Back to the Garden

 The weather has been pleasant enough this past week or so for me to get back out to my gardens.  They have been quite neglected since the heat arrived in late June! 
I allow many annuals to self seed, but usually try to contain them to the beds.  This year, they had invaded the walkways so enthusiastically, I couldn't bear to remove them.

This is the front walkway filled with snapdragons and asters, along with the odd Johnny jump-ups.

 This is the back stairway to the porch (or "veranda" I am told, since it goes around the corner of the house).  Pardon the cord which powers the tools building our new garage.  The artemesia of a sort I have forgotten, and the blue ajuga have filled in nicely between the paving stones. The snapdragons have made their way here as well!

 These are two of my favorites- all volunteers! - the purple is zebrina malva and the blue is convolvulus.  Don't they look lovely all blended together?















We have our annual visit form a neighborhood frog to the rain barrel.  I cannot imagine where they live near us as there is no water near by and this summer has been exceedingly dry. Yet, there he was this morning.  And a good thing, too since the rain barrel is filled with mosquito larvae.






Thinking green this week gives me a chance to mention the paper that can be saved by receiving bills electronically.  (with apologies top the postal service!)  If just 20% of American households switched from paper to electronic bills, we could save 1,811,275 trees and avoid 2 million tons of greenhouse gases.

I am grateful for:
My sweet new kitten, George- who is finally adjusting to her new home.
The peace I find in the garden.
Comfortable routines.
Sleeping under a quilt with the windows open on cool summer nights.
Fresh, crisp and juicy apples!

Hits and misses

It has been an up and down week for me. Good news and bad- all sort of evening out, so I can't really complain, right?
Even nature, it seems, has good days and bad. For example- these nasturtiums ( one of the few flowers still blossoming in my garden) are lovely, aren't they? They look like a master painter came by and placed the brush strokes just so to get these wondrous colors.

Meanwhile, this Black-eyed Susan... Nature was having a bad day when she made that one, don't you think?



After the last pincushion- which was indeed meant to be a spool of thread (good job, Kay!)- I went back to the drawing board and came up with these. Much better, IMHO! I had fun playing in the beads and choosing colors from the barrel of felted sweaters. The spool became the petals in one of them! So, a good day.





The little art group of which I'm a member had a gathering a few weeks ago to do some fabric painting. I had just gotten home and didn't even know where my clean clothes were, much less my paints. But I really wanted to play along, since I got some new toys to play with! So I grabbed some chunks of fabric and went out to play. Not sure if it was a good day or a bad day, really.






I like the one part of this piece- which was sort of a sampler for a lot of the new toys.












I pleated this piece- very random pleats- and painted it in strips and splotches, and am very pleased with the result.











This one was meant to look like the field in front of my house when the goldenrod and wild asters are in bloom. Not quite what I wanted, but I love the way the sky came out! I see this piece being fractured when I play with it at the design wall.


So- hits and misses. But the important part was that I played! :-)





I am grateful for:
Play time!
Friends who take care of each other.
My boring job.
cookie dough
a nice long chat with my son.

Headed to Portland, OR

Well, the time has come at last. Guy has moved out of his apartment in Ithaca and tomorrow we leave for Portland, OR, where he is relocating. I decided to tag along on the trip because I loved seeing the country last year when we drove to Seattle. It will be a bittersweet trip, to be sure.
Lucas will be caring for things at home while we're away. It has to be something he can do easily, so I moved all the outdoor potted plants to the back side of the house near the hose, so he can keep them watered. Hubby said this looks like a jungle.
Most of the flowers were planted from seedlings I grew in the house last spring, so I am hoping they will still be pretty when I return. (heck, I'll be happy if they're alive. No offense to Lucas, but the heat has really left them in sad shape) I'd like to think he'll water the flower beds, too. Hey, a Mom can dream, right? :-)


I also moved all the indoor plants to a central location so he can easily water them at least once while I'm gone. Last time I went away and he was in charge one of the tropical plants set up blossoms. Maybe he can work his magic again! This reminds me of the day my friends Jackie and Diane helped me move the plants to this house- they were astounded that one person could have this many houseplants!




It has been years since we have had a nice family picture made, and I imagine it will be a while before we get another chance now. So I set the timer - and even got Guy to not look miserable (he hates having pictures taken).

We're making it a sort of an adventure, rather than just driving straight out. I'll post pictures when I can. And when I get back, you can bet I'll be getting back to the sewing room! I never thought I'd see the day when my sewing machine had dust on it!!!

