Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Presently busy planting.
Tis the season for a lot of blogging over at my house and garden blog Among the Weeds as gardening, sewing and other housey stuff entirely take my mind away from my more intellectual and political pursuits. Even this morning as I sit down to write this I’m thinking about what to do in the front yard – greenhouse vs. polytunnel – where our new pond is going to go – what plants I can grow given the shade trees that line our street. Nothing that I would write about here – hence the silence of the past few days.
Besides thinking obsessively about the house, plotting my next book review, and spending as much time as possible with spring doings – I am eagerly anticipating our vacation to Breitenbush Hot Springs next week. I’m not sure the weather will be any better than it has been here, but we will be without telephone and internet for a whole five days, meals will be cooked for us, and we will have access to as much hot springs and yoga as we could possibly want. (In Brian’s case that is *no* yoga, and lots of hot springs.) I’m looking forward to the downtime in particular, especially as after we get back we are into six weeks of solid activity again and I need a little recharger before that happens.
Fourth quilt of 2011 finished!
Finishing is always the hardest part – binding a quilt is tricky for me, but this time I took a little more care than normal. It didn’t make it easier, but it did turn out better than many of my bindings have in the past. That’s four quilts finished in 2011 so far – 3 baby quilts, one lap quilt and I’ve got the double-sized quilt on the way. Phew.
So far planted in 2011.
Now here’s the garden update! The last couple of days have been really cold and wet, but despite all that, the garden seems to be moving steadily into spring mode with tulips starting to emerge and lots of lovely budding branches (like the raspberry cane here!)
So far I’ve planted the following:
- Starts: Peas, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, florence fennel and chard
- Seeds: Oriental greens, deer tongue lettuces, tyee spinach, florence fennel and fennel/herb, cumin, white mustard.
- Flowers (seeds & tubers): Dahlias poppies, white mustard, mexican torch, calendula, marigolds and sweet peas.
B. and I also picked up a pond from Craigslist for cheap and have plans to install that in the front yard after returning from holidays – and I’ve got $400 in gift cards (wedding present) for GardenWorks that I’m going to be putting towards the frontyard redesign once I draft up my plan. I’m going for as much edible as I can get in the front yard while still working on aesthetic and paying attention to the months of shade we get from the beech trees on our street. I’m excited about it though – a whole new landscape to start working on as the weather warms. Which isn’t to say there isn’t lots more to do out back…… because I’ve got beans, squash, corn and all sorts of other stuff coming up shortly.
Completely unrelated to the garden, but as a follow-up to yesterday: I got the baby quilt qulted! It’s almost finished (binding is the last step and then it goes to a new home) which I’m hoping to complete this week.
What am I working on today?
Garden post later – I’ve got all sorts of stuff planted now and even though it doesn’t feel like it today – spring is here! But since it’s raining and I’ve got the day off – I’m focused on indoor activities. I’ve got 4 sewing projects on the go right now and I’m eager to share them even though they are nowhere near finished:
Project 1:
This is a double-sized quilt that I expect will find its home in our spare room once finished. I’m about halfway through the quilting process and stippling for the first time ever which is time consuming but makes that great stiff quilt effect I love so much. It also uses more thread on a single project than I thought possible. I’m hoping to get another hour of quilting done on this today.
Project 2
Since we have a new table and no table linens for it – I’m making a set of placemats using the mod mosaic block technique and Kona sashing in two colours. After making a few of these blocks I’ve got the hang of the technique behind them and they are quite a lot of fun to put together. I’m making ten placemats in all.
Project 3:
This is actually the first mod mosaic block I made. I was experimenting with making a placemat sized block but then decided that wasn’t the direction I wanted to go in – so instead I’ve got a trivet/hot pad that I am quilting with several different stitches for additional mosaic effect.
Project 4:
And finally….. I got a charm pack of the new line Sherbet Pips in the mail last week and was somewhat disappointed to realize that this line has an awful lot of pink in it. Not that I’ve got anything against pink, but it just does not fit with my home decor at all. Fortunately, I’ve got friends who just had a baby girl and I’m pretty sure would love this motif (little girls on scooters and swings) – so I’ve put together a quilt top using this very basic pattern and a light grey Kona for the sashing. I’m hoping to get this quilted this week since it’s not a very large project.
Introducing: Trumbly Designs
I have a post in mind this morning that is a bit grumpy – so before I even go down that road, I’m going to share with you an artist who I discovered last year and whose work I am totally in love with. I’m thinking of her this morning especially because she just shared this link to a short video piece about her work which is worth a watch if you are into art processes.
What I particularly appreciated about the video piece is that it gave confirmation to my suspicions the work of Shanna Trumbly – specifically, that each painting is a mini-story. I’ve always envisioned her pieces as fairytale fragments and been drawn into them through my own internal story-telling impulses. In turns whimsical and wistful, each canvas depicts a chapter from the secret lives of plants and animals – their magic, passions, and heatbreaks experienced far from human eyes. Reminiscent of a children’s picture book, but more meticulously drawn – Shanna successfully transforms simple illustration into a much deeper artistic vision.
Really, I’m no art critic, but the moment I saw the painting above in Trumbly’s Etsy shop – “The Queen and The Beet” – I wanted a print of it for our backyard studio. Not only because it features a crow (endemic to East Vancouver!), and not only because my nickname for Brian is “Beet” – making it the perfect romantical gift – but because it somehow is so evocative of the earth/garden love that I want to infuse our home all the time. As are all her works…. deeply loving of the natural world.
Best thing about her shop? Even if you can’t afford her large Giclee prints (which I would love, but priced around $500 are not in our range), she sells fabric patches for $10 and Eco Paper Prints for $20. Having bought an Eco Paper print last year, I can attest that these are high-quality prints which have a great colour range and brilliancy. I really would encourage you to go check out her website, or poke around the Etsy shop the next time you are thinking about gifts or some art for your walls. Personally, I’m thinking fabric patches are definitely in order the next time I’m sewing up a special bag or pillow.
(Sadly, I cannot embed the video that I have linked above. WordPress doesn’t allow Javascript and whatever Oregon Art Beat is using only allows embedded javascript files.)
Red Cedar 