More and More Rain and Some Dyeing!

Just a picture of some of Joe's pretty flowers!

These are pictures of about a 18 x 22 section of the piece. Each full sized piece is 2 yards.
This is another view of these pieces with different colors.

<

This is the piece that got literally soaked through and through about an hour after it was starting to batch. It is quite a bit lighter than the other pieces but I was amazed to have any color at all.

Another fat quarter chunk. This was batched a good 24 hours and then nuked for 4 minutes to top it off. It looked almost totally black before washing.

Just another view.

Well, the weather has not been at all cooperative and life has been very exciting around here besides! I did finally manage to get some pictures that looked like the fabric. For some reason, my camera (which usually takes the best pictures) rebels when it comes to fabric and I get these strange wavy lines when using the flash. So I took these from a distance and zoomed and so they are not too bad.

These are the pieces I have done over the last couple of days. Generally, I have just put some of every color on them trying to get every combination and permutation. They have all sat for at least 24 hours and then were nuked before washing out. I only nuked the last two for a total of about four minutes altogether. They were still very wet this morning as was piece yesterday. We can't seem to lose the humidity although there hasn't been that much warmth -- just a consistent 80. Two more pieces today with the leftover dyes and then a hiatus until I return from QBL in Morrisville where I do a week of marbling (and hopefully blogging as well).

Why the heck does the magnolia tree in the front of our house have a load of flowers at the end of July??

Have You Ever Heard of a Northern Catalpa Tree?

This is the beginning of the walk along the expressway just at dusk which is nice because it is shady the whole way!

Well, I have just spent the past hour trying to find the name of this flowering tree which I saw on my walk last evening, growing in the wild. It is not easy to identify something when you have no idea what it is except that it is a tree growing in NY and it has beautiful white orchid looking flowers. But finally I succeeded and now I want one! It is the Northern Catalpa. The leaves are very large and the flowers are in large clusters and look like miniature orchids -- I have a weakness for orchids...

Surprisingly, my pictures of sweet peas really came out well. They grow wild along the fence next to a very busy expressway, along which there is a pedestrian walkway which you can see above.

It always amazes me how many different kinds of wildflowers you can find along these narrow wild areas. I probably saw at least four or five other varieties. It was very windy and a getting toward sunset, so picture taking can be a bit challenging as there is not enough light to get the shutter speed fast enough!

Beginning of a New Week

Or the end of an old life as I start Weight Watchers for the first time in about 15 years tomorrow night! I am not feeling too confident but will try as I have gotten into some awful habits lately!



Today was another of our beautiful spring days so Warren and I took the opportunity to explore Durand Eastman Park. This park is located right on Lake Ontario and is about 1000 acres and includes many paved and dirt paths to explore. What a treat. One thing about dull old Rochester, when there is color, there is COLOR! This is just a view looking out over Trott Lake one of the two of the larger lakes in the park.

We have been trying to get around and continue the exploring we did in the area two years ago when Warren first retired. Last year we were in Colorado at this time at the beginning of our "great adventure". When it rains, I work furiously on machine quilting the quilts I have lined up. I finished the Yellowstone piece and am now working madly on the batik sampler. I am trying to keep quilting time down to no more than an hour or so at a time. When I did the big sampler quilt, I lost use of one rotator cuff for over a year and I don't want to go through that again!! So far, so good. I am beginning to think it was the hand quilting that did it, like Jane Townswick warned. I am now also more careful with this and keep a shorter thread which is what she advised. The batik quilt will have no hand quilting though -- batik is not fun to quilt through!

Just took a few pictures and put them up on a Picasa album but will share a few here as well.

This is more of the magnolia blossoms. Because Durand Eastman is so close to Lake Ontario which is still very cold, trees bloom about two weeks later than further inland.


This is one of the many turkeys that Warren always sees going to the park. We only saw two but he says that this group of 10 or so seems to be hanging out at this south end of the park -- this time in someone's driveway.
This one of the many white dogwoods in the park
This is one of two sets of nesting pairs of mute swans we saw on our walk. The males are very attentive to the female who is very sleepy in this picture.
This is our one lonely rhododendron that we have in front of the house. It doesn't bloom all that often but we were treated this year.

Another Beautiful Spring Day!!

Well, here is Warren working diligently while I run around with my camera taking pictures!!


This is one of the first trilliums out. It was very unusual this year to see the cranberry colored and white trilliums come out at the same time. Usually, I see the reds and then look for the whites a few days later when the reds are looking bedraggled.


These are the magnolias in our front yard. The flowers are all very high in the tree but look beautiful against the bright blue sky.


Well, I left the sewing room alone today as it was so gorgeous out, I couldn't stand being left inside! I had to go grocery shopping, so I just took a 20 mile side trip to Marcia's to see how the ladies were doing in Pat Pauly's Slash class. They were all doing famously and I offered to guess whose piece was who's. I did fairly well. Barb Seils was trying to step out a bit from her usual so I switched her with Linda Bachman and I mixed Barb Magin with Charmaine Babineau as well but not too bad. As I have only been in one other class with Charmaine and didn't know Barb, I didn't feel too bad!!


These are some more of the flowers in my neighbor Joe's front yard.



These are the deep red trillium that bloom in our backyards also. In Batavia, NY where we lived for many years, there was also a variety that was pink and that was the most prevalent. I have yet to see a pink one in Rochester.





These three pieces are from the class. They are top to bottom Barb Seils, Linda Bachman and Charmaine Babineau. I think double clicking on any of these will give you a bigger picture and more detail.





The above are Priscilla Kibbee,Barb Magin, Nancy Hicks and then Marcia Decamp who was hosting the class in her wonderful studio.


This was a beautiful quilt top done by Barb Seils which her lucky nephew will be getting. He was very particular about the colors! It is my favorite pallette so I loved it!


And last but not least was the woodchuck that was out enjoying the April sun in the pasture. He was about a football field away but the telephoto did pretty good at capturing him! Marcia and Bill wish I could capture him for good as he has made a very happy home on their property -- he certainly looked well taken care of!