Soutache + Painted Button.... Surprise

I spend hours huddled over a magnifying glass at a work table and then my tiny painted buttons venture out into the world and I seldom get to see what happens to them...  But when I do I am always amazed at the next level of creativity...

Here is a prime example.  Kathy bought this gold finch button to make a necklace for her sister who loves gold finches... Using soutache braid, crystals and tiny pearls she has created a stunning, totally unique pendant. I was ecstatic to get to see it in person when she came to do CQ yesterday.

I fell in love with soutache jewelry about a year ago and wanted to adapt it to crazy quilting.  I even bought a bunch of soutache braid at one point... After seeing this I am all inspired again...

Here is my post about soutache which has a link to a french soutache tutorial sent to me by one of my very best button customers who is French.    http://olderrose.blogspot.com/2011/12/fantastic-soutache-tutorial.html I googled images today for soutache and was amazed at what's out there now...apparently it's hot stuff now.... When I first looked into it about a year ago there was very little information.

Another of my stitchers, Sherrie, likes to add  exquisite tiny monograms in the corner of her work to personalize it... Here is one on her current piece.  It is  absolutely joyful little "S". When I said tiny, I meant only hardly more than an inch.  What a lovely touch to add to your needlework...

I cut what seems like miles of bias binding and am starting to assemble my Morris book.  I will take pictures as I go along for a tutorial...

May's BJP progress

I did get started on May's BJP while I was in Alaska but I have no hopes of getting it done by the end of the month... I have 2 other projects that need to be postmarked before May 31 and this can wait and be late. Stitching time is practically nonexistent this month competing with absolute necessary outside chores...

We have both the Western Bluebird and the Mountain Bluebird in our area.. It is usually the red-breasted Western Bluebird that have nested here although I haven't seen any this year.


A nice note today...the double columbine are blooming and so are two of the species clematis...which are finally becoming more available.. I saw signs of growth on my very-difficult-to-transplant Harison rose and all the herbaceous clematis have survived (which are rarely seen on the market) and I want to transplant them closer to house so I can enjoy them but have no idea WHERE!!!



There are spectacular small-flowered clematis and if you choose wisely you can have blooming clematis from May to October. My absolute favorite is "Duchess of Albany"

And when the sheep got out while I was gone they ate all my wonderful Crambe to the ground....hopefully it will recover as it is one of the big and bold plants I adore...

Goldfinch - April BJP

While I was waiting for Rita's CQ RR blocks to arrive I was able to get a good start on my bird for the Bead Journal Project for April. All I have left to do is the background and I have some really odd, but nice, peachy matte beads for that. I have no idea where I got them...in some grab bag or whatever but they will work great on this block...

This goldfinch is from the same drawing I did for the Daffodil CQ block, just reversed. It was interesting to work up the same design with two different mediums. I think I'll do the same with the bluebird/morning glory drawing.

I have the birds chosen for the first 6 months but the list for the last six months changes every day or so... This week the Rufous-sided Towhees arrived and now I want them on the list. They are wildly funny to watch as they can scratch for seeds with BOTH feet at the same time..

Garden Good Witch

Time and again after I started the bird garden things happened that either subtly or dramatically change my course and my life.. They were things that were not anticipated, foreseen, planned or even hoped for by me... Events that fell from the sky in front of me and if I didn't pay attention, hit me in the head..... It was really kinda spooky... Friends suggested I had a gardening angel...but it definitely didn't feel like heavenly intervention and I couldn't envision a sprightly garden fairy or a ethereal garden spirit at work for me.

My guiding force was shrewd, wise, cunning and had a warped sense of humor so I finally decided that I had a Garden Good Witch..

When I was making dolls I sculpted her head as I envisioned her. Unfortunately I stopped making dolls just before I would have started on her body... I do keep her head sitting around where I can see it and often imagine how I would costume her..... I don't often ask you questions, but can you see her as a good witch as I described her?????
The very last doll I worked on was one of my favorites and had the theme "Arsenic and Old Lace"...all she needs is shoes and her head glued on but she has been sitting like that for years. It was the costuming, not so much the making of the dolls, that I enjoyed.

