I started................

It's Been Awhile

2012-01-26T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe that January 2012 is coming to a close. I am still trying to find October, November and December of 2011. Where has the time gone??!!! Might explain why I haven't posted in some time.

The photos are of fabric I dye painted when I took a class this past fall on QU with Marjie McWilliams. Enjoyed that class immensely, learned how to dye paint using a different technique so that was good.

Currently I am getting ready to travel to Oregon next week. I will be taking the 3rd class in Hollis' 10 year program there. Then after my return from OR, I will leave for Texas and will be taking class number 7 in the same program. So I have two piles of items on the bed in the spare room waiting to be packed in the appropriate suitcase. Sure hope I remember which is which.

Taking an online class through QU with Elizabeth Barton. It is a very good class and I am learning a few new things and it is a good review of things I have already learned. Never hurts to review as things just don't stay put in there very long anymore. Maybe they just have a hard time finding their way into my mind anymore!!!

I need to paint, I need to sew, I need to draw, I need to dye fabric and of course I need to clean. So life is pretty much the same around here.

What a difference a day makes

2011-10-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

I signed up for another sketchbook watercolor class taught by Jane LaFazio on Joggles. I am enjoying it, the Allium was last weeks assignment, sort of. We were to introduce some other elements in our sketches, but after I completed the sketch and painted it, I wasn't going to ruin it. Some areas need a little work, it has been months since I last painted. Have no idea why I don't get the watercolors out more than I do. I guess it is like everything else, I have to have a reason. One reason I took the class. This week we are making backgrounds to paint on, which aren't completed yet.

Amur Maple is almost bare, only a few leaves remain. It is the one tree in the yard that actually has more color, more often than any of the others.

The trees in the yard have been exceptionally colorful this fall. I have included a few photos of them that I took yesterday. The sky was a beautiful blue and the reds, oranges and yellows looked especially nice against it.

All that changed this morning when it started

The aspen tree has finally turned a golden yellow.
The first time this has ever happened!!!

snowing! I didn't think we were going to get very much, but it was a nice amount of moisture. The snow was wet and it will help the wheat, as it was a little dry. It looked terrible after the winds we have had this fall.

Half of the cottonwood tree in the backyard.

The deck late afternoon.

Much of the snow melted as it fell this morning, but by evening there was a bit of snow covering everything in the backyard. This is the deck, looking out the patio door. I do believe summer is over and the plants have seen better days.

What a difference a day makes, from blue, cloudless skies to a snowy backyard.

October

2011-10-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

It is October, hard to believe. Corn harvest is here, they are trying to get the wheat planting finished up and the wind is here. October also brings with it Breast Cancer Awareness month and that means "Race for the Cure" is here as well.
This is the second year we have been in the 'Race for the Cure'. My part is more of a short walk. I think we probably get a 2K in by the time we walk from the Light Rail to where the walk starts and maybe a 3K by the time we get back to the light rail.
I thought about trying the 5K this year, last year, but that didn't happen. Fortunately I had forgotten that I said that. One of the good things about getting older, I guess. The knees are another year older as well and the problem.

Jennifer organized our team again in memory of my sister Julie. We didn't come up with any new buttons this year, sort of hectic for all of us. I think I am going to dye t-shirts next year, pink ones!!! One very nice thing occurred, my sister's sons were able to join us on the walk this year. Most of our team did the 5K, the new mommies, little boys, grandpa and I did the Family Walk.
I think the photo says it all. The 5K walk in Denver is the second largest in the country. It is impressive to come around the corner when walking in the 1K and see all the walkers coming over the viaduct, upper middle of photo, and back into the Race grounds. Lots of people.
Our team was on Channel 9, live. Jennifer was the spokesperson. The rest of us just stood in the shoot, thank heavens!

Hmm, I see it's been awhile

2011-08-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

I missed July all together, posting that is, and I feel as if I missed it physically as well. Where has the summer gone???!!! I think my 2 1/2 weeks away from home the first half of June threw the entire summer out of whack.

We are half way through August and I feel like I am still waiting for summer to start. The garden sort of looks that way as well. Haven't picked any green beans yet and we are getting a few cucumbers. The tomatoes have a blight, caused by yours truly, so they aren't going to do their best. Actually they are looking worse each day. The plants were gorgeous earlier this season.

We have made two short trips to the mountains since my last post. Nice to get away to the coolness of the mountains in the summer. Our youngest grandson was on the last trip with his mommy. Jennifer went along as well and our oldest grandson wasn't going to be left out. Had a nice time. Traffic was horrendous, lesson learned here, stay over and come back Monday. Insanity prevails on I-70, west of Denver, on the weekends. Make sure you go to the bathroom before starting your trip or pull one along behind you.

I have been taking online classes. Have nothing to show for my efforts, however. I had hoped to have something made from the "Goodbye to the Grid" class I took with Dena Crain on Quilt University, but I am having to clean the sewing room before selecting the fabric. It should have been done last week, but one thing led to another and it still isn't done. Yes, I am procrastinating about choosing fabric, this is the part I sturggle with the most!!!! There are two days left before the class officially closes, but I have to clean the house too. It is a great class.

The other one I have been taking is from Elizabeth Barton on QU. It was a class on designing a series of quilts. Time got away, I was concentrating more on Dena's class and well, there is nothing to show or discuss. I decided I would take 'Inspired to Desgin', on QU from Elizabeth since it is the first of the two classes. Just started it, so we will see. My goal, and challenge to myself, is to make something that isn't 'literal', from a photo I have taken.

First Trip

2011-06-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we took the RV on the first, official road trip. We had a great time and our grandson was able to go with us, along with our oldest daughter, Jennifer, and one of our son in laws came up on Saturday.

We went to the mountains and it was a little chilly at night, glad we were inside and had a furnace. I will be the first to admit I am not a die hard camper in the great outdoors like our daughters and their husbands. Well some of them like it. A couple of them would be more than happy to be inside the RV instead of a tent.

We
dis-
covered
chip-
munks,
bugs, threw a number of rocks into the fire pit that was there, caught some fish in the small lake near by and had a hummingbird buzz us on a couple of occasions.

The water was very high and fast due to the amount of snow this past winter and the late runoff so the fly fishing wasn't very good when Joedy and Dave fished Saturday afternoon.

Jennifer had given M. a little Davy Crockett hat and he thought it looked very stylish under his camo hat that he wears all the time when outside. Hard to keep a straight face and hold the camera steady to get that photo.

And of course he had to watch grandpa hook up the grill, making sure he was doing it right. He pronounced the pancakes made for breakfast as being 'yummy'. I don't know why I have fixed them all these years.

He watched grandpa do a lot of things and wanted to make sure he wasn't far from the action.

It was a good weekend, things went well, and I have decided to make a master list so I am not trying to remember all the stuff that needs to go along with us. We didn't do too badly though for the first time.

Reflecting

2011-05-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

I have been cleaning one of the flower beds this afternoon and this morning I transplanted a few little flowers in the greenhouse that had taken their sweet time in coming up. These activities always give me time to think, sometimes that is a good thing, sometimes not.

As I was digging around in the dry soil of the flower bed and moving the soil back to where it belongs after the obnoxious pocket gophers went through it, I was thinking about the devastating floods in the lower Ohio River Valley that I had been keeping track of for over a week. I was glad my garden was still in tact and thought about all those who had lost theirs.

First, let me say that there is a reason God planted me here, I have no desire to live by that much water, but I love visiting that area and that is why I am interested in keeping track of what is going on there.  We have been through the area that is flooded and I find it sad to see the acres of farm land we have seen, underwater. Even though we comment that we know we might see it that way some day. The day has arrived.

I have also been checking in on the Paducah flood wall several times a day. The Convention Center is its own island now, it sits on the Ohio River side of the flood wall, not within it and I have never figured that out.
I always look forward to going to Paducah. Perhaps it is that we leave the leafless trees, the brown and nearly lifeless flower beds, last year's fields of decaying corn stalks and wheat stubble in CO and as go east and we enter Missouri, spring is unfolding. There will be a few red buds left and as we travel further east, the dogwoods are usually blooming. Their lovely, white flowers remind me of dancing fairy lights, tucked in among the other trees.

Last year's trip to Paducah ranks as # 1.  We were able to view Hollis' outstanding exhibit, "Imagine Hope" at the AQS Museum, I ran into two ladies from a class I had taken at the museum several years ago, met up with friends who I have gotten to know through the Internet and we all had a picnic lunch on the AQS grounds and had supper with them that Friday night before attending the Ricky Tims performance at the Carson Center, plus I was traveling with good friends.

I did receive word from Joedy that a friend died That Friday night, after we returned to the place we were staying, I received word from Joedy that a friend had died that day. I knew that Darryl had been diagnosed with cancer 3 weeks prior to that and was not doing well when I left, but it was hard to believe as I had just seen him the previous August when we had our 40th class reunion and he looked fine.

The other thing that occurred that Friday night was a visit with a woman who I had never met before. She and other members of her family were getting together that weekend to visit with her sister who was dying of cancer.   Little did I know that night, that I would come face to face with that very thing 11 days later on May 4th. Tomorrow will be the day my sister called me and told me she had cancer. Julie died 5 weeks later.

So with all that reflecting today on people and places and how quickly things can change, I am reminded that I should take each day as it comes and enjoy it. Thank God for the blessings He has bestowed upon me. Do my best to ignore those people in my life who are demanding and selfish and not allow them to drag me into their unhappiness and dissatisfaction with their life. And remember that it could always be a lot worse and pray that it never is.

This bleeding heart always greets me when I return from Padcah and it is especially pretty this spring. The butterfly was given to me by sister a few years ago.

Sneaking in another one

2011-04-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Thought I should get at least two posts in during April! The wind is blowing again. Can't say I have missed it this past week. Another system is moving north of us, carrying moisture into WY, NE, and parts east. Typical weather pattern since last fall.

The flower garden needs to be rebuilt. We cut the apple tree down and now there is plenty of sun. The tulips are hanging in there despite the mess they have to live in this year. For some reason, spring has come and I am not ready this year.

The plants in the greenhouse are growing. The tomatoes have been transplanted twice and will need to be transplanted again next week. The petunias are looking very nice and will go into the containers and hanging baskets in a couple of weeks, along with verbena, nemesia, alyssum, love in a mist, poppies, and a few other flowering plants. Doesn't seem like it should be time to do all of this again, but it is.

The cucumber will stay in the greenhouse throughout the summer or until bugs move in and take it over. We are hoping the bugs stay out for at least another month, two would be even better. The cukes are the English variety. They seem to like the greenhouse better than the conditions outside in the garden. Can't imagine why those huge leaves don't like the wind in this part of the country??!!!!

April!!! Where did it go???

2011-04-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we are completing the fourth month of the year 2011. I thought I would have accomplished more by now, I am finding that to be the usual scenario around here.

The daffodils have bloomed and shriveled and last year's garden debris still surrounds them. Half of the beds are cleaned, but that still leaves the other half. The birds have had some wonderful nesting material though. We did cut down the obnoxious apple tree that produced worthless apples. I didn't like doing it as a number of birds liked it, but enough was enough. I was also loosing the sun in the flower bed.

I had great plans to work on more mixed media projects, several friends and I were going to hold one another accountable to work on different techniques in dyeing and mixed media. The only positive thing I can say about that is that they have found little time to do them as well. I will say they get more done than I do though, just not our challenges, but it makes me feel a little better.

