hand stitching, or fussing with finding the right frames. I will add picture wire for hanging, the pins are only temporary.
Now, I think that my "Beside The Door" piece will end up mounted to a frame like this, It looks a little "lost" right now. I just have to choose the right color to back it, and I have 11×14" canvases that will be perfect for this 8×10" piece.
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Tags: art quilt, flowers, gardens, wall
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Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
Oops, after re-reading my last post, and checking others, I realized that I had not posted a picture of "Bench Garden" after I finished it. I did finish, and had a hard time deciding how to finish the edges. I am thinking that I may mount it on a piece if foamcore covered in an ivory fabric, so I decided to "bind" the edges with a black and gold metallic yarn.
I did add the organza for clouds, and do some more shading on the cap stones. It finished at 17 1/4"x14". I put corner triangles on the back to hold a dowel or slat for hanging as it is. For now I will display it as it is, or it can be mounted to foamcore for framing.
Another garden finished! At least I can garden in fabric, until the weather cooperates outdoors.
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Tags: art quilt, bench, flowers, garden, iris, stones and walls, wall
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Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
I'm finally updating things, after nearly a week. A lot has changed outside, we almost had spring, and now are in the middle of winter again. The storm was being forcast, and we were expecting a foot or more of snow, so I took my camera and a shovel out on Saturday. I took pictures of some of the few flowers blooming in the gardens- mini daffs, crocus, scilla, and snow glories. The top pic. is of some really tiny mini daffs, I put my fingers in to show their size. The lower pic. is of a pot I planted, so I could see some spring during the storm, and it's aftermath. White daffs are almost opening, and some taller mini daffs, along with a bunch of snow glories. I think the snow glories are my favorite spring flower, with their bright blue with white centers- these weren't open because the sun was not out when I took the picture.
This is a picture of my water Iris, blooming in the pond in my greenhouse, (excersize ball and cat curled up in the background). I usually miss seeing these, because they bloom while was working all daylight hours at our business greenhouse.
This is my maple flower bed- 2 maple trees, and groups of shrubs, and grasses can be seen also. Picture above is as it looked on Saturday. Lower picture was taken yesterday, after the front door thawed. I took the picture through the door, because the wind was blowing snow so hard, directly at the door.
This is what most all the windows looked like Monday AM. We could see out only small corners of some of the windows, the snow was blown against the windows while it changed from rain to snow. At one point, the weathermen thought we would not get more than 4", we got a lot more- hard to tell just how much, because it blew, and drifted so much.
Just about everything looked like this when the sun came up- snow stuck on everything.
Dwarf Alberta Spruce in my neglected rock garden, where I took the picture of the mini daffs. The pic on the right shows how things looked most of the day- the air full of snow.
Picture on left is our deck, on the east side of our trailer, Snow blew all the way to the door, under the roof. The walnut trees were clothed in snow- These pictures were taken through my greenhouse window- near the iris, and my studio window that I opened for a few minutes. Looks like midwinter.
Now on to brighter things- QUILTS! I got a bit distracted, after a class my quilt guild had, making a bargello pattern. I used my 3 favorite colors in bright shades, with other shades.
This is what I am calling Butterfly Bargello. I have always loved the patterns of bargello quilts, but not done one. This is constructed a lot like the Trip Around the World quilts that got me started doing this. I was not sure how I was going to finish, the picture is of it placed over a batik fabric that I think I will use for the outer border. the inner border will be white, as on the right side. I will be adding applique butterflies (some are pinned in the picture) to make it a little different. I will probably quilt some butterflies, also.
Walls, stones, etc. are still turning into quilts.
Here is a cropped version of "Rose Door", that I named "Beside the Door". It is 8"x10" in size, and shows part of a door, and the delphinium flowers, climbing pink roses, and white daisies in the garden. The centers of the daisies are french knots of heavy rayon thread, and the centers of the delphinium florets are clear inidescent beads. The vine and binding of the garden area are done with a funky green yarn, the stone areas are bound with couched ivory yarn, and along the door, a pink yarn is used.
Here is the finished "Rose Door" The door, and round window, were added last, just before binding with couched yarns. The yarn rose vine is couched on, and FMQ with clear thread, adds veins in the leaves, and firmly attatches the flowers. This is about 13"x17" in size.
I have my first show of the year on Saturday- I hope we can get the van out of the driveway- no chance now- Ken (my husband) had to have our 4WD truck with plow, pulled out this morning by a large tractor. With the mud under the snow, plowing is not possible, he says one drift was 4 ft. high- it was down to 3ft. by this evening, with the air filled with snow again today. I'm, really ready for spring!! I will have to get things ready for the show this week, and make a few new small simple pieces. Looks like a good day coming, Sat.- even if we have to hire a big 4WD tractor to tow the van out of our 1/4 mile driveway.
I'll keep you posted.
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Tags: blizzard, door, flowers, quilts, snow, spring, wall
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