I am trying my hand at landscape quilting. Recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in my hands, I have found most hand activities too painful to do. But I can't live without fabric creations (or gardening for that matter) and I thought perhaps I could cut and assemble pictures with fabric.

Inspired by the late Nancy Zeiman and her friend Natalie Sewell, I took this project from one that Natalie did of a rock garden. You cut leaves and flowers from  various fabrics and then assemble them in layers on a background fabric.  I chose a batik quilting cotton for the background, a dark blue with splashes of white through it.  Then cut out foliage, first I cut just green shapes from fabric that looked like greenery but then I realised I actually needed leaf shapes.  So those first cuts were discarded and I "fussy cut" leaves from several different fabrics, colouring the ones that weren't quite the right green with permanent markers. Then flower shapes, and a lot of cuts to resemble tulips. I couldn't find tulip fabric so had to improvise. Also the tulip leaves were cut from other leaves and reshaped to resemble tulips. 

This is a photo of the quilt with all the flowers and leaves stitched onto it. Now I have to make a border to resemble a photo mat, I have chosen a quilting cotton in the golden orange shade of some of the flowers. Then a second border of the background fabric is  added, then a final thin binding is put around the edges. 

And the final step is to stipple quilt the entire background. This is done free- motion (feed dogs down) and I love doing this. I made a jacket a number of years ago, all the fabric was stippled before constructing the jacket and I still wear that jacket ten years later. 

A close up of the fabrics assembled and stitched to the background

A close up of some of the tulips

My hands are objecting to  the work, so I can only do about half an hour at a time, but it is so incredibly satisfying.  I already have several ideas for future projects I want to do.  

What's blooming now

Here in central/northern Ontario, our summers are very short.  Little begins to bloom until the end of June and much of the garden looks bare. The temptation is to fill it all up with annuals, but then the perennials will struggle to get through.

Here in the bed beside the driveway, a peony blossomed today. And just behind is a gorgeous iris  with one bloom out and four more waiting to pop. I love the intricate flower of iris and these two-toned ones are simply beautiful.

The soft purple and blush pink is outstanding.

 

I think the day's  heat  is making  these peony flowers curl. We have gone from cool spring to full-on  summer and today is already 30 plus with a humidex of 37. (89 Fahrenheit to 96). And dry, there has been no rain for over a week. This seems to be typical Ontario summer, hot and dry.

Lupins flowering in the driveway bed. This bed gets full morning sun, from about 7 am to 1 or 2 in the afternoon.

Some irises that surprised me when they  bloomed.  I don't remember planting them here but I must have.

And some  lovely aliums in the bed on  the  east side of the house.

In a corner of a front bed, I have struggled with various plants and nothing seems to survive. So I put in a Gold Lace Juniper. I hope that it will get enough sun to do well here.  It gets about 6 hours of sun here. The plant makes me think of people who have got blonde highlights put in their hair. Highlights that are well done.

Pots on the back deck. Several begonias with lobelia and bacopa, a fuchsia and some coleus just taking hold.

A  pot  at  the bottom of the deck steps, with a grass in the centre, and  pink and purple flowers around, I've forgotten their names.

Meanwhile it is watering, watering and more watering.