Wet Planter

When we did precipitation, it was just enough to raise the humidity and barely dampen the bottom of the bucket I have used as my “rain gauge”. The lawn became pretty crispy, and some of my newest additions to the gardens were looking sad. The spring that I use to water my gardens and planters, dried up a couple of weeks ago, and I have had buckets in sinks to catch hand or dish washing water to use to keep planters and new babies alive without using too much from our well which likes to go dry in Summer.

Sky 01

It seemed as if every time there was rain in the forecast, all we got to see were white, puffy clouds like these. They are really pretty, but when you are praying for rain, not what you want to see every day.

Wet Nicotiana

Finally, on Friday July 23, we woke to a nice gentle rain shower…. heavy storms were predicted, and there were severe ones in other areas not far away- even a tornado, but the half inch we finally got was wonderful. The above photo is of the pink Nicotiana in one of my deck planters… the blurry flower had a drop off the eves fall on it just as I clicked.

Tomato

Another nicely wet planter… This one has a volunteer Tomato plant growing in it…. I left it there to see what it does…. the only tomatoes I have grown on the deck have been grapes,  so I am hoping for similar ones.

Stormy Sky 1 8PM

The rain on Friday came with a very hot and humid air mass that hung around for the weekend. This photo above, and the following ones were taken Saturday evening. We began the evening listening to many severe thunderstorm warnings, then tornado watches and warnings. Tornadoes are not common around here, but this summer there have now been at least 4+ in the region. By the time I took this photo the sky was looking pretty “spooky”…. with pinks, yellows and black clouds.

Stormy Sky 2 8:25PM

This was the sky a bit later… The color doesn’t show great in this photo, but it did pick up all the different types of clouds that were present, from little white wisps to dark ominous ones.

Stormy Sky 3- 8:42PM

Shortly after the previous photo was taken, the rain started to fall. Heavy downpours were forecast, but things came fairly gently…. what we need to get moisture into the ground. The sky really began to change, and I was amazed that my camera got the colors pretty close to what they were. We were babysitting our granddaughter Jenna, and she had to have her stool by the front door to look out with her “Poppy”. The pink in the sky made the water drops on the door window look pink, too.

Stormy Sky 4 8:43 PM

This was the first time I remember seeing clouds that looked like this…. The puffy ones higher up were like cottonballs, not like normal cauliflower T-storm clouds, and the lower clouds were darker, wispy ones. It was spooky and amazing at the same time, especially knowing that a possible tornado had been spotted by the weather service in the county to the West of us.

Stormy Sky 5 8:43 PM

As you can see by the times of the photos, I was clicking as many as I could…. This one came out a bit more orange than the actual sky, but shows the shapes of the clouds great. It was a wonderful combination of bright pinks, oranges, shades of gray and even blue sky peeking in the distance.

Stormy Sky 6 8:44 PM

The colors in this photo are pretty close to what we saw… The trees in my Maple tree garden made some great silhouettes against the sky. It kept changing so quickly.

Stormy Sky 7 8:44 PM

This was a different angle, catching the white wisps below the streaks and ripples above in pinks and blue-grays.

Stormy Sky 8- 8:45 PM

This shows the blue sky creeping in along with more dark streaks following.

Stormy Sky 9- 8:47 PM

This is the last photo I took because it was getting too dark for the camera. I really didn’t expect the photos to show as good as they do with my old Kodak digital, but sometimes I am really amazed at what I end up with.  We only ended up with less than a half inch more of rain from this storm… much less than fell other places nearby, but yesterday AM while in church we got another rain shower that gave us a total of an inch. An inch and a half of rain in 3 days… That’s the way we needed it to come…. mostly gentle enough not to wash right off, but soak in.

White Lily 2

OK, I have to add at least one more flower… The last bud from my newest Oriental Lily bloomed…. It has been glowing in the garden… I can’t quite see this one from my kitchen window, so it forces me to get out to wander the gardens to see it. That is how I have planted many gardens…. You have to walk around or through them to see all the treasures in them.  I will have to give my gardens another day to recover from the rain  until the Petunias and Phlox are “photo worthy” again…. the rain knocked off or turned flowers to mush… I am sure it will be worth the wait!

