Where does the time go???

It has been over a month since the last post and I was really going to try and do a better job this year.  I even considered trying the 365 photo thing again.  Good intentions--- as they say.

I believe I was catching up from last year so the last quarter is going to be brief.  Kathy, ReneeL, Judy, Sheena and I went to the AQS Quilt show in Des Moines, IA at the beginning of Oct.  Had a great time, saw some beautiful quilts and saw some interesting country side.  I would love to spend more time in that part of IA.  Some of my family came from that area as well.

I took another class from David Taylor in Denver in Oct.  Stayed with my daughter and her family, which was close to the class location.  So now I have two quilts I am working on and no work has been done on either of them.

We had a less than productive corn harvest after the heat and drought last summer.   The dry land wheat didn't come up in some places and it is still dry!

Had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I managed to make three quilts for each of my grandsons.  I even had them wrapped and under the tree the Wednesday before Christmas.  So 2012 ended with the usual book work.  I think they should change the end of the year for closing ones books so it doesn't interfere with Christmas.  It is a drag and I dislike it more each year!!!  So we wrapped up 2012.

2013, I can start the New Year and two months have almost been completed !!  As the title states, where does the time go??   

As is usually the case around here the New Year starts off with more book work, which was the case this year.  I was really organized, didn't make too many mistakes on the info I took to the accountant, got all the nasty little forms required by our benevolent government completed quickly and mailed. 

   I was ready to take the Dyeing to Design class taught by Elizabeth Barton on QU.  That was something I attempted last fall and ran into too many other things.  I did get the black gradation dyed and then I managed to come down with strep again.  Grand kids share so many things with their grandmas!!!  So I was a little behind in that class once again and then I felt the pressure to dye fabric for Hollis' class in TX.  Now I did have an entire year to work that in, but it didn't happen and the class is very close at hand now.

So that is what I have been doing for the last two weeks.  Now I am sure there are some who would say, go to your sewing room and get some you have already dyed.  But that won't work!!!   I needed gradations and I have wanted to do some ice dyeing for some time now.  I now have a lot of gradations and some awesome ice dyeing pieces.  Thanks to Judi, who taught me how to do it during our Retreat almost 3 years ago now.

Golden Brown and Marigold

Caribbean Blue and Citrus Yellow

 These are some of the pieces I made using ice in one form or another.  Hopefully they will be useful somewhere along the way.

Golden Brown

Havana Brown

 I will post some of the gradations later.

   

Ice Blue and Citrus Yellow

A good friend sent word this evening that Carol Miller, founder of Quilt University, lost her battle with cancer.  When she founded QU, she did a wonderful thing for many of us in the quilting world. Thank you Carol!!!   

Looks like I am behind, again

Thought I would post on the blog today, especially since nothing has been posted for months and months.  This is old stuff, but I had a number of good times in 2012 and want to document them so I can look back and remember what I did.  This blog is my diary.

Since July, the garden has been harvested, some of it cleaned out and now it is time to start ordering seeds for this year's garden.  I would say the hoop house was a success due to the brutal growing conditions we had last summer.  

The stewed tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, salsa, dill pickles, pickle relish, cabbage relish, zucchini/jalapeno relish, sauerkraut, green beans, onions, garlic, salsa w/black beans and roasted corn, and roasted corn relish (the corn came from the field, but the other things came from the garden) are in jars or the freezer.  We have been enjoying them this winter.  


We managed to get away for another camping trip in August to a ranch near Walden.  It is an interesting area.  Dry, with sage brush on the hills and then you can be right up among the aspen and pines in a second.

 
Grandpa and our oldest grandson had a good time fishing.  And there was some different equipment on the Ranch that our grandson had not seen before so that really made the trip worthwhile.  He had a million questions about all of it as well.  

The end of August rolled around and friends Ricky and Don from Winnipeg came for a week.  Ricky and I had a great time dyeing, while Don was roped into helping Joedy, Cory and Rodney build the "Sky Fort".   

We celebrated my mom's 85th birthday party the evening they finished it, so it was thoroughly tested by a number of her great grand kids during the party.  It held up well, thanks to the great construction crew.  It does actually set level.   My grandson refers to it as "Grandma's Park".  Works for me.

Ricky and I traveled to Steamboat Springs the next week to take an applique class from David Taylor.  We stayed at the The Steamboat Grand .  It is a very nice place, but quite a hike from our room to the classroom.  We decided that was our exercise each day.  

One morning when I was admiring the beauty of the valley, I saw this bushy, tailed fox searching for breakfast on the path below our hotel window.   His photo showed up in the local paper on Friday.  

It was a great class!!!  We had a good time, meet some very  nice women, with a great deal of talent.  There were 25 of us and we came from all over the place.  Sheri took very good care of us, too. 