I was going to draw as well. I have done a little of that, but darned little. I will travel to Oregon in a months time with another friend and undertake Drawing II in Hollis Masterclass series. And yes, I will be in class # 7 next year in TX, but I do things a little backward most of the time. Nothing new here!!!

I started the Artful Journaling class with Laure Ferlita . I have come to the conclusion that is where my watercolor endeavors are going to stay for awhile, journal pages. Here again, I was taking classes that come after these basic classes. Ah well. This is the latest page I painted. Have another one I did from the England class that hasn't been posted anywhere yet, not even in the class blog.

In catching up on my e-mail this morning, I read a note from Robert Genn's newsletter, about working on small projects, one after the other. Learning what works, what doesn't, moving on, failing and learning. And anyone who knows me, knows I start a lot of things and seldom finish them unless they really turn me on and I have dabbled in a number of things over the years. It made sense to me, maybe I am on to something?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had been thinking about changing the name of my blog. I have come across a number of catchy names and thought "I Started..." was a little hum drum, but I think I will leave as is for now. It still fits perfectly.

Fence post quilt

2011-03-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Thought I would post a photo of a quilt I recently made. It was an assignment from last year's Master Series class. And yes, I did get it made before going to TX in February.

Hollis had given us a photo and we had to make a piece representing our feelings when viewing the photo. Not the best description of the assignment, but good enough.

I have been taking photos of fence posts for several years as I find them very interesting. Probably because they have always been a part of my life in some way or another.

Some posts have a great deal of character, while others are rather humdrum. I am guessing most people pay little, if any, attention to fence posts. If one happens to be checking for broken posts or broken wires, they might give a post a second look. In our area there are fewer posts all the time as most of the land is farmed. When a fence line borders farm land, it provides excellent pheasant habitat.

I made the post in layers, did some stitching on parts of the post before putting the layers together and quilting it. I drew barbed wire, placed that drawing on the copier, fused the brown fabric to steam a seam and then ran the fabric through the printer. It printed the image of the barbed wire on to the fabric. After cutting out the barbed wire pieces I then fused them onto the quilt. I stitched all of the grass before quilting, but went back over some of the grass when I quilted it to anchor that area.

Back to watercolors

2011-03-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

I finally got back to sketching and painting today. I am currently taking a class from Laure Ferlita of Imaginery Trips. Great class, only problem is that Luare posted lesson # 4 yesterday and I didn't paint until today. I won't even discuss the Visit to the Beach class I am taking from here as well. I have painted a few things in that one, but not very happy with them and they probably won't appear anywhere. I can tell it has been awhile since I last painted.

So long story short, I am not really in England, one just pretends to be there while taking the class and sketching and painting the assignments. Thought Laure's approach was interesting to this process. Hopefully things will improve, must stay on top of it though. As with anything, practice, practice, practice.

I still haven't unpacked the suitcase full of fabric that went to TX last month. There is another thing that needs some work.

Back from Montana

2011-02-28T17:04:00.000-08:00

Arrived back home from Montana last night. It is a beautiful state, but it is was a little cold. -14 degrees when we landed on Friday. Had to buy some warm boots as I didn't take heed of the info friends kept sending me.

We did drive around the Bozeman area Friday afternoon and I took a few photos. The first one is of the Gallatin River and those are chunks of ice floating in it. The second one is looking some direction toward the mountains. I never knew what direction I was going the entire weekend.

We were there for our nephew's wedding, which was very nice. Enjoyed seeing a number of people we don't see very often and this was a happy occasion this time.

The other nice thing about the visit to Bozeman was meeting one of my Dyehard sisters, Sandra. We had a great visit, wish it could have been longer, but we did get a lot discussed in 2 1/2 hours.

I would enjoy going back there in the summer, but drive this time instead of fly. Hard to tell what everything really looks like from the airplane. It was interesting from that angle though. Wyoming had a lot of snow on the ground!!!

A friend wrote that we missed the heat wave today as it hit 41 degrees, but they were headed back into single digits starting tonight. Stay warm MT friends.

Back from Texas!!

2011-02-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

I have been home from New Braunfels, Texas for a couple of days, getting unpacked, things put back where they belong and figuring out what day it is. That last part will take longer than anything else.

I did get a chance to paint on the flight down and a quick sketch and painting the last morning we were there of the doors on maybe the east (?) side of building where our classroom is located. I don't know what direction is what down there as I can't see the horizon.

I was there for two classes taught by Hollis Chatelain. A one day class on quilting and the annual 5 day class I am taking in her Master Series. This is year 6, Color Challenge II. It was great to see everyone again and catch up. The class was excellent, many things came together and make a lot more sense now. Need to practice and continue working on the lessons we had throughout the year. Novel idea.

Not sure I am crazy about the second painting of the windows. It is loose to say the least, but that is what we are to do. Quick capture and painting. And I did leave some white.

Need to get the class notes typed up. Never a dull moment.

It is COLD!!!

2011-02-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

I have friends who grew up in Canada and who live in Canada and some from MN and ND. They don't have a problem with this weather we are currently having, but I do!! -12F and -40F with the wind chill factored in is too darned cold for me!! I am a wimp and proud of it. Come on, when exposed skin can freeze in 5 to 10 minutes!!!

I did go out yesterday and I did get a perm and do my assignment for Jane's class. We were to go out, sketch and paint in public at a coffee shop. So I did. I did the background and writing at home. I even penciled in the writing before inking and I still couldn't follow the lines and messed up the 'chill' because I was 'chilled'. The experience of sketching and painting in public wasn't as bad as I thought it might be and it is true, people just ignore you.

The studio froze up through all of this lovely weather. Thought I had left the water dripping, but apparently not. Hope the it will thaw out without any major hassles.

January at its end

2011-01-30T17:42:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe it will be the last day of January tomorrow!!! Where, oh where, has the month disappeared???

Thought I would post once more before the end. I am about ready to tie myself to my sewing room chair so that I can get my quilts done for the class I will be attending in 2 weeks time in TX. I have two that must be made from scratch, two others I would like to redo, we will see how the time goes. Then I have to get packed for the class. I was going to dye some wonderful fabrics to take there this year, but alas that hasn't happened either.

The photo today is of the latest watercolor painting. Pleased with most of it. Should have kept the date by my name like I usually do. I wrote '2010' instead of '2011' and had to fix that. The blue in the box became a little darker than I would have liked.

Running a little behind!!!

2011-01-27T08:13:00.000-08:00

Thought I should post a note before January got away from me. Where did the month go??!! Time seems to be moving faster. I blame computers for some of it, I am also thinking getting older has something to do with it as well. I forget what I am going to get between locations, have to do things over again because they were wrong the first, second and sometimes third time ---- I will stop there.

Between bookwork, a few trips to the Front Range, and online classes I have been busy, just don't have much to show for it.

I am currently taking two watercolor classes, one from Jane LaFazio and one from Laure Ferlita.  Jane's is a journal watercolor class, one where I am to leave white areas in my paintings, and Larue's is more the way I like to paint. I have new watercolors and I am learning what they do.  Behind in both classes, but hope to change that in the next few days.
I also signed up for Susan Sorrel's Funky Felt Pins class on Joggles. It looked fun and something I can sit and do at night.  Behind there as well as the felt came right before we left for the weekend.
Cleaned the sewing room, it was necessary to make the felt pins, and have no idea how it became such a disholved mess since I haven't made anything lately. And then there are those quilts for Hollis' class in TX and it is coming up quickly.
The picture is of a key I drew while messing around one evening. Love Zentangels and it was a fun way to do a lesson, however it doesn't count since there is not any watercolor paint on the thing. The Zentangle heart does have watercolor on it.

I just completed working on a piece of fabric for a swap we had on Dyehards. It was an ugly fabric swap. We were to send a piece of fabric we felt left a lot to be desired and transform it. I thought Mary's piece was lovely, mostly yellow when I received it.
I was pleased with the piece I did, learned a few things and finally overcame my fear of working on complex cloth pieces. Now if I had more time to get over to the studio and start over dyeing some of those pieces of fabric I don't care for.

Life use to be much slower in the winter, I would sit reading garden catalogs, waiting impatiently for Spring to arrive. I need to get the seeds ordered too, but I am not sure when I will get that done and March is just around the corner.

So life moves on at a crazy pace around here, even in the dead of winter.

Latest Watercolors

2010-12-20T17:53:00.000-08:00

I finished another online class, that is two in a row!!! This is the latest and last assignment from the class I took from Laure Ferlita, Clever Christmas. I posted the moose this morning. He is not one of my better paintings, but he is cute. I reduced him and made a small name tag for a package, looked better that way than the actual size.

I plan on taking some of her other classes, thinking of starting at the beginning. That would be a novel idea wouldn't it? Sometimes I wished I had discovered wc's long ago, but then I am not sure I would have had the same interest. Things come along at the right time and now is the time in my life for watercolors.

I have solved a few design problems with a couple of quilts that must be finished by Feb. and taken back to TX for Hollis' class while working on the watercolor assignments. Who knew it would be so rewarding. I just get lost when painting. And to think all of this started because I needed to work on drawing. One never knows where things will lead if given a chance.

Also the packages are wrapped and under the tree, the house needs a few things done here and there, but it is not in total disarray as it usually is this time of the year. When I took the paints, wc papers and all the other items I have had out for the last 10 days down to the sewing room today, I put them away where they belonged. I have no idea what is going on, but I'm lovin' it!!! Of course the Christmas cards haven't been sent out, but that would be over the top. This wc was from lesson 3 and I had hoped to use it for our cards this year. I need to redo it as this is only 2.5" x 3.5" and has some issues here and there.

Wishing all of you who take the time to read my ramblings a very Blessed Christmas and pray that it will be spent with family and friends.

Lesson # 2

2010-12-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

Today we received our second assignment. I drew the head of a snow lady. I wish my mind worked a little faster at times. I needed to make the hat smaller or her head a little larger. I will just pretend she has melted a little since she was built. With the temps we have had of late, that wouldn't be a stretch. The stretch would be having snow to actually build a snow lady, the reason I have had to resort to painting them.

I will use this as a gift tag, there is a "To:" and "From:" stamped on the back of the little painting. I used crystals for the little holly berries. Apparently they don't refract scanned light. I think I did a little better today with shadows and making things look like they were a bit dimensional. Need to practice stamping again, it's only been 10+ years.

More Watercolors

2010-12-06T22:50:00.000-08:00

I signed up for another watercolor class. Jane's was over and I have enjoyed this process. I need to continue working at it so that I can stop making some of the mistakes I continue to make, i.e. going outside the lines on occasion.

It started today. It is a quick 10 day class with a lesson every other day. Laure Ferlita is the instructor. I drew some hats. These are done on ATC sized pieces of watercolor paper. 2.5" x 3.5" is not very large. I have done three of them. Would like to change things about each of them, but hey, I am learning something each time I do one.

Lesson 6

2010-12-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post this lesson earlier. Not exactly what we were suppose to do as I got a little carried away with the paints. I had hoped to get another one drawn, but didn't finish painting it. So it is here, I finished all the lessons, second online class that I have actually completed.

I received this frog a number of years ago and he sits in the flower bed against the house. He has a broken foot, but I still like him. He is flaking here and there, but then I am not as together as I once was either.

The sketch of the angels needs to be painted or inked and then washed with water. Haven't decided which way to go on those. Hope to get to them in a day or two.

I actually dyed some fabric yesterday. So might have those samples to post tomorrow. I did a couple of color wheels.