Shibori 1 fresh

The above photo is the only one taken of what any of my fabrics looked like fresh out of the dyebath after only an initial rinse. It was really striking with the rich, deep colors, but as I began to rinse, more and more of that beautiful color left….

Shibori 1 Ironed

The piece still has some great patterning, but is nothing like it first looked. The golden yellow stayed the best because it was the only freshly  mixed dye I had used.

Fat Quarter Clean-up

One of the clean-up fabric pieces… not much color left….

Shibori 2

I think this is my favorite piece…. I love the soft colors and the way the fuchsia faded to a pale rose into the green. Very sky or water-like…

Blue Purple

This one kept quite a bit of color. I love the icy patterns that I got.

Lavender Blue Narrow

This one is even icier with less rose tones and touches of greenish blue here and there. This is a 2 yard piece that I cut in half lengthwise… I thought it was only one yard, but now I have a long piece.

Dark Green

This was supposed to be a deep, dark green… it still is green, just more of a seafoam shaded piece. I wanted some pieces for mountains, but got seashore instead.

Another Green

This one held a bit more yellow…. still lots of patterning.

Minty Green Tone on Tone

This is another green… more “minty”, and this started as a white on white print… I have two sides to choose from

Multi Half Yard

This one really surprised me… I was amazed that the black that I watered down before putting it on, stayed much better than I expected. This was expected to have much darker fuchsia. I had tried to get these colors and patterning on purpose in the past… I got it by accident… A happy accident…

Soft Pastels

One of the more “wish-washy” pieces. This will be used for sunprinting, or may be cut up and used for skies….

Pale Blue Tone on Tone

This one is really pale… Another white on white, so I have two sides to choose from. Not sure if I will do more, or leave it to use where I need just a touch of color.

Mustardish Piece

Any better description?? This one reminds me of something that the mustard bottle blew up on… Probably my least favorite, so this is in line to be overdyed or painted. This is the piece of fabric I placed in the bottom of the bucket that Shibori 1 sat in, so I could catch all the drips…. very sad pale blue and mustard….

Small Pieces

A random few smaller pieces. Most that I did were one yard pieces, but these are fat quarters and a half yard. The fat quarters were clean-up “rags” and I am still amazed at how much the black stayed around…. that golden yellow did great… the difference fresh dye makes.  This dye session was a real learning experience, but gave me a lot of great usable pieces. I will have to play with soda ash soaking things much longer to see if I can get more color from the old dyes… I hate to toss anything out if there is any good in it….

Tall Pink Lily Flower

I gotta add a couple flowers… This Lily is taller than I am, with gobs of flowers. It smells wonderful!

Hosta Sweet Tater Pie

It looked like a spotlight was on this Hosta, with the sun beaming through the leaves of the trees in the back yard. It has bright lime green leaves which look even more yellow in the sun.
I need to get back to the studio… I have a group of postcards in the works…. Photos when I get more done…

Yard of Bright Dyed Fabric

The above photo shows a piece of fabric that I dyed back in April and blogged about Here. This was sort of what I was expecting to see from the newest dyeing session. I did want to get some pieces in various shades  of greens from deep, dark to light, as well as some pieces in blues, purples and multicolors.  The following is what happened, and some very important lessons learned:

Dyed Fabric Soaking 1

This photo shows a few pieces soaking after their first rinses and an overnight soaking. I had used my dyes full strength like I had in the April session. I also used the leftover dye concentrates from April, too…. That ended up being my problem….

Dyed Fabric Soaking 3

Above photo- my “Dark” Greens and a sweatshirt that looked like it would be pretty deep blue with purples upon first rinse……

Lessons Learned:

1. Mix your dye concentrates fresh for each dyeing session if you want vibrant colors. Mine were mixed in April and used in July, stored in my kitchen which reaches temperatures over 80 degrees in summer even with the AC running. Just because I got away with old concentrates in the past (during the winter), doesn’t mean I’ll get away with it again.
2. When using old dye concentrates, if your fuchsia is a bit lumpy or “clotted” looking, take that as an indication that things are not right…. Fuchsia can have a few specks, but lots of gobs… not good.
3. The way a piece of fabric looks upon first rinse out is not always what you will end up with after all the unused dye particles are gone. Each rinse ended up with my fabrics getting lighter and lighter. The colors pretty much rinsed all out.
4. If your darkly splotched clean-up fabric pieces that have been soda ash treated wash out to super pale colors, realize that there may be something more going on than too short a batching time. Mine rinsed out really pale, and still I thought that I could get deeper colors by just trying again. I don’t learn too quickly at times…
5. Never have preconceived ideas of what you want to end up with when you are playing with dye- the same goes for paint… you never know what you will end up with. I think that is the best part of playing with paints or dyes.
6. Most of all, Enjoy the process, no matter what you end up with.

