plants and healing black thumbs

I'm not much of a gardener, or a cook, or really many of the domestic arts generally associate with Womanhood. I can craft and sew and raise a child (well, we'll see how well I do that after he's about 24 or so). But now that I am a stay at home Mom, and was given more time outside, and a completely wild and dirt filled yard I started to get the itch. At first it was because what we started with was so ugly. When we moved into this house there was some sort of half finished installation of rocks. About a ton or two. I truly mean a ton. My father had put them there and tried to create a Peace garden. It didn't succeed very well.

We moved some of the rocks, and then more and then more and more. We poured some concrete. I sprinkled some seeds. I tried not to kill all the plants and tree's my Dad lovingly planted. Somehow, many of them survived. Which is an extraordinary success considering my very black thumb. So now I am much more inclined to garden. Maybe just to cover up ugly areas in the yard, maybe because I LOVE flowers. Who knows? The Shadow knows, but not me.

after the peace garden deconstruction but before concrete

Ah, the disassembled peace garden and my little guy

After the concrete

Rose of Sharon, I didn't plant it, and didn't do much but water it occasionally, and it survived and thrived.

This spring everything bloomed and it looked much better

 I had a narrow strip of dirt to fill after pouring some concrete for a sidewalk and extending the driveway. I was going to fill it with rocks since well, we have lots. But my neighbor Robert told me I HAD to plant something. And that my yard had enough rocks. So thank Robert I suppose. I planted Mountain Laurel seeds, wildflower seeds, and many many daffodil and allium bulbs. The Daffodil grew and so did a couple mountain laurel. But the daffodils were dried out and past their season, and the mountain laurel was the size of my fist. Mostly it just looked like dirt. Well, dirt and weeds.

My narrow strip of weeds and dirt

not terribly exciting.

So, for my birthday I asked for plants. And this week got them. I chose mountain laurel, butterfly bush and lantana. All native, all flowering, and all drought tolerant. (I can be sporadic in my watering and we're almost always on water restrictions). That's why I don't have a lawn, just green weeds that we let grow to "seem" like a lawn.

Laying out the pots

My son helping. 

Dallas red lantana

Fuschia Lantana

Butterfly bush

Ham and Eggs Lantana

Fin

Let's hope none of them die. I mean, I was the one who planted them so, there's a chance my black thumb is in hibernation and will rear back to show it's deathly touch. Or maybe, just maybe, my black thumb is healing. I guess it's a bit greyish/greenish now. 

Yay Quilt stuff

I was just perusing through True Up and this was the first picture on her blog from a recent quilt show.

picture is property of True-up.net

Excuse me while my brain just squeals..........

I want to go to there.

picture property of true-up.net

Yeah, I really want to get some more fabric. 

Here's some super cools stuff I pinned on Pinterest.

Here's me on Pinterest. I only pin amazing stuff.... true story.

Ruth

much ado about nothing

I haven't much to report on the design or craft scene. I feel bad, I'm not one of those bloggers who posts every day and is a prolific creator or crafter. Mostly I find small moments when I can or want to blog. And other times, well I do something else. Read, eat, take care of my home, my husband and my son. And I have to remind myself, that it's more important to do those things, than blog. So, sorry. Here's some illustrations I did awhile ago. (they were just for fun and to keep me drawing)

Hope you like it.

Spiderweb quilt---almost there

I have finished the front and back of the spiderweb quilt. Next, quilting time. Not sure if I'm willing to quilt this myself, or will have it done by a long arm quilter. I usually only quilt the small ones myself. My machine isn't really set up for anything bigger. And, the long arm quilting is usually so much nicer and more neat.

Decisions Decisions.

Notice the sippy cup and my son's foot in the right corner. He's my helper
(well he thinks he's helping)

The backing.

Forgive me for the poor pictures. I'm not a photographer. I just take these pictures in my living room with my phone. I don't correct the lighting, or find a nice backdrop or anything. At times I feel very sloppy in contrast to my other bloggers who have beautifully styled photographs, but, meh, I'm lazy. I don't have anywhere to take these photographs. On nice days I'll take the quilt outside and take a pic under some tree's or something, but space is at a premium in my house. One of these days I'll learn how to take good pictures. Or I won't. Not really sure how that will pan out really. 

