snow « Sue Andrus- My Quilted Gardens

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From Spring and Summer to White?

Monday, March 7th, 2011

This is definitely proving to be a winter like some we used to have quite regularly…. The worst storm of the winter decided to pop up quite unexpectedly yesterday while we were exploring the beauty of Spring and Summer in Philadelphia.

Delphiniums 1

Yesterday was the first full day of the Philadelphia Show. We ended up going there as a last minute decision, and were expecting to meet Marla and a granddaughter or two. We didn’t get to see the granddaughters, but spent some nice time with Marla. The weather forecast was calling for heavy rain all day, and we left home in rain, some quite heavy on the way to Philly.

Fallen Roses

The Philadelphia Flower Show is a Huge, Beautiful show full of displays of flowers and gardens of all types. This year’s theme was based on Paris, so there were many Parisian inspired displays. One of the first big ones we saw was this display of roses that had toppled due to someone (or more) touching the outer ring of roses. It looked like a horribly challenging thing to fix with crowds of people watching.

Pink Table

Here is part of a display of very opulent tables perfect for a wedding… I loved all the pink… I will post a bunch of photos and not too many words here:
Oops! If I would get the captions with the photos I wouldn’t have to write so much…. This is a beautiful Yellow Lady Slipper Orchid.

Wild Display

There were even weeds in this display… It was a natural looking woodland walk.

Can Can Dancer

There were 4 displays done like this… The dancer image is made from various items including cut up cans to create the shadow.

Bed of Roses

Not sure how comfy this would be, but it was beautiful!

Funky Lilies

I just HAVE to find out what variety of Lily this is… I am pretty sure is is a Lily that seems to grow like and Oriental or Asiatic by the looks of the foliage.

Pitcher Plant Flowers Maybe

Here is another one for researching… The plants these flowers were coming from looked to be Pitcher Plants… I have never seen flowers like these. There were yellow ones in some other planters, too.

Rock Garden

The plants in this planter were placed between thin slices of rocks placed on their edges… a really neat idea! I love the tiny Alpines growing here.

Pink Hellebore

There were lots of Hellebore plants in many of the displays… this is there usual blooming season. Another “I want”.

Floral Fashion 1

There were 4 parts to this display… Each had a floral arrangement that depicted gowns on mannequins.

Botanical Prints

A very large display of watercolor and colored pencil botanical art pieces really got me thinking that I need to start sketching and trying this myself…. I love these and would love to be able to do some of my own….

Tulip Vases

Very Elegant, simple vases full of Tulips… So pretty with the narrow metal bands curved throughout.

Rose Ring Fixed

On our way out of the show, I was able to get a photo of the Rose display that had toppled over earlier in the day. The photos shown here are only a few of the 270+ I took… There are many “flops” due to my camera and the very low light at many of the displays. It was a very crowded day, but it was great to be able to wander through the flowers and plants in the displays since things have been pretty white here at home.

Philly in the Rain

When we finally left the city, the rain was pouring down…. Made for a few interesting photos, but it was not raining all the way home. After calling home to see how cold it got, we found that it had been snowing much of the day here….

Ice Covered Tree Half Way Home

It was spooky enough riding in a car on busy highways in the pouring rain, but things changed…. The photo from downtown Philly was taken about 6PM…. at about 8:20, the wet road turned into a slushy road, and the rain turned into sleet. We stopped for gas where this tree was covered in icy slush.

March 6 Snow Storm1

Fortunately, Ken is a much better driver than I am as a passenger… I spent most of the ride home gripping a door handle…. We passed a lot of big trucks that were not able to climb some of the steeper roads, but we were able to slowly keep going. Each town we got to meant we were that much closer to home. We had heard that our county was under a state of emergency, but we had no place to go but home…. The main roads actually were better once the slush and ice had turned to snow and frozen roadways. Most of the main roads were plowed, but when we got off them, we were following tracks made by others. The road we live on was the spookiest…. drifts over it, not plowed, wind whipping, but Ken was able to get the mini van all the way to our driveway!

