Bank Holiday Monday

It was a lovely morning with the sun shining and the birds singing. So lovely in fact that I took my granola and yogurt outside to eat on the patio. I was then inspired to finish tidying up the garden and plant an azalea that had been sitting in a pot for a few weeks waiting for the right moment to arrive! Well it arrived this morning. I am a summer gardener. Only between April/May and October do I garden. Sometimes the urge comes on me in April and sometimes not until May. But then once I've started I get all enthusiastic and plant flowers etc as if there is no tomorrow. In fact Sue and I are going garden centre hopping tomorrow. Bad for the purse but it will be a good day out and the coffee and cake will be a bonus.

The tulips have been quite lovely even though they weren't planted until January. The colours have been superb especially the 'black' ones. But they didn't last as long as more ordinary colours. I had to make a piece of shadow appliqué so I chose to do tulips as the subject matter. I still have to frame the piece or do something with it but that can wait for a while as I have other things to do.


Having done a stint in the garden I then decided to do some dyeing and because I can't dye large lengths in the kitchen any longer because of our new floor (Martin would kill me if I dyed it!) I set up some acrylic sheets outside. I don't have many so I was limited in what I could do but a lot was achieved in a small space. I then went on to layer more acrylic over the ones seen below. It was fun but my back ached after a while so I'm glad this isn't my normal mode for dyeing.



And finally this is a picture of the small bag I made for the wedding. It is big enough to take my camera and other paraphernalia. It is mostly made from strips of silk with the odd bit of hand-dyed cotton and I found an antique mother of pearl button for it. Very simple and quick to make and very effective. I could make one for every outfit.....but I won't!



Now to finish my version of a Convergence quilt a la Ricky Tims for my class on Friday. I'm finding this great fun and using up lots of scraps. Well not really scraps as they are all at least a foot square. But you know what I mean.