Off to be Gerry Good Wife today and play duplicate bridge with HWCH and have Lamb Shanks with White Beans in the slow cooker for supper... Remember all those darling little lambs from last spring?..............well organic grass-fed yum yum!!

Installment Two - "The New Plan"

Installment 2
"The New Plan"

To make a new plan I had to assess what I had that was positive…. and it was heavy clay soil which holds lots of moisture when wet but also dries to cement… so mulching was an absolute. Low volume drip systems were just coming on the market, which meant I could use water at night when it wasn’t needed in the house. Long-term water supply, even with drip, wasn’t feasible so once a plant was established, it was do-or-die… This also meant I couldn’t become attached to any plant…if it lived – great!.. If it died – plant something else! “Love what loves me” became my plant mantra!!! And most importantly, this garden was going to have to go “wild” at some point.

Plants had to be hardy to zone 4/5, drought tolerant and natives…not hybrids. They had to be very small plants, preferably 6-18” seedlings. I also needed to learn to propagate plants from ones that were a success. I began with trees and shrubs because they take longer to grow. Everything planted had to provide habitat for birds…. either dense cover or fruit, seed heads, etc.. Most anything available at conventional nurseries would require copious amounts of water to get established…so I began a search of classifieds in garden magazines for sources for native plant seedlings.

I found several small ones which I used. But a marvelous thing happened changing my life even more and turned a search into a treasure trove. I discovered a tiny ad for a new nursery, ForestFarm. A young couple, Ray and Peg Prag, started a native plant mail-order business in hopes of providing income while living in the mountains of Oregon... The first catalog was only about 50 pages (no pictures) and teeny, tiny type. But it was packed with exactly the plants I needed and I became one of their best customers. Not only did they have what I needed, it was inexpensive…about $2.25-$2.75 a plant so if a plant died I wasn’t out of a lot of money. But the best thing, absolute icing on the cake, was the fact they sold their plants in paper-like biodegradable tublings… I am happy to report that their business became a huge success and they are now online with pictures!!! http://www.forestfarm.com/ In addition to their online site, their printed catalog is available and includes thousands of plants and once you master their abbreviations it is a superb reference source.. And they still sell their plants in biodegradeable tublings….. Hooray for ForestFarm!!!!!

Now I had to step out into my future garden and begin… and that was overwhelming…so much space and so much nothing! Watch for next installment…”Let the Mulching Begin”

Addendum for scrapbook:

Here's a good example of gone wild....On the left is an old wagon and near the wheel is a shrub getting established. The picture was taken in 1984.... The picture on the right was about 20 years later taken from the other side of the wagon. It has "gone wild" and believe it or not the wagon is still there...barely visible.. The purple plant in the front is perovskia...another plant that loves me...drought tolerant and ignored by both deer and gophers...

Following are two excellent examples of "Love what loves me" are:
Hellebores foetidus -It's very name, foetidus, means stinking. You don't see it often in gardens because it isn't very showy but it loves me... It likes heavy clay soil, is not eaten by either deer or gophers, and self seeds and spread, had lovely foliage and is evergreen. It thrives in sun or shade and is fabulous in bouquets of daffodils... You can buy hybrid varieties but they just aren't as tough...

Hardy geraniums are another plant that adores me. Again the bloom is often not showy but the foliage is exquisite. They thrive in my garden in sun or shade and I let them spread everywhere. And as a bonus they are available in all colors and sizes and are not bothered by deer or gophers. When I do find plants that love me I search out as many of them as I can because most plants do NOT love me..

Seed heads of both these plants are not a favorite with the birds but if it is a hard winter and food supplies are getting exhausted, the birds do eat them eagerly. Pyracantha berries are another example of a "back-up" food source in my garden....

Do go to http://www.forestfarm.com/ and click on "About Us" and read about Ray and Peg Prag. If you love plants and gardening you will love their story and their nursery.