Bird Houses When Home

Ken got the van off the road, just into the end of the driveway and we ended up walking down it. We were not prepared for a 1/4 mile trudge through drifts of all sizes and gusty winds…. When we left home it was warm and raining. I had my duckie shoes for the mud when we left, but they stayed in the van…. My sneakers were warmer than they are and easier to walk in. I was lucky to have taken my gloves and always keep a quilt or 2 in the van. With no hat, I wrapped in the quilt. Ken had no gloves or hat, and carried our bunch of curly willow purchased a the show in the hopes we can get some to root. I don’t see well in the dark, and we had no flashlight, so I followed Ken’s tracks. Some areas were blown clear of snow, but there were some drifts nearly butt deep, not fun, but we were not sure how close we would get to home, so only walking the driveway was better than some options. The first snow photo above shows our tracks to the front step. The other is one I tried to take of the bird feeders, but the snow was falling so hard the flash caught the flakes the most. Pretty interesting shots.

March Blizzard 1

With all the snowing and blowing, we had no idea what things would look like this AM…. Well, here it is…. No tracks can be seen where we walked in, and the large planters that line the walkway are totally buried in snow. To the right you can just see the front corner of Ken’s big van…. A pretty big drift beside that.

Deck Steps

The deck has quite a bit of snow on it even with the roof, and this is what the steps look like…. I remember the guys purposefully packing snow on them to make a sled ramp when they were at home. It is a ready-made ramp now…. The pool rock pile is nearly fully buried,too.

Outside Greenhouse Door

Here is the view out the greenhouse door, with my short handled broom to give an idea of the snow depth. The drift between the door and the Lilac bush is 3-4 feet… just guessing….

Tractor and Van

See that tractor nearly buried in the snow?? Poor Ken has to dig it out so he can use it to dig out a path to get the van out of the way of the pickup, who’s plow is not on right now…. It was only to be a rain storm with maybe a couple of inches of snow at the end….

Pickup and Alberta Spruce

The Dwarf Alberta Spruce out my studio window has a really neat pattern of snow on it, and you can see why the tractor will be needed to get the truck out…. The tractor will have to be used to dig a path before the truck will be able to get to where the plow is buried and then to get it out of the driveway.

Cardinal at Feeder

I guess with the tons of snow, the Cardinal wasn’t as spooky as he has been… It was a bit tricky catching a photo with the feeder twisting in the wind with the bird clinging to it. It will be a while before I get a path to the feeders, so for now I just tossed some seed out onto the snow…. The birds approve. I had to knock snow out of the deck feeder before I could fill that one.

Blackbird

I don’t think the Red Winged Blackbirds expected this… He was very happy to have the tossed seed.

I thought I would be posting photos of slightly greening grass with the rain taking away most of the snow that was on the ground…. I guess not yet….

I am so glad I got to see Spring and Summer flowers yesterday…. Back to reality today….

Tags: flowers, gardens, inspirations, nature, snow, spring
Posted in Flowers and Gardens, inspirations, Landscapes and Skies | 4 Comments »

March is Half Over

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

I have done a lot in the past month, but have not done any blogging about it. I think what I will do is to break things up into “bite sized” pieces into several posts.

Not too long after my last post, we actually got SNOW….. there has not been much of that this winter. Some too early in October, a little more in December, and lots of brown landscapes.

Water Road Mountain Laurel 2

This was taken the day after I took the barn photos… The moss is green and the Mountain Laurel leaves are somewhat green with browned edges.

Water Road Winter 1

Another view along Water Road…. The rocks piled behind the dead tree are pretty big. There are some ferns with a little green to them clinging to the base of a bush that is holding some soil in place. These photos and more are the inspiration for my latest Mountain Laurel piece that is in progress.

Snow 2-10-2010 Front Garden

The day after taking photos of Water Road, the snow began….. We finally got some pretty white snow to cover up the ugly winter browns. We had snow for a few days in a row, but it didn’t get too much deeper than shown here….. Until the Real Storm.

Storm 2-25 and 26,2010

We started out with nearly no snow, then during 2 days we got buried in white. It was hard to tell just how much snow we actually got because of all the blowing and drifting, but definitely over a foot. No where near what other areas of the East had been getting, but our biggest snowfall in a couple years.

Snow 2-26-10 Deck Table 10AM

You know you had a real Nor’easter when the East facing deck with a roof over it ends up with this much snow cover.

This snowy winter wonderland was the “perfect” time for #3 son Nick to visit from Georgia. His girlfriend is a born Southerner, and Nick has been in warmer climates for nearly 3 years, and doesn’t miss the cold.

Fun in the Snow

Everyone spending some time in the snow. The dogs from GA really loved the snow… Roxie lived with us last winter, but Vladie seemed to be at home in the white stuff. Aaron and his family came to visit for the day, and the kids love sledding. Megan, Nick’s girlfriend, didn’t like the cold and froze… Her first time sledding…. she didn’t really like it.

