2 posts tagged “greenhouse”

Well, here we are a month from my last post. I have felt like the greenhouse job has sucked me away from everything else. There are now plants in 3 greenhouses- all types of annuals and perennials, and even a few veggie plants (many more arriving this week). Quilt wise, I have not done too much, even after a quilt retreat. The first week of planting our new babies in the greenhouses really took it's toll on my body and brain. I had been feeling really lucky as far as the fibro goes, but that ended with a major crash last week. After spending 4 more hours than planned at the greenhouses the Monday after my retreat, I spent most of Tuesday in bed.  I kind of felt like our cats- pretty lazy- here is a photo of my Baby Cat sleeping on a pillow on the couch. I thought she was going to fall off. The rest of the week was spent in the greenhouses.

I should have taken photos by now, but have not used my camera down there, yet. I do have to take it with me so I can get some shots of some of the blooming plants. There are beautiful Aquilegia (Columbine) flowers in blue, pink and white that are calling to be photographed.  The photo below is of a Bog Lily in my indoor pond that bloomed a week ago. The flowers look like huge, white spiders (missing a couple legs).

The greenhouse startup is so different from when we owned the business. We used to start most of our own seeds, and divide and take cuttings of many other plants. This season, things are being started from basically nothing- no equipment, plants, seeds, or enough time. We are starting from rooted cuttings, pre-started plants, and seedlings in plugs. It's like Christmas, opening all the boxes- some with tiny baby plants tumbled out of their trays (I really think FedEx and UPS bowl with the boxes). Some babies come in blooming. One tray of violas were 1" tall with full sized blooms- I love pansies and Violas!! Some of the plants we purchased were half grown to use in hanging baskets, and planters to be ready for Mother's day in less than a month. The other big worry is how many people will come, since the business was closed for over a year. Lots of stress!!

Back to quilts..... I did accomplish a little at my retreat, I did a piece for the FFFC Recycled challenge, and did some samples for a class I will be teaching late this month. I also got an idea for a larger piece on the last full day, and had to be sure I took photos and scribbled ideas in my notebook for when I can get back to it.

This is the Challenge quilt. Made from scraps found in our treasure pile we have at every retreat. Everyone brings scrap strips, chunks, and pieces of fabrics they won't use, and we hunt for the perfect treasures for projects in the pile. In this, there is a piece of a blanket binding, batik strip, a bit of flannel, and assorted other fabrics, including the light green fabric with the little sheep on it. I stitched the background pieces with decorative stitches, then added some sparkle tulle in blue and green (only new items- from Wal-Mart remnant bin). There are some thread and fabric snips trapped under more tulle, and then the flowers in the foreground were added. These are made from candy wrappers. Hershey Kisses, Dove eggs, and a Cadbury Egg. I love chocolate (bet you never guessed :) ), and found that it really slows down the eating process when you want to keep the wrappers intact. The flower petals and leaves are all wrappers backed with Wonder Under and fused on. The stems are from a plastic, raffia like stuff that was on a package I received. I also added some painted dryer sheets, and a brown paper towel I used to dry my hands one day. Amazing what can be done with next to nothing new. I also made 2 5" square pieces, below. They also have the candy wrappers for petals and leaves, with more scraps, paper toweling and dryer sheet used. These were fun to put together, I even made a red flower from the red part of  the egg wrapper, and used the chick, too. Here is a photo of what I had on my design wall before I had to pack things up. I am not sure just how it will end, but finally an idea began to gell by the end of the retreat. I really felt ripped off by my body, I had to take naps each day, and my brain still was mush most of the time.

Well, back to things greenhouse- opening day is May 1, with grand opening with all the splash is May 10. Wow, time is really flying and I am really having to tell myself not to over do, and to delegate. I just need a few more bodies to delegate to, though.

Until next time...... hopefully with greenhouse photos.

This week has really passed quickly! I began early in the week, trying to reclaim my wet studio space in our greenhouse, to get back to painting, while still having room for more plants and seedlings. It turned into a much bigger job, and I also ended up doing more unplanned work in my studio.

Here in PA, we have nearly 3 months before much can be done outdoors. I successfully grew zucchini indoors when we had our greenhouses. I just got seed for the one variety that will set fruit without pollination- Perfect Pick. It is very productive, so I planted only 3 seeds in a very large pot, along with some sweet peas around the edges for some flowers too. My big challenge was to empty my germination chamber, so I can start my flowers and herbs, plant my zucchini, and still have room for my painting supplies and paint table. After doing some major purging of a storage cabinet, I now have places to store my gardening supplies and painting supplies, neatly, my table is now up on quart paint cans for a better work height, and am ready to start flower and herb seeds in the chamber. A huge accomplishment.

Here is what it looks like, now.  Still a bit crowded, but I'll be able to play with my fabric painting, and still have room for plants. I ended up turning the storage cabinet on the right, so I can put my table up against it, and still access the doors. The germination chamber is on the left, past the pond with it's blooming Water Iris. My Zucchini pot is on the back plant table. Hopefully in a week, I will have some baby plants coming up to watch. Everything else thinks spring really is here, too. The sweet potato vines in the large green pot are really growing fast, I cut back to the top of the pot a week ago. The new height of my table is much better for working on. Now if I just had a sink.....

If this had been my only project, I would have actually painted some fabric, but while looking for something in my studio, I found puddles of water on the floor under my cutting table. I had to run a lot of fabric that was in a pile there through the wash (doesn't everyone store things in piles on the floor?). We think that the water from melting snow and rain earlier in the week, started wicking up through the floor. The room is pretty much sitting on the ground, now that so much gravel and silt from the driveway has washed down around that end of the trailer. The water level outside was higher than the floor level inside.

After finding the water, and while cleaning up, I went through some tubs stored in the studio, and decided it is time to part with a lot of things I will never use. Years ago, I was dressing and decorating muslin dolls to sell, as well as making lots of stuffed toys for my boys and for sale. Many muslin doll bodies, packages of eyes and noses for stuffed animals, and other goodies were found, and are now listed for sale at my new Etsy Store. AndrusGardensFibers.Etsy.com  was born to sell off my extra craft supplies along with giving me a better place to sell my fabrics, sunprints, and handmade papers from, and even some of my extra yarns and fibers, some that I have painted. This way, my first store- AndrusGardensQuilts.Etsy.com can be just for finished pieces, so things don't get so jumbled there. So far my new store has the extra craft supplies listed, and some cut sunprint fabrics that I had one project or another, but not used yet. I grouped similar prints together to sell as sets of sunprint cuts. I will soon be adding full printed fat quarters, as well as some of my fun textured and patterned pieces.

Oh, and the other news of the week... I have been hired as a part time consultant for the new owners of the greenhouse we lost. It was purchased last winter from the finance company, and will be re-opened looking quite a bit differently from when we had it. I guess I can still keep a finger or two in the greenhouse industry to keep up with what's new and fun to grow out there. More inspiration for quilts, too. Now to keep my promise to myself to teach and delegate, not end up doing everything. I enjoyed being just an employee much more than being the owner/ manager/ problem solver, etc. 

Lots of changes!