6 posts tagged “snow”
Well, now that the holidays are over, the nest is empty again. I still have books available for sale, Scroll past this post to the list, or click the link here.
Before Christmas, I was shopping with a friend at Michaels and found something new to play with. While looking at the scrapbooking papers, I ran across a handmade paper making frame and instructions. I have always been drawn to papers with fibers and other stuff in them, but never really thought about making my own. Now I have something more try.
The second photo shows the first piece I made on the right. I did not use quite enough pulp, and it is really thin in spots. I added chopped up blue tissue paper, metallic gold flakes, blue glitter, and some threads trimmed from some deep blue silk.
The pink piece is made from white cardstock and pink paper from a notepad, with pink dyed flowers.
When I molded the pink paper, I placed a piece of lace on the pulp before pressing the water out, and left it there until it was dry. It left a nice embossed look to the paper.
I finally got myself back to quilting in my studio. I am just about done with my FFFC piece that was due this past Saturday. The challenge this time was to make a quilt to represent either fire or ice. My first thought was ice- especially since when I think ice, I think blue; when I think fire, I think red, and red is not a favorite color of mine. I wanted to get the look of a window pane covered with frost, and snowflakes falling against a night sky.
The deep blue fabric is one I painted and sunprinted with tiny star confetti, and used salt on. It reminds me of snow at night. The fabric also has the shimmer of Super Sparkle added to the paint.
I cut snowflakes out of a shimmery organza backed with Wonder Under fusible. The frosty edges of the pane are made from 2 colors of a silver metallic enhanced fabric printed with leaves, one in icy blue, and one in white. They reminded me of ice formations when I bought them over a year ago. I cut out some of the leaves, and it left great, random, icy looking formations. I also used some of the cut leaves to add to the ice around the edge.
Opalescent shredded Mylar was melted and added for the more lacy inner ice formations.
The organza snowflakes were fused, tumbling down the center, and scraps from cutting the snowflakes, make smaller flakes. I used silver lined clear and blue seed beads to add even more sparkle to the flakes. I began adding some clear beads between the free motion quilting I did with metallic silver thread. I think I will be adding more beads over the rest of the quilt, to tame down the puffiness of the less quilted areas.
I may need to tame down the shine in Mylar in the upper right. It seems to take over the photo.
Here is a detail of the area where I added the beads between the quilting lines.
The final photo was taken on my deck, with the sun shining on it. It shows the texture the quilting adds to the icy edges. I hoped to capture how the sunlight makes everything shimmer, like super cold, sunny days in winter.
The sky in the last photo was really ominous looking. The sun was shining, with black sky behind the garden.
The right photo is of the South view off the deck, with the Walnut branches in the foreground. It was taken at the same time of day as the first Balsam photo. I really like the soft, muted colors of the sky. You can see more details in the mountains, with the snow on them.
Right now, There is no snow left, after a couple of pretty warm days.
Well, as I wrote yesterday, I have more little quilts to show. The little art quilts in this post are 5"x7" in size.
The flower in the bottom photo of the left quilt and the flower in the lower quilt has a bee and butterfly visiting it.
The right piece is another green one with a sunprint of ferns and viola flowers with a butterfly. The side panel in this piece is a "scrunched" and salted fabric in seafoam green with pale blue. The vine quilting can also be seen in the white and blue-green sections.
And now for the snow. Last winter, we did not have any measurable snow until way into the new year. Last night we had our first measurable snow for this season. I had to take a few photos, and here they are:
This was the view out the front door this morning. The photos all came out quite blue. The snow stuck to all the trees. We were lucky that we did not loose power, especially since many trees still have leaves on them.
This was the view from the deck. The mountains and Towanda are hidden in the snow still falling. The branches of the Walnut tree make a neat frame for this photo.
The best thing about the snow will be that our well should now be getting some more water back. We have had a couple of rains, but the snow melting should soak into the ground very well.
More quilts will be posted in a day or two. I am also adding to my Etsy Store, so keep checking back there.
This is a picture of my water Iris, blooming in the pond in my greenhouse, (excersize ball and cat curled up in the background). I usually miss seeing these, because they bloom while was working all daylight hours at our business greenhouse.
This is my maple flower bed- 2 maple trees, and groups of shrubs, and grasses can be seen also. Picture above is as it looked on Saturday. Lower picture was taken yesterday, after the front door thawed. I took the picture through the door, because the wind was blowing snow so hard, directly at the door.
This is what most all the windows looked like Monday AM. We could see out only small corners of some of the windows, the snow was blown against the windows while it changed from rain to snow. At one point, the weathermen thought we would not get more than 4", we got a lot more- hard to tell just how much, because it blew, and drifted so much.
Just about everything looked like this when the sun came up- snow stuck on everything.
Dwarf Alberta Spruce in my neglected rock garden, where I took the picture of the mini daffs. The pic on the right shows how things looked most of the day- the air full of snow.