I am grateful for:
A whole week with the family together!
Rain!
Girlfriends.
Cool nights- just made for snuggling.
Frozen cookie dough to put in my ice cream.

A very good week!

What a nice surprise it was last week to go to the mailbox and find a package of blocks from that floral swap. Remember I made blocks for a friend? Well, apparently I was not the only one who wanted to make sure she got her blocks, so there ended up being extras. The swap hostess sent me a set of them. Aren't they lovely? Thanks, ladies!

The men went on their annual fishing trip last weekend, so I had four days to myself. You'd think I'd have gotten a ton of quilting done, right? Not so. I spent much of that time in the gardens. The little flower seedlings I grew inside have been growing like mad since I put them outside and the tiny bit of soil in those starter pots doesn't hold much water. So they need to be in the ground- or larger pots! I have been planting furiously. I had more plants than spaces, so I am squeezing them in everywhere. It should be a grand display when they grow up a bit more. I don't have before pictures, but you can bet you'll see the "after"!

Here are a couple of my favorite perennials, though.
The Dianthus keep coming back year after year, both old plants and new babies. They have always been a favorite of mine. I used to grow carnations when I was a kid! These are in my shade garden. This is also where the clematis is with the bird's nest. She has four eggs now and I expect babies any day.













The Lupines are what make this my favorite time in the big bed out back. They are just glorious. I like to sit on my little garden stool near them and watch the bumblebees collecting the pollen!

When it gets too hot- or my back starts to ache- I get cleaned up and head to the sewing room. This weekend I was working an a gift for a swap. I made another patchwork tote (did I post a picture of the one I made in February?). I'm getting better at getting the colors where I want them, but the seams still do not line up very well. Hopefully the interesting quilting I did will disguise that. :-)




I also managed to get a table topper made for the table on the screen porch. I used the last of this piece of fabric, so I couldn't center the flowers. Nice how even by accident there's one so near the center!










I am grateful for:
Time alone once in a while, and then
having family around me when they return
Time with nice ladies in my class last weekend!
Shady spots on hot days
Hot dogs on the grill

Being inspired!

Last Saturday after our Guild meeting, members of the museum quilt guild were able to enjoy a class with Janet Root, teaching "Liberated Quiltmaking", using Gwen Marston's methods. I was hesitant at first. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, thanks to my grandmother. So making blocks where you cut without a ruler and don't measure and it's ok if pieces don't match exactly was a bit outside of my comfort zone. When I read the book, I though it just looks like careless piecing to me.
But once I got started I had a blast!

This is what I accomplished in class.









And this is the collective work of the class at one point.














I couldn't wait to get back to it at home. But I wondered what I was going to do with my blocks. It was up to each student to find a layout she liked. I didn't see any reason I would want this as a wall hanging for myself, so I started pondering possible uses for them. AHA! I have been wanting a cover for the open shelves I keep in my "studio"/ guest room- both to cover the mess when company comes and to protect the fabric the rest of the time! So, I am making four panels (the wall side will get plain fabric) I dug through the orphan blocks I had to find some fillers and this is what I have so far.

This will be the top- like a runner.












This will be the front panel.




















Each end panel will have a tree. (but not an antenna)

















The shadows in these are the quilt pinned to the wall behind the layer of batting I was using as my design wall. (Sadly that is another UFO) The purple and teal in the last one is my door curtain, not part of the panel

Meanwhile, I've been walking a bit this week, in an effort to get rid of a little extra "cargo" I seem to be carrying these days. I always bring my camera with me, since one never knows what one may find! This is some kind of wild onions that grow everywhere. Aren't those curlicues wonderful???
The flower at the top is called "Trillium". I used to see red ones in my Gram's woods, but now all I see are the white ones. Nearby, in the same woods, was a nice patch of Dogtooth violets.



















I am grateful for:
Time to spend in the garden, where I can finally say it looks like I'm gaining on the mess!
Friends who understand me, put up with me, support me - and time to play with them!
Time spent reading this last week. I finally finished "Under the Dome"!
(sounds like I had a lot of time on my hands, doesn't it?)

Dark Brown Days

It hasn't been a good week for me. Nothing major. Just all the small stuff that guy told us not to sweat. (I say he got it backwards, by the way- Life is ALL about the small stuff!)
I am taking small victories where I can, though. I managed to get my blocks done for a flower block swap. I'm not actually in the swap, but a friend of mine had to drop out, so I made blocks in her stead. She will still get to play with the ones everyone else made- and hopefully that will cheer her up a bit.