Another bucket of fabric. I did get some pretty purplish blues that kept some good color, but as you can see a lot of the pieces washed out to very pastel shades.

Shibori 1

This is one of my first attempts at pole wrapped Shibori dyeing. I had wrapped this piece around the pipe back in April, but didn’t add the dye because I had already made a big enough mess in my kitchen at the time. This piece was spectacular when it was first unwrapped and given a quick rinse. By rinse number 2, it got lighter…. then by the time the water was running clear, this is what I ended up with. The golden yellow stuck around the best because it was freshly mixed dye that my friend gave me. I just added it without thinking too much on the end, and it ended up being the only “bright spot” in this fabric. I do love the patterning I ended  up with, and the pastel colors are different than what it looked like at first. I also love the colors that did stick around… I do like pastel colors.

Dribble Catcher 1-2

This I call a “dribble catcher” because I placed it in the bottom of the bucket I used to catch the dribbles of dye as I poured it onto the above Shibori piece. I also let the pipe rest in the bucket while I let the soda ash do it’s job. This caught a bit more color in places…. This fabric is a white on white print, and this is the back side of the fabric. I love to play with these because you get something different on each side. Most of this 2 yard piece did end up rinsing out to the pale blue shades, but you can definitely see the golden yellow.

Dribble Catcher 1 Front

This is the “front” of the dribble catcher piece. I prefer the look of the back, but this side is interesting.

Shibori 2

This is my second Shibori piece. It also began looking much deeper colored. I wrapped this one a bit differently than the first, but both pieces ended up being pastel, too.

Sweatshirt

This began the day as a white sweatshirt…. It then looked as if it would be deep blues with rose and purples… now it is a pretty near turquoise blue with a few flecks of pink.

More Fat Quarters

Even though I was expecting to end up with some deep colored fabrics somewhat like the ones in this photo, the results were wayyy lighter. The great thing about fabric is that if I really don’t like what I end up with, I can just go ahead and mix up new dyes, re-scrunch the fabrics and pour on new colors, and it’s like Christmas all over again…. Opening up and rinsing out dyed fabrics is a lot like opening up Christmas gifts. You never know what you have until you open it up (and in the case of dye- rinse it out).

In the two dyeing sessions of this year, I have learned a LOT about dye and what I can and can’t get away with (OK, I am always trying to break rules . Even though I didn’t end up with fabric colors I was looking for, I ended up with some really pretty fabric that I can leave as it is, overdye, or even add a bit of paint (sunprinting over some of these might be really fun). The best part of the day yesterday was being able to have a “play date” with a couple other fabric lovers. That is better than getting the “right” colors.

Now more fun begins…. Time to see what I end up with playing with my newly colored fabrics.

(Today’s date is July 7, but the blog seems to think it is still July 1st..?.?.. I guess I’ll have to figure out what is going on…. Later….)

Front Door Garden

There has also been no measurable rain in a loooong time… The lawn is pretty crispy, but the gardens are doing pretty well with the hay mulch on them and occasional waterings. I have been lugging hoses all over to keep the newest plants growing well.  The Front door garden is pretty colorful now with the Phlox coming into bloom along with the Daylilies and Echinaceas. You can also see the mildew on the tall late blooming Phlox in the photo above. The lower growing varieties seem to be much more resistant to the nasty white powder that makes the plants really ugly.

Van- Not a Good Sign

Since my last post, I went back to Fillmore, NY to see family and had a bit of trouble getting on the road….. The van really needed new brakes, but during the repair things didn’t go all that smoothly. A few more parts were needed, and after an extra day of waiting, I now have brakes that stop the van very smoothly! You can see that the Maple Tree Garden in the van photo, with the Annabelle Hydrangea in full bloom.

