May full of flowers

This month is so full of flowers and things to do. It is like nature woke up for us and put on a lovely show and we are busy doing the same. All sorts of invitations and activities come rolling in and sadly so many have to be left unattended but the ones we do get to participate in are rich and colorful.

Phyllis (mom) with her purple iris and one black iris lower right corner.

I have been lucky to have visited my mother in Manassas twice this month which allows me to see the results of the flower planting I have done over the years. Things like iris that bloom and are gone in two weeks I get to see this year. I surprised to see the black iris from Fairhaven Cliffs on the Chesapeake Bay bloom in her iris bed.  I thought I planted the black iris  and then it didn't bloom but the yellow one did last year... Those iris are tricky to predict sometimes they bloom the first year like my black iris did in DC and sometimes it takes two years for them to flower after transplanting. It was a delight to find them taking hold with three stalks! Juanita and Molly said they were "very hardy" when I was gifted a half dozen plants year before last from Juanita's garden.

darkest purple red iris is called "Black" by Juanita who gave them to us. 

Another richly colored delight is the gift from brother David of a red rhododendron which has tripled in size since we planted it and gave a big show of color this year. It's planted on the north side of the house which used to be home to a huge lavender colored rhododendron that had to be removed for some reason that is forgotten over the years. There is an empty spot there now where a tall hemlock evergreen tree met the same fate earlier this year. The tree was split at the top by a storm so it had to be cut down and we are still trying to decide what to plant in this bed. 

Finally the front porch planters are looking swift with hot pink geraniums, dianthus in red white and pink, magenta celosia and a pink with yellow striped calibrachoa and some trailing silvery gray vines. My photos barely show the colors but to the visitor it's a very pretty collection. 

Last today the hanging pot is filled with calibrachoa in hot pink and blue lobelia and one I don't know that is pale pink. 

It's fun to have a second garden to visit and help plant and plan. The hard part is for mom, she is there keeping it watered in the hot weather and watching for flowers which seem to take so long to appear then vanish before you can blink an eye. 

Next week I am excited to see the two peonies we planted two years ago bloom for the first time. Stay tuned for updates or visit my flickr.com page to see more as they are coming in from both our gardens and all around. 

Chesapeake bay house autumn artists retreat

cirrus clouds blew in to view for a week of perfect weather 

first arrangement of wild and garden flowers Keith built upon arrival

view from the bay window at dawn one morning 

sun rise on the bay

Kudzu grows up and over trees in the little valley by the red house 

Unknown bug in the field

the boats docked in Chesapeake Beach by the railway trail 

green heron at the edge of the water hunting tiny fish thousands of them were visible from above on the boadwalk

one of many great blue herons stalking

beautiful cirrus clouds and crisp autumn air make for perfect walking weather by the bay

Mallard ducks on the waterway below the board walk trail

wild magenta purple morning glory on a barbed wire fence; ample seeds collected to add to our garden next season

King fisher perched on a pole along the waterway squawked  and fled a closer perch when we passed on the boardwalk 

white snowy egrets on that distant pier and in the shallow water's edge

on the ride home we pass in a Nature Conservancy's preserve and there was a flock of 9 wild turkey's strolling in a field at the edge of the forest.

Here the turkey's are marching off into the shadows aware of us but not panicked by it... still the photo from the car seat wasn't the best. 

beginning to notice some color in the eastern clouds as they approach the bay from the west.

we rushed over to the lake to get the best views of the sunset looking west

Rain had been in the forecast all day but not until sunset did we see any clouds 

by the time we made it to the lake (10 minute quick hike from the house) we began to see not only clouds and colorful sunset but what looked like rain falling

We headed back to the house as it began to get darker since we didn't bring a flashlight

from the bridge where we talked to a few of the fishermen who showed us their catch the white of the clay cliffs by our house are visible across the bay

We had a really great time staying in the Ruppert's red house by the Chesapeake bay this past week. Keith and I packed up everything we would need, including food and linens as well as tools and supplies to make our respective artist projects and drove only 40 miles from our apartment to the bay house Molly and her family offered us to use as an artist's retreat last week. We spent a day getting unpacked, setting up the studios we needed and then rains came and we were ready to work inside. Once the rains passed we were ready for a good long walk and there is always plenty to see and enjoy. I left my Internet and TV at home which allowed me to be very focused on my quilting projects and resting in between with good food and company. We took turns cooking, I made breakfast and lunch then worked while Keith made dinner and our late night egg white & bran galette with fruit, a routine we began while dieting that we keep because we love it so much. We went one day to Chesapeake Beach to the great little thrift shop. I got an armload of quilting fabrics and sheets plus two hand knitted wash cloths two dress shirts two pair of pants and two ceramic vases for a grand total of $7.50. Astounding to walk out with so much for so little. Then we took an ambitious walk on the boardwalk and trail along the old railway path. Nature abounds there with tidal marsh and flowing waterways that empty into the bay. Forest and fields... birds everywhere and a few wild flowers for the careful observer were a delight. I took a limited number of photos for the whole week. Total came to 46 in the end many of those of the amazing sunset and storm that passed over Fairhaven Cliffs the last evening we were there. We got drenched on the warm walk home but it was worth the wet spell to see the beautiful sunset and get a record to end our week with a dramatic show of colors. It is such a blessing to have an occasional retreat from the city where we saw wild turkeys, bald eagles, king fisher, blue herons, crows, ground hogs,deer and more creatures to many to list. Keith heard owls several times very late in the night but I slept through the concerts of hooting on this visit. We enjoyed a night of star gazing on the deck a few times and walks on the beach to collect drift wood and cuttings for Keith's work. I tried my hand at reed cutting (bamboo) to make some pens to draw with like Vincent Van Gogh used. I did only one drawing this time but now I have a collection of bamboo to cut as needed for more this winter. For me completing the Rose-star quilt basting was a major accomplishment for my week but I am going to post later on the quilting accomplishments when I get a few more photos to show.