I got the binding on the shop sample for one of my summer Scrap Therapy classes. This one is called "Fly Away". Remember the fabric I was painting with "shiva" paintstiks way back when? I used some of it in this project. I'm not really sure I think the paint adds that much to the overall beauty of the quilt. It's such a large block that almost any fabric would make a statement in those big patches. I was thinking the next one might even need a fabulous Kaffe Fassett print!




I also did another "Iron Quilter" project with my online friends. This time the theme was "Visions of Spring" You had to use earthy colors for a background and then add a picture of something yuou have seen- or wish to see- this spring. It had to include at least one "found object"- something that would otherwise have gone in the trash. My piece is called "Plastic bags Blow" and was based on the field across the street from a store parking lot I saw recently. It includes a real plastic shopping bag and some thread trash- the ends of yardage washed in the machine.











I'm making slow progress in the gardens. Yesterday I worked on cleaning out around my cactus. These came from Wyoming and, although they look pretty sad right now, they will blossom soon and are one of my favorites! Weeding around them is a challenge, though. I found a wonderful tool at the sporting goods store. This is for pulling the hooks out of large fish!







While I was working, I was able to watch these Tree Swallows swoop and soar. Then they'd sit on this house for a while and chatter at eachother- or me, I wasn't sure! They are one of my favorite seasonal birds. Watching them chase bugs on a summer evening is just fascinating!















I am also enjoying the indoor "gardens". Most of my flower seeds have sprouted, so I am envisioning loads of blossoms very soon- well, by July anyway. And the cactus in the house are getting in on the season sending out blossoms with merry abandon. I'm not sure the species of this one. The "Silver Torch" is just beginning to bud. That one is an odd blossom, so I'll get a couple of pictures to share.











I am grateful for:
Friends who will get silly with me!
A patient husband, who really does try to understand my moods.
Chocolate and wine!
I have a job, and it is really not a bad one when I am honest with myself.
Fresh air, sunshine and time to read on the porch.

The most wonderful time of the year!!!

Spring is my absolute favorite season- and I am ecstatically happy to say it has arrived here in Western NY!!! Yesterday evening we had a bit of a thunderstorm that had ended by bedtime. We opened the windows a bit to let in the fresh air and I was able to drift off to sleep to the sound of the peepers singing in the little pond across the street. (let the sound play for a minute and you'll hear the chorus)




Bunny has decided he likes spring, too. He spent his first day digging around looking for green food, which has since appeared in profusion. He seemed to enjoy a crunchy leaf, though.






I spent most of last weekend out in the gardens around my house. I have beds all around the house, out by the utility pole, at the fences bordering the front yard, and a huge perennial bed. It's way more than i can actually do myself. I am not actually a gardener, to be honest. I'm a "plunker". I plunk things in the ground and hope they live. If they don't, I try something else next time. My basic gardening philosophy is to plant invasive perennials and self seeding annuals and let them battle it out. My favorite gardens are the ones that meander along, with seemingly random assortments of flowers looking slightly overgrown, like they haven't been tended in a while. Sadly, mine truly looks untended most of the time. But it gives me an opportunity to be outside on glorious spring days.
While pulling weeds and cutting down last year's stalks, I can listen to the birds singing and watch them building their nests in the boxes we have out around the yard. The bluebirds are holding their own against the swallows this year, I am happy to say. I tried to get a good picture of the male guarding the house as the female took nesting materials inside, but he stayed hidden behind a tree branch. The swallows are aggressive little birds. When ever I am working near the house they have moved into, the dive bomb my head, chittering loudly as they pass. It takes some getting used to not to duck and cover every time. But they are not really trying to hit me. They do manage to chase the cat off every time, though!
The goldfinches are turning yellow. Up until a few years ago, I thought how odd it was that they seem to change overnight. Since I put this feeder so close to the house, I have been able to observe the transformation. The poor things actually look kind of diseased while they are in transition.






I also spent a bit of time in our newly renovated screen porch. It had been studs and bare wood until last fall, when I said maybe next year, we should put in a ceiling fan. Next thing I knew, all my "toys" were packed away and the drywall was up! (I had resisted this, since the little cubbies in the studs seemed so perfectly rustic and suited to a room I used mostly as a potting shed.) Hubby was good to me, and built me a shelf all around the top of the room for all my pots and decorations, so I got them all back out and arranged on the shelf. It feels like it's "mine" now. No room in my house is complete without lotsa of things to look at. I wondered about that for a while, since I abhor clutter. But my Grandmother's house- where I spent a lot of my childhood- had knick-knacks everywhere, too.




