Snow dyeing

Since it snowed the other day, I decided to try snow dyeing. A number of the gals on Dyehard have been doing this all winter and I thought this might be my last chance. Actually it is my last chance until next fall if we get snow then.

So I put plastic across the table in the studio, rounded up box lids to put the fabric on, mixed dyes, soaked fabric and gathered snow. The results will be seen tomorrow. They need to batch overnight.

I couldn't resist peaking at one, the royal blue and wisteria, didn't turn out too bad. The proof is in the washing though. Some have already been overdyed and some are just sitting there on the table waiting until tomorrow. I will post the results.

Snow!! Lots of it

Well, the weather guys were right. We finally received some snow and a good deal of wind right along with the snow.
First photo is the front deck. We have bare deck with a 2 1/2' drift, the second photo is of the back yard and it is covered in snow. The third photo is the back deck. There is a 3' drift in front of the door and bare deck at the other end. I imagine the fields look like the decks. Hopefully the stubble fields are full of snow and there were enough corn stalks from last year in the others to catch a little of it.
I am off to finish up cleaning the storeroom. Wish I could snow dye, maybe later.

SNOW!!

Snow without any wind. Amazing!!! It snowed a couple of inches during the night and the wind didn't blow. The wind blew yesterday, all day and we received some snow then.

We are currently under a winter storm watch from Thursday to Friday, 6 to 12" with WIND. In short, a blizzard. The last time they predicted a 6-12" blizzard in '97, we ended up with 24" of snow. Maybe this will be the drought breaking blizzard.

Spring is here

I do believe it is officially spring in our yard. We have two daffodils blooming and the small blue flowers, which the name escapes me at the moment. The real sign of spring can be seen in the tree tops. They are covered with numerous black birds at the moment and are quite boisterous this evening. It is nice to see the spring flowers once again.

A Surprise

Last summer I purchased an artichoke plant for our veggie garden. It had beautiful, deeply cut, grey-green leaves and for that reason alone I will probably try to find another one this year.

I had checked several times thru out the summer for the formation of artichokes, but never found any. Today I found three. The beautiful plant of summer is shriveled and dead now, but there were 3 small artichokes that had started forming before it froze. The one in the photo was the largest.

TIRED!!!!

You know those flower gardens I mention in my Profile???????? Well, we cleaned some today. I am tired and I am going to bed.

My progress

I am posting twice this evening.

The second post is the crocus I am stitching for Lesson 2 of "Fertile Earth" with Susan Sorrill. This class is great fun and a little different from anything I have done before. Yes, the crocus is green, but all will become clear as time goes on and I eventually explain what I did. One thing I did forget is how much thread embroidery takes.

Something a little different

Today I was sitting in our sun room this afternoon stitching away on Lesson 2 of the "Fertile Earth" class I am currently taking. I happened to look outside for a moment and there in the evergreen tree were these sparkling lights, blue and silver. I was more than a little surprised, picked up the camera and took a photo. I then went about determining where this strange light was coming from. I finally discovered it was from sunlight shining through the glass of our front door and on to the evergreens in the back yard, approximately 80 feet away. It was very pretty and something I had never seen before. Maybe because it is Sunday.

I finished one!!!!

I swore I WOULD NOT enroll in an online class for awhile. Oh well, so much for that resolution. I love online classes. I have learned a great deal from many wonderful instructors.

Currently I am taking a class thru Joggles with Susan Sorrell. It is entitled "Fertile Earth". It is a great class, I am having a difficult time keeping up. Mostly because of cleaning the sewing room and making the challenge quilt.

Our first assignment was fruit or veggies. I manipulated the photo in Photoshop of a lemon and limes. Then I stitched the resulting manipulation on to fabric. My fingers are so sore!!!! My mind is having a hard time getting around handwork and embroidery. Haven't done any for some time, but I am enjoying it. Will enjoy it more when my fingers aren't so sore.

It was nice......

It was nice not having to worry about finishing the little quilt today, since it was completed yesterday!!! That is my usual way of doing things, putting in the last stitch right before I walk out the door. I thought I did fairly well this time, 4 1/2 days to make this quilt, hand appliqued and machine quilted.

I am ready to leave for guild, with the challenge quilt and relishes in hand for our soup supper AND I have the sewing room straightened up as well. Thanks Judy for introducing me to the crystals. Hadn't decided how to handle the area around the middle petal, didn't want to use French knots. I finally have used the crystals on a quilt !!!

Finally!!!

This is the dragonfly on the quilt I have been working on since Tuesday. We had a challenge in our guild for the March meeting which is tomorrow.
We were given a fat quarter of fabric which can be seen on the dragonfly's body. We had to use a piece of the challenge fabric on the front side of our quilt. It could be no more than 100" in total around the outside. I have completed the thing and I will post the entire photo of the quilt on tomorrow's post.