Snowy Sunday Afternoon

The livingroom was literally wall to wall people… The “I Spy” books have been popular since we got them for the guys when they were younger. Still fun after all these years, and now Andrue spends hours with them. Ken is “hiding” behind the comics, and Jonelle and Jenna were on the other end of the couch. Notice the lack of cats in the photo…. with dogs in the house, the cats stayed in the greenhouse.

Kenai on the Couch

The dog that pestered the cats the most…. Little Kenai thinks he owns the place when he visits and the cats scatter. He likes to “tree” them on the high spots in the greenhouse, and bark at them.

This sums up most of February…. The non quilt related part…. Some quilts next…

Tags: Family, inspirations, mountain laurel, snow, water road
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I Am Still Around….. I Think…..

Monday, October 19th, 2009

I have been very poor again at keeping up with posting here…. The past weeks have been filled with preparing for and vending at a quilt show, preparing a lecture for another guild, gathering items to deliver for a sale, and more. I am also preparing to head back to Fillmore, NY the end of this week to spend a few weeks with my grandmother. My parents Really need a vacation, so I will be staying with her while they are gone. And to add even more excitement…. Our son Zack who has been deployed in Iraq popped in unexpectedly last night on a 2 week leave!!

Zack

I did do a little blog post announcing my newest patterns available at my newest Artfire Studio. We now have studio Blogs available there to use, and I will probably use them to promote new additions, and other artists.

I have also been trying to add little bits here and there to my Facebook Fan Page. Follow the link to become one of my fans!

I will probably be MIA from the web a lot while at my gram’s…. there is only very slow dial-up service there unless I go to my brother’s house. I will be taking all my items listed for sale in my shops along with my shipping supplies so that I can fill any orders that come in while there…. It’s really hard to teach Ken how to do that, and my storage units are portable…. Printing mailing labels online makes shipping packages so easy from anywhere….

Here are a couple photos from my gardens a few days ago…. The trees still have leaves, and a lot are still green….

October 16 Snow 5

My garden out the front door…. Looked more like January than Mid October…. Thankfully after a day or so it all melted.

October 16 Snow 3

Not exactly lawn mowing weather…. The mowers are parked outside my studio window…. Might be time to put them away…. This has definitely been a strange weather year… The snow tires get installed this week.

Tags: Family, inspirations, snow
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New Piece and Paper Play

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

Well, now that the holidays are over, the nest is empty again. I still have books available for sale, Scroll past this post to the list, or click the link here.

Before Christmas, I was shopping with a friend at Michaels and found something new to play with. While looking at the scrapbooking papers, I ran across a handmade paper making frame and instructions. I have always been drawn to papers with fibers and other stuff in them, but never really thought about making my own. Now I have something more try.

New Paper 1

I never thought papermaking would be so simple. Basically grind up paper in the blender with water, add fibers, glitter, and other stuff, pour into the mold, drain, press, and dry. A package of dyed flowers were in the kit I got, that add neat fibers of bright colors. In the first photo, the right piece of paper includes the seeds removed from those flowers. The middle pieces show fibers from the flowers in them. the left piece includes pieces of some small swatches of fabric that were laying around.

New Paper 2

The second photo shows the first piece I made on the right. I did not use quite enough pulp, and it is really thin in spots. I added chopped up blue tissue paper, metallic gold flakes, blue glitter, and some threads trimmed from some deep blue silk.
The pink piece is made from white cardstock and pink paper from a notepad, with pink dyed flowers.

Blue speckled paper 1

This is a close shot of one of the blue speckled papers. My first thought was to use some of this paper in my FFFC piece. I did cut out a snowflake from the thin piece, but I decided to use it elsewhere. I have been thinking of playing with paper and fabric collage, adding paper to quilts, or whatever.

Lace Print in Paper

When I molded the pink paper, I placed a piece of lace on the pulp before pressing the water out, and left it there until it was dry. It left a nice embossed look to the paper.

I finally got myself back to quilting in my studio. I am just about done with my FFFC piece that was due this past Saturday. The challenge this time was to make a quilt to represent either fire or ice. My first thought was ice- especially since when I think ice, I think blue; when I think fire, I think red, and red is not a favorite color of mine. I wanted to get the look of a window pane covered with frost, and snowflakes falling against a night sky.
The deep blue fabric is one I painted and sunprinted with tiny star confetti, and used salt on. It reminds me of snow at night. The fabric also has the shimmer of Super Sparkle added to the paint.

