40 posts tagged “flowers”
Here is a quick post of the progress, or lack of it on a piece I have been working on since my QSDS class in June. It has spent more time being stared at than anything else, and I have taken more photos of this while working on it than any other piece I have ever done. My camera and laptop ended up being a great design tools during the process of this piece. In case you haven't noticed, I love flowers, and have lots of photos I have taken that I want to work into my quilts after I print them onto fabric.
I took this home as it was, and put it on my design wall, but something really seemed off.... I loved the colors and the flowers, but it just seemed like a "jumble of stuff"...
I had been tacking flower pieces onto the paper base with the iron, but ended up moving things so much, that I started pinning everything in place- easier to move around on my foam design wall.
I will post the final piece when the quilting and embellishing is finished (that is if I decide to do any embellishing.... maybe a few beads in the flower centers... or not....)
****A little Reminder.... I am reducing my inventory of earlier sunprint and photo series of my Small Art Quilts- Mostly 5"x7", 8"x10" and 11"x14", with a few 13"x17". *-*-*-*25% off until Sep. 20.*-*-*-*-*
See this post- September Begins with a Sale- For more information... As you can see, I am working in new directions and have many of my older pieces that would love new homes.
It's been a while since I showed any new flowers here, so here goes... The Echinaceas are in full bloom now, along with a few other pretties.
Now I just need to keep attacking the weed populations... Photos are great.... I can shoot around the weeds and no one knows how bad they really are:)
After spending a few days in my own gardens, I thought I would get back here and show off a few of the over 600 photos I took after QSDS.
As anyone can see, I have gotten a lot of new inspiration from my trip to Columbus and back at home. Now to just get myself back on track and back into the studio.... It has taken longer to recouperate from the trip than I hoped for, but it was worth it!
My camera and I went walking on Water Road again yesterday to see the progress of the opening Mountain Laurel flowers.
So far not much going on in the studio still.... today is a bit rainy and dreary, so a good time to hibernate in there while I can't "play" in the gardens. I am getting a lot of great photos to play with for when my creativity returns....
As promised, here are photos from a walk along Water Road to see the Mountain Laurel. I was sure to have freshly charged batteries in the camera, parked the min van and started discovering lots of treasures.
I plan to try doing a little each day in the gardens. It is hard not to over-do for me. I get started and keep going until I can't stand the pain or nearly pass out.... not recommended.... Hopefully by the time my veggie plants regain health, this area will be ready for them.
My sewing studio is also calling.... My flower photos are still asking to be part of my quilts. It is hard to figure out how to get done all that needs to be done.
Our visit to GA came to an end and we headed home. Here are some more photos from the trip home, our stop at Kenilworth Gardens in DC, and what we were greeted with at home.
The horticulturist in me won't go away.... Here are a few planters I potted up for Nick and the guys to have around the pool. We visited a few garden centers while in Valdosta, GA.
A photo of "Lollipop Trees" as Nick calls them. Trees in the South grow differently than those we have here in PA. He grew up with evergreens more in the shape of Christmas trees, not shaped like Lollipops.
We stopped at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on our last day of travel. We had visited these gardens 25 years ago, a month before we got married. Things have changed a bit, but the many ponds are still there. That first visit was in mid July, we were a bit early for many blooms this time.
The morning we arrived was a bit cloudy, so the Lilies were not fully open. There had been very heavy rains the day before, so the water in the ponds was very muddy.
The Water Lotus are a month or more away from blooming, but the leaves were interesting with the puddles of rain from the day before.
The Pickerel Rush were in full bloom, but the muddy water made for a different background. We also had to watch where we walked due to a few over flowing ponds.
We don't remember the boardwalks from our previous visit. I love the design of them, with the angles and interesting railings. There are two that take you out into the marsh.
this was the saddest part of the visit- seeing the trash that was being caught in the plants and fallen logs. One of the important things the marsh does is to help filter out stuff that makes the waterways very unhealthy. It makes you really think about how our actions can affect more than our own little parts of the world.
From the ugly to very interesting.... This tree has great texture from the many vines that have climbed it. the vines had been cut off at the base, but the remaining vines that had rooted in were still intact.
We did find a little area that wasn't muddied by the rains.... There are a few display gardens with the plants in planter boxes. There were more flowers in bloom here. This one is a beautiful shade of peachy pink and huge.
A few more flowers in the display pond. I had to go to the van to steal batteries from my laptop mouse to get these. I was sure to download the photos to have space on my card for photos,but forgot to recharge the batteries for the camera....
Home Sweet Home! We were greeted by a lot of flowers blooming that were not even hinting buds when we left. There are many weeds to contend with too.
My white Peony is full of big fat flowers. In this photo, the blue Siberian Iris are in the background. The smell is so great near this plant!
Along the edge of the yard, the blackberry brambles are in full bloom- I love the details that aren't always seen just walking by them.
Here is the final photo of this post.... One of the white Siberian Iris. I have a huge clump of these in full bloom.
Until I put these photos together here, I didn't realize that most of the flowers blloming right now are white.
Now the real work begins again.... I have weeds to pull, annual flowers to plant and the veggie garden to plant. I will need some more rainy days to keep me indoors to get back to quilting.
Stay tuned for the newest treasures from my gardens and travels. As a tease..... I found that the Mountain Laurel are beginning to bloom on Water Road..... A walk there with my camera is in order.
Until I put these photos together here, I didn't realize that most of the flowers blloming right now are white.
Now the real work begins again.... I have weeds to pull, annual flowers to plant and the veggie garden to plant. I will need some more rainy days to keep me indoors to get back to quilting.
Stay tuned for the newest treasures from my gardens and travels. As a tease..... I found that the Mountain Laurel are beginning to bloom on Water Road..... A walk there with my camera is in order.