 David is an excellent instructor and is shown giving us some tips on quilting.   I learned a great deal and hopefully it won't be too much longer before I get back to working on the piece I started.  It is a  photo of Vixey, our little Pomeranian we had for a number of years.     

Joedy and Don came over to meet us after the class was over.   While Ricky and Don headed west, we headed east.  We went home the back way, stopped by the Ranch near Walden and through Winter Park.  The aspen were starting to turn, something we seldom see since we are busy with fall work most of the time.    

That takes care of the third quarter of 2012.  Will get another post completed about the rest of 2012.   Then I can start on 2013.  

The veggies are growing

This spring we put up a hoop house covered with shade cloth.  The benefits-- less wind, less heat, protection from hail.  I think fewer large insects, i.e. the white butterflies have less access along with the sphinx moths and larger grasshoppers. 

The first photo is the frame as it looked in May.  We then covered the hoops with 40% shade cloth.  I made the ends as they cannot be ordered.  It took a few days in the 'sweat' shop to get those made.  And of course one week after it was completed we had one of our horrendous days of wind that have been far too common this year and due to a minor design problem, the shade cloth was cut and ended up with a 4' opening in it on the east end.  Of course that had to be repaired, in the wind,  and we solved the problem so it wouldn't happen again.

This is the south side after it was planted.  We had all of the plants in by the end of May.  Our tomato varieties are Viva Italia, Rutgers, San Marzano, Super San Marzano, Harlequin, Margarita, Principe Borghese and Tachi.

   To the left is the garden at the end of May and to the right is the garden today.  You can see the grain trailer to the right, which helps block more wind.  As I said, the wind has over done its thing this year.

 These are the San Marzano tomatoes.  They have continued to set during the heat we have had in June and July.  The ones that have done the best are the Viva Italia though.  They have been going non stop and since it cooled down over the weekend, they have really gone nuts.

 The cabbages are doing well.  We have Pixie, Bourbon, Bobcat, Stonehead, Late Flat Dutch, Copenhagen Market, Blue Thunder, Blue Dynasty, Caraflex and one  Mammoth Red.  One bed is doing quite well, while the other one is sort of taking it's sweet time.  This photo is of the good bed.  I had a hard time getting this bed to live while the other bed took off, but they have since reversed their attitude.

 The carrots are planted between the green bean rows.  We have Circus, Kuroda, Little Fingers and Cosmic Purple.  The Circus carrots have three colors, orange, white and purple.  Anxious to see the colored ones as I have not grown any before.  I grew them for our grandsons, who eat purple carrots in the squeeze packs of baby food they have now days.  The oldest grandson might wonder about them.  We have purple pod green beans and regular green beans that we refer to as Bob beans. 

The peppers are in two different beds.  We put the support between the rows so we can tie the plants to them as they grow.  They were getting a little too much water, but I now have that under control and they are doing better.  We have several kinds of Anaheims, Jalapenos, Spanish Padron, Cayenne, and California Wonder. 

The onions are grown in a bed outside of the hoop house.   I start the plants from seeds early in the spring.  We have Australian Browns, Yellow Parma, Candy, White Cipollins, Italian Torpedo, and Borteannas.  There is another bed in the old garden area of onions as not all the plants would fit in this one.  One can never have too many onions or too much garlic. 

We have a couple of types of winter squash, gourds, baby beets and various herbs scattered around in the hoop house and outside of it.

  

The garlic bed as it looked in May of this year to the left.  First time I have ever really worked at growing garlic.  Have grown it over the years, but I am trying to learn how to grow and harvest it correctly.  We planted the garlic in late October of 2011.  The varieties we planted were Polish Softneck, Italian Late, Purple Glazer, Duganski, Chesnok Red, and Mt. St. Helens.  I harvested the garlic at the end of June, braided the soft neck varieties and bundled the hardnecks.  The garlic was then hung under a shed where it will be out of the sun and will cure for 4 weeks.

That is the end of the garden tour.  I will say the hoop house has far exceeded my expectations.  The wind and heat have been overbearing this summer, I know the plants would have suffered greatly had they not been in the hoop house.   

In Memory.....

Two years ago today my sister passed away from breast cancer.  I still miss her very much.   Some lovely person gave this 'Knockout Rose' bush to the family after her death.  Everyone thought I should take it home.  It is in our flower garden and I remember what a beautiful and wonderful person she was when I see it, even when it isn't blooming. 

Springtime

It seems that some things are a little early this year.  The crabapple is about 10 days early.  This photo was taken a couple of years ago, but it was better than some and it looks the same, covered with beautiful off white blossoms containing a hint of pink.

