june

May and June have come and almost gone, and it seems that time has been fleeting away from me... The dahlias above are from my garden, which I need to get out there and photograph, this year it seems to be the prettiest it has ever been. I guess my mom was right, it takes time for the garden to establish itself. I have finished a quilt and am almost done with another quilt top, since last I wrote. Took a weekend away to NYC, and have been gardening a bunch. I often times want to write about things going on and instead have been using the time to sew and make. I do however need to photograph the finished quilt and post that... I love the longer days of summer and the possibilities of the day ahead. The heat definitely gets to me but sewist by day and gardener by evening!

blooms

A long, endless, bitter, cold winter finally came to an end, and what a lovely spring that came. These photos are from a couple of weeks ago, and the garden is much more advanced now, but I had to share my first blooms. The garden is the best it has ever been, and compared to the weeds that existed when we purchased the house, this is a vast improvement! Thanks to my mom and her willingness to divide and concur her own garden I have been gifted lots of the plants that I have, and I must say it is nice to know that it came from her home. 

The back wall has a lovely morning light cast on it. The clematis on the fence is now covering it, such a big difference two weeks make. 

Can't get enough of these! I love poppies and my Icelandic poppies are back full force this year too! 

 A perfect Camellia, even Coco Chanel would be proud. 

The succulent collection that I have been putting together is coming back nicely, I have a lot of different pots of them and some as ground cover too. I love the way that they look!  

My hybrid Camellia, half red half white. Makes me thinking of Alice in Wonderland when they have to paint the roses red. 

Miniature daffodils. So sweet. 

More miniatures. 

It has been nice to get back out there, play in the dirt and watch everything come back to life again. That is my favorite part of spring, makes winter almost worth waiting... almost. 

september inspiration

It is the beginning of my favorite time of the year, fall. I love the crisp air, the warm sun, and the colors everywhere. Growing up summer was my favorite, it meant freedom to spend my days doing whatever I wanted. However now fall is the best! Here in Richmond there are a lot of festivals and events this time of year which is also nice, and not melting from being outside is a really nice feeling! 

A few things inspiring me at the moment:

The last of the tomato harvest, the colors are the best they have been all summer. 

British, Country Living the covers of their magazine is always beautiful. Every month I am pleased with their aesthetics, and the magazine itself is visually delightful and interesting. (Still love country living U.S. version too.)

I wait from spring until September for these to bloom. Love the combo in the garden and in the house! 

I cleared some space on my metal shelves in the studio by adding these to the wall for my little collections of inspiration. I have really done a lot as far as making my space the most workable for me. It feels a little bit lighter and less crowded which is great. 

thoughts

Loving the late summer blooms in the garden. Noticing that this time of the year is filled with pinks, purples, green of all shades, red, brown, and white. Taking advantage of picking my own flowers and the last bit of vegetables from the garden before fall really kicks in and there is little left. 

Thinking a lot about collections lately, what they mean, why collect at all, how some people are facisnated by one thing and no one else gets it. Making arrangements out of the small collections I have around the house, moving some things around, replacing some, purging others... always seem to be purging something around here, realizing that I have hung onto some things far too long. 

Thinking a lot about drawing, not realistic, refined drawing but that of a child. Uninhibited. Watching a child draw recently I was reminded of how they don't overthink where a color, line, shape, image is going, they just do. With that I want to explore drawing more, at least play in my sketchbook more.

Thinking about images in general. I have been looking and pin-ing on pintrest a lot lately. my pintrest looking at images of everything, from drawings, quilts, artwork, home decor, couture, inspiring people... it really is the visual library I always wanted... 

At that place in a project where I want to put it away and not look at it for a while, but knowing that if I do that I will not ever finish it... Taking a break to sketch and doodle in my sketchbook... Hoping that from that I will have the will-power needed to finish this task. Still enjoying the mixing of many fabrics at once. All the colors, shapes, patterns... 

book worms

 I have been productive in the studio the past weeks, the garden looks pretty good considering the summer weather has taken its toll on it, and the days are getting shorter again. In August I always notice  the change of summer and fall peaking through, even though it is still hot, the nights are longer, and the trees are already spitting their leaves. I love this time of year, I love late summer and fall. I am taking it in each day, trying to work a little in the studio and get some time outside too. Here are a couple of books that I have been reading lately... When I am not sewing or playing in the dirt. 