I cut snowflakes out of a shimmery organza backed with Wonder Under fusible. The frosty edges of the pane are made from 2 colors of a silver metallic enhanced fabric printed with leaves, one in icy blue, and one in white. They reminded me of ice formations when I bought them over a year ago. I cut out some of the leaves, and it left great, random, icy looking formations. I also used some of the cut leaves to add to the ice around the edge.
Opalescent shredded Mylar was melted and added for the more lacy inner ice formations.

Frosty Window2

The organza snowflakes were fused, tumbling down the center, and scraps from cutting the snowflakes, make smaller flakes. I used silver lined clear and blue seed beads to add even more sparkle to the flakes. I began adding some clear beads between the free motion quilting I did with metallic silver thread. I think I will be adding more beads over the rest of the quilt, to tame down the puffiness of the less quilted areas.

I may need to tame down the shine in Mylar in the upper right. It seems to take over the photo.

Frosty Window Detail

Here is a detail of the area where I added the beads between the quilting lines.

Frosty Window Side View

The final photo was taken on my deck, with the sun shining on it. It shows the texture the quilting adds to the icy edges. I hoped to capture how the sunlight makes everything shimmer, like super cold, sunny days in winter.

Here are 3 photos of my large upper garden, showing the Balsam tree, Wichita Juniper, and grasses. It was neat how different the sky was in each. They were taken at different times during one day.

The sky in the last photo was really ominous looking. The sun was shining, with black sky behind the garden.

Snowy South View Soft Colors

The right photo is of the South view off the deck, with the Walnut branches in the foreground. It was taken at the same time of day as the first Balsam photo. I really like the soft, muted colors of the sky. You can see more details in the mountains, with the snow on them.

Right now, There is no snow left, after a couple of pretty warm days.

Sleeping Andrue

Final photo of this post- The last one I got of Andrue, the night before he and his mom and dad took him home to North Dakota. We'll get to see him again in the spring.

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Tags: art quilt, handmade paper, snow
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More Little Quilts and Snow?

Monday, November 19th, 2007

Well, as I wrote yesterday, I have more little quilts to show. The little art quilts in this post are 5"x7" in size.

Quilt 5×7 Triple Echiinacea $25

Quilt 5x7 Double Lavender Echiinacea $25

Quilt 5×7 Double Lavender Echiinacea $25

These little quilts are made using the same photos I used in "Ecinacea Collage". I printed a number of the photos in different sizes to use in various pieces. I used the same fused crazy patch fabric I made for my Journal Quilt this year.
The flower in the bottom photo of the left quilt and the flower in the lower quilt has a bee and butterfly visiting it.

Quilt 5×7 Echiinacea with Friends $25

A fourth piece in the group that I did is available at my Etsy Store, It has a couple pieces of a green fabric accenting the photos. They all are quilted using a white thread for the free motion vines.

Quilt 5×7 Peach Rose Fern $25

Quilt 5x7 Pastel Rainbow Fern butterfly $20

Quilt 5×7 Pastel Rainbow Fern butterfly $20

These two little quilts began with sunprints of ferns. The left also has butterflies printed using a mylar confetti. The left piece is done with a pastel rainbow of colors and pastel variegated thread for the quilted vines. The right one is made using a piece of a peach commeeercial fabric along with an ivory and another section of the sunprinted panel. It's quilting is done with clear thread. Another mini art quilt in similar colors with a Maple and fern sunprint is at my Etsy Store, in addition to a couple larger pieces in the previous post.

Quilt 5x7 Rainbow Jacob's Ladder and Flower $20

Quilt 5×7 Rainbow Jacob’s Ladder and Flower $20

This piece is constructed similarly to the above Pastel Rainbow Fern. It has a sunprint of a Polemonium, or Jacob's Ladder leaf, and a Nicotiana flower on a medium colored rainbow. It is set off by ivory fabric with metallic gold flecks in it, and variegated free motion quilted vines.

Quilt 5×7 Lavender Hardy Geranium $25

One of my favorite perennial flowers are the hardy Geraniums. This is a print of leaves and flowers that were dried last summer, and used this year. The flowers turn out very papery, so the flower images are not very sharp. The sunprint is balanced out by a corner of a deep purple mottled fabric.

Quilt 5×7 Green Fern and Flowers $25

This green piece is constructed the same way as the lavender Geranium one. It is a print of a fern with individual Garden Phlox florets. The corner of this piece is a deep green fabric.

