some gardening and a block

looking from the garage

 we get a few sunny days up here and everything pops into bloom.

looking from the porch

including the tree pollen which is coating everything!
It's so thick you can see it in the air.







the tulips and daffies are looking happy

Peonies

In a few years I will have a ton of peonies!

they take a few years to dig themselves into a spot and they don't like being moved, so don't give up on them if they don't bloom in the first year or two the third year is always the charm!

Vinca

and vinca blooms! who knew?



I'm surprised every year what survives winter around here.

Wysteria

I bought glads again the second year I was here thinking, the ones from last year would be mush  and I have LOTS of glads now !


coming from Chicago, like I do, if you want these you have to buy them new every year


Look who is still around! she looks cozy sunning on a  leaf

 We're going to have lots of daisies too

I put in 4 new rose bushes, along the back wall, to replace the ones that didn't over winter the first year.

I moved the veggi garden over by the fence to a bigger newer box closer to the back porch where the sun isn't occluded for half the day by tree shadow.

 
I might even try to grow corn again, in the box next to it but I would have to get on that this week or next if I want to eat it by September

I hope to have more than enough tomatoes this year due to the sunnier spot

Sandie's block

 I finished Sandie's block for the poetry and verses RR.





I chose the block called Bliss and nothing says bliss like a steaming hot bubble bath! I gave her candlelight music a rubber duckie and lots of bubbly bubbles!

doesn't she look happy?

good day from under the tree!

Skellie update and a fun find

I have finished the chair details and will be getting to the skull but
















I haven't decided if the stage I am at padding wise, is sufficient enough  to look round









so I want to leave that till a later stage.
I will start on the harp next. then the background.








and look what I found!
this is the first piece my gran had me work on when we went to visit in '73.
I think I was 7 or 8?


I found it stored with a batch of other hankies I received from my mom.

look how lumpy the light blue tails are!

the skeleton

 I had some lovely sun to sew in my favorite chair outside for a change 2 weeks ago,



I put up these pictures now because I miss it, the sun that is, it's gone back to Seattle weather around here of hot and cold running piffle. (don't I look happy in my swing chair?)


  anyway I promised pictures of the skeleton

Heres what I have so far, I stumpworked the bones in the forefront of the picture and that's all I have for now.

I want to work on the skull next and the chair when the motivation hits me again.

the story behind this piece is it was part of a dream, not a bad one.


 just the vague feeling of how someone lost can still play at your heart.
that even though they are gone, they still have resonance,

a tune that plays softly in the back of your mind and the bittersweetness of the memory it leaves you with is healing.

Linky party post!

 I have joined in on Thearica's to-do-list linky party

 this is where the rubber hits the road folks you join in and hope for the best,
 on all those UFO's y'all have laying around gathering ort's!

I'm still having picture import problems so bear with me on this initial post I will be adding them as soon as I wrestle gimp to the mat!
(got gimp in a half nelson but I'm not sure it will hold!)

let's see my list,  I have 4 boxes waiting for completion, pictures and posting them in the store.

I have joined another (godness help me!) RR on stumpwork and I have NO idea's. but we need 1 more person so I have time to come up with something, maybe not clever but something

I need to work on my heritage quilt,  I have 3 more panels to do +the borders, which will depict where i am now, the finishing touches on the seems between panels and the binding. but I can't show you to much on that they don't like it in competitions if you show off.

I need also to finish my "skeleton of old love" embroidery. the skelly is mostly done I need to do the chair she (I think she has a wide enough pelvic circle-thankyou Bones!) sits on, the harp she's playing and the background.

not to mention the 2 hankie quilts languishing in my to-do file along with an old-old RR that came back in a disappointing state.

oh and it suddenly became spring around here 
(it snowed for 2 days last week!)     and the garden needs me too! 

so, what have you all been up to?  ;)

poems and quotes etc..RR

I've don with Barbara's block

I chose this quote as it seemed to call to me


the stitch on the top is supposed to look like a zipper.  now that I look at it it needs a little help. maybe Barbra, you can fix that when it gets home? I know fixing zippers in real life is a pain but this one seems a matter of design and my zipper pull looks a little off.


anyway I got this great idea from this quote and this image was the first thing that popped into my head so I thought, what better to use as a focus!


I used the thimble as a cornucopia for the SRE roses, what better use for a sewers thimble?

and there always needs to be a spiderweb, not only to symbolize good luck but our propensity to forgo house work in favor of sewing some more ( at least I do!)
but where is the spider? Maybe under the patches? I thought that was a cleaver motif form the previous block so I incorporated it and the skeins of floss.
look who's hiding in there! hmm still no spider....



here is the finished block, the swatches are acting up as a peek-a-boo so no tattling, I want it to be a surprise!  ;)

Bag'O'goodies

 notes to self;

1) dying individual lacy bits takes more than a day

2) surrender your space to the job for at least a week

3) get used to having interestingly colored fingers for said week

 4) have fun with it!

5) see what $30.00 worth of flowered lace will get you?

I've been busy

 really I have been!
 I have figured out a few things in gimp but I am still struggling a little so please bear with me!
don't ask where that big red rose came from, It just appeared on the top one day and I had to work around it!

We have a group that meets every Wednesday 3p-6p at Crossroads mall in Bellview WA.  we Talia, Donna Pam and I sit in front of the Joannes and stitch, babble, share and compare (anyone is welcome to drop by BTW) 
 I looked down at my block
(can it be a block when it's a circle?)
and there was this big red rose!
where did it come from and how did it get there? have any of you had this happen?
boy I need to pay more attention to these things! I'm getting giddy.

 this is going to be a round box top I made one like this earlier last year but I liked it too much to sell it.

I don't seem to have that problem with this one!

this one has a more spirngy feel to it, I covered it with lots of bugs.

I love the look I get using Krenik braid for the spiders legs don't you?

about posting

I would post, I want to post, but we recently went from windows to linnux and well frankly gimp sucks, loudly!
I can't figure it out (and I've used cad programs for years)
so folks until I figure out another way to reshape, resize and generally fool around with my pictures
I got nothin.
Poo!

BJP October

 well this one took long enough to get here!







but inspiration is like that sometimes



gone when you need it and on overload when you have a lot of other things to do!

Now just one more!