Lesson # 5

2010-11-17T17:15:00.000-08:00

We will be receiving our last lesson for the Sketchbook & Watercolor: Journal Style class tomorrow morning. I cut it a little close this time as this is Wednesday. I have finished and posted the drawing and painting of this shoe though, so I made it. I was just glad I could still draw as I haven't picked up a pencil to do that as often as I should since I posted the sunflower.

Shoes--- the subject we were to draw this week. Some of them did at least 6 I know. I have seen them all, but have not had a chance to read the stories behind the drawings yet. Fortunately the class forum will stay open for a few weeks and I will be able to catch up on them.
I have no idea why the scanner cuts off the bottom and the toe. They are both on there another thing I didn't have any patience for this evening.

Lesson 4

2010-11-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

It is going to be a busy week of cleaning. I would rather be painting, dyeing, sewing, just about anything other than cleaning. I am thankful I have a house to clean, just enjoy other things a little bit more. I have completed lesson 4. Didn't know if I would get one posted this week. I did get a sunflower drawn and painted late this evening. I did leave some white spots, more would probably be better.
Centers are difficult to do and one can lose their place quite easily when there are a number of petals. I am still trying to make sure I managed to draw all of them. I decided one fell out during the process.

I hope I have time to draw a couple more in the next few days as a friend gave me a beautiful rose this afternoon and lily. They will have to reside in the garage though until I am ready for them as I am allergic to flowers. Definitely need more practice in this area. Over thinking and over painting once again. The scanner is giving me grief and is not picking up the entire framed area of the drawing. Always something with computers.

Wow, it is November!!

2010-11-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it is the 3rd of November already. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, then Christmas and we will be starting another new year.

This year has had more than its share of emotional highs and lows, but then one never knows what is around the corner, which is a good thing in my opinion. I have learned that taking one day at a time is a good habit to get into as well.

I have been trying to do more sketching each day, right now continuous line drawing for the sketchbook class I am taking thru Joggles taught by Jane LaFazio. This is the latest watercolor. Lots of mistakes on this one, but hey I am learning and know much more than I did three weeks ago. I can even make the scanner work properly now. I think it has something to do with remembering what I did from one time to the next.

Check out the online classes if you haven't as there are a number of excellent places and instructors offering them these days.

Lesson # 3

2010-10-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Amazingly it is the third week in the Sketchbook & Watercolor Class I am taking and I have completed the third lesson!!! I will try to do some more this week, but the important thing is I am still on track. Not sure how this has happened!!!

Our lesson this week is continuous line drawing with our permanent marking pens, no pencils, other than to sketch the frame around our painting when it has been completed.

For those not familiar with this technique, once I start drawing I cannot lift the pen from the surface of the paper until the drawing is completed. It is okay to draw the rivets in after the main drawing has been completed. I can trace back over a line if necessary as well.

Once the drawing was completed, I painted the drawing with watercolors. I am happy with this little piece, which has been painted on a 5" x 7" piece of hot press watercolor paper. I still didn't leave enough white areas in my piece, that is one of the things I am having problems doing.

The grain bin is located a mile from our home and has seen better days.

Lesson # 2

2010-10-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

I have completed another watercolor. We received our second lesson today and I decided to get busy and paint the leaves. I gathered numerous leaves from the yard and settled on three.
After I drew the entire group of bugleweed leaves, I thought, what did I do that for??? I could have drawn another 3 leaves in the time it took me to draw and paint that group. I like it, but I could have made it a little easier on myself.
I scanned this one before remembering what the bottom plant is. It is parrot's beak. I knew it was parrot's something, but it took awhile. And I did get this one scanned. I usually take a photo, but for some reason the photo was washing out at the top of the bugleweed. The scan looks better.
I am enjoying this class.

Counting my blessings

2010-10-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I know without a doubt that God is looking out for me.

This morning we were within a few feet of being involved in a serious collision when a semi driver came into our lane of traffic. Joedy slammed on the brakes as we watched the guy swerve to the left to get out of our lane and go into another lane of oncoming traffic.

Makes me appreciate the photos I took after returning home even more. They are of simple things in our yard, but beautiful to me as they are here but a short time.

The Irish Eyes are hanging in there even though the flowers look a little worse for wear, not as perfect as they were earlier this summer. They have character now.

The Washington Hawthorne is starting to turn. These are the only leaves on the entire tree that have made the transformation. I am in hopes the entire tree will turn before it freezes hard. They seem to be a little more red than usual.

The Amur Maple is about half way there. The fall leaves do not stay around very long, a week if we are lucky. Once there is a bit of wind, they are on the ground. It is one I have to watch closely or I might miss it. It has been an unusually warm fall, September was very warm. Probably what hastened the corn in drying down.

NO. # 2 Pear & Pomegranate

2010-10-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

I have completed
another watercolor. We are to do 2 or 3 and I have accomplished 2 and it is only Tuesday. That is exceptionally good for me. There are 5 more classes to go, will see how my record is by the end of 6 weeks.
It was easier this time, I think I achieved better shading, left white areas on the paper, you wouldn't believe what a challenge that is, did manage a few spots on the pomegranate, shading will have to do on the pear. The shadow is grey this time instead of bordering on brown. Overall I am happy with this and I should only get better if I continue, right?!!

Watercolors!!!

2010-10-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I was checking the fall classes on Joggles and came across one taught by Jane LaFazio. It is Sketchbook and Watercolor: Journal Style. I am always trying to keep up with my journal, which isn't any better taken care of than this blog. BUT I have wanted to sketch and use watercolors in my journal for a long time.

I must say there is a learning curve when the water part of this watercolor painting becomes involved with the paint. And a dab of paint goes a very long way. And there are suppose to be some white areas left after the watercolors have been applied and light areas. That is a problem too and contours.

I have completed my first sketch and painted it with watercolors. I have a ways to go and I must remember to keep telling myself that if I knew how to do this, I wouldn't be in the class.

It is fun most of the time and I will not let those watercolors defeat me. I have learned a little about those as well and not all are created equal. I had a little set of watercolors I thought would work for the class until I started checking them out and ordered some others. So I have the first lesson completed, but should work on some other things throughout the week.

Monarchs

2010-09-24T03:47:00.000-07:00

It has taken a few days to get these photos up because the camera and Photoshop were not getting along, at all. Then I couldn't access Photoshop. I had to uninstall and reinstall the program before things were back to normal.

The Monarch Butterflies were migrating on Wednesday as they make their way back south for the winter. There were not a great number of them as we have seen other times, approximately 30-40. It was windy, not a surprise, and they seemed to be seeking shelter from the wind in the trees. It is amazing to me that these delicate creatures travel as far as they do.

I watched them for awhile, took some photos and tired to keep the dogs back away from the trees as the butterflies were disturbed by their presence. They didn't mind the camera flash though. They were interesting to watch and the trick was to catch them as they opened and closed their wings. They were not doing it when I was able to get a little closer. I did find an interesting site that records the migration of butterflies and birds. http://www.learner.org/jnorth/http://www.learner.org/jnorth/

Last fall we had an interesting fungus growing. I liked the shape of last year's better, but nonetheless they are interesting. They grow out of a crack in the railroad tie on the back side of the pond.

Wild Things

2010-09-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided it was time to use up the dye in the fridge from the Retreat, it has been 4 1/2 weeks since it was mixed up. I poured the dye on the fabric and these are the results. I would say they are a little on the wild side of things. Might have tempered them a bit with a little brown, but these are the colors that were mixed and used in some form so that is how I have decided to use them.

I laid one piece on top of the other for these two. There are some beautiful places in these pieces, just hard to see far away and clumped all together.

I have another piece that was folded and dyed to the side of these two and one that I hung on the line and dyed in the wind!!! Also there are 7 pieces from two parfaits shown below. I think they will work into whatever I decide to do. Maybe a courthouse steps this time.

Treasures

2010-09-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

Treasures among the junk

Yesterday we were out by the junk iron pile. Wow, did I find some wonderful things!!!!! So I cautiously dug through the pile, it is September and rattlesnakes are not pleasant when one runs across them this time of year. I stayed along the edge and made a lot of noise before attempting to look through an area. There were also some black blister beetles on a pig weed that I had to keep an eye on as well. The only injury I experienced was being stuck in the finger by a goat head sticker. It was worth it. I need to unload the loot and put it away.

The metal with holes is one of the finds I am the most excited about. It can be used to rust fabric, might be able to discharge with it, use it on a gelatin plate, endless possibilities with this piece. Some of the items will have to be forced where the rust is concerned. Some are stainless steel so they will have to be used for stamps or photo images will be used for patterns. Very rewarding afternoon.

The circle in the center is a new piece that I have not come across before. I am not sure if these will rust, but here again, lots of other possibilities.

FINALLY!!!!

2010-09-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

Finally, I was able to put the black kona around the trash barrel yesterday. And just as I started, the wind came up, at least that is the excuse I am using as to why part of it doesn't have much rust on it or it might be that it dried out too much by the time I had the trash bag around it.
The photo to the right is one side of the piece. It seems to me that this piece has two distinct sides.
In the lower left hand corner I can see two masks facing one another. It is always interesting to see what develops on pieces of fabric. Sometimes there are interesting images that show up. Below is a closeup of the "mask" area and a closeup of one section.
My reason for doing black instead of white fabric was to see if rust on black kona would resemble discharge. I think it does, much less control than using a discharge paste or bleach, but that is part of the fun. I would find it difficult to achieve the same texture with discharge paste, it seems to have more depth to it. It also reminds me of the charred and blackened canyons near Boulder.

I might try this process again one of these days, once the wind settles down.

Back in the Studio

2010-09-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

Screen Print

I finally made it back over to the studio today. The first time since the Retreat, other than to clean one day. I am currently taking a screen printing class on QU. I did do two things today that was in the 2 lessons we have received, the rest was playing around. Oh well. I did attempt discharge using the screens, not very successful on that count. They were all done using Speedball silk screening ink. It is very similar to paint, the hand is not as nice as fabric paint however. I do like the results and the clean up though.
I tried a couple with some Golden Acrylics. Came close to ruining the screen using the Golden paint so no more of those. I did have success with the iridescent Golden paint though. I was surprised it didn't cause problems.

One of the things we are suppose to do is cut out a stencil from contact paper and attach it to the back of the screen. That would be the photo with the blue fabric and the pink fabric. The first attempt was rather pathetic, but the second one is a clean print. I will try fabric paint next time and see how it works. I need to read the lessons too. I even dug one of the numerous bottles of dye out of the fridge, Retreat leftovers, and dumped it on one of the waxed encrusted cloths left from the soy batik projects. I put the rest of the blue dye on a t-shrit, tossed both in a sack and well wash them out tomorrow.

Doesn't that look fun!!?? One of these days the wind won't be blowing and I can use some of these for backgrounds. And one other thing I did accomplish today was to wrap fabric around the trash barrel. Will see how that looks tomorrow morning. Shelia and Ricky, you would have loved the rust I scraped off the side of it!

Road Trip--part 2

2010-09-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

Windmill of the past

I have a great deal of trouble posting photos on the blog now days so I decided it was easier to do the road trip in two parts.

After we left the area around the River and Dam, we continued west. We came across a windmill that had seen better days and there was a concrete pump house or well house beside it. One seldom sees the pump houses by the windmills anymore. Sometimes there would be a tank located inside the pump house where items would be stored down in the water to keep them cool. The only refrigeration around for many years.

On our way home we went by the wind farm that is located northwest of Burlington. The "new" windmills on the eastern plains of Colorado these days.

The wind turbines have been built this past summer and are to go on line sometime this fall. We can see them from our driveway, which would be 9 or 10 miles away. The things are huge for those of you who have not seen them up close.

