Posts Tagged ‘old buildings’

Inspiration Along the Road

Monday, February 8th, 2010

A few days ago, I picked up my grandson from his school that is just over 6 miles from home.  As most roads in our area of PA, there are lots of twists and turns, and many farms with old, worn out barns and other buildings in disrepair that grab my attention. This post shows a few of the photos I took along that road.

Ghent Road Barn on Curve 1

This was the view just a few miles from home.  The road curves almost all around this old barn. I took a series of photos of this barn as I drove around it. (I did stop to take each photo.) Actually most of the photos were taken the day after I picked up Andrue when I went back to the school to see if my cell phone got dropped in the parking lot. (It was found today inside the school, so I made good use of my drive time.)

Ghent Road Barn on Curve 2

A little farther along the road, with a few plastic wrapped hay bales in the foreground.

Ghent Road Barn on Curve 3

This was as I got around, near the end of the barn, where the road gets closer to it.

Ghent Road Barn on Curve 4

Ghent Road Barn on Curve 5

These are more photos as I drove along the road in front of the barn and past it.

Gent Road Falling Shed 1

Along the road a bit farther are a couple of smaller buildings that are in really bad shape.  Both the one above and below look like one good snow storm might take them down.

Ghent Road Falling Shed 2 with Grain Bin 1

Ghent Road Machinery Shed 1

This machinery building is in better repair than the previous buildings, and looks as if it is still being used to house some machinery. I like the basic “bones” of this building. It definitely has lots of character.

Ghent Hill Corner Barn 1

The photo of this barn was taken on the way home from the school, the last set of barns on Ghent road. The one right next to the road is another one ready to fall at any time.

It seems a bit sad to see so many of these these old buildings empty and ready to fall  down. I often wonder what some of the barns and buildings were like when in use, full of animals, hay and more.  Even old buildings that I grew up hanging out in, on my parent’s farm are sad from old age and not being used any more.

This was just a few buildings on a small stretch of road. There are many many more stretches of PA roads with old barns and houses I want to take photos of and eventually use in a series of art quilts. I can envision some of these printed onto fabric and surrounded with old fashioned flowers growing around them instead of the dead weeds and grasses.

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Posted in Architecture and Old Buildings, inspirations | 2 Comments »

The Wreaths are Done!

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

The wreath workshop has officially been closed for the season…. It will now turn back into a woodworking shop again.

I finished my orders of wreaths and grave blankets and all were gone by this past Monday.

Fraser Fir with Cone Spikes

Here is one of the branches of Fraser Fir that are literally a pain to work with…. the cones shatter, leaving behind the spiky centers… If I needed to use these branches for wreaths, I had to cut off the spikes… really adds to the time needed to construct things.

Concolor Fir

In direct contrast to the spiky, sharp Frazer cone centers, is the softness of Concolor Fir. The Concolor is used mostly in the grave blankets. The needles are a bit long and sparse to make nice full wreaths, but the flexibility of the branches make them perfect

Grave blanket Beginning

The grave blankets are constructed on a base of wire with appx. 1″x3″ openings. the stems of the branches are woven into the wire base until it is covered and the greens hang out the desired size around the edges. The Fraser Fir is the bluer looking variety, along with some Scotch Pine- longer needles.

Large Grave Blanket Finished

This is the finished product- This is the largest blanket I make- appx. 3′x6′ in size, with extra decorations in addition to the bow, cones and berries I usually use.

Grave Blanket Pile

Here is a standard size blanket on the top of a pile of a batch ready to go out. 3′x4′ or so is the normal size of most of our blankets.

Decorated Medium Wreath

Here is one of the decorated wreaths for the second large order, ready for pick-up. As you can see, my sneakers catch a lot of pitch from working with the greens. My clothes also get covered in the sticky stuff, too. I usually use one outfit or “uniform” for the entire season, so I only ruin one pair of jeans and one or 2 sweatshirts. Sometimes if enough waterless Goop hand cleaner applied to the clothes will remove much of the pitch. At least one shirt gets thrown away each year after wreath making is done.

Decorated Special Order Wreath

This is one of a few special ordered wreathe that get done each year, This wreath is a bit larger than most, and I added extra ribbon to brighten them up a bit more.

Snow Dec. 9 2009 Front Garden

There was quite a bit of cold and windy weather while I was making the wreaths, but the biggest snowfall happened after they were done… Our first 6″ snowfall for the year…. Most of it melted the day after it fell, but what didn’t melt is now rock hard from very cold temps.

Short Tract Shed 1

Now that wreath production is over, I can show a few more photos I took while staying with my grandmother. This is an old shed along the road a few miles before getting to my parent’s house.