   

The bleeding heart is knocking itself out.  The plant is beautiful this spring, no bugs bugging it.   Surprisingly the aphids are no where to be found.

  There are many little hearts this year.  I should try painting some of these little things.  Perhaps today would be a good day if the wind is not blowing. 

The tulips are few and far between.  Most are still waiting to unfold.  This is one my daughter brought back from her visit to Europe in 2001.  Wow, time flies!!!  Hard to believe it has been that long.

The daffodils are still holding on, surprising because it was so warm earlier.  These are a later blooming variety, but we have had daffodils for weeks now.  

And last but not least, the greenhouse.  Most of the plants are quite small yet.  I don't like setting the garden plants out until late May.  Most are only three weeks old, but in another three weeks time these little things will be quite large.  Or at least that if my hope.  

I have planted 10 varieties of cabbage, 9 different tomatoes, 6 kinds of peppers, 7 varieties of onions, gourds, different flowers such as verbena, toad flax, African daisies, poppies, petunias, lobelia, and the alyssum will be planted next week.  

The Weather Stick

 I can see this new format will take a bit of getting use to.  I published this post once today, but somehow lost it in translation or somewhere.


To the right is my Vermont Weather Stick .  I received this unique little stick from my husband as a Christmas gift. 


It took awhile to get it hung under the eave, but that didn't matter since we really had little weather of any significance other than wind this past winter and early spring.  


The little stick usually is turned skyward, much more 
so than it is today, top photo.  We are wondering if the poor little thing is defective or just hasn't acclimated itself to Colorado weather patterns and conditions.  Which would be understandable since it grew up in Vermont.  


It is interesting to say the least and surprising that the little stick does move.  I will post a photo of it turned skyward one of these days.  The second photo was take after we received some rain last week.


I am currently taking a journal class from Jane LaFazio on Joggles.  Why, I don't know!!!  I love Jane's classes, but I have little desire to do anything right now.  I guess I am still recovering from being sick and trying to keep up with the daily things.  I did do the first assignment, which is not one of the best things I have drawn and painted.  I couldn't find my good watercolors, they were hiding out down in the sewing room.  Can't say as I blame them.  I do need to get them out and get going on this class as it is fun.  I have at least been reading the lessons.  Not that it gets the work done.  Which is one thing I really want to focus on this year, "Doing the Work!"  It is only mid April, there is still time to kick it in gear.  

So Much for posting more in March

Another month coming to a close!!!  Where the heck to they disappear to?  The only thing I accomplished was a little watercolor pencil work, a sinus infection and while on medication for that, picked up Influenza A.  I totally missed participating in the Silk Dyeing class I had signed up for on QU with Marjie.  I have saved those lessons and will get to them one of these days.  I had really looked forward to that one as well. 

I was already in a class on Joggles with Dion Dior and watercolor pencils.  I did manage to get through the first lesson of that one before getting sick.  The water color pencils are going to take some more work and present different challenges.  It was a great class.

A new class started yesterday with Jane LaFazio. Just got the lesson printed off this morning. It is another "Watercolor Sketchbook" class entitled "Designs from Life" and is through Joggles. Hopefully I will get a little more done in this one than the last one I took from Jane. Don't remember what happened, but I became totally sidetracked in that one.

I did get the color wheel dyed for our Dyehard swap last week and packaged it up at the first of the week.  I didn't think much of the colors when dyeing it, but one should never rush to judgement due to the influence of the soda ash.  It turned out much better than I thought it was going to, particularly the one I used brown as an additive.  That did wonders for the fuchsia!!!   It is a great fall pallette. 

The light color wheel is on the left and the one with the brown additive to a medium color wheel is below.

 

I will have 8 different color wheels coming back from Mary in OR.  Hopefully mine arrived today, it was sent Priority, doesn't mean much at times though.

 

So it is back to the greenhouse and planting this afternoon. I received a very nice Moleskin Garden Log for Christmas from my husband. I have started keeping track of what is being planted. I write it down inside because if I were to take it out with me, it would be a mess. I guess he thought I needed something after seeing all of the papers I leave laying around with names and numbers on them of veggies, herbs and flowers. I have the peppers, onions

planted so far. Only a week late.

So it is back to the greenhouse and planting this afternoon.  I received a very nice Moleskin Garden Log for Christmas from my husband.  I have started keeping track of what is being planted.  I write it down inside because if I were to take it out with me, it would be a mess.  I guess he thought I needed something after seeing all of the papers I leave laying around with names and numbers on them of veggies,

herbs and flowers.  I have the peppers, onions

planted so far.  Only a week late on those.  Hopefully I will have the tomatoes and lobelia planted by this afternoon.