Another controversial happening out here. There is suppose to be another wind farm built 6 or 8 miles straight north of our place. I have to laugh when people think this is a "new concept" of producing electrical energy. There were wind chargers used in this area before REA came into being and and electrical lines were built to carry power to farms and ranches.

And believe it or not, there is a vineyard in our area. The Wordens have been growing grapes 5 or 6 years. They have 5 varieties now. The grapes are nice this year and are getting close to harvest. I told Vanessa to give me a call when they start harvesting. I would like to see what a grape harvest is like. I am also glad she is the one who has to take care of them. If I were 20 years younger I would consider putting in a small vineyard, but not at this point in my life.

The grapes hang in beautiful clusters. Some of the grapes have to have netting over them to protect them from the Robins.
The wine is not for sale yet. That takes time to set that part up as well. We wish them well when they do start selling it. It beats that stuff from NE though!!!!

Road Trip--Days Gone By

2010-09-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

Some days we take road trips to places we know about and others we find along the way.

Republican River west of Bonny Reservoir

Last Sunday we decided to travel to Bonny Reservoir and see how full it is. It looked much better than last year at this time, but there is still a long way to go before it is full again. The drought took a toll on it and everything else in this part of eastern Colorado. The reservoir was built to protect Kansas from floods. Now Kansas is suing Colorado and making life miserable for those of us who irrigate using deep water wells in the Republican Water District. While we are paying a $15 an acre tax for a pipeline that should not be built. Those living along the river in KS continue to dig pits and little playground areas, draining water out of the river as it flows to the point in NE where it is recorded to met our compact compliance. What a joke!!! Nothing is done to stop this action. Some days I wish they would just get rid of the dam and if KS gets flooded so be it. They seem to want it both ways. We feel the only thing they are really after is money. Apparently no one has told them that as far as the state legislators of Colorado are concerned, we don't exist out here. There will be no help from Denver.
Aside from the controversy that surrounds the reservoir it is a special place. In years gone by we and thousands of others have fished and played on or around the lake. It is sad to see only a hand full of boats using the lake on a Sunday afternoon now. In years gone by, one would have to patiently wait ones turn to unload a boat.

We enjoyed our sandwiches, looked for birds, went across the dam to the north side, the above photo is of the spillway at the north end of the dam. The north cove had water in it earlier this spring, but that has since been released down the river. Odd isn't it that the river flow is measured in NE. Some more of garbage we have inherited from the idiots who signed the compact and revisited it around 2000. Oh, yes, Ken Salazar was involved in that. He loves selling out the residents of Colorado, east slope or west slope, he has qualms about ruining our economies.

Wild turkeys in hay field, north side of dam

Hay field on the east side of the dam

Retreat part 2

2010-08-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

For some reason some of the photos refuse to be seen on the blog. I don't know what the problem is as they were there once upon a time. Apparently the blogger gremlins are rampaging. So I will try one more time to put those photos up on the blog.

This is the sunset photo.

This is one of my favorite photos during the week

Colorado Dyehard Retreat 2010 attendees

I cannot remember what the 3rd photo was that is not showing up, but I had wanted to put this one in as well that day. I hope in time I figure out how to do the photos again.

Retreat

2010-08-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

Ricky's dry SA piece

The Colorado Dyehard Retreat has come and gone. Hard to believe after a year of thinking and talking about it and several months of getting ready for it, it is just a memory. We had a good time, learned a great deal from one another, shared many good meals together. I have many wonderful memories of the Retreat.

The group's main emphasis is dyeing with MX Procion dyes on cotton fabric, but we branch out on occasion and use other types of dyes or paints and other fabrics. During this Retreat we dyed with natural dyes, some dyed silk and velvet pieces, along with using paint and paint sticks.

Betty Ann's silk scarf, t-shirt and thread

Yards and yards of fabric, socks, t-shirts, onesies and blankets were exposed to dye, rust and paint in one way or another.

Some of the techniques that were studied or used during the week were gelatin plate printing, soy wax batik, discharging with numerous products being used to accomplish this, painting Tyvek, flower pounding, rust dyeing using several methods, indigo dyeing, dyeing with cochineal bugs, complex cloth pieces were worked on thru out the week using numerous items to make designs, stamping, dyeing thread and perle cotton, snow dyeing, resists, painting with thickened dye, dry soda ash technique, folding fabric and applying dyes, stencils were used with discharge, silk screens, deconstructed screen printing, and I know there were more, just don't remember all of them.
Some of us had done a study of how different brands and types of cotton fabrics take up the dye and of course there was a swap of fabric pieces. Some of those not able to attend the Retreat sent fabric and those attending the Retreat brought fabric already dyed or dyed fabric while here.

One of my favorite shots thruout the week

Sun setting in the west

It has been awhile

2010-07-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

Since I lasted posted at the end of April there have been serious health issues that members of our family have faced. One is recovering from shingles, three were diagnosed with cancer within about a three week period beginning in May. Two have finished cancer treatment or had it removed, also one of these two is still dealing with a benign tumor in another location, and my sister passed away from cancer. It has been a grueling spring, one I do not care to repeat ever again.

Through all of this I have learned that I need to be more thoughtful and caring of others when I hear about someone having problems because there were so many wonderful people in our extended community who helped our family get through all of this.

I have learned to take one day at a time, that is all we have no matter how many plans we are always making.

And I hope I have learned to prioritize people and things in my life a little better. Take care of the people around you who are important to you. Keep in touch, take time to be with those you love, don't worry about things you can't change or have little or no control over. And just do something special now and then for those you care about. Life is very fragile, embrace those special times and moments share with loved ones, we aren't here very long.

I took this photo 2 days before my sister called and told me she had cancer. It was the flowering crab in our front yard. I will not be able to take anymore photos of the blossoms, as it blew over during a wind storm several weeks later. It was the final branch of three on this tree. We lost the first one last summer during wheat harvest when we had high winds go through. That evening I had stopped on the road to talk to my sister. We were both returning to our homes from taking supper to the guys in the fields. So these are for you Julie.

Paducah, KY

2010-04-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

We could hardly wait until April 18th arrived this year so that we could head east to Paducah, KY and the AQS Quilt Show and it has now come and gone.

A week ago we were enjoying supper with friends at Logan's in Paducah and later attended the Ricky Tims show, which was great!!! The music he played Friday night was beautiful and his stories hilarious.
He gave a one hour program at our Guild 11 years ago. Hmmmm, I wonder if he would come again for the same price????
Friday was our final day in Paducah, as we packed and left for Colorado the following morning. We had a wonderful time and some more good memories were made.

One of the most interesting things we saw while attending the show were the restrooms outside the Pavilion or Bubble, as I referred to it. These were "Royal Restrooms", NOT the regular port-a-potties one sees strapped on a trailer hauled from place to place.

The inside of these special restrooms was very impressive. Thought I would skip the obvious part one would find in such a place and go to the luxury side of the place.

I had to purchase some bread from Kirchhoff's. Actually we purchased a lot of bread from there. We never ate lunch there though and it is one of my favorite places to eat lunch. I did find out that the "Stranded Cow" went out of business. They had some excellent sandwiches. One place we did eat was Patti's. It is located southeast of Paducah in Grand Rivers, but it is well worth the trip. We love the pork chops they make.

We enjoy walking around the settlement and checking out the various stores they have. I think the wind chimes they sell at one store have to be a favorite. The foliage and flowers were beautiful.

I ate at the Whaler's Catch when I was in Paducah in 2008. The food was just as good this time as last. I had crab cakes, probably again too. We don't have too many of those in Colorado, so I eat them when we are at special places like the Catch. We ate outside on the lower deck, first for that and it was a lovely evening.

One of our first stops was the Finkle building downtown. I had a good visit with Judi at her booth, Mamaws Hand dyes. Marc held things down while we visited.

Then off to the Museum. The place I was very

anxious to visit as Hollis Chatelain's Imagine Hope Exhibit was there. I was so excited to see all of the pieces together in one place along with the photographs that accompany the pieces she has made. If anyone should get a chance to view this exhibit, jump at the opportunity. It will be at the National Quilt Museum until May 25th of this year.

We saw a number of other beautiful quilts there, especially those darned miniatures. I would go blind trying to make one of those, but they are intriguing.

This is the view of one of my favorite spots on I-70, the east side of the bridge that allows us to cross over the Missouri River. It wasn't all that inviting on Saturday when we crossed over it. In fact we drove in heavy rain through most of Missouri on our way home. I guess that is why they have so many more trees than what we do out here on the plains, more water, lots more water.

We met a number of interesting people along the way this trip. On our way to Hermann, MO, one of our regular stops as the Stone Hill Winery is located there and we needed to purchase some of those delicious garlic dill cheese curds. Maybe a little wine too. We stopped and talked to a farmer who was getting ready to work the field in order to plant soybeans. We had been debating what they were getting ready to plant, so we stopped and asked. I think we surprised him.

Renee and I ran into a gentleman when we were on our second bread buying trip at Kirchhoff's. He was very interesting to talk to. Judy and I were needing some fresh air after we were in Hancocks of Paducah for a short period of time that first evening. We were sitting on the bench and met a woman who gives rides to quilters around Paducah, at no cost. It is her hobby the week of the Quilt Show. I might mention that Hancock's is one of the MUST stop at least once places, during a trip to Paducah. At one booth we met a woman who was born in India, but has lived in this country for 35 years. Her family has made block printed fabric for 7 generations. The information she shared with us interesting. She is one of those people who keep me coming back as she loves what she does.

I finally put all the items I purchased on the trip away today. Not very timely, but I finally had time. It was a great trip, I hope we will be able to make a few more in the years to come.

SPRING!!!

2010-04-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

It is springtime around here. Where some parts of the country are ahead of schedule, we are behind. Usually the daffodils are on the end of their peak blooming period, instead they are just about in the middle.

I have been transplanting petunias, gazania, nemsia, poppies, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, basil and probably a couple of other things I don't recall at the moment. I do keep a list however. Will post photos of those as they get a little size on them.

I changed the blog page in honor of spring. I know, black isn't really springy looking, but it does make a nice background for photos. My daughter Jennifer uses black and I have always liked it. Change is good now and then.

Journals

2010-04-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

We have been discussing scrim/cheesecloth on the Forums and these are a couple of journals that I made using it on the covers.

The first one has the fine cheesecloth that was dyed and fused onto the peltex. The mulberry leaves were painted and captured by fusing netting on top of all of it. The second photo shows the front and back pieces of the journal. This one needs to be put together.

The second one was made by tearing an old Electric Quilt Co. newsletter in to pieces, fusing them on to the peltex, then covering the paper with cheesecloth I purchased at our local grocery store. It is dyed as well. I used the fine netting over this one.

The embroidery floss used around the edge and the ties

was hand dyed.

painted mulberry bark. It is not scrim, but another fun item to use. I stitched a random pattern to hold the peltex and bark together. Crystals were set on the mulberry bark.

New class

2010-04-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

I have been taking the Sumptuous Surfaces class on Joggles from Sharon B the last few weeks. I finally have the first piece stitched.

We were to draw a design and then we were to stitch the first piece in neutrals, which is a little challenging. I found out that there isn't a big difference between white and # 712 perle cotton when it comes to color. Especially when I took the photo.

The threads in this piece are perle cotton, #'s 5, 8, & 12--14 different colors; silk thread--6 different brands, 9 different colors; Marlit; embroidery floss---3 different colors; wool; 16 different types of beads or shells; covered rings & covered fly tying brass thing; and 14 different stitches.

