Sunday in the Garden

Andrew and l got up early this morning and went over to our friend's house for a walk in the woods. She has 67 acres and we tromped through a bit of it looking for wild geraniums, ferns and other interesting wildflowers. We were able to find lots of what we were looking for and even some new ones to add to our shade garden of local wild flowers. 
 Andrew went out and brought me back a surprise- 3 lilac bushes for the front of the house!! We also planted the Christmas plants from Aunt Sally. Finally we will get some landscaping around the house.

 It will really make a difference when they have grown and filled in. Will be a couple of years yet though! 

Tigerman was found in the sink looking for a drink. He knows he's not supposed to be in there so he gave me a dirty look!! 
That's Milo with the bright blue eyes. Tock is posing in the flower bed. He's cross-eyed. 

After hiking, digging, planting, mulching, and watering we are exhausted! We've got a fire going- it is going to be cold tonight getting down into the 30's! Burrrr! Maybe the last fire for the season?!?!?

My first Quilt

l'm about to sit down to an episode to X-Files and my quilt but before l do l thought l would post some photos of the monumental king size quilt that l'm making for my brother's wedding present. Jason & Jessica were married 2 years ago this May and l have yet to give them their wedding present. This has become quite the bone of contention with my brother who now begins phone calls with "where's my present?"' in place fo the more traditional "Hello, how are you?". l have only one brother and he's pretty special to me,  so when he got married l wanted to make his something amazing. The pressure of that left me with absolutely no idea where to start or what to make them. My first idea was a photo album/scrap book. l had most of the pieces together, l was going to cover it in my bridesmaid dress, l had shells from the beach where they were married, etc, etc. Then l was visiting them and saw the monster of a photo album they had purchased from the wedding photographer. It was a masterpiece with all the best pictures in it. l was bummed and gave up the photo album idea on the spot. l mean how many do they need and how would mine compare to that professional vision of an album? l pondered on what was the perfect gift, something that would be as special as l want it to be, something that would commemorate their wedding, blah blah blah and l came up with the quilt last fall. l found a photo of one that l liked, planed it out to King Size, did some 'designer math' as we call it at work, fixed the mistakes in the math and went about getting the right fabrics. l ended up with a mix from Joann's & online, including some Amy Butler prints. (she's our neighbor over in Granville and l'm a big fan!). l cut it out, sewed 'er together and voila! Quilt! Then l had no idea what you did next. l mean l knew you had to quilt the 3 layers together, but exactly Ohio Weaver's Guild for the answer to those questions. They have some very experienced and talented quilters who were amazingly generous with their time and knowledge. Jane Droll and her 2 daughters helped me bast the beast together over 2 huge tables. It took us 4 hours and left us with very sore fingers. Now l have borrowed Jane's quilt frame and have been quilting away for about a month. the actual quilting pattern is my brother's airplane - he fly's a C130 Gun-ship bordered by spinal columns on the 4 sides. Say what now? Yep spines, my sister in law is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in spinal injuries. So to re-cap here- he's a pilot and she's a surgeon and they met at a bar. What's that you say, you've never met either surgeon or pilot at a bar? Me neither, although l did meet a sushi chief at my 10 year high school reunion, but l digress.... Back to the quilt. These aren't the greatest photos, but you can see the airplanes and the quilt pattern. There's a lot of negative space around the airplanes so l'm filling it in with a pick stitch. l wanted to keep it simple and not take away from the planes, but kind of blend in with them. l figure this is going to take me about, oh 4 months to finish if l can work on it in the evenings like l've been doing. This is the gift to end all gifts, and l've let Jay know that after this, l never have to give him another present again. Besides l've been listening to his taunting now for 2 years, l had to make this the biggest, best present ever so he can feel really bad about all the crap he's been giving me!!! That's right all that hand stitching, the hours and hours of work, so l can make my little brother feel guilty :) heh heh heh - just what big sister's are for. 

All right, enough chatting- l've got X-Files to download and quilting to do!

My Flowers in Amy Butler Photo!

Last year at the Farmer's Market, Amy Butler stopped buy and bought a huge bouquet of the flowers that l had grown. l had a bunch of several kinds of Amaranth and Gladiolas. She mentioned they were for a photo shoot she was doing that day. l've been keeping my eyes peeled for them and look!! Here they are!! http://amybutlerdesign.com/products/free_patterns.php

They look amazing too! l'm so excited, l grew model flowers!!! How much fun is that!!