I'll post another (probably sloppy) picture when this whole spiderweb quilt is finished. Until then, back to the crown royal recycling project. Next in line, purse, ipad cover, slippers and pajama bottoms made from crown royal bags. Lord know's I have enough to make a couple parachutes if I wanted to.

Ruth

Update on the Crown Royal Project

I have made some more things out of the crown royal bags.

Here they are:

1. The crown royal blouse. My sister in law wanted a shirt and I was a little hesitant at sewing together tons of bags and making a patchwork shirt. It seems like a lot of work and well flannel isn't really suited to a blouse. So I fooled around on my old dress form and came up with this. It doesn't look patchwork (except for the dye lots not matching) and there aren't too many Crown Royal logos making things look busy. I'm quite pleased. Now what to do with the three blouse patterns I already bought?

Crown royal blouse

Side View

I had originally planned on having a zipper on the side, but added some grommets and gold braid to add to the flair. This shirt took about 6 -8 bags worth of fabric, cut apart, pieced, stretched etc. I tried to use the original overlock seam, as well as the original drawstring placket. It was a PAIN to work on a very pilly stretchy flannel and try to match up pre-existing hem lines. It was definitely a project. I was able to use the original grommets on the top seam for a strap and hallelujah it worked. 

A bit of an issue with matching up the existing overlock seams. Whoops

I didn't use the original braided rope drawstring that came in the bags because to cut apart the bags to make the pieces I had to cut them.  I hope my sister in law likes it. It's a bit of a bear to put on, but maybe that's just because my dress form doesn't bend or stretch much.

Next on the agenda: 

2.Golf Towels

I had no idea what these were but Kendra (sister in law who acquired all these bag) wanted to try to make some masculine things out of them. I researched them and they are just towels with grommets on them to hang on a golf bag. 

Here was my first attempt.

Well THAT was disappointing.

It ended up looking like a badly made diaper. So, with all the stretching and what not I scrapped this particular idea and came up with another one. 

Much improved

This looks better, and instead of making folded over seams, I just faked my own gold overlock edge by mixing some yellow and gold threads together. It still stretches and looks somewhat messy, but much less messy than the first. I do hate when my sewing looks "home-made". 

Then came one of my ideas:

3. Headband. 

Work out clothes and no makeup, and frizzy hair,
the embodiment of  SEXY, thats me.

You will have to forgive the bad picture. I had no one else to model and as this was late at night and I decided not to put on make-up or fix my hair. I know, I have no neck. Just look at the headband. 

Pretty easy to put together. I may need to make more of these.

Next I'd like to make a i-pad cover, an apron, some slippers, and perhaps a bandanna. But, alas, my quilt project is yelling at me telling me to finish it. So I think today, while my son is at Mothers day out I will sew on it.

Ruthie

Crown royal recycling project

My sister in law who knows everyone and everything in our small area just dropped off a trash bag, and a large box full of crown royal bags had acquired from a local man who seemed to really like rum. I assume, he liked it, because the bottles full of rum are missing.....

She asked me to come up with some ideas for what to do with them.

Here are the ideas we came up with:

Coin purse
Golf towels
Golf club covers
I-pad cover
Purse
Coozies


Any other ideas you guys have?

getting close to finished

I've been working on a "spiderweb" quilt since August. I know, it's April and I'm still not done. It's very tedious which is why I took my time. I had wanted it to fit a twin but I know that it would take me quite a while, and I just want to finish it. So, I'm amending it to a small throw quilt.

I'm getting pretty close.

Next is sewing the blocks together, creating a border to make the quilt a bit bigger, and then making a backing, adding some batting and sending it to get long arm quilted. Yes, I know, I don't quilt it by hand or on my machine because it's way too hard and time consuming. It's not the part of quilting that I love.

I'll post more pics as I get closer to finishing.

Ruth