This is the first time I have done any pulled thread work, made bullions, will most of these stitches are a first. I have done stem stitch, french knots, back stitch and the buttonhole stitch. I am going to have to do more pulled work as I like it.

I have enjoyed the class. They are currently working on the second piece, but I won't get to the other piece as we are leaving for Paducah on Sunday. Can't believe it is finally time to go on this trip!!!!

Texas in February

2010-02-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

I have just returned from Texas and the Color Challenge I class
taught by Hollis Chatelain. It was once again held at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels.

It was a challenge in many ways, on many levels, BUT well worth the time and effort.

I had to go outside and get some idea of perspective for one piece I worked on during class. It was a little difficult as there are numerous trees in this part of TX, we have very few trees dotting our landscape. Of course this is a planting, but at this point I was determining light source.

Once again, like last year, I meant some wonderful women who were also taking the class. Another of the big pluses when taking these classes.

Middle of Jan, hmmm

2010-01-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

Can't believe that it is the middle of Jan. already. I had good intentions of posting everyday. I recently saw a quote about good intentions, should have saved it.
I did get some more NYB's done and have a total of 12 now. I think the quilt I am making has 30 blocks, so a few more to go.
I was looking for something in one of the drawers the other day and came across the log cabin blocks, with the fabric. They were started in a class taught by Flavin Glover in Estes Park, I think 4 years ago. So I dug them out, cut more strips and now they are all in the washing machine. Asthma problems have resurfaced and the fabric seems to be aggravating them. Will probably be re-cutting all of them a 1/4" thinner and re-cutting the 1" strips.

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-01T10:10:00.005-08:00

I posted 120 times in '09. I consider this to be a major accomplishment on my part, as I am not into this type of thing at all. So I will have to see how 2010 goes, maybe there will be more posts, maybe fewer. Maybe I well really go out on a limb and have a drawing, that seems to be a popular 'blog thing' to do these days.

One of my goals is to take a photo everyday this year. I will say that when I was doing this on a regular basis last year, I became more aware of things around me. Things I sometimes take for granted, things that go unnoticed much of the time, things that are small or insignificant to many.

And this is the third attempt to post a message. One was written and put into the draft section. Then after reading my daughter's post I decided I should delete it and go along with the "looking forward to the new year and new decade with 'excitement' attitude". Maybe if we all tried that, something positive would evolve this year.

Then I remembered something very important. I really don't have control over anyone but myself, and that there is a far greater power who controls everything and everyone, God, our Father.

So on that note, I will pray for our country, as it could really use a lot of help right now and particularly for those of you who read this, that you may be blessed beyond anything you thought possible and that you have a wonderful New Year.

This little angel sat a top our mini Christmas tree this past Christmas. A symbol that reminds us that God loves everyone in the world, even those who hate and denounce Him. A hard thing for me to comprehend sometimes.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2009-12-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

I opened my Christmas present early and this is what I received. It is just the coolest thing!!!! A John Deere Gator!!!

I had asked my cousin Duane to find one for me earlier this fall and this is what he found!!!! Well, not exactly. He asked Joedy if he wanted to give it to me as a Christmas present so it was spruced up, quiet a bit from what I understand.

Duane sandblasted the metal areas and repainted them, new
stuff on the floor so that it is not slick, new fenders and hood as they were all torn up. He placed new decals on it and then he detailed the seats and tires. It looks brand new, thanks to my cousin and his expertise and I thought it might be for a few moments when I first saw it!!! He can fix, build, re-design or repair anything. And THANK YOU to my dear husband who gave him the go ahead to make it great!!!

The box will even even raise and lower. Should come in very handy when hauling things around here, running errands and when I have to help the guys re-nozzle the sprinklers. It is also living in the garage.

And Duane even threw in the bow!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to my family and friends who read the blog.

Christmas!!

2009-12-21T20:28:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Christmas yesterday. Might have been a good thing as it sounds like Christmas day or rather the next few days leading up to it might be a little messy. We are under a winter storm warning starting tomorrow night until 5am Christmas morning.

Two of the items we gave for gifts this year were quilts. Yes, quilts

I made and quilted. I actually do piece and quilt. One is the Irish chain and the other is the Lucky Star quilt. Both Jennifer and Chad were pleased.

Merry Christmas to all who read this. Hope it is a Blessed Christmas.

A little dyeing

2009-12-03T21:32:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I actually do dye fabric. Not as much as I did a few years ago though. Probably has something to do with the stacks of hand dyed fabric in the sewing room. Need to start overdyeing it and working on complex cloth techniques. There is always next year.

The online dyeing group I belong to recently had a blue/orange swap. I was pleased with the results. I used DT Midnight Blue and DT Deep Orange. I think the colors are a little richer in person than what they show in the photo. The results were intersting and I thought everyone ended up with some wonderful pieces.

FINISHED!!!!

2009-12-02T20:46:00.001-08:00

They finished picking corn today!!!! Oh happy, happy, happy day it is too!!!! I can't remember the last time we were in corn harvest this long. I believe the length even exceeded the lengthy and stressful wheat harvest we went through earlier this summer.

The photo is honor of the last day of 2009 corn harvest. I took it a few hours before they finished the last field.

Two long harvests in one year is a momentous thing. Some friends who live here also raise sugar beets and it was a long, muddy harvest for them as well, so they got 3 long harvests. Plus the grapes in their vineyard were hailed earlier in the summer.

We use to raise sugar beets. I remember some of those mud grinding, grueling harvests. The first year we farmed, we lost 1/2 of our sugar beet crop. It snowed and snowed and then the ground froze. The beets were frozen in too. And to think we still wanted to farm after that.

Almost

2009-11-30T18:23:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be December 1st. I cannot believe it is time to start thinking about Christmas. I am sure I just finished putting all that stuff away yesterday. I will admit that one year it didn't get put away. It was much easier to decorate that year.

Our grandson will be 14 months old tomorrow. Seems like only yesterday that he stole my heart and there was "another man" in my life. He is such a fascinating little guy to watch. He is so busy and can figure out something to do with whatever he comes across.

Our daughter was married in April, we went to their home for Thanksgiving last week and she set a beautiful table with the china they received as wedding gifts and served a great meal. I remember when she would dump everything out of the bottom drawer in the kitchen and crawl in it and play.

I thought it might be about time to book my flight for the class I will be taking in TX this coming Feb. Doesn't seem possible that it will be a year in a little over 2 months that I was down there for the last class I took with Hollis on color.

And I was going to work on color this summer, but summer is over and fall is quickly following and guess what, I have done little work on learning more about color. I did take Sharon Boggen's journal class though. One of the best classes I have taken on line, ever! So I did accomplish something.

So here is to the last day in November. I had to post something.

Hmmmmm, 3 weeks

2009-11-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

It has been 3 weeks since I last blogged and I was really going to make an effort to get one a day this month, so much for that. In about 6 weeks, it will be a year that I started the Photo a Day challenge. Hmmm, that didn't work out so well either. This is the reason I don't belong to Facebook or Twitter, I have too much technology in my life now that I don't manage well. I don't need anymore despite the urging of some friends.

It is only 2 days before Thanksgiving and we are still picking corn!!!! It is not going to be done before then either as it will not dry down.

I did ride in the combine several weeks ago with my husband and took some photos of the inside of the cab. The technology that is inside the cab is amazing to me. When I grew up, combines didn't even have cabs. If they were lucky, they had an umbrella over their heads during wheat harvest and there certainly wasn't a heater in the fall and winter.

The orange joy stick is what he uses to run any number of things, i.e. as the unloading auger. He will pre-set some operations so that he just pushes a button and it will automatically go back to the pre-set postion.

There are monitors around that constantly put out all kinds of information pretaining to how the combine is operating and grain being harvested. One screen is telling him the number of bushels being harvested, the moisture of the corn, what it is making per acre, and lots more info that has been saved from other operations during the year.

This is one of the monitors and it is showing the number of bushels being harvested and charting it in colors. He sets it to record at certain levels. Each color represents a number of bushels. Such as 190-200, 200 to 210, etc. The trick to making this work is fine tuning, in a word, accurate calibration. Everything is recoreded on to a flash card and he will be able to bring it in after harvest and print off whatever information he wants.

We have used two grain carts this year as this combine picks corn much faster than our older one did and it is not good to have the combine sitting in the field waiting on a grain cart. It has also been very muddy and part of the time they have not been able to load the carts to capacity.

Fall colors

2009-11-03T16:53:00.001-08:00

The time in the harvest field was short lived. They finished one field, moved to the next field today and the moisture is too high in the corn. It is to be in the 70's tomorrow so hopefully we will get some drying.

Walking around our farm this evening I came upon the locust pods that had fallen off one of the trees. I love the deep reddish brown. A color to strive for the next time I dye fabric.

Back in the Field Again

2009-11-02T14:08:00.001-08:00

The photo is some distance away, but I was unable to get any closer than the
edge of the field. If I were to go out there I would get stuck and be on my own as far as figuring out how to get out of my predicament. No one would have any sympathy for me if I did something that illogical and rightly so.

It is wonderful to see the combine and grain carts back in the field again. The sky is dark to the north and the temperature has dropped about 10 degrees in the last 10 minutes. Hopefully the moisture will stay away so everyone can harvest corn and sunflowers.

WAITING!!!

2009-11-01T12:18:00.001-08:00

The photos in this post were taken on Friday, after the snow and wind subsided. This is the end result of the blizzard we experienced Thursday afternoon, through the early morning hours of Friday.

The first photo is the north side of one of our fields of dry land corn. The snow drift is up to the top of the tassels, the corn is over 6 feet in height. This drift covers at least one pass of the corn head in width, which is 12 rows of corn, and the length of the drift is 1/2 mile.

The next two photos are taken at at another field, part of it is irrigated and the snow drifted into the corner on the irrigated section because the dry land to the right caught most of the snow and kept it out of the irrigated field. The drift is again over 6 feet in height, across the road where we would normally travel with the trucks. The grain carts will have to come out of the fields with

half a load and meet the semis on the road when

loading them.

The sign marks an underground pipeline. It is in the ditch, the ditch filled with snow and continued on out into the corn field. One would be hard pressed to find a corn field in eastern CO that didn't have a drift in it somewhere on the northeast, north and/or northwest side.

It has been warm the last two days, 67 yesterday and today it is in the 60's with a good strong breeze. Hopefully we will be able to pick corn tomorrow afternoon or Tuesday in those areas not covered by snow drifts. Not sure when we will be able to pick the corn buried in the snow drifts, only time will tell. I'm still counting on the forecast of the woolly bear caterpillar.

A Snow Day!!!

2009-10-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

As the sun rises over our backyard, one can see the combinations
of wind and wet snow. I think my favorite photo of the morning is that of the "snow pleats". The scrunched area of snow is actually several inches from the window.

As I was making Joedy's coffee this morning I was extremely happy that I didn't have to go outside and retrieve water from this old pump.

The stream needs to be cleaned of the oak leaves that have fallen into it in the past few days. I can't think the fish have enjoyed the change in water temperature. Actually, I am sure they aren't enjoying anything about the fall weather we have had.

Bottom line it is just a cold, snowy morning on the plains of eastern Colorado. I have no idea what the cornfields look like and I know our backyard is better than those to the north of us.

Here we go AGAIN!!!!!

2009-10-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

At this point, nothing surprises me!!! I stepped outside to take a couple of photos of the NEW SNOW, which is falling as I write this post, and saw a petunia still blooming away right up next to the house. How these plants have survived in the past few weeks is beyond me. I thought it only fitting to take a photo---Petunia in the Snow. Anxious to see how perky that plant is by tomorrow morning.