Mom's Deck

The main reason I went back to my hometown was to see my grandmother who has ended up in the nursing home again… another fall. My sister was also visiting from TX, and I wanted to get some plants that I had taken up earlier in the spring planted for my mom. It was a busy visit, and the garden around Mom’s deck and patio is looking much better. The Hosta, Phlox, and Echinaceas I took from my gardens are now in their new homes. Amazingly, there was a lot of rain the day before I did Mom’s gardens- over an inch- we got nothing in PA….

Baby Kitties at Gram's

My sister and I stayed at my gram’s house and did some cleaning and preparing of things for her to come home when she is able. The first couple of days, there were not too many cats around, but by the last day there were cats and their babies showing up. Here are a couple that I lured out with some milk. They were pretty skittish, there was also a gray one hiding behind it’s mom.

View from Wyalusing Rocks

I had an appointment with my Rheumatologist in Tunkhannock the first day I was back home, and while driving back up RT 6, I decided to “play tourist”. I stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks along the road and took a bunch of photos of the Susquehanna River, farms and surrounding mountains. The above photo was taken at the Wyalusing Rocks overlook, and shows the river curving through the valley. Here is a link to some tourist info for Bradford County, PA. More info about our area can be found there.

View From Marie Antoinette Lookout

The photo above here is from the Marie Antoinette lookout. There is a lot of great stonework, and you can see for miles around.

View From Marie Antoinette Lookout 2

This is the view from the other end of the lookout area, showing more of the stonework and more of the river and mountains.

View From Marie Antoinette Lookout 3

This photo shows some of the farms in the valley. I will be using these photos as inspiration for some new art quilts and quilted postcards.

Back at home, I have been taking walks through my gardens with the camera.

Mound Garden Echinacea and Hostas

This photo shows the Mound Garden in the back yard with the Echinaceas and Hosta in full bloom. So far these plants are doing well in the dry weather.

Echinacea with Bees

Here is a close shot of one of the more popular flowers with a couple of visitors on it. The honey bee tried to chase off the bumblebee, but I caught them both sharing the flower for a bit.

Baby Corn

It might be hard to see them, but there are some sweet corn plants in the veggie box. I think some critters helped themselves to many of the seeds…. not many plants came up. This bed has always been very dry, so I hope with the hay mulch I won’t have to water very often and hope these plants will take off.

Front Door Garden 2

Back around to the Front Door Garden, and more Echinaceas, Asiatic Lilies and Hemerocallis (Daylilies). I also have some Gladiola bulbs planted in the bare spots in this garden for late summer color and flowers to cut and take indoors.

Pair of Daylily Flowers

This is a closeup of a pair of Daylily flowers.  Many of the Daylilies lost their buds due to the late freeze we had, or that is what I think happened. I have found lots of shriveled or deformed buds.

Hemerocallis Ice Carnival

This is my favorite Daylily variety… The white color shows up really nice in the evening, even as the flowers are fading after their single day of bloom.

Hemerocallis Pandora's Box

One of the few flowers this plant will have this season. Most of the buds died, but this variety is supposed to be a rebloomer, so maybe I’ll get a few more late summer. The photo makes it look bigger than it is… this flower is half the size of the other varieties.

Raspberry Petunias

I love pink, and I really love these pink Petunias- Raspberry Swirl, I believe. I have one plant in one of my large square planters along the front walkway.

OK, this is getting long….. I have more flower photos, but will save them for a later post. I may be wilting in the heat, but the flowers are still blooming!

Weeds Taking Over

This is what the garden outside the front door looked like mid May. Most of the weeds were dandelions, wild carrot, and other tap root types. Ken found a weed puller gizmo  made by Fiskars that worked very well at popping these nasties out roots and all. It was a lot of work, but I got this bed under control in about a week.

Weeds Gone

Another area of the same garden above after most of the weeds were removed. I was left with bare soil and not a lot of color since the early bloomers were done. I added a few annual flowers and soon the next crop of weeds were poking their little heads out of the ground. Last year, it seemed like all I did was weed….no fun.

Front Door Garden with Hay

I decided that it was time for mulch… I can’t afford to purchase bark or other mulches, so decided to use something we have lots of…. Hay and old grass that has been lying around in piles and in bales in a field. I had been afraid to use the grass and hay for fear of adding more weed seeds, but read a book on the subject that says that if I keep adding more as  the first layer breaks down, I should have very few weeds. (I also didn’t really pay attention to the fact that there are already millions of the same seeds found in the hay and grass already in the gardens… not adding anything new) The above photo shows the view from my front door after a few annuals have been added for a bit of color. The hay and grass looks so much better than bare earth, and will keep the moisture in along with keeping weeds down.

