Texture Tuesday

it's Texture Tuesday and here i am right on time~!
:-)


using two of kim klassens (free~!)wonderful textures this time: Not to Shabby and Portrait

if you haven't already discovered this great site and you're interested in photography and  what you can do with your own shots you should really click on the Texture Tuesdays button on my sidebar and check it out. i've been dancing around this activity for years and finally feel like a have a wonderful community of support in which to actively learn and use these skills. i do have a lot to learn and a long way to go to get as good as many of the participants but their talent and sharing spirit is totally inspiring.

this week it's a "garden party" going on over there~it's okay to be fashionably late but do at least come and partake a little~!!~

 Anticipation

this is my original photo which is part of a series of shots recently taken in my garden. i shared another of these shots in a recent post but felt this one was a bit "washed out" looking. i do love what the textures did for it.

today's gifts include:

• starting a new novel and being totally drawn in (The Help)
• seeing many different (and beautiful) birds at the feeder as they make a pit stop on their migratory paths
• water warmed and at the ready whenever i should want or need it (that shower felt good this morning)

Texture Tuesdays with Kim Klassen

yep, i know it's not tuesday but i'm a bit slow with the texture challenge this week. i'll keep practicing and and eventually i'll get faster (i hope).
once again the texture comes from kim klassen. this one is called "yesteryear" so i did something yesteryear-ish with it.

 Faded Memories

this is the original photo. again one of my own still life shots from my archives.


today's gifts include:

• waking up wrapped in flannel sheets on a chilly spring morning
• happy memories of my grandparents
• a cup of hot chocolate made with warmed milk

today has been a rainy day. i've enjoyed the soft silvery light and the way that the steady fall of moisture has deepened the greens in the grass almost as i watch. that almost sounds as if i've been just sitting around and watching the grass grow doesn't it!?!
;-)
in truth i suppose that i did do some of that today . . .

the tulips and other spring flowers have been graced with an array of moist silvery pearls.

inside the house i have my seed/sprouts. the night time temps are still a bit too iffy to risk planting them so i faithfully carry them outside during the day and bring them back in at night. they really can't be called sprouts anymore though. the above photo is a part of one of those pumpkins that i planted. sometimes i feel like Jack and his beanstalk when i look at them in the morning. they have large buds and blooms on them that i really should be trimming off but i can't always do it . . .

i know the photo here is not a good one but the yellow summer squash that i started have begun to bear fruit~!!~ the smallest one in the above shot is about the size of my thumb and some are bigger and some smaller but these plants are already prolific. we may be eating squash off of the plants before i can even put them in the outside garden if they continue as they are doing . . . now that i think about it we should be picking those off too and eating them as baby squash so that the plant can continue to work on roots and leaves.

we have managed to put the tomato plants in the ground with the cold frame erected around them. they should be okay unless we get a hard frost. i'm hoping to have a large yield this year so that we can preserve them for winter eating. i believe i have about eight plants in there so we should be kept quite busy when the time comes.

my hands/needle have been working on these small bird applique blocks. i'm not sure how many i will ultimately make but i thought they might eventually get combined with the vine i recently finished . . .

i think they're pretty cute.
they are part of a bigger pattern called "Homespun Nest"within the magazine shown below.
btw i did not completely follow their instructions so have a slightly different result than them. it seems i almost always have to change things at least a little bit and i won't sew them up as part of that particular quilt although i found it quite cute. i have another idea brewing around in my head . . .

i actually found a lot of cute ideas and patterns within the Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine and am pleased to have a subscription for the next year's worth of issues.

todays gifts included:

• the pleasure of hearing the rain and enjoying the soft cloud covered sunlight
• the realization of just how many creative blogs/friends i have on the internet (due to my accidentally having deleted the WHOLE list in one fell swoop)
• a settle on the sofa to watch the first hummingbirds find the feeder which led to a very nice nap

*****   *****   *****   *****   *****

so as i said i did have a bit of an accident with my sidebar list of blogs. i'll just have to add them back as i can. i hope everyone understands and if you were on there before and i've overlooked you feel free to let me know and i'll get you back up there.

oh !@#$@#$%$%#@^@#
and $#&^*@$%% 

i've just accidentally removed my whole list of blogs that i like to visit off of my sidebar~!~
how in the . . .

bear with me as i begin the process of building it back up again.

For You / Pour Vous

it's so good to be back. i've been experiencing a great deal of problems with my internet connection for the past several weeks and for the past week have had no internet at all so i'm feeling totally disconnected from all my blog friends. the connection is now working although with intermittent lapses . . . not sure what is going on or when it will be totally straightened out but thought i would jump on this evening real quick and show you what i've been up to. i hope to get back on tomorrow and catch up with you too.

