New Landscape Quilt

The other landscape quilt isn't panning out, I just can't get into it so I thought put it away for another day.

So I started on the winter oak landscape and I am loving it. It isn't quite finished, but I think the rest of the details will be added with machine stitches, rather than gluing on more fabric or trying to change colours with markers.

So now it is pinned to the batting and backing fabric and ready for some free-motion quilting. I may add a hint of sunshine to the leaves with gold thread, because the markers just aren't doing it. Gold thread may pick up the glint that I am after. And the dry grasses that are in the snow will be added by stitches as well. A slow process but a fascinating one. More later.

Progress on the fence quilt

More has been added, not really sure about this quilt. It's just not coming together in my mind. This photo doesn't really help as it is not detailed and the fine points of the leaves and flowers haven't been captured.

Landscape quilt ideas

Ideas for the next landscape quilt. The same tree in four seasons. Winter - stark blue cloudless sky, tree with dead leaves and snow on the branches.

Spring - new fresh green grass, blue sky with clouds, dandelions perhaps

Summer - deep blue sky, some clouds, purple cone flowers

Fall - grey sky, orangy-brown leaves, dry grass

A new landscape quilt wall hanging

I am starting a new landscape quilt. This one will be an old picket fence, inspired by the one in Nancy Zeiman and Natalie Sewell's book.

I began with a batik cotton from Quilter's Curve in Combermere, Ontario. It is a light teal background with swirls through it. They could easily come across as shafts of sunlight in the finished wallhanging.

I then cut pieces of a grey mottled batik for the fence posts, but they just didn't seem right. So I went with a clear white cotton shirting fabric that I had, and did a lot of colouring with oil pastels, crayons and permanent markers.

This is just the start, I may add even more shading to the posts once I add more details to the quilt. It has to look like old wood, with that weathered look of mold and dirt aged by time.

There will be a lot of fussy cutting to this quilt. Lots of individual leaves and flowers to be cut, that will then be stitched over the fence to look as if they have always been there. I am so looking forward to this project.

It's so worth growing dahlias

I don't think any other flower provides such a glorious display as dahlias. Well perhaps peonies but they only last one to two weeks at most whereas dahlias bloom for almost a month. Then the frost gets them. In warmer climes, they would bloom even longer.

Dahlias in August

I planted 21 dahlia tubers, not sure how many have come up and not all have bloomed yet. A couple haven't even set buds which is disappointing. But the ones that have bloomed are stunning. I will try to list their names below the photo. All of these will be wintered over and divided, if it works out, to make even more dahlia blooms next summer.

I don't know the name of this one, but it is a lovely semi-cactus dahlia in soft pink

Linda's Baby showing up peachy coral as in the catalog

I think this one is Linda's Baby; two different colours on the same plant

I don't know the name of this one

I think this is Jowey Linda

Esli dahlia, by far the most blooms of all

Creve Couer, the tallest dahlia in deep fuchsia, this bloom is 7 inches across

Cafe au Lait dahlia in gorgeous shades of taupe and blush

Cafe au Lait, showing pale pink on the outer petals

Cafe au Lait dahlia, this one is pale yellow on the same plant

Small pompom dahlia that wintered over from last year

This week's bouquet

I figure I should cut the flowers and put them on the table where we spend most of our time, so that I can be enjoying them up close. This week's selection features giant dinner plate dahlia Creve Couer, some pompom dahlias, cosmos, phlox, echinacea, daisies, black-eyed susans, hollyhocks, balloon flowers, and the beloved funny amaranth. Favourite flower this year though is plain old echinacea, or purple coneflower.