New Fish

 One more little fishie for my Under the Sea fabric book. This is supprosed to be a monthly challenge for my FiberWorks group, but I am way ahead. This would be September. But that's ok because I want to do another book of whimsical birds. I think they will all be embroidered in a similar style so that the book is cohesive, which this one is not.

I like to have a little hand work to do in the evening when watching TV. And I want to take something with me to Florida in February.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday. Go see what some talented people are doing.

City Quilts

 The theme for FiberWorks annual show at the library this year is Cityscapes. I wasn't thrilled with the idea at first because I had made so many city quilts over the years and did not want to make another.  Even though they were very successful; some sold and some were juried into shows. I will show some of them here.

HOUSTON REFLECTIONS

This is the quilt that started them all. I had taken photos of buildings in Houston, TX while there for the big International Quilt Festival. The mirrored surfaces gave a distorted view of their neighboring buildings. I printed some of the photos on fabric and did wonky piecing to replicate the feeling.

It was juried into the show the following year where it won a second place in its category.  

I went on to make several of the "City" quilts, minus the photos, using my hand dyed fabrics. Emerald City was purchased by Yale New Haven Hospital for one of their doctor's waiting rooms.

Sunrise City was purchaed  at a library show as part of a Fiber Revolution show.

City Lights

This was a small quilt made for a FiberWorks show with a theme of Gray Plus One.

It won a Best of Show in a Woman's Club competition.

And there are more, but I can't find all the pictures. But maybe you can see why I didn't want to do another.  

Several years ago I took a trip with my sister to Greece. It was a wonderful adventure and I was smitten with the island city of Santorini with its white washed buldings and brilliant blue roofs. I knew I wanted to capture the feeling in a quilt, but never got around to it. This was the perfect opportunity. 

It is all fused appplique and was a challenge to make. I am usually a piecer. I haven't decided how to quilt it. I was thinking of doing corduroy quilting, which is rows of straight line quilting all over the quilt a quarter inch apart. I showed it to my quilt group and everyone said NO!. so now I have to figure out what to do.

All suggestions are welcome.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Echinacea and Scaevola

Better know as Purple Cone Flower and Fan Flower. Two of my favorite garden flowers. Let's do Echinacea first. They are perennial, which means they come up every year. They are very hardy and are even deer resistant. What's not to love?

This is a big clump that was planted probably 25 years ago. There where some white ones in there, but they seem to have turned pink. They are about four feet tall. There are some Rudbeckia (Blackeyed Susan) mixed in, but they aren't blooming yet. I like it when they are blooming together, maybe next week.

This is a new variety I planted last year in my front garden, where I wanted something short. This variety is called Delicious Candy. big centers and short fuchsia pink petals. I was so pleased that they survived the winter. Lots of buds not yet opened. Now that they're established, they will spread and make an even bigger mound.  

Now onto Scaevola, an annual that has been a favorite for many years. Originally they were a brilliant blue and I would buy two or three hanging basket to take out of the basket and plant in a decorative pots. Passer-byes would often ask, "What are those gorgeous blue flowers?" It is a great plant because it blooms all summer, and is self cleaning. The only requirement is water. They do not like to dry out and in hot dry weather I water them every day.

When shopping this year I found this light blue variety and bought three baskets. The nursery didn't have the bright blue ones. While I do like this variety, I would have liked one of the bright blues. Next year!

When I went back a couple weeks later they had a whole table of 4 inch pots with many different colors. Be still my heart....bright pink, light pink, dark pink, purple, and white. so I bought one of each and planted them in small blue pots.

I think this is my favorite. There are two different varieties. The shorter ones are a brilliant bright pink and the spiky ones are a lighter pink. I cut the spiky ones back becasue they were getting leggy.

 

Gardening has been a challenge this year. First with my surgery and now with my achilles tendon. I only have to wear my "boot" now if walking for awhile. Otherwise I can just wear a sneaker with heel lifts. I go to PT three times a week. The goal is to get me off the boot entirely, then just  shoes with a heel lift and them Nothing! Doing anything with the boot on is difficult so I will be gald to see it go. 

Happy gardening if you garden and happy looking if you don't As for me, I have to have my flowers.