Back Yard Weeds

This is what the back yard gardens looked like from the deck. I had been keeping the section middle right in the photo pretty well weeded because that is where many of my early bloomers are. I would pull a few weeds every time I checked out the new flowers. The garden on the mound was getting really sad.

Back Yard Gardens with Hay

After a lot of weeding, lugging, placing of hay, and planting of more annuals, it looks much nicer. The flowers in the foreground are in the planters on the deck. The view is even more pleasant to look at now that I have added more flowers since this photo. When they start filling out, I will post new photos. Working with the hay as mulch is great, especially in large areas where there is nothing planted. I just covered with a deep layer of the hay, and wherever I want to plant, I just pull aside the hay, plant the flower, and replace the hay around the plant.

Bale of Hay

This is just one of the bales I had Ken deliver to my gardens from the field. This particular bale is still waiting to be spread in the Lilac garden, but another nearly 5 bales have been used so far. I got some help with moving 2 bales to the areas of the gardens it was needed. The rest has been my task. I now have the bales fairly close to where I am using it, so there isn’t as much lugging involved. It is lots of work and has caused a few nasty fibro flares, but it will allow me to actually sit and enjoy the gardens more during the summer.

Wall and Mound Gardens

This is a sweeping view of the gardens along the stone wall, and mound garden in the back yard. I was standing at the end of the stone wall nearest the group of Black Walnut trees. I have divided some of my Hosta  and other perennials to fill in empty spaces, and have Impatiens in the shady areas and Petunias in the sunny areas. Each year I work toward filling the gardens with mostly perennials. When we owned the greenhouse, I would plant literally truckloads of leftover annuals in the gardens each summer. After 4 years of dividing the perennials I have and adding a few new ones, the space left for annual flowers is much less.

Blue Siberian Iris

Now for some photos of some of the flowers that have bloomed in May and the beginning of June. With the abnormally warm early Spring and late hard freeze, many flowers bloomed really early and some not at all, leaving very little color right now before the summer boomers start. The Siberian Iris really put on a show! I have many clumps in various shades of purple-blue from very deep to very pale. I began with two varieties- one from my mom’s garden in NYS, and one deep colored one I purchased. I also bought a white one, and the are all cross pollinating and seeding in many spots. I have a rainbow of shades now. The flowers were beautiful, but with the heat they didn’t last very long.

Blue Iris and Peony

One clump of the  Iris is next to the old fashioned white Peony. They look great blooming together.

Peony Pink Luau

Speaking of Peonies, This is my favorite so far…. Called Pink Luau… I bought it a couple Falls ago and this is it’s first year to bloom. Another beautiful deep salmon pink colored one did not bloom this year because the buds froze during the last freeze we had. I have been collecting many varieties with less petals that the old fashioned ones. They hold up much better in the rain. I got photos of this and other varieties through all stages from bud to shattering. There will be Peony flowers in coming quilts, I am sure.

Campanula Sarastro

This really pretty deep purple Campanula is one of the few flowers in bloom right now. Most have faded before the Phlox and Coneflowers begin for the summer. I almost lost this plant last year, but after a season of babying it, it is thriving this year.

Garden Mt Laurel

This was one of the biggest surprises this year…. I bought this plant last Spring and the deer decided to munch nearly every leaf off it. I got a great show of blooms even with just stubby stems. The Mountain Laurel bloomed way earlier than usual this year. It is usually in peak bloom right now, but the flowers are already gone. They were blooming before the end of May.

Water Rd Mt Laurel 2010-1

This is a photo of some of the Mountain Laurel blooms I have been watching form along Water Road. They ended up nearly pure white this year. I think that the heat while the buds were forming caused the color to be faded. Last year with cooler temps. they were a soft pink. The buds in this photo show more pink than most of the clumps did.