Quilt 5x7 Pastel Rainbow Maples with Cobalt $25

Quilt 5×7 Pastel Rainbow Maples with Cobalt $25

Quilt 5x7 Green Ferns Violas Butterfly $25

Quilt 5×7 Green Ferns Violas Butterfly $25

Another piece that uses a dark colored corner block. This one on the left quilt is a cobalt blue, to go with the sunprint of Maple leaves on the left over a very pastel rainbow of blue to pink to green. Another piece of fabric in a brighter rainbow with salt patterning also adds to the piece.

The right piece is another green one with a sunprint of ferns and viola flowers with a butterfly. The side panel in this piece is a "scrunched" and salted fabric in seafoam green with pale blue. The vine quilting can also be seen in the white and blue-green sections.

And now for the snow. Last winter, we did not have any measurable snow until way into the new year. Last night we had our first measurable snow for this season. I had to take a few photos, and here they are:

Two Snowy Spikes

Looking out the door last night, I had to capture these two planters. The spikes in them are still green and covered in the snow, making them look like frosty sea creatures or something. I took the photo after dark with the light on outside, and with the flash on the camera. The flash reflected off the large snowflakes that were falling.

Front Yard in Snow 2

This was the view out the front door this morning. The photos all came out quite blue. The snow stuck to all the trees. We were lucky that we did not loose power, especially since many trees still have leaves on them.

Wintry Southern View

This was the view from the deck. The mountains and Towanda are hidden in the snow still falling. The branches of the Walnut tree make a neat frame for this photo.

Snowy View Through Walnut

This photo shows more Walnut than view. Things really felt secluded here, with everything else hiding in the snowy air.

The best thing about the snow will be that our well should now be getting some more water back. We have had a couple of rains, but the snow melting should soak into the ground very well.

Cuddles in Greenhouse

This is the main reason I hope that our well will have water again…. This is my little greenhouse/wet studio. It will be cluttered up soon with a barrel wood stove, and now also has our "plastic well". We were using water pumped from a large water tank outside, but with freezing temps that wouldn't work any more. We had to purchase another tank that would fit into the greenhouse (through the wall- good thing it's just plastic). Now the water is pumped by hose from here, under the trailer, to the water tank. We emptied the tank yesterday, and are on the well. If we are lucky the tank can go outdoors, and I will have a bit more space to work in- I plan to use the wood heat for some winter printing and painting. Oh, and Cuddles loves to snuggle in the hose on my table, and doesn't this look like just the place for the toilet?? (I didn't notice it until I saw it in the photo- observant- me?) Our main bathroom is a bit torn up right now. Ken found a water leak under it, and decided it was time to remove the desintigrated floor so he could do the repair, and someday we will be able to use everything without watching carefully where you step, to keep from falling through the floor. (we still take showers by tiptoe-ing around the big hole to get to our only shower in the torn up room) Did I mention my husband, Ken is a remodelling contractor??
More quilts will be posted in a day or two. I am also adding to my Etsy Store, so keep checking back there.

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Tags: art quilts, snow, sunprint series, sunprints, views
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New Quilts, and More Snow!?!

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.

Water Iris

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.

Maple Flower Bed

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.

Maple Flower Bed Snowy

Studio Window

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.

Blizzard 1

Just about everything looked like this when the sun came up- snow stuck on everything.

Blizzard 2 Alberta 2

Blizzard 2 Alberta

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.

Blizzard 3

Blizzard 4

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.

Butterfly Bargello

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.

Beside the Door

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.

Rose Door

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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The Saga Continues….

Sunday, April 8th, 2007

Well, Before I show my lastest works in progress, and one more finished, Some really neat snow pictures. A couple days ago, I heard the weatherman say were expecting flurries. I looked out the window, and the flurries were bigger than the average flurry.

Snow 1

I did the first one by accident, usually when trying to get pictures of snow, it looks like fog, so I used the portrait setting to get the camera to focus closer, and by mistake, it flashed. This was the result. The flash reflected off the flakes, some really neat shots!

Snow 2

This one had some different shapes show up. I took others, and got a few that had even larger glowing balls in the air. There must be a quilt in there somewhere.

Now, back to the madness of the stone walls, windows & doors, and moss, that continues. I have 5 more pieces on the similar theme in the works, and finished the challenge piece for QA magazine challenge.

Rose Door 1

Rose door 2

This will be called "Rose Door" It will be similar to the challenge piece, but larger- about 13"x17". While getting ideas for the challenge door, I got the idea of having a rose climbing over the doorway, but thought that it would be too much in the smaller format. the left picture shows the start of fusing the "stones" to build the wall. The right, shows it after quilting around the stones.

