Archive for June, 2013

Deer Top Finished, Pond Tour

Sunday, June 30th, 2013

On Friday I finished the top and forgot to get a photo before I layered it and started the quilting. I decided to fill in some of the top area with sky which is not in the original photo, but then neither is all that area on the right where I extended it to be long. I think it was a good solution as I had no good fabric for distant prairie to fill it in.

TopFinished

I’m anxious to get more quilting done!

Last week we replaced the stonework on this corner of the fish pond where we had removed it to fix a leak. I smashed a finger and have a bruised nail which is making typing difficult! There used to be an overgrowth of cattails where the liner is showing, but we did not want to redo those really big rocks, so yesterday we bought this floating cork plant holder. I hope when the plants grow, the liner will not be noticeable and will also be protected from the sun.

OurPond13

The local Pond and Water Garden tour is this weekend and we went yesterday. There were 9 gardens on the tour and it was actually a bit of a disappointment this year as less than half of them were that good. I forgot to get a picture of the best one, I was so busy admiring it and talking to the owner, but this one was pretty good.

PondTour13

It was a lovely day with the high only in the 80’s. When we got home and I finished my little planting job, I retired to the hammock with my summer Stephen King read.  It was actually chilly there in the shade with the nice breeze blowing through!

More Computer Woes

Monday, June 24th, 2013

Both of my computers spent the weekend in the shop again. This is really getting old. The laptop only had photos prior to 2009 and no calendar entries prior to June since I had it cleaned for spyware. They were able to transfer all of the photos but the calendar information is gone. The old MacMini is the one that I mostly use for photos as it has an older version of Photoshop that I am more comfortable using, but Friday I discovered that it is no longer able to burn CDs. !!! This is a problem since this is mostly required for entering shows these days and I burn a lot of CDs so I took that one in to be fixed. Unfortunately they were not able to fix it. So now I have two choices. Transfer manipulated photos to the laptop to burn CDs or learn to deal with the Photoshop version that is on the laptop that I don’t like. The MacMini is too old to get an external CD burner for, but it does have calendar information prior to June.

Stuck

The new fabric that I ordered for the landscape background doesn’t work so I am going to have to suck it up and deal with what I have. I did re-do the fawn’s face a couple of times til I think it looks better now.

In the meantime I have been sorting old fabric, weeding out those prints and traditional fabrics that I will never be able to work into what I do now. Here is a shot of the progress so far.

Gettingorganized

And here is the rejected fabric, which is all wonderful fabric, just not the type that I use anymore. I am not even half way through and that is a lot of fabric to get rid of! Hard to believe it was on the shelves, really packed in!

RejectedFabric

I’m still in the process of sorting the blues.

StillSorting

Snow Buddies Accepted to Houston

Saturday, June 15th, 2013

I just got the word that “Snow Buddies” was one of the 30 pieces that was selected to hang and travel with the “Raining Cats and Dogs” exhibit debuting in Houston this fall. This was the exhibit I had in mind when I made this one, inspired by this photo of my two dogs.

T&Ginsnow

You can click on “Dogs” in the side bar to see the completed quilt and to follow the making of it.

It is currently on display and can be seen at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery through the end of July.

Pink Grass

Tuesday, June 11th, 2013

I continue to have computer problems which make it difficult to post, but in the meantime I have been sewing. Here is the progress to date:

konzadeer4

 

The original photograph shows a lot of pink in the distance and I think this fabric portrays it pretty well. We really do have pink grass in Kansas and it is blooming right now. I took these photos this morning!

pinkgrass1

I’m afraid people might question all that pink if they live where there is no pink grass – but it is what it is!

pinkgrass

 

Coming Together

Sunday, June 2nd, 2013

Nice progress was made yesterday as I stayed inside all day waiting for a call that never came from a computer tech. The weather was cool and nice and I would have loved to have been outside working, but the time was well spent anyway.

konzadeer3

The doe is taking shape, and the only two fabrics that I have that show leaves against a pale green background are laid in at the top. I think they will do the trick. Finding fabrics that will work together and play off one another is part of the challenge that makes this fun. I like how this one is coming together, but it has been slow work, with so many little pieces!