Picture on left is our deck, on the east side of our trailer, Snow blew all the way to the door, under the roof. The walnut trees were clothed in snow- These pictures were taken through my greenhouse window- near the iris, and my studio window that I opened for a few minutes. Looks like midwinter.
Now on to brighter things- QUILTS! I got a bit distracted, after a class my quilt guild had, making a bargello pattern. I used my 3 favorite colors in bright shades, with other shades.
Walls, stones, etc. are still turning into quilts.
I have my first show of the year on Saturday- I hope we can get the van out of the driveway- no chance now- Ken (my husband) had to have our 4WD truck with plow, pulled out this morning by a large tractor. With the mud under the snow, plowing is not possible, he says one drift was 4 ft. high- it was down to 3ft. by this evening, with the air filled with snow again today. I'm, really ready for spring!! I will have to get things ready for the show this week, and make a few new small simple pieces. Looks like a good day coming, Sat.- even if we have to hire a big 4WD tractor to tow the van out of our 1/4 mile driveway.
I'll keep you posted.
Well, Before I show my lastest works
in progress, and one more finished, Some really neat snow pictures. A
couple days ago, I heard the weatherman say were expecting flurries. I
looked out the window, and the flurries were bigger than the average
flurry.
This one had some different shapes show up. I took others, and got a few that had even larger glowing balls in the air. There must be a quilt in there somewhere.
Now, back to the madness of the stone walls, windows & doors, and moss, that continues. I have 5 more pieces on the similar theme in the works, and finished the challenge piece for QA magazine challenge.
This will be called "Rose Door" It will be similar to the challenge piece, but larger- about 13"x17". While getting ideas for the challenge door, I got the idea of having a rose climbing over the doorway, but thought that it would be too much in the smaller format. the left picture shows the start of fusing the "stones" to build the wall. The right, shows it after quilting around the stones.
Here are a couple more in the works. on the left, the rose door is bottom left, the other on the bottom is a cropped door, showing only part of the door and steps. the top piece, and piece on right, are a stone wall that will have a bench in front of it, and flowers beside the bench, somewhat like I have in my back yard. A little different in that from this view of that garden, you would be able to see our home- not a pretty sight, so I'm taking artistic license. Sky looks better than what's there.
One more piece done! This is the first thing I have made especially for a challenge that could possibly get published- fingers crossed- I even have time before the deadline. I have also finished filling out application forms for the "In Full Bloom" exhibit for Houston. Not sure what will happen there, will see . These will get me on my way to this year's goal of getting something into a national show. Won't know unless I try.
For anyone celebrating, Have a Happy Easter!!
I have tried to keep this blog mostly quilt related, but the view from my studio and other windows really got my attention, yesterday.
Thanks to yesterday's brilliant sunshine and warm temperatures, I now live streamside. The pictures show what is normally dry lawn and garden areas. Our mobile home is 1/4 mile from the top of a hill, and this is the runoff from melting snow, that has come from the fields above, and down the driveway.
This picture shows the same area as above, in the afternoon. no snow, and water covering the whole area. Note the piles of small stones and gravel- that belong in the driveway- quite a distance above this area. The driveway is 1/4 mile long, from the road at the top of the hill. We are quite secluded, and I love that.
As you can see, our whole property is on a slope. This picture shows where the water from the first photo was headed. In the lower right corner, there is the end of a flower bed.
This shows the end of the garden as the new stream enters it. There are even piles of gravel stones from the driveway all the way down there and even farther down the stream. In past years, any runoff would run in front of this section of the garden. (after installing this garden, I realized a couple years later, that the runoff water nanturaly wanted to go right through the middle of the whole garden, so I made a dry stream bed through the length to accomodate it)
My yard and gardens are usually inspiration for my quilting, but browns don't seem to be in "my" color palette, so I don't think this will come out in a quilt, unless I decide to change the water to a beautiful blue babbling brook, flowing through blooming gardens, mmm......... maybe and idea there? Though, I do love the shadows that the tree branches cast on the snow. Well, I better get away from this computer, and get to my studio, and to work.
I'm sure I am the only one out there with "focus issues" :) We finally got snow on Valentine's day, and luckily it was only a foot or so, but the wind was furious. I usually look foreward to snow days to hole up in my studio to play. Wasn't meant to happen...... DH's pick-up with the plow would not start, and we ended up wasting a good share of the day trying to get out of the driveway (thanks to a wonderful neighbor plowing the first pass), and getting our tractor (3 miles away- can you say prepared?). Finally got the truck towed out of the driveway (1/4 mile up hill), got it running, and by then it was dark, and all creativity gone. Yesterday, I tried to accomplish somethig, but too many ideas kept cluttering my head. Seems that the wheels are spinning in too many directions at once. I am now buried in paper - drawings, printed photos, etc. I have an idea for a quilt depicting a stone wall with a window or door, maybe a garden, but keep getting side-tracked.
I guess it's time to do a couple small things. I have a couple stained glass-like things drawn, not sure what will turn out. Tonight or tomorrow, I will post what happens.
Update on the Puzzle- It is waiting for the borders to be attatched, while my scattered brain goes in other directions.