For You

this is a textured image that i put together using a photo of mine:

 (that i pulled from my archives) and a texture (Pour Vous) given to me by kim klassen.

i'm very happy with it and if you have a second or two you can hop over to my flickr page and see the image on black by clicking on the little magnifying glass that says "view in lightbox".

it's  quite stunning if i don't say so myself~!~

;-)

i hope to be doing photoshop work on a regular basis so hopefully there will be more to see as time goes on . . .

today's gifts included:

• the pleasure i feel while creating
• walking in the sun with my grandog
• enjoying a pasta dinner (lovingly prepared by my daughter) with my family

the weather today is a bit grey but so far we've only gotten rain . . . the weatherman says it could turn to snow but the temps are currently in the mid 40's so i've got my fingers crossed that it won't. the leaves are beginning to bud out and the trees are wearing that misty light green veil that they get before their buds all go completely into leaf . . . very pretty and very promising~!

this first one is one of the ornamental fruit trees that we have in the yard. there will not only be leaves soon but also blossoms (if the frost doesn't get them).

last summer i planted false spirea in one of the gardens. i like it's feathery leaves and it's supposed to be a fast growing shrubby/ground cover. so the second shot is the leaves just beginning to form for it's new year. it's always good when a plant makes it through it's first winter here and i have hopes that it's going to be happy and healthy. i really like the way the new leaves have a rosey red blush to them. the plant that i planted last year had only green leaves so this was a surprise. possibly the color will only be a spring thing . . . ?

the columbine has been growing leaves for a few weeks now and i'm also pleased at their robust sturdiness. i love the way that the leaves look like a blossoming rose at first.

i have quite a lot of artemesia in various places throughout the yard and it does very well here. this year it began to show some growth way back in late february/early march which is VERY early here. i'll be making this a staple. i like it's sagey green color and it's feathery soft growth. it makes for a lovely small shrub-like plant along walkways and around the pond and i have a feeling i'm going to come up with a lot of other places to plant it as well.

so all of these spring leaves have gotten me in the mood to applique some vines and leaves of my own. and if there's a vine with leaves . . . there has to be berries, right?!?
i always keep my leftover vines and leaves from past projects. i tuck them away in a box and draw out of it before i cut more for new projects if i can. i have used this design element in so many quilts that i have  quite a few little bits and pieces to choose from.
i happen to really like the look of a pieced quilt with some appliqued accents or features; sometimes within the border, sometimes an oddball applique strip or block tossed in among the pieced ones, sometimes a surprise bird or blossom randomly placed onto an otherwise pieced top, etc.
i think the possibilities are probably endless.
one day recently i felt the urge to applique but didn't really have a project in mind so i went through the box and chose a length of prepared vine and started sewing it down to a 5 inch wide piece of muslin cut from selvedge to selvedge (approximately 40 inches long). what you see here is a portion of that strip which i have now completely filled with applique. it was so satisfying i think i'll start another.  (-:
i have no idea what exactly i'll do with them but i do know that they will find a "home" within something eventually, after all, is there any quilt that can't somehow benefit from a bit of "greenery" within it~!?!
feel free to share your ideas on how you have added applique to piecework projects.

i mentioned in a recent post that i was playing around with using paper, fabric and stitch. i'm still playing but this is what i have so far. the hexagon pieces are a variety of papers that i had on hand. i've added a piece of an old embroidery linen to one corner and a fabric fussy cut butterfly as well as some random embroidery stitches. i've used a thin scrap of muslin batting for the base. i think i may be cutting a postcard and some atc's from it and then finishing them up according to what each small piece "tells me" it needs . . . still experimenting and having a great time with this and as you can see my "green garden fever" has infected this piece as well.
i hope to show more as i get further along.

today's gifts included:

• the soft light of a foggy morning
• the shimmery veil of green leafy buds that trees wear in the early spring
• bearing witness to my daughter's blossoming into womanhood.

it was a wonderfully sunny warm day with temps in the 60's today. 
i decided to take advantage of it and experiment with a different lens.

the grape hyacinths are happily standing in the garden spotlight today. it's interesting how these particular ones are a darker purple at the bottom than they are at the top.

our calico kitty Cricket joined me for a while. she was quite interested in watching the bird feeder which got me to thinking that i should try and get some shots of the birds . . . but i had to wait for her to move on before they felt comfortable enough to begin feeding again.

there was quite an assortment of hungry birds and this one was charming and quite unafraid once the kitty went on her way.

the yellow headed blackbirds are a lot more assertive than most of the other birds. they push and shove and gobble up as much as they can as fast as they can.

i like the small wren-like birds with the cherry heads and rosey breasts.

after i became too sore to sit on the ground shooting birds i decided to snap a few of my grand-dog Suki. she is very playful and energetic and doesn't she have the sweetest face~!?!~

today's gifts included:

• continuous birdsong
• my daughter's company (and Suki's too)
• the sight with which to see so much spring beauty

it has to be all about flowers today, doesn't it~!?!~

 i had a little bit of time to play in my photoshop program so made a quick Happy May Day piece. the blossoms are from a jasmine plant that i have. in the summer it gets wheeled outside but during the rest of the year it holds court in a sizable corner of my dining room and blesses me with sweet smelling blossoms every spring.

i'm not sure what this tiny purple flower is. it came up just after the crocus and the stems are no longer than three inches. the flowers themselves are about the size of my thumbnail and hang like bells off of the stems. maybe someone reading can identify them for me. they are quite tricky to photograph due to the downward direction that they face and their close proximity to the ground. i'm sure that my gymnastics once again impressed anyone who happened to notice me out with my camera . . . O-:

 this is sooc and is a macro of the lily that recently bore me two huge glorious blossoms this year.

 daffodils dancing in the sun today, skirts blowing in the wind.

this last bit is something i'm currently working on.  . .
this particular photo is a section from a vintage linen towel embroidered by someones long ago busy hands. i'll try to get more shots of the rest of it soon but to tell the truth i don't know where i'm going with this piece yet. it started out with me experimenting with the stitching of paper but of course a bit of cloth has worked it's way in as well.

today's gifts included:

• sunshine warming the time spent out in the yard
• the joy i feel while behind the lens of my camera
• hands capable of doing the stitching that i so love to do

i hope every one's May Day was full of flowers and maybe even a little sunshine.