A Garden for the Birds in Twelve Installments

First I wanted to do the birds and then tell the story and then finally figured how to attach the story to the birds. If you follow this story you'll learn how a 20 acre garden for the birds turned my life upside down…

The sign is about 18X24" and has a place of honor in our garden. You’ll find out how I started this garden in May 1980 in a Zone 4 arid region with next to no water and how having no water turned into a blessing.

How this garden which I simply started to attract birds for my husband led to :

-a collection of hundreds of old-fashioned roses
-a nursery specializing in plants for the birds.
-the sale 10s of thousands of plants using no plastic pots
-thousands of people visiting the garden learning to attract birds and conserve water
-eroded land turned into a forest
-being featured in a one book and in Better Homes and Gardens
-sending rootstock to David Austin’s breeding program
-speaking engagements around the world
-hugs from former customers who still bring me pictures of their gardens. …
-a wonderful wild garden full of birds and wildlife that started with this dead tree…..
　
　

I should have the installment one attached by the end of the week...
　

BJP

I'm busy working on my new January piece (the magpie will be Feb) and am soooooooo excited because I finally can see how I can do the journal pieces and incorporate the story as well. I'm off today to the hardware store for some metal tubing and Michaels for matte board and the fabric store for felt...

I chose the birds theme because this May is the 30th anniversary of a personal commitment which took me on a wild journey....

January BJP done!!!

I was already signed up for BJP when I was able to take the wonderful class on bead embroidery in November from Robin Atkins... I came home so excited that I plunged ahead with my project. So I will be doing two pieces in January and will have one extra for a month that I run out of time. I chose 3 1/2 by 5 inches and it didn't take all that long with #11 beads. But Robin has me totally hooked on #15 beads and that takes a whole lot longer...

Since I've spent most of my adult life involved with wild birds and their habitat, it seemed to be the most appropriate theme for me...

Bead journal birds and another block needed!!!

I'm so drawn into the bead journal project I could just start and keep going and do the whole year in a couple months... Luckily I have enough other things going to keep me on track.. But the designs for a nuthatch and a gold finch have been floating in my brain so I sketched them out and tacked them on my bulletin board ready for March and April. The little nuthatches scurry DOWN the trees head first and make me laugh at how quick and agile they are. They never stay at the feeder....just take one seed and fly off to eat it and return.

And of course now that I have all those blocks sewn and ready, everything put away and the table cleared, I realized I need a green one... The last couple years I've wanted to do a block with goldfinches and daffodils and have never had time to make a block when I think of it...... Doing this gold finch sketch was a reminder....

And of course it requires a thistle... My ALL TIME favorite motif was a thistle done by Cobi and it wasn't even on my block...but I did get to fondle it as it passed through... I loved that thistle. Isn't it just too gorgeous ?... It was on lucky Leslie's block in an encrusted RR..

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Moon, Stars, Planets all in Line!!!!

Don't you love it when that happens?? Over the weekend I had been checking for nests as the trees lost their leaves and anxious to see if the magpies had built a nest that would last the winter... Then I signed up for the Bead Journal Project and then the very next thing I received the FeederWatch info (next post) and signed up for that and it was like a sign that my BJP should be birds at my beloved feeders.....and the first one will be a magpie. (see sketch) with a jeweled treasures....

What birds though as there about 70 over the year...my favorites?? No, I decided my first twelve for the project will be from my mostly year-round birds... which include magpies, quail, house finches, robins, goldfinches, flickers, mourning doves, chickadees, nuthatches, downys, grosbeaks, various sparrows, turkeys, juncos etc. If I do it a second year I will do my migratory birds and hawks..

I've sketched my design on heavy muslin as I wanted to paint the fabric with alcohol dyes.. My first choice was beading on felt and if the muslin doesn't work I'll revert to felt... Carol wrote to tell me it does not start until January so I am not behind at all and my friend Ati in Norway is signing up also!!!! Hooray....