The other two photos are of our backyard. I thought the flash captured the falling snow very nicely. So nicely in fact, one cannot see the pond, only snow. Of course it is blowing over the roof of the house and onto the deck. That accounts for the look of a lot of snow.

The bottom photo is taken looking toward the flower garden. I don't think I will grill any hamburgers for supper tonight.

I had thought earlier this morning that we were going to escape this storm. That was wishful thinking on my part. We did get a few loads of corn picked before it hit. Hope we aren't still picking corn at Christmas time.

Fall is over!!!

2009-10-22T09:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday brought rain and wet snow during the night, totalling 2.15"!!! We would really have preferred to receive the moisture a little later on this fall, after the corn is all picked, but that is not to be. I was thinking back to 1997 when we had a blizzard at this time in Oct. and received 24+ inches of snow, so it could have been worse. We were able to farm in November after that blizzard.

Hopefully the fields will dry out enough to start harvesting again next week. My brother in law was working on soy beans

when this hit, not good.

New York Beauty

2009-10-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

A friend and I have decided to make New York Beauty quilts. This is the second time I have decided this. I am using Karen Stone's pattern that came out more than a couple of years ago, let's see the copyright is 1997. One friend has already finished her quilt sometime back. It is the only reason I still want to make one of these as hers is beautiful.

I started this thing at least 6 years ago, maybe longer. I did get 6 blocks made the first time around and I am really hoping I get

all of them made this time.

I thought it would help if I chose all the fabric for each block, then cut the required amount that I need for that block. The photo shows rows 5 and 6 waiting to be cut. Notice the three blocks in row 5 that are completed.

This pile all but the block at the top of the post. I finished cutting out the pieces this afternoon and pieced the block shown in the top photo. I changed all but one piece in that block so I really hope that is not a bad omen of things to come. I really wasn't sure about the original fabric I had chosen for the block, but at this point, feel comfortable with the ones that are cut.

October!!!

2009-10-11T09:36:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe that it is Oct. 11th!! I need to get in gear if I intend to get anything done in the way of quilt making this year.

Our guild held our every other year quilt show yesterday, Oct. 10th. The attendance left a lot to be desired, but then I can't say I blame people for staying home. There was ice on everything yesterday morning. Driving was hazardous, walking was hazardous as well. We had 69 people attend the show. We usually have 375 to 400 attend. Apparently they wanted to
stay home wrapped up in a quilt instead of seeing them hanging from quilt racks.

This was the first year at the Burlington Community Center using quilt racks to display the quilts. The past 3 shows have been held at the Old Town Museum and we placed the quilts over old buggies, wagons cars and numerous other things to display them. Everyone liked the new setting better.

Nice surprises

2009-09-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

Most days come and go. Now and then things occur that are unexpected and turn out to be a nice surprise. Yesterday the unexpected occurred when we received hail. It was very small, but did do tear things up in the garden and the flowers are a bit tattered looking today.

I picked peppers the last two days and needed to do something with the ones we have been referring to as pizza peppers all summer even though the tag was marked 'Anaheim'. Joedy and I were examining them and we knew they didn't resemble the pizza peppers we had grown the previous year, so he decided to roast one. Guess what??!! They are Anaheims AND we have a lot of them and we didn't think we had many at all. The really nice thing about the Anaheim discovery is that I know I didn't mislabel the plants during transplanting. I was really getting a complex about it.

The other surprise of the summer has been the tomatoes. I put up another 4 1/2 pints today. I didn't expect much out of them after the hail on the 17th of July.

I have made sourdough bread a number of times in years past, but always used yeast when making it and have been disappointed that it didn't have the sour taste of the commercial bread I have tasted. I have been doing a good deal of reading about sourdough lately and found out that the real stuff doesn't have yeast in it, just the starter and has to rise for hours. Those two loaves are the first two without using yeast. I am very pleased with how they turned out. I would like to improve the looks of the crust, but the flavor and texture is great!!!!

Remembering

2009-09-22T12:27:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, the importance of taking one day at a time has really hit home.

My aunt passed away. Fortunately she did not have to suffer the month the doctors predicted she might live after she found out she had cancer the first part of Sept. She was at peace with dying, she was not afraid, a great testament to her faith and the way she lived her life.

She chose to have a simple burial beside her husband who died
years earlier, bypassing the usual rituals we have come to associate with death and dying. I totally agree with her choice.

The flowers are in her memory. She was a special person in my life and I will miss her.

What a month!!

2009-09-17T08:38:00.001-07:00

I knew September was going to be a little hectic, but didn't have a clue as to how crazy it would become.

It has been been more than a good reminder that one should take one day at a time and make the most of it, as one never knows what lies ahead. This will be for another post.

The other day I walked around the yard and found the most interesting growth, which I assume is some kind of fungus, on one of the railroad ties behind the pond. I have no idea what it is as I have not had time to look it up. It is very firm and I plan on watching it for awhile. I have not seen anything like this before in the yard.

The flowers continue to produce masses of blossoms. The gazanias are finally doing something. I think it was too cool and

wet during June and July for them. They are getting with it now along with the purple daisies.

Since the cabbages are maturing and we are not going to put any sauerkraut up this fall, I decided that I needed to figure out what to do with all that cabbage. So I made 26 Bierocks on Tuesday. The first time I have made these delicious little pockets filled with hamburger, onion and cabbage. Have no idea why I haven't made them before now. I was pleased with how they turned out. Didn't have time to get a photo of them sitting on the cooling racks and took this one out of the freezer this morning for its photo shoot.

I picked some sand hill plums this morning and will make some jam and I noticed the grapes were ripening. Not sure if there are enough of them yet. And I need to get that salsa going.

Fall is fast approaching

2009-09-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I should post a blog in Sept. before the first week had passed. I have no idea where the first 8 months of this year have gone. But the signs of fall can be seen in the garden. The mums are blooming and the garlic chives behind them are a little late, but in full bloom as well. I saw some pasta made with garlic chives at a Farmers Market I attended on Sat. in Denver. Might need to gather a few for that. They smell delightful when crushed.

The asters are blooming now. We have others the color of the
mums in the above photo and some are white. Most need to be thinned and moved to different parts of the flower gardens. I enjoy seeing the asters as they herald the coming of fall, my favorite season.

One of my favorite smells can be found in our kitchen when I put up tomatoes. They have done better than I thought they would after the hail earlier this summer. So far I have put up 32 pints of stewed tomatoes and 6 pints of some very hot salsa.

a walk thru the garden

2009-08-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

I thought I would take a walk around the yard this afternoon. The light is changing, always a sign that summer is drawing to a close.

It is difficult to see the stream in the center of the photo. Thought it might show up better than that, so another attempt will be made one of these days. There are sparkles off the water in the camera lens and if I would get out the manual and read how to slow down the shutter again, I could probably capture a few.

I believe this is the last of the day lilies and was surprised to even find this one blooming today. It was a nice surprise as it is truly a pinky peach colored one. I had ordered one of the "pink/peach" collections several years ago and was disappointed to find mostly "orange/peach" to just plain apricot colors in the group. This one will be moved to the flower gardens this fall or next spring. The day lilies were outstanding this year.

The Bonica roses are still doing their thing. They seem to just keep on blooming. Actually they have become my favorite rose because they are the only rose I can grow. I do have a Rugosa Rose that does its thing, but these little roses never let me down.

There are many other flowers and plants I photographed today and have in the file now. The red berries on the high bush cranberry are very pretty and there was some tickle grass blooming behind the pond. I didn't realize how interesting it was until after I had pulled it then I was trying to find a place to "plant" it so that I could get a photo of it. Perhaps these and others will show up in the dead of winter, when I am dreaming of green leaves and the shadows they create in the yard.

BREAD!!!!

2009-08-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Not sure what is going on with this sourdough thing, as I have another starer sitting outside gathering wild yeast. It is easy. All you do is mix 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of water in a bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and sit it outside to gather wild yeast. It took less than 12 hours to get the last starter going. It rained last night so thought there might be some other type of wild yeast floating around here.

Here are a couple of websites that are interesting and helpful if one wants to start on this adventure. Sourdough Baking by S. John Ross and Science of Cooking.

So today I baked the first loaves of sour dough bread from the starter. They didn't waste any time doubling in size so it must be a good starter. They turned out rather tasty and have a wonderful crust on them. Flavor is pretty good as far as the sourdough is concerned. I like mine a little more sour so will have to work on that. We had some with our lunch.

Summer's Bounty

2009-08-26T08:13:00.001-07:00

I have finally been getting enough cukes to can a few jars of dill pickles. This one jar at a time thing is not a whole lot of fun, but after seeing the ripped up cucumber plants right after the hail storm on July 17th, I am thankful to be doing one jar at a time. I tossed a cayenne pepper in this jar. Have several types of cucumbers in there so we will see how they fair.

This was the pickings from yesterday. The yellow zucchini decided it didn't appreciate being pounded by hail and took off. There are a number of Jalapeno peppers in the photo. Something I really don't need a great many of, but due to mislabeling on my part or the seed companies, I have a lot. The majority of them were suppose to be Anaheims. Peppers I find much more useful.

The onions are starting to mature. They aren't going to be very big, but here again, glad they are still out there. All in all I am pleased with the amount of items I have harvested so far due to the beating it took in July.

Flowers

2009-08-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

The photos are of some of the flowers that grace our deck area this summer. They have been under cover more than once when hail threatened. I started all of the flowers from seeds early in the spring.

Some of you may remember the bicycle planter I received for Mother's Day from my daughter's family. It looks a little differently now. I have had trouble keeping the top container wet so I will have to look for a different one next year.

I was happy with the little purple daisy. They have started blooming profusely. The other photo is of the flower containers on the steps . They contain petunias, poppies, verbena, fan flowers, lobelia and alyssum. Found a nice peach colored alyssum that I really like.

What's that smell?

2009-08-21T07:45:00.001-07:00

The other day I decided to get a sourdough starter going again.

I use to have one years ago and baked sour dough bread frequently.

So the other day I mixed up flour and water, covered the bowl with a moist towel and placed it outside during the day to catch some wild yeast.

This morning when I came into the kitchen I noticed a strange smell. Then I remembered the sourdough starter sitting on the counter waiting to be feed. Sure enough, that is what it was and it is going to be a good starter.

I have another one going using a different method and it is rather poky, so I inoculated it with the one that was started when I took the crusty outer layer of dough off and added more flour and water. I will have to wait and see what flavor it has, hopefully the two will be a little different.

40 Years!!

2009-08-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

I thought I should post something since it is August already!! Hard to believe the year is going by so quickly. I was cleaning things up in the kitchen this morning and had a pleasant surprise when I looked out toward the pond. They Egyptian Lily was blooming. This thing might have another name, but I think that is correct. It has several more sets of blossoms. I was glad it survived the hail.

The other photo is of a candy lily. I raised this from seed several

years ago and have not seen any seed like it since that time. They are a very dainty little flower. They come in pink, yellow, and red/orange. Their foliage is similar to the foliage of an iris.

I was cleaning the kitchen because my high school classmates are here this weekend for our 40th class reunion, my how the time flies!!! Some of them came out to our home last night for a get together. It was fun seeing a number of people that I only see at these gatherings. I am enjoying them a little more, must be my age!

Dyed Fabric

2009-07-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to download the photo of the hand dyed yellow/purple run. Technical difficulties between the camera and the computer. I used DT Orchid and DT bright yellow. Always interesting to see what happens between direct complements.