Short Tract House 1

One day while going out on a shopping trip, I ended up having to take a detour, and found this run down old house in Short Tract, a tiny community not far from where I grew up… This house definitely has seen better days.

Marriott Granary Roof

I don’t always have to look too far to find old, worn buildings to take photos of that may end up in one of my quilts…. This is the granary and garage in the side yard of the home I grew up in… They are showing their age a lot now.

Marriott Sugar House 2

I remember spending time in this sugar house many, many years ago with my grandfather while sap was being boiled down into Maple syrup. It looks like one side is sinking into the hillside.

Marriott Sugar House 1

Another view of the sugar house… we used to play around here after maple syrup was no longer made…. A long time ago…. With the leaves off the trees and vines, the weathered wood and mossy stone foundation show up nicely. In summer, many of the old buildings I love are nearly hidden from view by trees, vines, and weeds.

If all goes well, I should be showing off a couple new art quilts soon. I began a number of them while staying at Gram’s. I just need to get back to the studio and finish things up.

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Its That Season Again…

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Whew! The past month has really flown!! Zack came home, I left to stay with my grandmother, got home, met my sister for shopping. And then the wreaths began…… First here is a photo I took while with my gram of an old schoolhouse that her mom went to school at. I drove or rode past this building many, many times while growing up, but never really paid much attention to it. It is now pretty much hidden from view by the trees, brush and vines.

Old Fillmore Schoolhouse

I’m not sure where the year has gone, but the smell of evergreen boughs has been strong in the wreath workshop for the past week.

Stacks of Wreaths

This is the result of many days of cutting and clamping. We begin by cutting overgrown trees from a tree farm. The branches are piled into the truck and then piled in the workshop. Then my job begins….

Main Tools

More Tools

The most important tool I have is my pair of Felco #6 pruners. These are expensive, but very sharp and easy to use pruners. The #6 I use is the right size for my hands…. Of course the clamping machine is needed along with the Goop to clean up with. Also necessary for long days are chocolate and caffeine, and the best thing I tried this year- Latex rubber gloves from the dollar store… I hate using gloves, leather or similar ones are hard to work in. Last year I used lots of bandages to protect my fingers, but gave the kitchen glooves a try. They worked quite well! I was able to pick up skinny branches and held up better than I thought they would. I didn’t have to scrub sticky sap off my skin- just peeled off the gloves. They even held up through them covered in hand cleaner overnight and it took 4 days to “kill” the first pair.

Pile of White Pine

Piles of Fraser Fir

Piles of greens ready for clipping in the workshop. Just the tips of the branches that look like hands are used. Pretty longer branches are kept to use for swags, but most of the Fraser fir is chopped up into 6-10″ long pieces.

Here is a box of tips…. I usually cut piles of greens and fill 3 large boxes of tips at a time to have ready for clamping.

Wreath Beginning

This photo shows one of the rings I start with… this is 12″ in diameter and will make a wreath up to 24″ in diameter when done. To the right are some of the tips cut ready to group into bunches and clamp onto the ring. We use Fraser Fir, Scotch Pine, and White Pine mixed in our wreaths. I like the mixed look.

Decorated Medium Wreath

One of the finished 12″ ring wreaths. I also make wreaths with 10″ rings and some with 18″ rings. The larger ones seem to take forever to make! They end up over 30″  in diameter from the 18″ ring.

Stack of Trash

Stack of Trash

This photo shows the trash pile waiting for Ken or another helper to haul out. He does the cutting of the trees, and hauls the boughs in and out of the workshop. Also showing in this photo is the other item that is a necessity for my sanity, and helps me to keep going- the sound system. Ken got this recently from someone who no longer had any use for it. I need the radio going!

Greens for Swags

Greens For Swags

This is the last photo I have due to not taking one before leaving last night. The finished order left early this morning! This shows the branches ready for constructing the swags we make. We use long branches of each of the 3 varieties of branches and tie with wire. They are then topped with a bow and decorated with little red berries and pine cones.

One order done, one big one to go…. the first go out plain, for the next order, the wreaths all need to be decorated and is due in 2 weeks. I’m resting my hands this weekend….

I haven’t totally given up on my quilting.. (well, yea for the past week or so)… I have some photos taken of some works in progress that I began at my grandmother’s. ( any Facebook friends may have seen them already) I took a good share of my studio with me due to being there for over 2 weeks. I also had a couple of special orders to do while there, too. I think this link will work so if interested, you can see the Works in Progress Photos on Facebook.

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Posted in Misc, inspirations | No Comments »