Time to Play

With all my commitments met and small pieces shipped it's time to go back to painting and dying.
I'm not a fan of dying primarily because of the required safety restrictions both for myself and the equipment necessary. This topic usually results in heated "discussions" with hubby who has become the uber expert on household and food Safety. (Making jam is no longer fun!)

I started to empty the garage where I like to paint and dye in the summer. The car is outside and the place is swept and the tables in place...BUT....the space was usurped this morning for beer making. There wasn't a cue for the space until I cleaned it!!

So I played with paint in the cool of the basement. (Peboe Seta Colour)
Just to get my hand back into it...

Greens........I've worked with them so much these past months so I know what colours I want.

 After I finished cutting up my bolt of pima cotton (I have another full one), I ended up with 7 generous metres and two big FQ.
The top FQ was primarily green first and then blobbed and streaked with yellow.
The second one I started with yellow and washed with green and then threw a generous handful of salt on the surface.. I like that visual texture.

Same colours ..... rather different but very useful!

2 Bears and a Big Sky -Final

When the hardest part was deciding where to put the bears.........It was a holiday!
I spent about an hour thread painting the water and finishing the shoreline.  12"x30"

This is finished in pillowcase style, sometimes a hard fold with all the material at the edge, but a pizza cutter (to make a definite crease) and the steam iron do wonders!

I love the sky (and the bears of course). The sky was worth the 3 days it took last year. I still have lots of that background for other things.

2 Bears

I didn't get very far today, other than some design decisions.
It's TOUR De FRANCE month.....................THAT takes the WHOLE morning. Hmmmmmmmmm watching all those young men on their bikes and watching a 3 week travelogue of France as well. What's not to enjoy.

But back to the bears.

This is the layout I've chosen.
Some water's edge interest has been inserted.

I tucked the upper bear's legs into the water and yes, the lower bear has his feet cut off.

I LOVE this Anthology fabric from their kaleidoscope collection. I spent a few hours this morning scouring my fabric sources including the one I originally purchased it from. But I couldn't find it anywhere. I may have more luck with my feet on the ground. But that's for another day, a cooler day.

So while the background is anchored, there needs to be some thread work to finish it before the bears go on.

Working While You're Brain Dead

After finishing  the Woodlot, my piece for the IPM next month, I had reached the point where all my commitments were done.
It takes a few days to shift gears from fully focused to "what do I want to do now?".
My usual thing is to fall back to making "repeats" . These are a redoing of items that have sold. These are usually small pieces that in someway are unique and represent Canada and BC.

A no-brainer was a mechanical exercise using the tattoos of a bear and a ram. They were simple and don't require much more than keeping the satin stitching I use to anchor the cut out in a perfect smooth line. I finished 4 today.

They do have a certain charm and are simple.

Then I hauled out the two bears I had thread painted for demonstration.

They cut away very cleanly. So how to use them.
The original use for the one on the right had been this.

But this time it was a little boring. So I thought "white water"?

Hummmmmmmmmmm maybe I could do a polar bear?

Next I went hunting through my collection of FQ looking for more interesting water.
Eureka!
Now this is much more appealing.

So that's the direction I'll head tomorrow.

Garden Report - June 2016

Garden is looking good even if everything is a bit off schedule. We had a prolonged cold spell in May that really slowed everything.

The June roses are still opening and are looking lush. The spring bulbs weren't! I don't thik I'll replace them either. I split a couple of hosta for my Step daughter and the plants responded by being even bigger than before!
 I'll have to do a whole page on my hosta someday.

And my CLIVIA or Kaffir lily, inspite of being both frost bit and sun burned has done wonderfully.
Time to pour a glass of wine and enjoy. ( Hubby had the Tour de d France on this morning and now its soccer. I go out an listen to the birds ( well the grackles actually squabbling over the feed!)

The first 3 pictures were taken in were late May

Clivia sp.

Always standing guard