My new landscaping

We are in a 2 year drought. Things will only get worse. So I have being doing things gradually to be more environmentally friendly and reduce my footprint on this earth in hopes of leaving something of value for my grandchildren. I have replaced all my household appliances to energy and water efficient ones. We have converted our pool heater from electric to solar. And now, we have removed our turf lawn and in it's place are putting in native, drought tolerant plants, that after established in 45- 60 days, will require no extra watering other than natural rainfall, and no mowing. It is not a cheap process, but in the end will save natural resources and look good...even in a drought! the first few photos are before and during the lawn removal. We removed no trees and also left all the mature plantings that were native and drought tolerant.

You can clearly see the property line here...ours brown, neighbors green!

And now, the planting is under way. Still a long way to go, but progress none the less. There will be no grass...just a garden with winding paths through the plants. A natural xeroscape. But it will be green and beautiful year round, even in years of extended drought. It will require no fertilizers or pesticides. And it will provide habitat for birds and butterflies.

And this is the back yard. A flagstone path to the water, piers and boat. A herb, and citrus garden. And a butterfly garden.

Like I said, a long way to go yet, but in a couple weeks We'll have a beautiful, natural, sustainable eco- friendly environment.

And tomorrow, Mary arrives! Let the fun begin!

Working with air dry clay

OK, here's my experiment with air dry clay. My goal was to make a charm to use as an embellishment for a wall quilt or postcard. I used Hearty's air dry clay. This is a soft clay that is easy to work with and does not need to be baked to cure. It is completely cured in 24 hours. For my charm I chose a sun mold. This mold is a Maureen Carlson flexible mold for use with any polymer clay. First step is to dust your mold with talc or cornstarch which will make releasing your charm from the mold easier. I used baby powder.

Then pull off a piece of clay and roll it between your hands to smooth and soften it...it doesn't take much as it is fairly soft.

Now press it into your mold filling the deepest part first.

Then gently flex the mold to release the charm. I will say, it does take a couple tries to get it out without distorting the image.

Here it is out of the mold. You can see there is a little distortion...each try gets better. Now you can trim the excess clay away and save it for reuse. Remeber though, this is air cured clay, so put it away in an airtight bag or container right away.

This is the charm trimmed. Leave it for 24 hours and it will be cured. At this point if you want a hole to stitch through, take a toothpick or some other tool to make your hole now before it dries.

After 24 hours it is cured and ready to paint. I painted mine with Jacquard Lumiere Halo pink gold.

And it's ready to sew on the project of my choice.

You could also roll this clay out flat and use rubber stamps to make impressions that you can turn into buttons.

And I'm sure there are many other uses too.

I will use this allot!

A new postcard from Mary!

I was going to share the air dry polymer clay experiment today, but we have company and I don't have time tonight. But I did want to share the latest postcard from Mary.

She's really got this down and I LOVE getting them from her.

Have a great night and I'll be back in a couple days.

New Experiments

First, let me thank Ruthie for giving me her "Make my day award" I am very honored. And along those lines, there are those blogs that make me.happy to be a part of blogland. So I will pass this award on to them. Mary (of course you all knew my sister would be on that list), Gina, Carla, Suzanne, Vicki W, Gayle, Judy L,Yvonne and Randi. Thank you all for make this blogland a wonderful, sharing place.


Now, As promised I will start sharing the new experiments I have been doing lately. This one was with Tyvek. As you may (or may not) know there are 2 types...hard structure and soft structure. The hard structure is like the post office and Fed Ex envelopes. The soft structure is what they make protective clothing out of. I did the same heat test with both. For this purpose I will call the hard structure Regular tyvek and the soft structure Tyvek fabric.
This is a 4" piece of tyvek fabric as it comes from the manufacturer.

I painted the piece with Jacquard's Lumiere paints (2 colors)...just brushed them on.

The I put it between 2 Teflon sheets and ironed them on the poly setting for just a minute or 2. It was too long.