And last on this lengthy post, is the quilt I layered the other day. I hope to get the machine quilting done this weekend, but haven't really decided how to quilt it. I was thinking of something viney with flowers in the white spaces, but my friend MaryLee says feathers. Suggestions????














I am grateful for:
The beautiful sunrise this morning
Daffodils and forsythia brightening up the yard
Polite truck drivers, who yield to those of us who can get up a hill in less than a week
Laughing with my son
Almond Croissants from Wegmans

Inspiration everywhere

So far I am LOVING spring! I can't work in the gardens yet, because it's so muddy, but I can enjoy the early blossoms! The bees were out in force yesterday afternoon. I always amazes me that they are there for the very first blooms of the season! I got a chuckle out of the fact that some blossoms had two bees on them, and one guy was doing his best to get into a flower that hadn't even opened yet!

We are still moving from room to room as the carpet is installed. My bedroom looks like a furniture warehouse! And I am suddenly aware of what the sewing room would look like if I couldn't use the guest room as well. Hard to believe I was once satisfied with that tiny space. I should have take a picture of it to share, but I couldn't get far enough into the room to take a picture!

I have managed to get some work done in between the packing and repacking and unpacking.
Somewhere recently I read of a woman who uses her leftover bits of sock yarn to make shoelaces. I just had to try it, but since sock yarn seemed a bit fragile I got some thin nylon twine at the Hobby Lobby. I'm going to have to make another pair for my step-granddaughter now!



I also got the quilting finished on a piece I started around 5 years ago. I never quilted it because- as usual, I couldn't decide how to do it. Last spring I layered this and was planning to just hand quilt around each applique shape. I didn't end up getting started on this for a variety of reasons, so it sat for several months. Then I found Leah Day's 365 filler stitches blog. I was inspired to make this quilt a little more interesting and try to improve my skills at the same time. This is the result.
The center designs are some of the ones Leah has shared, but the borders were my own designs. My quilting will not win awards, but I like the way it turned out.
I call this piece "Raspberry Creamsicle". The colors were inspired by a piece of fabric with these colors; but I don't think that I ended up using it in the quilt.

I am grateful for:
Sunshine and time to get out to enjoy it.
The rare times I find a true rhythm while machine quilting and it just feels right.
Sharp scissors for the times it's not right.
The birds singing, especially the mockingbird who seems to live right outside the front door.
Time spent with family last weekend.

Save the Ladybugs!!!

The temperature has suddenly risen to way above normal for here in western NY. It has given me the chance the last few days to rescue some of the resident ladybugs. Poor confused little things. In the fall, when it gets cold out, the search for warm places, and wander into the house in droves. Most cannot withstand the dry heat inside the house. It's sad how many we find in nooks and crannies when cleaning. They get into the sinks for water and get drowned when we turn on the faucet! So I am happy to be able to rescue some of them. By placing them outside now they at least stand a chance of fulfilling their little ladybug destinies. And since I always place them in the gardens, the hope is that they repay me by eating the bad bugs when the flowers come up!
Speaking of flowers, the snowdrops have emerged at last! These are planted just outside the back door so I will be sure to see them as soon as they can push out of the snow every year. Behind them is an old pair of sneakers with hens and chicks. They have rooted themselves to the ground and cannot be moved to a more protected spot in the winter.
I also found one single crocus. I know soon there will be hundreds of them, but that one just made my day.

In the sewing area there is a great upheaval right now because we are having carpet installed. The man who came to measure remarked that "there is a lot of stuff in that room"- my tiny work room, where the stash lives, billowing out onto the floor most days. I have been trying to purge some of it before I get moved back in, but now I also have to empty the guest room/ studio for the next round. I hope those people on that de-clutter tv show don't get wind of this mess!

I did manage to get something accomplished last weekend. I finally made my section of the flower the art group is working on for our display in July. I used fabrics I found in my "non-traditional" fabric bin. There is two layers of synthetic organza, white moire, yellow silk and plaid taffeta. I had fun creating this piece and discovered it wasn't as hard as I had allowed myself to think it would be.
Look how beautiful our flower is so far! It will be placed on a quilted background for display.










This week I am grateful for:
Snowdrops and crocus, obviously!
The summer birds I heard singing in the field yesterday, including red-winged blackbirds and mockingbirds.
The luxury of time spent with friends.
Getting to spend time with my son last weekend.
Fewer and less severe hot flashes thanks to a new supplement I tried.