Today is the first day since last Thursday that Ken and I have not spent many hours in a car. We drove from PA to Georgia, then to Florida, then back to Georgia. We came down South to bring our youngest son Nick's dog home to him. Roxie has been a member of our family since Christmas, and now in a new home shared with buddies he works with, there should be no shortage of guys to watch her when he leaves for training missions and deployments. When we head back home, it will seem like we will be leaving a child behind.
While down here we have been doing some visiting and sightseeing. We began with the weekend in FL visiting our daughter-in-law and her furry roomies.
Here are Bonnie's dogs, a little tricky getting photos- dogs don't always cooperate with cameras. Both are sweethearts. She also has 3 cats, but you know cats, they cooperate worse than dogs.
This photo may challenge your eyes. These little gecko's were everywhere, and pretty hard to catch staying still for photos. This little guy sat for quite a while.
These flowers were on a huge, beautiful Bougainvillea at the corner of the house. I really wish these were hardy in PA, but they aren't. The only way to have one would be to keep it in a pot.
These little white flowers were super fragrant on a hedge of great glossy deep green leaves. I had to do a bit of research to find out what they were. Found they are Orange Jessamine- the fragrance is very similar to orange blossoms.
Bonnie also had a pot of these beautiful Plumerias. Another fragrant flower. Everything smelled so great around her house.
This is a flower that I saw at a truck stop while driving down. It looked a lot like a Magnolia to me, but up North, the ones we have only bloom very early Spring. I did more research, and found that these are a different variety of a Magnolia. Huge, fragrant and beautiful. some of the trees I saw along the roads were really huge.
While so close, we decided to check out the Okefenokee Swamp. It was a beautiful, sunny day yesterday when we went there. There were very few people there, being the summer now. It was so great! We took a pontoon boat tour and I got many great photos. Since there has been a lot of rain recently, the water level was quite high. There was only one family on the tour with us and no other boats on the water. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Definitely worth the drive made a bit longer by a couple wrong turns getting there.
This sign greeted us.... Nick thought we were nuts, wanting to go to a swamp filled with gators. The first gators he saw were when we visited the Orlando area when he was 4, and we had a few swim near us while taking a canoe ride on a river.
I think this is my favorite photo. A narrower passage with the trees and water lilies on both sides. The water is very black and it was quite still, with great reflections.
We are spending a day just lazing around the house and pool here today. At least one day to rest up before heading back home before the end of the weekend. It is great that our oldest son lives so close to our home and has been taking care of things for us like watering plants, feeding cats, etc. Thank You Aaron!!
By the time we get back home, I will have so many ideas for new art quilts.... I have even been scribbling down ideas and some very rough sketches. It will be interesting to see what turns up!
With a little help from Kathy W. in my post with the "Water Road Flower", I now know it's proper name. In Kathy's comment she thought it to be a Wood Anemone, but when looking at all the photos of that flower, the leaves were not the same as this plant has. On to Google to do more searching..... My first thought was that it might be a Hepatica, but again, similar flowers, but the leaves are not the same. A lot of other plants have very similar flowers! I finally found a few photos with the same leaves these plants have.... It is Anemonella thalictroides, or Rue Anemone. The foliage did remind me of the Thalictrum I have growing in my front garden, but they grow very tall. The leaves are what gave this little guy it's name because of the resemblance. Here is a little more about this little beauty. The flowers are supposed to also be in shades of pink to lavender.... I think I will have to take a walk down Water Road to see if they are still blooming (supposed to be a long bloomer) and see if there are any other colors there.
This is a native plant that likes to grow in light shade, and will tolerate more dry conditions than Anemones that have similar flowers. I love discovering new things in the wild. That is one great thing about living where I do.... there are still areas that have all types of treasures to be found right along the roadsides.
To the second thing mentioned in the title- Quiltsy.... The Quiltsy Team at Etsy's May Daze Promotion has come to an end. We were able to gain a bit more exposure to our shops and customers got to play a fun game and win some great prizes. Here is a blog post from Kim's Crafty Apple, who is a member of the Quiltsy Team and played the game just for fun. Her post shows all the item pages where the letters were hidden. You can get an idea of the diversity of the members of our group. Why not check it out and see if you can unscramble the quilt related words just for fun... Also, why not also check out Kim's Etsy Shop.
To the second thing mentioned in the title- Quiltsy.... The Quiltsy Team at Etsy's May Daze Promotion has come to an end. We were able to gain a bit more exposure to our shops and customers got to play a fun game and win some great prizes. Here is a blog post from Kim's Crafty Apple, who is a member of the Quiltsy Team and played the game just for fun. Her post shows all the item pages where the letters were hidden. You can get an idea of the diversity of the members of our group. Why not check it out and see if you can unscramble the quilt related words just for fun... Also, why not also check out Kim's Etsy Shop.
The rain finally stopped for a little while, and I wandered into the gardens with my camera again.
This brings the garden tour to an end for this photo session. I am getting lots of flowers to play with in new quilts to come.... Lots of ideas are forming....
A few more tiny treasures popped up in my gardens this week. I was kept away from the gardens most of the week by a nasty cold my son shared with me, but I did get a few photos while trying to pull some of the fast growing weeds during a couple short trips outdoors.
More tiny treasures in the gardens. These are wild violets in one of my rock gardens. They may find themselves in one of my "On the Rocks" series of art quilts. The feathery foliage in the background is from Queen Ann's Lace plants that are probably not going to be allowed to stay there. They will be great to use for sunprints, so I will probably press them to use later.
Again I have found that there are many little treasures just waiting to be found if I just take a bit of time to really look for them. I just hope I can keep the weeds from covering them all up.