But you can see what happens...it shrinks and bubbles. The side AWAY from the heat gets convex bubbles. This side TOWARDS the heat gets concave bubbles. This one had heat too long and the center melted way.

But you can see how the metallic paint becomes more intense.

This sample is the hard or regular Tyvek before painting.

And after painting; again with Jacquard Lumiere.

This time barely heated it with the iron on the poly setting. And again you get the convex effect on one side and concave on the other. And again the paints become more intense.

The beauty of this material is obviously the texture created. And you can sew thru either one. So I see lots of uses for this neat stuff in future projects.

Tomorrow we'll do air dry polymer clay.

Distracted

I loaded an started another quilt yesterday, but found myself distracted. So in other words...I didn't work today. Instead I shopped. Bought a couple books on amazon, but mainly spent the big bucks at joggles.

I buy tons of art supplies there. All for fiber art..paints, beads, tyvek, shrink plastic, wool roving, silk roving, Angelina...and the list goes on. Actually I started there, then went to amazon to find the books to go with the mediums and techniques.

Got lots of cool stuff to try, and some that I have tried before and liked. Good Day!

For those of you who asked about my process for the quilt I posted last night, this is my usual way of working.

I first stabilize the quilt by SID (stitch in the ditch, for anyone not familiar)
Then if there are motifs to quilt, I do those.
Then if there is applique, do the detail work in that.
Then finally, I do the background fill.

Once the quilt is stabilized I can roll it back and forth at will without worry. So I will start with one color and do all the work with that color before changing. So it is more efficient than changing colors a gazillion times with each roll.

The borders are usually the last thing I do (sans background fill) and I do turn the quilt to do the side borders.

This all works for me. It's certainly not the only way...just my way.

Thanks for all the generous comments about my work, I really appreciate it.

And I love seeing all of your art too!

Feathered out

Another one finished. This one is impeccably pieced (what a treat that is!) and it is huge...107" square. The client wanted feathers, so feathers she got!
I used King Tut "Cairo" in the fan blades, and So Fine "sunshine" (I think that's the name) in the yellow fan bases; So Fine "Pearl" for the background feathers , Monopoly for the SID, and Rainbows "Western Sunset" for the outer border. Oh yeah and dark gray in the black border.

The batting she chose was Quilters Dream Poly request loft, so it is really pretty thin and flat looking. I was actually surprised I had as much stitch definition with a batt that flat.

This quilt was so big I didn't think I'd ever get to the end! I am feathered out. She picked it up this afternoon and is pleased with it.

The next one is loaded and ready to go. After that one I'll be back on schedule. I also did a little work on my 2 triptychs for MQR. I'm trying some new mediums and techniques, (new to me at least) so it is definitely trial and error. But I'm having fun with them. I'll post photos ( successes and failures) when they're done. I am keeping a photo record of the process and I'll share that as well when done.

I still need to make my challenge block for our upcoming guild retreat; and cut my 80 six inch squares (also for retreat). I still have not done my MQS quilt, or the quilt for my next applique class.

I need more hours in the day!

A postcard from Mary!

I got a new postcard! In case you haven't figured this out yet...I love getting fabric postcards! Such wonderful pieces of art from others. Well this one is from my sister Mary. And those I get from her are extra special.She tends to be more critical of herself and her work than I am of mine. But then she is a perfectionist; I am more free in an artistic sense (actually in life) than she is. But she is very methodical and attentive to detail. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants. But she is always willing to try new things. So when I receive something that she made, it is so very special to me. That we share this quilting passion is a gift I will always cherish. To my other 2 sisters, I love stuff you make me too! And Mother...those things I have that you have made are priceless. But I must admit that I have a special bond with Mary. that is not to diminish what I feel for Ann and Maureen, because I love them dearly. It's just different. I am the oldest in my family. I was away at college and then married while the others were still at home. I have 2 brothers who are wonderful, next in line to me. Mary is the next closest sister in age to me....that is not to say she is in my age group...heaven forbid! But we share a passion for quilting, and she as I do, have a grown family and thus the freedom to pursue that passion.