The first day of the rest of your life......

Dear www,

How are you today? l hope this e-mail finds you well. l'm at work and should be working, but it's Wednesday and Spring has gotten the better of me. l'm day dreaming about fixing my sewing machines (yes, l broke both of them) and finishing my dress.

l spent the evening watching X-Files Season 1 and quilting. Netflix 'watch instantly' is the best thing since sliced bread. It keeps me entertained through the KING SIZED (that's very big) quilt that is my brother's wedding present (okay they've been married for 2 years- what's the rush at this point?). This is my first quilt. l've never made one before, but really wanted to make my brother something special. l found a picture of a quilt that inspired me. l bought a mix of Joann's & Amy Butler and random cotton fabrics in prints & solids and got to work. Little did l know that King size is very large for a quilt, especially a hand quilted quilt, even more especially for a first time quilter. l had to enlist the help of some amazingly talented friend at the Central Ohio Weaver's Guild. Luckily many of the members are experienced and talented quilters. Jane and her daughter Rachel helped me baste the beast! It took 2 tables, a lot of masking tape and 3 million safety pins (slight exaggeration). Boy did we have sore fingers, but the masterpiece is together and on the frame that l had to borrow from Jane.

Lesson learned - do not buy a quilt frame unless you try one out first and know what you are buying. The used one l purchased was difficult, awkward, huge and broke in the first 2 hours of it's life. Now that l know, l could have saved $60 and bought (for the same price) the easy to use, store and assemble frame that Jane uses and has graciously let me borrow.

What else is on the craft calender for this week?

Well l've still got that Vogue sweater on the needles. l guess it's almost a year now. Having been a Sweater Designer for 7 years l love the irony that l've never actually knit a sweater. Maybe that is what is holding me back from finishing this guy. It's going to be super cute when it's done- see photo or Vogue Knitting to purchase the pattern.

Spinning my novelty boucle with my hand dyed bamboo roving. l've got the first ply started and it's looking good. l love spinning. l don't feel like l did enough of it this winter. Usually the summer doesn't lend itself to lots of spinning, not with the garden, house work, quilting, farmer's market and work. The winter though, there's nothing better then an evening spent by the fire with the wheel going.

The new dress. l've picked up a vintage pattern from the 50's and some cheap fabric from Joann's. l don't make a pattern in good fabric until l've tried it once in something inexpensive. l want to make sure it fits, that l like how it looks, etc before l invest in some serious fabric $$$. This project is on hold until the sewing machines are repaired. Hopefully by Saturday. l am really aching to get this done by Sunday. If it all works out l want to discharge print the dress and get it into the COWG style show on the 17th. Nothing like last minute......

Etsy and the hair accessories. Okay l have the Etsy account set up and ready, the headbands are ready, the pictures were taken and....well the pictures- l'm not happy with how they turned out. l need to do some investigating and find a way to take better still life photos. The lighting is awkward, the headbands don't look great and they are! l think l'm going to build a light box and see if that helps. Wait what's that you say? Another big project? Yes this is going to put the Etsy shop on hold for a bit until l get this figured out... Stay tuned.

The candles- my wine bottle candles are waiting for the essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs to arrive. Then back into candle production. l think l can get these on Etsy before my headbands. It's the labels l've got to figure out now.

There's more- there's the flower beds. They need to be weeded and my seeds need to be started for this year. That's a Sunday project. We have our 'walk in the woods' this Saturday morning to look for wild ferns, wild geraniums & succulents. Don't worry there are plenty of them in the woods we walk through and we have the owners permission. l'd never disturb an endangered or protected plant or tress pass. They'll be transplanted into my wild shade garden, where they can hang out with hosta's, bleeding hearts and wild ginger....

l've got some great inspirational ideas for my next weaving project from Sri Threads. http://srithreads.com/ It doesn't get more inspirational then their collection of Japanese textiles. Whoa baby that's the good stuff!!! l love the wisteria fiber and am fascinated with what fabric would look like woven in that. l am either going to get my own wisteria or call mom and dad and have them send some of theirs out this way. l'll have to experiment on how to process it. It might mean an e-mail to Judith Mackenzie McCuin to see if she has any advice on where to even start...

There's more, much, much more, but l will leave it at that for now. Also l will have to post some pictures of the quilt, the dress, the sweater, the bamboo....

We've only just begun.

Your Friend,

Kim

xoxoxo