Baby Pteradactyl Fern

Back to the home gardens…. This is a photo of my tiny “Pterodactyl Fern”. The mom of this plant was over a foot tall, but so far this baby has stayed quite small. Last year it came up very late, in August…I thought it had died. It’s official botanical name is Dryopteris linearis pterodactylus. I am wondering if the size may be due to the Black Walnut trees that are the shade for this garden. I have many plants doing very well, but find I need to move a few to other gardens. The best shade I have is under the Walnuts, but the Lilac garden is maturing enough to give me a few more shady spots to try things in.

Funky Shade Plant

This plant is one that is not usually up and growing until now, and it has been blooming for some time now. I believe it is a Piniellea or something like that for a name…. brain fog…. I need to look it up and get a name tag with it. The Lamium are filling in very nicely around the Hosta, Ferns and these under the Black Walnut shade.

Nibbled Strawberry Plant

This Strawberry plant looks better than many of it’s bed mates. The deer or rabbits have been snacking on them. Some plants only had stubs where there were leaves. I have sprayed them with “Liquid Fence” deer repellent and they are putting out new leaves. It is a good thing they are everbearers, or I would have no berries at all this year.

Blackberry Flowers

My newly planted Blackberry bush with it’s flowers and berries beginning to form. So far the deer have left this alone- I sprayed it when I planted it. One I planted last year was eaten nearly to the ground before I sprayed.

Pink Lilies

This is the only stem of of these light pink Lilies to bloom this year. Probably another victim of the late freeze. All of the buds on the other plants shriveled while tiny.

Flame Pink Phlox

This is the first of the Phlox to bloom…. a dwarf variety that I can see from my kitchen window.

Bodacious Returns Daylily

I think this is another freeze victim…. The first flowers on this Daylily are on very short stems, and a lot of the buds on the taller stems are brown on the tips. The later blooming varieties seem to be fine. Some plants were at just the wrong stage of growth when things got colder than usual for May.

Flying Flower

This is the last photo for this post…. This guy flew into the kitchen and I found him on the edge of the windowsill one morning. He looked interesting folded up, but really neat when he opened his wings. What a great surprise!

I plan to get back to the studio more, now that the weather is getting hotter and not so great for garden work. The hay should keep my work to a minimum out there, too. There will be more flowers coming, too. Hopefully not over a month till the next post…

Wild Blueberry Blooms

During my wandering, I noticed what looked like small Azalea plants closer to the road. Upon closer inspection, the leaves were too small and not just right for Azalea leaves. They almost looked like Blueberry leaves, but I had never seen those here before…. As the photo above shows, they are definitely Wild Blueberries! They may have  been under my nose all the time and I just looked over them, or this may be the first year they have bloomed…. Actually, around here they are called Huckleberries if they are found growing wild. They have smaller berries than the cultivated ones, but the flavor is wonderful. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the blooms are about 1/4 inch long…. very tiny.

Solomon's Seal

I almost missed this, too… A medium growing Solomon’s Seal. I had gotten into the van and saw these out the passenger window, so had to get out again to get photos. These flowers aren’t quite fully open… They aren’t very showy, but the plants usually spread nicely. I have a variegated leaved one in my woodland garden…. I haven’t seen them come up yet… maybe I better take another walk in my own gardens!

Pussy's Toes Flowers

There were lots of these Pussy’s Toes blooming on the steepest parts of the roadside. They tend to like more harsh conditions to grow in. The little flowers on these are on 6 inch tall stems, with little fuzzy  gray-green leaves.

Dogwood

It is pretty tricky to get photos of the wild Dogwood flowers. Most of the trees are way down the steep bank on one side of the road, or high on the upper bank of the road. This little tree wasn’t too far up, but the wind was blowing, so many tries were fuzzy. (I love my little digital camera…. just erase the bad ones:) I was trying to get a photo of some of the flowers from their tops, but I’m not tall enough and the wind didn’t want to blow them just when I wanted. This year, they seem to be ahead of most years, just about past peak.

Cinquefoil

I should have tried to get a finger into this photo to show how tiny the Cinquefoil flower is. The tree leaves may put things into perspective a bit. This flower is no more than about half an inch across. Plants growing in better conditions will have slightly larger flowers, and plant is mostly considered a weed by me. Pretty cute here.

Tall Trees

I was trying to show what it is like to walk along this roadway, with the tall trees growing up on a high bank, making them appear even taller. The sky was a perfect blue for the background. This is a beautiful stretch of road, and I feel so lucky to live where I do every time I drive down it.