Anyway, this has gotten really long winded. But Mary is coming for a visit the end of the month and I am thrilled! We tried to get
Mother to come, but she didn't feel like she could at this time. We will miss her, but we will enjoy our time together. Thanks, Mary for making the effort to connect. I cherish our time together. And thanks for the beautiful postcard.

The long awaited light bar!

I am jumping with joy tonight! My light bar is done and installed! For those of you that missed it, I had been complaining about needing more light directly over my workspace. I had looked at the light system Gammill has now, but there were 2 things I didn't like about it. #1 is that there are regular individual lights at intervals along the bar with shades. So I was afraid shadows would be an issue. Might not be, but it was a concern. #2 was that it was pretty high above the work surface. So, I talked to my husband, showed him the photo of the Gammill setup and told him what I wanted different. He measured and made a drawing. Took it to a steel fabricator that made it to his specifications. Then he drilled my table and bolted on. Then hung two 48" shop light fixtures (I have an 11 ft table). We put in 4 Ott light tubes and Voila! I have perfect light 23" above my entire work surface that doesn't get hot (heat is a big issue here in SW Florida) and with no shadows!!! I am a VERY happy camper!!!

These last 2 photos were taken after dark without the overhead room light on and without the camera flash. The Ott light bulbs came from Dick Blick.

The shop light fixtures came from Home Depot.

I can even quilt at night now if I want too. That is something I couldn't do before. I'm a very lucky girl! Thanks Don, for listening to what I needed and the providing it yet again. You're the best, honey!

A postcard from Alaska!

A new postcard today from Lily in Alaska! Land of the midnight sun...very cool. this completes my set from the latest MQR swap.

Mary suggested I post some photos to show how my studio opens to the lanai. So they are below.

I have sliding glass doors that pocket into the wall so the room is totally open. And it is totally screened in. I get lots of light during the day and a nice view to boot! It's almost like working outside. The photo above is looking out to the spa. The one below is looking to the pool waterfall and bird of paradise plant.

I really love this space. Although a little small, the open air feel and view make up for the space.

If you're curious as to how the rest of the room looks I posted more pictures here.

It's packed full, and I overflow to the guest room across the hall. But it works for me.

Finally getting well and back to work

I finally am starting to get well. I can say that it is not a minute too soon, as I was ready to pull my hair out! But thanks to this latest antibiotic I think I really am going to be well again soon. So, today I loaded and quilted this quilt. My customer is entering it in a local show the end of this month.

I used Superior King Tut thread in the setting triangles ( "Valley of the Kings) and Rheingold metallic gold everywhere else.

The batting is warm and natural ( her choice). The piping adds a really neat element, however it is a pain trying to quilt close enough to it.

All in all I am pleased with the way it turned out. The next one is already loaded, and I started the SID. This next one is also for the show at the end of the month. Very large...107" square, so it will take a while. But I have till the 15th!

We had one of our boys here visiting last week. We really enjoyed it. Though it was during a cold snap...but it was warmer than where he lives so it was OK.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that this new year will bring peace,happiness, health and prosperity to all.

A New Year's Finish

First of all, Happy New Year to you all. I hope this new year will bring everyone peace, health, happiness and prosperity.

And this is my first finish of the New Year. If I hadn't been sick, I would have finished this before the 1st. But life sometimes has other plans. But is it is done, and done is good. You can't see the whole quilt, but I was too tired (and lazy) to get the stand out. This top was made by my friend's mother...the same one that did the penguins I showed you a couple months ago.

The next one is loaded and ready to go. After that one, the next 4 in a row are for shows. We are coming into our show season here in Southwest Florida so it's going to be busy for a few weeks!

My goal for the new year is to schedule in time for my own projects. I really didn't do that this past year and I really missed doing my own work. So this year I get plotted into the schedule too! And to start that off, I have booked no customer work for the month of February. That month will be all about me!