Writings from 3 sisters, who love to garden, do scrapbooking, fiber arts and sometimes have an opinion.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Warped

I put a new warp on from "Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes," page 109, called pinwheels. I think the picture looks like buttons instead. Right now it really doesn't look like anything, hopefully when it is off the loom it will look like the picture in the book, Amy



Thursday, May 23, 2013

Iris

When I was young there were a lot of flowers that I didn't care for....geraniums, poinsettas and iris to name three.....I still don't like poinsettas much....but as an old lady I find beauty in most growing things.....and by now I have quite a lot of iris and they are beautiful this year.  I posted a couple earlier and now another has bloomed out......the bad part about these iris is that I can't name them...I mean, the variety....are they bearded? Japanese? what?.....my favorite is the one in this photo...they have tall, thin stems and small, beautiful blooms....we have many in our demo garden and I have only three....but they sure are beautiful.  This year I am attending one of our summer classes where I will learn exactly what kind of iris I have.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Tools

Tools, I have a lot of them. I think anyone who works with any fiber has many. No I don't want to talk about my looms. And yes I have several looms. Today it was my sewing machine. I have a Bernina 1530, which I have had for many years. It is not my only sewing machine but it is my to go to one for everyday sewing. I have been having trouble with it for months but today was the last straw and I finally took it to the sewing machine doctor. On the front of the 1530 model is a tracking ball, a stitch selector. It is what I use to change any stitch, move the needle over, lengthen stitches or shorten them. But that ball has been harder and harder to move until today I could only do straight stitch. Since I was sewing a pillow, I really only needed a straight stitch so I thought I could do it but I needed to use the zipper foot and I could not move the needle over. So to the shop it went. I told the lady in the shop after this one is fix I would bring in the Baby Lock machine, another tool not working, don't ask. And yes we got another tool, it just never ends.
Amy

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Photos

here is an update photo of my little 44x47 inch garden....it is really growing!...and the others?....some of the beautiful iris blooming in my yard right now......I am so lucky to have a friend named Lavonne who shares her bounty of plants with me.....


Sunday, May 12, 2013

Felting

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I got calls from my sons and my daughter came over and we went to lunch. I wasn't sure I would hear from my second son, since he is in Hawaii, vacationing with his wife. They are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. But he did call. So today I decided to felt a hat. I had never felted a hat before and I thought the amount of labor was a bit much. I did end up with a pixie hat. It will definitely be a warm one. 










Saturday, May 11, 2013

Webster's definition

" A plant volunteer is a plant growing from self sown or accidentally dropped seed. "  See this little nasturtium?...looks very healthy and at the end of a kohlrabi row....but I didn't 'accidently
drop it......but I did have them growing nearby last year and I think this little guy wants to grow right there...but what to do....this is my experiment with small space growing....this plant will get big and take up too much room.......but since this plant is right inside the box I think I can train it to go outside the box....I love the flowers chopped with chives, and parsley and mixed into some butter for French bread....sounds good doesn't it?   It is very hard for any gardener to 'murder' a plant anyway.......more photos of the nasturtium later.


I have such a time with this site and I am sure it is me and not the site as Amy does so well....I had another photo on here showing how my little patch was growing and now I don't see it...perhaps I will when I click on 'publish'...........................This morning in our demo garden we had the first of many classes and this one was called Growing food in Small Spaces and I taught it and had 37 people there....good to see people wanting to grow good healthy food for their families...








Tuesday, May 7, 2013

progress on my little garden bed

my little 44x47 inch bed has little seedlings coming up...radishes, kohlrabi, beets and carrots...haven't seen the cucumbers yet.....and they can come any time because we have had a very warm spell....when exactly do you say warm and hot....I think we have had hot...was 91 today.   I constructed a primitive trellis so that I can grow something in a vertical fashion to save space but not sure what yet....and I haven't taken off the netting just yet because dogs have been out digging for moles and I want to protect my little plant babies till they get bigger.  

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Home

I got home yesterday afternoon and now have a full blown cold. I have helped my husband with some wool that we received from some 4/H students. We have several bags of dirty wool straight off the sheep. We have been reading about how to process it and we are going to try the fermented suint method. Wish us luck. At least if we mess it up, the sheep will grow some more. We also went to the Master Gardener plant sale and now need to get busy planting, I don't feel like doing it but the plants are not going to wait until the nasty cold is over. I am leaving you with some more pictures of Fort Warden State Park. Keep weaving, Amy







Thursday, May 2, 2013

Day four

I woke up today without a voice. I don't know if it is allergies or what. But even though I don't feel well, I looked better than the little girl who was sitting in front of the toilet this morning. I just sent my group to their last class. Tonight they will be reading some of their work and singing songs they wrote. Today they helped put a boat in the water which had a net in it. The got a chance to see all the kinds of fish that were in the net. I was surprised at the number of crabs and little salmon.







Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Day three

This is my 3rd day at Fort Worden State Park. My job has been to get 3 students to their classes on the marine environment
I think it can be compared to herding cats. It has meant that I am constantly reminding them to get somewhere on time, standing up a hill gesturing them up etc. I am tired and think I maybe getting a cold. Today we looked at plankton, talked about the problem with plastics in the water. We opened a bolis and looked through microscopes.