I have been reading a lot of books the past couple of months,  which is nice. For a while I seem to have been floating around looking for a great book and finally last fall I found this series, which I have written about before, that is a well written collection. They are the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny, and I have read seven of them so far. There is one more I just started and in late August the next one comes out. She writes beautifully describing things in such a way that you feel as if you are in the tiny village in Canada. It is always nice to find books that are written so well that you feel as if you have been transported to where ever they take place. I really recommend them, they are classic type mysteries but the is so much more to them than the average mystery.

After being stuck in the airport for two days I ran out of things to read and bought this. The Art Forager

by B.A. Shapiro, I finished it quickly, it is definitely a nice fast read. The book  is based on the Gardener museum art theft that occurred in 1991. It pulls from real life and makes a work of fiction. I love Degas artwork so reading about him was neat. Since one of my favorite movies is The Thomas Crown Affair this was a perfect summer read, it encased some of the elements that I enjoy about art thieves and the art world. 

digging up.

my very overgrown miniature garden. This has really expanded since I planted it. 

My mother has taught me a great deal about gardening and how and where to start and keep going with it. She is very good at this I don't think she has a green thumb but a whole green hand! When we got this house my mother came to visit a couple of weeks after we moved in and she didn't even make it past the threshold before she started planning flower beds and a vegetable garden. I kept looking out there thinking she had lost it, all I saw were weeds and roots from trees and vines thicker than my waist. Well I should know by now, that the woman is ALMOST always right. That first summer I had a nice start to the garden, and the vegetables were plentiful. Then the next year things started really taking on, everything that we had planted in the fall was thriving... It helped that my mother's garden is really established, so she divided some plants and truck full- after truck full, they disappeared into my flower beds. Well this is year three and I must say my lack of patience makes it hard to wait but it has been worth it, everything is really thriving and filled in beautifully. We worked on planting mostly perennials since that first year so that bit by bit the weeds that were there before would be replaced by roses, irises, calla lilies, foxglove, day lilies... etc. etc. I have learned to really love being out there, it is my escape and time to think, without a computer, phone, nook, pod, pad... in front of me. I am thankful that I have a mother that has taught me so much in life, but most recently has taught me how to grow and enjoy nature on a level that I never knew I would. 

Miniature garden number 2. Complete with pool!

 One of the front flower beds, filling in... 

I am constantly amazed at how lush and full things grow. 

I even have poppies this year!!!! 

completion

I finished this lap quilt a few weeks ago and with the weather being spring-like got some decent photos of it this morning. Below is a photo of what inspired this simple little blanket. I love the way that nature looks in the fall, everything is full of color, yet you can see the bareness beginning. For the first time this year I noticed how many soft grey, dusty, purple colors there are in the autumn. I do not use purple very much in my work, or home, but it fit in well and understated in this blanket. 

It was nice to put my big yard to use for photographing this piece, I love how the colors pop and blend in against the natural surroundings. A simple blanket, in construction and appearance, and it is definitely one of my favorites that I have made. 

I feel the change in the season, work has gotten busier, events and parties are all lined up. As thanksgiving passed I thought a lot about things that I am grateful for, health, family, friends, work, and time to play. The time that I have taken since the summer to spend in my studio, has definitely paid off, I have been busy working with my hands, thinking about making, and making. My sketchbook is filling up with more ideas, my fabric bin is ready to go. I have stopped giving myself a hard time for not being as conceptual in my work, and have let myself enjoy making based on aesthetic, technique and my current interests. Maybe its true what they say, that sometimes you just have to use your hands and make, and the thoughts and ideas will follow. My body of finished pieces is building up again, and I can't wait to enter some contests and perhaps enter a modern quilt guild after the new year. I know that I will not be in the studio as much in the coming weeks but I now know that is ok. Because somewhere along the way, I FINALLY learned the balance of life, work and studio. Sometimes one has to take the spotlight, but it does not mean that the others stop existing. 

inspired moments

A few images that I crossed the other day, and brought interest to me... 

From the M.S. November issue, love the fresh root veggies. 

Leftover birthday flowers, in the entry way desk... love that little owl, and the color of the snapdragons! 

Tomatoes in November! Yep that's when they bloomed in the yard.

More leftover birthday flowers, love the combination of these colors in roses, so soft, and delicate.