Wall Garden

Works in Progress 3 Walls

Here are a couple more in the works. on the left, the rose door is bottom left, the other on the bottom is a cropped door, showing only part of the door and steps. the top piece, and piece on right, are a stone wall that will have a bench in front of it, and flowers beside the bench, somewhat like I have in my back yard. A little different in that from this view of that garden, you would be able to see our home- not a pretty sight, so I'm taking artistic license. Sky looks better than what's there.

Here is the bench in progress, I began with a beige print fabric, but even after I did the shading with water soluble wax pastels, the bench seemed to blend in with the wall (the left picture is a bit yellow. Middle pic is more realistic. I needed to do something to make it stand out, so I added some rosy pink to the bench, then added water, and mixed the brown and pink, and the result is in 3rd pic. I also added a stone base under the bench to keep it from looking like it was hovering over the grass. There is a piece of brown fabric that will probably become a tree, and there will be Siberian Irises, and some other flowers in the garden beside the bench. While looking in a perennial book to see what naturally blooms with the Iris, I found another idea with terraces of stone and plants growing in between stones, and the steps of the terrace- now another idea floating around! OK, if you made it this far, Here is the unveiling of Delphinium Door for the Quilting Arts Magazine door challenge. Door #3

Delphinium Door

I added clear iridescent beads to the Delphinium floret centers. I then added tiny baby's breath sized white flower beads with gold seed beads in the centers for daisies in front of the Delphiuniums. I have almost used up the piece of silk batting I dyed and have been shredding for moss between the stepping stones. The piece is "bound" with an ivory wool yarn that I colored with my pastels to give the allusion that the scene continues on, and you feel there is more out there. I may still add a bit of color to the yarn around the stones to make it match to them more.

One more piece done! This is the first thing I have made especially for a challenge that could possibly get published- fingers crossed- I even have time before the deadline. I have also finished filling out application forms for the "In Full Bloom" exhibit for Houston. Not sure what will happen there, will see . These will get me on my way to this year's goal of getting something into a national show. Won't know unless I try.

For anyone celebrating, Have a Happy Easter!!

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Tags: art quilt, color, delphinium, door, moss, snow, stone, stones and walls, wall
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Muddy Water

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Side Lawn Morning

I have tried to keep this blog mostly quilt related, but the view from my studio and other windows really got my attention, yesterday.
Thanks to yesterday's brilliant sunshine and warm temperatures, I now live streamside. The pictures show what is normally dry lawn and garden areas. Our mobile home is 1/4 mile from the top of a hill, and this is the runoff from melting snow, that has come from the fields above, and down the driveway.

Side Lawn

This picture shows the same area as above, in the afternoon. no snow, and water covering the whole area. Note the piles of small stones and gravel- that belong in the driveway- quite a distance above this area. The driveway is 1/4 mile long, from the road at the top of the hill. We are quite secluded, and I love that.

Side Lawn Creek

As you can see, our whole property is on a slope. This picture shows where the water from the first photo was headed. In the lower right corner, there is the end of a flower bed.

End of Garden

This shows the end of the garden as the new stream enters it. There are even piles of gravel stones from the driveway all the way down there and even farther down the stream. In past years, any runoff would run in front of this section of the garden. (after installing this garden, I realized a couple years later, that the runoff water nanturaly wanted to go right through the middle of the whole garden, so I made a dry stream bed through the length to accomodate it)

Mound Garden

This is a picture of what I call my mound garden (disguising the septic mound in the back yard). By the middle of the garden, the water is flowing where I want it to. the left end is getting flooded higher than usual. I thought all the soccer balls were put away for the winter (Ball is near the "waterfalls" on the left). Garden ornament, I guess, if the water doesn't get worse and take it away. There is a house below our woods right in line with the water flow. I really don't want to see what that is like there, after adding more snow melt through the woods.
My yard and gardens are usually inspiration for my quilting, but browns don't seem to be in "my" color palette, so I don't think this will come out in a quilt, unless I decide to change the water to a beautiful blue babbling brook, flowing through blooming gardens, mmm……… maybe and idea there? Though, I do love the shadows that the tree branches cast on the snow. Well, I better get away from this computer, and get to my studio, and to work.

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Tags: inspiration, muddy water, snow, stream, sun
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Posts Tagged ‘snow’

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More Little Quilts and Snow?

New Quilts, and More Snow!?!

The Saga Continues….

Muddy Water

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