Maude's Garden

EDITED -- I reloaded the full size picture of Maude's Garden. I was hoping you would be able to click on it now and get the bigger version, but Blogger does not want to cooperate. I'll be adding more to this piece so hopefully next week sometime Blogger will let the pictures enlarge the way they used to.


It's been a little hot and steamy here the last week or so. Maddie has found a cool place to rest for a few minutes. We stayed inside and I worked on Maude, my piece inspired by the Tennyson poem, Come into the Garden Maude.


The full version. I've been doing a lot of beading and then will add anymore stitching that needs to be done. This time I thought about it and started beading from the bottom up. I'm hoping that will save me lots of aggravation from having my threads catch on other beads and charms while I'm working.


I've added the words, which are stamped onto ribbon. The edges of the ribbon were sealed by burning them with a candle (be careful if you try this, some ribbons really flare up, just gently run your ribbon through the flame and do it quickly! and don't do it near your piece or anything else that you don't want candle wax to run onto). The little bird and the fairy have both been beaded. (Do you see the snake's tail that the bird is chasing? Mr. Snake has conveniently found a rock he can hide under -- hope he slithers all the way under before Birdie grabs him).






You may not be able to enlarge the fairy picture -- she was a little blurry (guess I was busy yelling at Madeline or something) so I had to manipulate the picture. But you can see how her wings are beaded.

Thanks for stopping by -- two days in a row! (This is Madeline watching out the side window. She jumps up there, paws the curtain open and then gawks to her heart's content).

A Walk Through My Yard

Thought I'd show you my yard. It's been very hot and humid here. First we had 2 months of almost non-stop rain which got all the plants off to great starts. Now it's dry as a bone and I'm hauling water to all my plants and watching big cracks form in the yard. So I thought I'd take pictures before everything dried up and blew away.

These are my wildflowers getting ready to bloom. I threw out a packet of seeds and this is what I got.

Of course, sunflowers. I love the orangish ones the best.

This is my butterfly bush, but somehow that doesn't look like a butterfly does it? (LOL) It's a hummingbird moth. Late in the afternoon a Zebra butterfly does come by and visit.

My little gardening buddy -- Homeless Man. A little semi-feral cat that I feed and he now lets me pet him now and then. He likes to hang out and watch me in the yard. It's so hot that even Homeless Man doesn't want to run from me.

My flower bed. Lots of different things growing here. Don't you love the gargoyle ornament? A gift from my SIL.

Cone flowers. A gift from my mother's garden. Just planted this year and look how they are blooming and loaded with blooms.

That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed it. Tomorrow, I'll have pics of Maude's Garden. I've been working on it and I think I've done enough that you can actually see I've done something (LOL).

Thrift Store Find

Our thrift stores around here aren't known for their good buys. However, last Friday, I managed to find something definitely worth bringing home. It's this little vest, Handmade by Debbie (personalized tag inside). Don't you just love all these vintage embroidery pieces? The peacock is what made me grab it. There's one small discolored stain (on the peacock panel, of course!), but I haven't washed it yet. I'm hoping a nice gentle soak will brighten everything up. So enjoy the pictures. OH, the price? $2.50. I couldn't grab it fast enough.

What's This?

Give up? It's the bobbin case for my Janome 6600 machine. I've sewed so much that I wore it out. Seriously. Well, I wore out the spring for the little cutting thingy. That's the little arm that's floating around in the center of the bobbin case. I love the automatic thread cutter. Just touch that button and it cuts the threads clean off. No messy ends hanging, nothing that I have to go back and clip (and I hate threads hanging off blocks, etc.). But now I get to go and buy a new one. And I was on such a roll sewing away. . . . . It's not just the thread cutter that kept me from sewing -- the whole bobbin doesn't work with that little arm sticking out.

So what's a girl to do when her sewing machine is down? Time to hand sew. I finished up my July Birds of a Feather block WAY early for this month.

I decided to change this one. I didn't like those little circles the pattern called for. One of the other blocks used the bigger circles so I used that size for this block. I like it a lot better and I'm sure you to doo (g).