Inching forward

Crazy Quilt details 

I have been working on quilt projects most of this year little by little. I was lucky to have time and space to spread out and focus on my first real piecework quilt at the red house by the Chesapeake bay a few times this fall and completed it in record time. It came between the long term project that I began when I was twelve a yo-yo quilt which I finished in July. Then I had a crazy quilt I began in 1999 that I had to set into deep storage due to some physical disabilities which made embroidery and complex abstract piecework very painful. After my trip to Williamsburg and completing the Fairhaven Summer Quilt I decided it was time to try a new design of my own which is based on the fencing design I liked there. I also pulled out the crazy quilt pieces to take with me for a long weekend at the bay. Lucky I did because the sewing machine got jammed up and I didn't finish as much as I had hoped to do on the Williamsburg project. So I began working a little hand work again on the crazy quilt blocks. It is always fun but I know I have to go inch by inch not great leaps and bounds to prevent injury to my neck now. How ever it is a delight to work on it little goals come with great pride and reward each time I finish a line of embroidery it feels like a home run or a field goal! I also delight in the images I can make of the close work to share on flickr. and facebook. So I thought it would be fun to show some of them today. I recently bought some dark red velvet to do the edges and hopefully will be able to buy enough to use it as the backing for this elegant creation.

Lavender lacy medallions with yellow-green circular blanket stitches (center)

Added orange blanket stitch triangles on purple square and the lace medallions with lavender circular blanket stitch in the blue green check (center)

Yellow on the purple is a new stitch called Basque stitch

yellow green herringbone on purple plaid plus red french knots  was fun to do (lower left) 

All the crazy quilt blocks spread out on a double bed in Manassas last time I began work  looked pretty close to ready to assemble 

Wide view of the room where I worked on the crazy quilt in 2009-10 

November wrap up

Sketch of my bed at the bay under the Fairhaven Summer Quilt now completed 

A house with a great view at the Chesapeake Bay

I was so stretched in November that I didn't get time to post news about some of the good stuff I wanted to do so I am taking a little time now to do it here in early December.
There was a trip to the Fairhaven Cliffs and a few days alone in the Red house with a few dozen lady bugs and my completed quilt. I took new materials and worked on the Williamsburg project. I also dug out my Crazy Quilt from the past eleven years and did a little more work on that huge project. I realized I didn't have enough time to do them both so when the machine jammed up I turned to hand embroidery to finish my time at the bay. Then there was a week of volunteer work at the Pyramid Atlantic Arts studio making boxes with my friend Kelly O'Brien for the Moving Parts project. With Gretchen and a couple of volunteers who dropped in we worked for five days almost all day finishing up as much as we could. It's not completely done but we took a big leap forward with 17 fully completed clam shell boxes! Only 26 more to go and since Kelly lives in Germany now we will wait till next summer when she comes back to do some more intensive work towards the goal of 50 completed box sets. In the middle of the week Keith and I went out with a fully cooked organic turkey and some delicious pumpkin pie and feasted with Mom and my brother David and spent the night. Next day we went shopping and I got some more quilting fabrics for the two projects I am working on now and some for a future project. The sale was great at Joann's Fabrics 20% off everything including sale prices! So I splurged and got some red velvet for the Crazy Quilt. I need more so that will be a good wish list item for my Holiday gift list. Then I went back to finish up boxes and in the mean time I have been trying to finish up some binding work of my own journals and sketches.

arrived at the bay in the rain

got to work on the green and white strips 

Gray skies didn't discourage and the low tide was amazingly low! 

A very handsome house at the top of the hill on the road overlooking the bay 

view of the bay from the high ground by neighbor Foust's house 

Red house view from the beach with no green leaves or kudzu

clay cliffs

17 clam shell boxes under weights drying 

17 clam shell boxes ready to wrap and store at Pyramid Atlantic

Some of the work I finished on the Williamsburg Quilt project 

something that belongs in every work of art, sparkle

In the next post I will show the sketches I did the last week riding metro to go volunteer at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Studios....