Fiddleheads

From the sky, to the ground again….. There are many varieties of ferns growing, and this one is just beginning to unfurl it’s leaves with lots of little Fiddleheads showing.

Anemonella

I discovered these little Anemonella flowers last year, and I think there are even more of them this year. I have a hard time getting the camera to focus on the flowers, not the leaves or background, so this is the best photo I got. Another trip may be needed if the wind ever stops and the temps go up a little.

Big Rock

This is  one of those things that amazes me…. Here is a huge rock, and there are numerous plants growing on the top of it just in whatever has fallen on the top and accumulated there. The photo doesn’t really show well, but the rock sits out by itself. A little rocky soil has tumbled off the bank onto part of it, but most is just old leaves, sticks and whatever else happened to fall there. The poor plants must struggle a lot for moisture in the summer, with such a thin layer of “stuff” to grow in…. Nature at it’s best! This is the last of the photos from that walk along the road…. There will be more as the Mountain Laurel get nearer to blooming.

Single White Peony

This beauty is something I have been wanting to acquire for many years… A Single flowered White Peony!  I found this just in bud at a Lowes on the way home from my gram’s. It just started opening these gorgeous Lotus-like flowers. It is in the house right now, due to the gusty winds that kept blowing it over, until I decide it’s place of honor in the front door garden. The single Peony will hold it’s flowers longer because the first rain shower doesn’t fill them with water and flop them to the ground.

WIP Peek

Here is a little peek at what is happening with some of the photos I have been taking…. I am making a batch of postcards for an exchange group, and hope to have some extras that  I will be able to list for sale, too.  I also need to get my larger WIP to the machine and start adding some stitching to see where it will end up…. I have an idea what I will do, but many pieces seem to decide they want something different than I first thought…. Time will tell!

Sugar House

I began near the old sugar house…. Much of the area is in a cow pasture, and I found that I am not as good at getting through barbed wire fences as I was as a kid. I remember spending time with my grandfather in this building when I was quite little while he kept an eye on the boiling sap that became Maple syrup. It is now sinking into the hillside and is not in very good shape.

Dead Tree

Not too far up the hill from the sugar house, was this big tree that died and fell over.

Pond

Here is the pond where my sisters, brothers and I would spend summer days fishing. There are a pair of Canada geese swimming there now.  The cows used to be kept in this pasture, and would go up the hill behind the pond to another flat area of the pasture. We used to hike up there often to bring the cows down for milking…. it looks much steeper than I want to hike up now….

Hepatica

After I checked out the pond, I began my exploration of the woods. I used to love to see what flowers and plants were coming up as the weather warmed up. The first I ran across today were a few of these tiny little white flowers.

We called this little gem Spring Beauty. The flowers are tiny white to pale pink with magenta to plum purple stripes.  One needs to keep a keen eye out to find the little plants and flowers.

Sugar Road

Here is the main “trail” I took…. It was a roadway where the sap was carried from the trees to the sugar house. It is not very easy to walk it now because of all the fallen trees, branches, and other obstacles. I ended up following a few deer trails off the old roadway to find the plants I was really looking for.  I felt like a mountain goat at times…. I was looking for Trilliums and Jack-in-the Pulpits that I used to love to watch growing and even moved a few to a natural garden near our house.

Dog tooth Violet 1

The woods were almost carpeted with the leaves from the Dog Tooth Violets.  The yellow flowers were not in all areas, though.  Here is one just opening.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit 1

The first of the real treasures I was looking for. Hiding in the piles of leaves was this Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant that was just beginning to show itself. It was hard to spot these, as most were not as far along than this one is.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit 2

This one is a bit different in color from the first. Not far from this one, I found a nice cluster of this color as well as the lighter colored ones. A few more up this far and lots more just peeking. A nice find….

Red Trillium 2

Just as I was beginning to wonder if I would find any Trilliums, I made this discovery! I first found only leaves with no blooms, then found many groups of the red flowered ones. They covered quite a good sized area. I had remembered more white flowered ones than red, but today I found mostly red.

Red Trillium

Here is a good closeup shot of one of the red flowers.

White Trillium

The lonely clump of white Trillium I found. I don’t know if there are more, but so far I found many more red ones. I will probably go on a bit farther another day and may find the  big group of white flowers. I do remember the colors growing in different areas in the past.

