Lazy Summer

My husband has been asking me to make a lighter quilt for summer for about a year. I got the quilt finished yesterday. The fabric line of the background fabric was called Lazy Susan and it makes the quilt. The backing is a green flannel and the batting is a piece of white muslin. The top needed the muslin to lighten up the back of the backing. It looked dingy without it. I quilted leaves all over it with A&E's grassy greens. I bound this quilt with the quick binding foot. I made my own bias tape and ran it through the Clover tape maker. The binding was attached with 1 row of machine stitching. I quilted the name of the quilt, Lazy Summer and Alley 2009 into the quilt (like I used to before I learned about labels).

Sunday in the garden

This is our grandson working in the garden. He won't eat tomatoes but, he can pick them. We have really enjoyed this garden. We have been finding tomato worms daily. It's very hot and dry. This is a Lone Star Hibiscus. I have a few of the these plants. I'm trying to decide where to plant them in the yard.

Wednesday in the garden

Once again it's Wednesday in the garden. The green beans and tomatoes have been doing well. We have small okra on the far right. We have found 5 tomato worms in the last week and there's a squirrel that's been digging up a red onion. He diggs it up and I replant it and he comes back the next day and diggs it up again. He's also eating tomaotes. We're giving away tomatoes to everyone we know and we're planning the fall garden. The netting is open in this shot. I took this picture just after I harvested the tomatoes this morning. The frame is 5' foot. The high was 104 degrees today, the heat is taking a toll on the garden.

Arashi-part 2

Arashi left to right-folded leaves-folded diagonal twist-wrapped around a rope (not tightly enough)-dark side the back side of the above piece

this piece is a light pastel after 2 hours of batching for another project

Sharpie Experiments

I was working on a challenge and I decided I wanted to try Sharpie's again. This piece was going to be used as a scrap book cover when finished. I decided to use more ink, I was going for more color. This is a closeup of the result. I sprayed the fabric with alcohol and left it to dry. The piece wasn't on a totally flat surface and that may have been part of the problem. This was not the result I was going for. I also thought I used to much ink.

Another closeup

at some point in the near future I plan to apply alcohol again and see what happens

Next experiment, less ink

I was hoping for a fabulous watercolor effect. I doodled all over the piece.

I sprayed it with alcohol and put it in a jar.

Then I hung it on the line to dry. I think that was a huge mistake. The result was dull, boring and not what I was going for. Next time I'll lay the piece on a flat surface to dry.

Wednesday in the garden

Once again it's Wednesday. The tomatoes and green beans have been wonderful. The birds have been a problem. Tuesday we build this frame from 3/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe and covered it with nylon net. It looks good and it should keep the birds out of the tomatoes. I planted broccoli seeds in starter pellets last week and I'll be transplanting them in the garden soon.

Thursday more from the yard/garden

This is my first bloom on a Texas Red Hibiscus. It's really beautiful, the Texas White should be blooming any day. This one of my varigated leaf hibiscus. It need to be pruned. It's been blooming like crazy since I cleaned out the bed it's in.

This is Wednesday's harvest. The scissors are in the picture for scale (my husband is a fisherman-we always put something in a picture for scale). These tomatoes came from plants I bought at HEB and they are the biggest cherry tomatoes we have ever seen. One branch had at least 20 tomaotes on it.

Wednesday in the garden

Another Wednesday another garden shot, the tomatoes are turning and the green beans are getting bigger.

Kelly's Challenge-New and Spring

ok,

here it is

it's not my original idea

but, it's a start

I took it as far as I could today

I have plans for this piece

I'd like to add to it weekely until it's done

I'm planning to use nothing but, hand dyes on this project

I have no hand dyed black at this point

and will finish the body of the butterfly once I have a piece of black dyed

Quick unpressed results from 1st dyeing class

This was FUN! THANKS WIL!!!

Wednesday in the garden

Another week has passed and it's Wednesday in the garden. The squirrels are getting 1 to 2 tomatoes a day. The bell peppers have been picked.

There are a lot of small green beans. My Japanese Lantern Hibiscus plants have started blooming. These blooms only last a day.

This is a garden variety hibiscus bloom from a plant that we transplanted into a bed in the front yard. It's been blooming like crazy since we got it out of the pot and into the ground.