Everything technical seems to be running on the fritz these days. One day I had no internet, no phone, therefore no fax machine and my cell phone was going in and out of service. Talk about feeling shut off from the world!!!

End of July

2009-07-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that July is coming to an end tomorrow. It has been eventful to say the least. Yesterday we had a 5 minute warning of a possible tornado headed our way. NOAA radio and the tv came on at the same time with a warning. The sirens blew in town, so apparently a funnel was spotted. All we saw was a very low cloud and then lots of rain in a short period of time. After the storm had passed, we went to check on several fields for hail and saw a couple of storm spotters.

Everything is still lush and green, that hasn't been hailed. Even those fields are doing their best to look respectable due to all the rain. The moisture profiles are better than they have ever been in the cornfields. Probably ought to frame one of those crop reports as it might be the only time we will ever see an 80-80-80 profile at the end of July in our life time.

I dyed fabric yesterday. I dyed a 7 step run for a direct complement swap for Dyehards. The next one will be a rainbow wheel. Will do that one in Aug. as I have no idea what colors I want to use. I re-organized the dyes today and ordered a few from Dharma. I would like to work more with a wheel I dyed a couple of years ago now!!!

I have finished the structured fabric class, not the piece however. I did remove the yarn and I am going to put some pink fabric over the yellow to tone it down.

I also concluded the journal class with Sharon Boggen on Joggles. It was a great class! I need to go back and do some more of the exercises she gave us during the class. Very helpful.

This is one of the journal pages. It is of the hailed corn. Thought if might provide some interesting subject matter sometime for a small journal quilt.

So August will start, class reunion coming up in a week. The 40th!! Hardly seems possible that 40 years have gone by since I graduated from high school. I have noticed that I am looking older, so maybe it is possible.

Weather!!

2009-07-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is the result of some very high winds we experienced yesterday evening. It was a beautiful crab apple tree. Not sure what is going to happen to it now as over half of the tree is on the ground. At least we didn't get any hail or rain.

The aftermath

2009-07-17T20:03:00.001-07:00

Well our luck ran out today where the hail was concerned. This is a cabbage from our garden. It looks pretty good compared to some of our corn and wheat. It has about 5 dings from hail stones. The hail stones were anywhere from a half dollar to small marbles, with wind. Glad none came through our windows.

There was a 1 1/2 mile stretch on I-70 that was pounded during the storm. Vehicles going west had the back windows completely broken out and vehicles traveling east had windshields shattered.

We hope no one was seriously injured. Our concern was for families with little kids sitting in the back seats or in car seats. The wind was suppose to be around 60 mph at the time, so after the window was broken, I would imagine those in the vehicles had the baseball size hail to contend with coming into their vehicles.

More Structured Fabric

2009-07-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

This is what the piece of structured fabric looks like now. I have one more set of strips to add and it will be completed then I will make something from it.

I took the "Darned Quilt" class from Dena on Quilt University last year and I think I like that technique a little better. As of now, I plan on using what I learned in that class when making the next piece from the structured fabric.

I still have some of the original check fabric I made in the beginning. Stay tuned.

More Rain!!

2009-07-11T10:22:00.001-07:00

Yes, more rain. Any of those who have been following the drought we have gone through out here are probably in shock as all I have done for more years than I care to remember, complained about little or no rain or snow.

BUT I am NOT complaining. Living through the hell of the drought is far more stressful and debilitating on one's mind, body and spirit than dealing with too much rain during wheat harvest.

The flowers are really liking the rain we had last fall. I think that is why they are bigger than they have ever been. This photo is of one of my favorite day lilies, Gentle Shepard.

The next one is of some peach Asiatic lilies, no idea of the name. I need to stake them as they are not standing too well.

All of the flowers fared well last night considering we must have had some formidable winds before the storm. There is eveidence of this in the corn fields, greensnap. Some worse than others. A field of my nephew's, which is a beautiful, tall field of corn, took a very hard hit.

A photo of the radar map, as it looked this morning right at 12:00 a.m. That big hunk of red, south of the I-70 logo is just about ready to come over the area where we live and farm. It was a little frightening to watch it. I was thinking the same thing as my nephew, who was home watching it on his computer---we are going to get wiped out!! Well, we didn't get wiped out as there was no hail, but the wind didn't do us any favors. We received anywhere from 90/1ooths of rain to 50/100ths of rain, so we are out of the wheat fields again today. Everyone is getting nervous as the crop is wonderful and we can't cut it.

As stated earlier, I am not complaining about the rain. Although my stomach is not doing so well, especially watching that storm last night. Just wish it could hold off for about 2 weeks until everyone gets their wheat harvested.

The storms are building in the west as I write this, so we have to hang on for another onslought. We did survive our second flash flood warning of the season though. Didn't see any evidence of that anywhere this morning as the Smoky isn't running nor Sand Creek so we haven't had one yet.

RAIN!!!

2009-07-05T19:27:00.001-07:00

We went to Jennifer & Chad's to watch the fireworks last night. Actually we crashed their BBQ. It was pouring when we arrived.

Apparently we brought the rain back with us as we had a 20% chance of rain here today. Sort of like the 20% chance the other night when we were hailed. We were more than a little concerned when the cell, coming down from Yuma county came closer and closer and it was still red on radar. The NOAA weather
alert never went off, but then who knows about that sometimes.
We did have light rain, then a strong blast of wind and then it rained!!! We received 1.10" in about half an hour. Our ditch is partially full of water and it has been some time since that occurred. It has been a long time since we have had any rain in the month of July.

This photo is looking west of our driveway toward Burlington, which we would normally have a good view of town from here. We couldn't see more than 3/4 to 1 mile. It was a nice rain as it came straight down. Hopefully the dry land corn will grow some brace roots now.

This little shower took care of running around with the combine
tomorrow trying to find some wheat that might be dry. By the
time it dries out so that the combines can go in the field, it will
be ready yo cut.

I threw the photo of the rudibeckias in, as they are one of my favorite flowers.

Another class

2009-07-02T18:02:00.001-07:00

I am currently taking Dena Crain's "Structured Fabrics" class on Quilt University. I am a big fan of online classes!!! I have learned a number of things taking these classes over the years. I personally think it is much better than attending a conference or one day class that is rushed, haul loads of stuff there one NEVER uses or the instructor doesn't even know what is on the supply list. I like 5 day classes, at least the two I have taken.

Anyway, this is the first installment of this class. Should get the next set of instructions tomorrow evening. So if interested, stay tuned and see what happens next. I just started a bead class on Joggles, so will post more on that later.

Wheat Harvest!!

2009-07-01T19:55:00.001-07:00

It is time to cut wheat!! Well, maybe only for a day. We have one field that tried to burn up before the rains came this spring. Good spots, ho hum spots and down right terrible spots.

We took a sample over to the Kanorado Co-op this evening as the elevators in Burlington were closed. No one is cutting because the vast majority of the wheat is not ready. BUT there are storms predicted for this weekend and the storm clouds are in the west this evening.

The picture to the right shows how much dust and chaff are reflected in the flash. I thought I had something on the lens of the camera, but it was just dust. I guess I should have figured that out since I have a headache.

designs

2009-06-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have been working in the flower and veggie gardens quite a bit of late and I am getting behind on the classes I am currently taking online. So today I decided to work on those.

One of the classes is on Joggles, also a great place to find things. Sharon Boggen from Australia is the instructor and this is a design I am working on for lesson 3. It is an excellent class and I have enjoyed it.

I actually have a real, studio journal now. I haven't posted in it everyday, but close. Some days make up for those I don't get around to posting. And then I save little pieces of paper with ideas on them and stick in there. Not always convenient to take it all the places I go. It has been an excellent exercise.

Road Trip!!!

2009-06-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

I might get this blog post done. Not sure as I have had it half
completed and lost it.

Today we went on a road trip. Joedy had been wanting to go to Parks, NE more specifically Rock Creek State Park. So we headed out after Sunday dinner.

We went up the river road to St. Francis, KS. Stopped there at the "K" store for refreshments, good thing too as we were gone over 6 hours.

Our first item of interest were the "Breaks", which are north of
St. Francis. The photo doesn't do them justice. Very interesting formations that would be interesting to explore, if it weren't for snakes. I am sure there are a number of rattlesnakes around these as it is prime country for them.

So on to Parks, which has a post office by the way. As we left Parks and came around a bend we see this sign "Sage Hill Vineyards" and they are open. Okay we have to stop and check this out.

We cross the cattle guard into the pasture and take off on this trail that meanders through pasture, yet all the time our destination is in site. We cross over a small stream, the Dickcissels, Meadowlarks, Lark Sparrows and other birds were singing away and then another cattle guard to arrive at their vineyard and tasting room.

A very nice place and we go in to check out the wine. It wasn't long after we were there that one of the owners finds out we are from Burlington and she asks if we know her husband's sister, who lives
in Burlington. Guess what we know her. Small world. The other
couple that were there at the same time were from Goodland, KS and they ask us if we knew another family that lives there. Yes, we know them too. After we have had a few samples and visit we purchase a couple of bottles. We are going to let the red age a few years. Thought I would take a photo of the road as we were leaving. It is worth the side trip. And the gentleman who owns Sage Hill is in charge of Rock Creek fish hatchery.

So we head on to the lake and come across a doe. I thought I had seen a fawn by her side, but when we backed up to check she was
the only one there. She did give Joedy a nice pose for a photo op
though.

We saw a number of turkeys on our trip and we did see one doe with a fawn along the way. Another turtle today, so that makes 2 turtles in a week's time. Pretty good for not having seen any turtles for years. A couple of snakes we did not recognize as well.

We arrived at Rock Creek State Park. A very nice little lake surrounded by a number of different trees and shrubs, along with some wildflowers, wild roses, and numerous water lilies growing on the north end. The mulberries were ripe too. I thought the most interesting item was the equipment that I am assuming they use to open the gate to allow water to leave the lake. If it isn't what they use, it is still one of my favorite things of the day. There were a few people still there and they have built little jetties out into the lake that people can fish from and there are picnic tables on them as well. A very nice place.

On our way to Parks we came across a ranch that apparently isn't used anymore. This was on highway 34. The corral had a beautiful crop of sunflowers growing in it. We didn't know if they had been planted or if they had come up volunteer. It would be a great site to see when they are in bloom though. Doubtful that we will drive back that direction to check it out.

We attempted to find one more area of the breaks called Devil's
Gap, but failed to do so. I believe we went too far south before
going west. However, we saw some great areas of the breaks, a huge wind turbine they are erecting in the town of Wray, CO. Not sure what words would describe it. Maybe out of place. I wonder how long it will be that the turbines are defunct and sitting around unused like many of the houses we came across today? Yep, you got it, I am not a fan nor a proponent of the things.

We decided to go to Beecher Island, came across more breaks on our way there. The Arickaree River flows through here and it was
the site of an Indian and Calvary battle. There were a couple of tents sent up i n the campgrounds. Can't say much for the river though. Our daughters attended 4-H camp here years ago and came home with food poisoning. So much for extension agents knowing how to take care of food. Of course it wasn't their fault.

After 212 miles, we returned home. We caught the sun setting in the west on our road trip.
We were both tired and glad to be home.

Something old & new & tiny

2009-06-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday as we were looking for wildflowers in the pasture, we came across this flower. I have looked it up and believe it to be a Carolina Larkspur. I had not see one before and they are very noticeable in the pasture as they are 12-18" in height. The best part was that I noticed the little bee in the photo after I loaded it onto the computer.