Plant by Log

Another plant growing out from the bed of leaves next to a mossy old rotten log.

Rush Creek

Once I followed the deer path out to the road, I could get a good view of the creek as it travels around the bend with the cherry trees blooming on the bank.

After returning from my hike, I enjoyed a slide show of these photos and many more I took, and I realized that the new direction my quilting began heading in is not only inspired by the area of PA that I live in, but has been influenced by my wanderings when I was  young in the woods and fields where I grew up, too.

Mud on the Wall Not so Muddy

Does anything in this quilt look familiar??  I guess I have been influenced by rocks, mud, dead trees and flowers through my whole life.

Pretty Pile of Book Covers in Progress

The colors remind me of some of the photos I have been taking of t he Spring flowers in my gardens.

Snow Glory Group

The first flowers to pop up in my front yard garden were the Snow Glories, My favorites because of the bright shade of blue- like a summer sky.

Deep Midnight Blue Fat Quarter

This fabric has lots of shades of blue, including shades similar to the Snow Glories.

Winter Aconite Blooms

These little Winter Aconite flowers opened up even while the foliage still looked frozen. These hide in my shade garden in the back yard, near the stone wall and bloomed even before the Snow Glories.

Japanese Pine with Snow

Even this plant does not have flowers, it looked so pretty with it’s last coating of snow for the season… almost flower-like. I love the look of the branch tips against the blue sky.

Blue, Green and More Dyed Fat Quarters

These fat quarters were scrunched in the same container. The shades of blue and green  with touches of yellow and fuchsia remind  me of gardens full of blooms.

Pulmonaria "Mrs. Moon"

These little beauties sometimes sneak into bloom and are nearly done before I see them in my back yard garden. I caught them just as they were opening their first buds. I love how they change from pink to blue as the flowers age.

Yard of Bright Dyed Fabric

The above yard is one of the brightest that I ended up with, using fuchsia, cerulean blue, and yellow.

White Daffodils with Yellow Centers

These Daffs seemed to bloom much sooner than usual with the warm, summer-like weather we had early.

Double Daffodils

These were not in my flower beds, but I wish I had some… They were in bloom on Easter Sunday…. So beautiful!

More Fat Quarters

This group of fabrics show another bright fat quarter with a soft mauve one and a pair that were done with the same colors.

Almond Tree Blossoms

These are still open, but I caught them at their peak for the photo. The almond tree is covered with these pink flowers this year.

Light Blue Fat Quarter

This fat quarter isn’t exactly the shade of the skies in my photos, but it is pretty and soft.

White Grape Hyacinth with View

I caught this little clump of white Muscari, or Grape Hyacinth, while in bloom. They are in my huge Maple tree garden and I usually miss them while in peak bloom. I was able to get the distant view of the mountains in the background.

Jenna in Easter Dress

This little “flower” is the hardest one to photograph… she doesn’t stop moving- granddaughter, Jenna.

Mini Composition Cover- Lavender Geranium

Here is one of the finished covers. This one is for a mini composition book. The size is just right for tucking into a purse and makes a really pretty way to dress up a little memo book to keep lists, ideas and more. Available in my Andrus Gardens Gift Items Studio on Artfire…. Link to Geranium Cover.

Mud on the Wall

Here, I just stuck photos and chunks of fabrics on the design wall to give me an idea of what I wanted to do for my new Water Road inspired piece. This was before I took it off the wall to pack for the retreat.

Retreat Main Room

This is the room we we spent most of our time in during the retreat. Lots of different projects were being worked on. The following photos show the progress of the piece I began at home.

Mud on the Wall 2

Mud on the Wall 3

Mud on the Wall Not so Muddy

The last photo shows the piece after I got home and have it almost ready for fusing to batting for stitching. Finally some progress on a piece inspired by mud and rocks.

Wisteria Vines being Stitched

What I worked on when taking a break from the Water Road piece. This is one of the stone walls I began while at my grandmother’s last fall. The vines are made of various yarns and torn strips of fabrics. They are then stitched on with a free motion zig-zag and variegated threads.

Wisteria Vine Stitching 2

A closeup showing the vines in more detail.

Wisteria Almost Done

Flowers and leaves fused on then stitched.
By the time the retreat was over, I had the binding done on this as well as another tiny one done, too. Finally some progress!!