We then went up to Bonny Dam so we could see how high the water was now. It is somewhat better than last year, but it is still very depressing. Their were only a handful of people out there and normally on Father's Day the place would have been packed. There is talk of draining it, so who knows what will happen over time. Many memories.

On our drive east of the lake, we came across this old house. Can't remember the name by it, but it is close to the KS border. I have started taking photos of old buildings as they seem to fade with time around here. I can think of 6 homes that no longer stand that I went by on the school bus each day. And I went to a birthday party at one house, stayed all night in another, visited a friend in another one. Time changes things. People and structures come and go in our lives. Makes one realize how fragile life really is and to enjoy each moment. There are no guarantees in life, no matter how hard some try to convince us they exist.

Summer is here!!!

2009-06-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

It is officially summer on the calendar and summer outside. We had a cool spring, which was very nice. The heat is on now, but then it should be as it is the 3rd week in June and wheat harvest is around the corner and the corn is in need of some heat units so it can get going.

I wanted to get some photos of wildflowers blooming in our pasture, so I got with it and went out on Friday afternoon when I was suppose to be cleaning house and took some.

I like cactus flowers, just don't care for cactus. The dried blossoms on these even have a nice peachy color.

The other photos is a flower I call Prairie wine cups. Have no idea if that is right or not. Need to go to the wildflower site and look that up.

We went out yesterday afternoon and found some more. Some I had not seen in years. So we have had a good wildflower season.

Studio Journals

2009-06-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

I am currently taking an online class on Studio Journals with Sharon Boggen. I have been told and read a number of times that it is important to keep a journal, a place to store future ideas for projects, things that one finds interesting, but I have never done it. So when I came across the class on Joggles a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to bite the bullet.

I did rubbings today and I was surprised with some of the results.

I did like the leaf rubbings and found that it helps to rub some from the back side. This rubbing is of a sunflower leaf.

Storms

2009-06-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Another storm gathers force as it and others swept across the plains of eastern Colorado this afternoon and evening. This storm was nothing more than a few clouds on the tail end of a powerful storm system that had produced tornadoes and hail, 75 to 100 miles west of us. Within a half hour it had grown into this. Fortunately it was moving rather rapidly and eastward into Kansas.

We have had numerous storms over the last 10 days and everyone holds their collective breath as the storms build here or come in from some other direction.

still flowering

2009-06-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to see this peony looking as fresh as it does in the garden today. We have been receiving rain showers during the night and it usually takes care of the large, heavy peonies. I really like the delicate pink color of this one.

The poppy just opened today. I hope to make an appliqued piece some day using one of the poppies for a desgin. They fascinate me.

I was very happy to see this red peony several years ago. We had redone the flower beds and this peony didn't show up for 4 years. I was afraid we had lost it.

House Plants?????

2009-06-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

The plants should be outside, but they are in the house. We have had numerous severe thunderstorm warnings and today is no different. The plants came in at midnight last night when the NOAA weather radio went off and I left them in today as there is a great deal of moisture around and new storms headed this direction. The plants are still pretty small so I don't want them damaged before we even get a good start on the growing season.

towel bars

2009-06-09T21:22:00.001-07:00

Not the most exciting photo compared to what I have been posting or at least I don't think so, but these things made me think of a number of things this evening.

The towel bars have been a pain in the *&(^ from the beginning. But it made me think of how far cameras had come. Certainly would not be worth discussing towel bars as they are way behind cameras, along with the people from which I ordered the towel bars. But the cameras these days are awesome!!!! I have a nice camera, but it is nothing compared to others I have seen.

I took photography in high school and we used the little box cameras. To develop the film, we threaded the film on spools, placed the spool in a canister, closed the lid and poured the solution into the canister. I might add that this was down in total darkness. We then set a timer and then washed the film. wWe let the film dry, then we would put the film into the next thing, mind is blank at the moment, load the photo paper in trays position everything, and then print the photo. It was still pretty dark. Then it had to go into 3 different solutions and then a water bath, then the photo would be hung up to dry. 1 good photo per roll was about all one could expect.

I much prefer what I do now days! I am able to take 100's of photos, set the camera on a docking device or use a hot wire and download those photos in minutes. Then play with them on Photoshop. I guess I am just trying to figure out why towel bars haven't progressed any more than what they have??!! I don't mean the heated ones, one that would just stay together would be nice and have a reasonable amount of space between the two towels when it is a double towel bar??? Apparently people are much more interested in camera development.

Little Surprises

2009-06-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

The other day I was watering the ivy that hangs in the structure. I noticed some fungus growing on one of the posts. I had not seen this type before and have found it at the base of three of the poles. I enjoy finding little surprises in the garden. There is always something new and different. I like the shape and coloration of these little things. Took a few photos of the bark left on the pole as well, some interesting texture.

The other photos are of flowers. These are the first two water lilies of the summer. They are a delicate pink and are small, another surprise the other day. They are one of my favorites, but then they all seem to be that. The other lilies seem to be off to a slow start, but it has been cool. We placed some fish in the pond a week ago, hopefully they will live. We need to clean it.

The Siberian Iris are blooming now and the surprise here is that they are so short this year when everything else is amazing. I have several groups of these and the blue one finally bloomed this year, the biggest surprise. This variety is Cesar's Brother, the most dependable one for me.

The peonies are larger than they have ever been and the poppies are 8" across. I have never had such beautiful, spring flowers. I hope the summer day lilies are as nice.

Catching Up

2009-06-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

Thought I would catch up on a few things today. Posting for one.

The poppy is currently blooming in the flower garden. I love these flowers, one of my favorite. Hoping to raise some grape colored ones this coming year. They last a short time and take up a good deal of space, but are well worth it.

The other photo is of the chocolate flowered vine. I was cleaning around the area where it grows and noticed all of the stems that have wrapped themselves around the support wire.

When we first planted the vine we had a difficult time training it to go up the wire and on top of the structure. There is a good deal of it on top now. A couple of branches had escaped the wire and were after a Columbine.

June !!!

2009-06-01T16:49:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe that today is June 1st.

The peonies have opened and I believe it is a bit early as they were open the third week of June 10 years ago.

I also had an Oriental poppy open today. It is the one of the pale pink ones. I wanted to take a photo of the poppy, but there is a storm brewing over us at the moment, so thought it best to come in and post it later.

I purchased some new poppy seed this year and one is called grape. Until later.

Refreshed !!!

2009-05-28T09:05:00.001-07:00

It is spring!! One of my favorite times of the year, IF we receive rain. And we had a little over 2" this past weekend. All of the plants are refreshed and they were looking beautiful as it was because of the rains we had last fall.

As I had mentioned before, I had forgotten how beautiful this part of the country is when it rains or snows, even if it is a little below average. It is the way below average that has hurt us. We are not as lush as the rainforest in Australia, http://dsaaustralia.blogspot.com/ ,where my daughter and her students were yesterday or today, however that works. Anyone interested in keeping up with Jennifer's personal blogs from Australia can also go to http://everydayinaphoto.blogspot.com/

The photos today are of a columbine, old fashioned iris that smells like concord grapes and the chocolate mint plant. It has another name, but I cannot recall it at the moment. It is a vine and in the spring it produces these deep, cocoa red colored flowers that smell like chocolate mint. One of my favorites in the garden.

Spring!!!

2009-05-21T20:21:00.001-07:00

Spring seems to be having a hard time finding its way here this year. The flowers and trees are more lush than they have been in years. In the last 8 or 9 years, they looked tired when they started leafing out in the spring. They probably knew what lie ahead in the coming summer months.

The following are a few photos I took two weeks ago. Things have changed drastically in that time as everything has grown. Had hoped to update some of them today, but the wind was blowing and flowers are much prettier standing upright as opposed to leaning over.

Reflecting

2009-05-19T14:03:00.001-07:00

The wind is blowing and it is warm outside. The warm I don't mind, the wind I do. Hopefully we will be blessed with rain this evening as we desperately need it, again. As someone once said, our part of the country is always on the verge of a drought. So I didn't stay outside long and I was not long at weeding in the flower garden, BUT I did come across something that prompted this post.

The photo is of a whirligig that is in our flower garden. Yep, there are only three petals remaining on the flower, have no idea where the other two are, as I have not seen them for several years after one of our big blows. It doesn't twirl anymore, but it will remain there among the flowers. It reminds me of many things. One of the things it reminds me of is myself, faded, rough and worn around the edges, with not all parts working 100% anymore. I need things like that around me as they are comforting in some odd way.

The sun face was the center of the flower and fell off the whirligig some time back. I had not seen it either. I found it this afternoon laying on the grave of our little dog, Vixey. So I am taking it as a sign to do something with this little metal sun in memory of her, as she loved the flower gardens and spent hours hunting in them. It will also become a reminder of friends that I will no longer have association with on a daily basis, as they have recently moved on to other areas, but we shared making such things with metal, fabric, beads, wire, melted things, etc. for several years.

Another reason I am going to use the little sun is that we often times throw things away that aren't new and exciting anymore, a little worn or broken, or we have taken what we want from it and that thing no longer has any value or worth to us or is not useful to us anymore on our quest.

It is also a reminder of all that is going on around me, of what I feel is the desmantling of our country and the way of life I have known for many years, a good life that I fear my children will lose and my grandson will never know. BUT the sun will come up tomorrow, if it is God's will, and it will not warm the earth anymore now than it ever has.

Catching up again

2009-05-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

I am trying to catch up on more things. It is already May 7th and I have not posted anything for this month. So much for trying to do better.

This large pot was a birthday gift from my husband. The photo doesn't show how big this thing really is. It is 30" tall and about 36" wide. This thing will hold water and my guess is that it will end up in one of the flower beds as a water feature of some kind.

The bicycle planter was an early Mother's Day gift from my daughter, her husband and son. It is a nifty little item which I put together this afternoon and I am about ready to head out to the greenhouse and plant flowers in the baskets. They won't be very big yet, but they will grow.

I am still enjoying the Harry and David selection of goodies Jennifer and her husband gave me. They are a special treat on occasion.

Wedding Flowers

2009-04-29T07:25:00.001-07:00

Our youngest daughter was married this past weekend. She was a beautiful bride and it was a beautiful wedding. Everything went well and we didn't have anything go wrong. I have posted photos of the flowers that decorated the church and guest book table. Had a wonderful time with friends and family and a great brunch the following morning.

Bowl

2009-04-29T07:22:00.001-07:00

I received this bowl as a birthday gift from new friends. My son in law's aunt and her husband and mother gave it to me. It was made by Susan Breier, author of "It's a Wrap".

I also received the book and I am looking forward to making a couple of things from it. Have a few ideas of my own as well. Always need placemats and can never find any in the right color. I am excited about this new technique and using up those yards and yards of fabric I don't want to use in peicing quilts.

Mid-April

2009-04-29T07:15:00.001-07:00

Although I am posting these photos on the

29th of April, they were taken on the 15th.
A thunderstorm went through late in the afternoon. I always love the light when the sun comes out and the storm has moved eastward.

Snow Dyed Fabric

2009-04-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

The snow dyed royal blue and wisteria fabric turned out a little better than what the photo indicates. It is the only time I have liked the wisteria.
Next is the bubble gum, yellow and red dyed piece. This was the best group and the following piece was one of the pieces I cleaned up the runoff with and I am very happy with those.

The final piece is one the another area of the bubble

gum, red and yellow piece.

I think I would do this again. The results were so so on some of the colors, so I would be more selective as to which ones I used.

Snow dyeing

2009-03-29T17:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-27T09:44:00.001-07:00

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!!

2009-03-25T13:10:00.001-07:00

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.