summer fun

Just some FUN things
that belong to summer days

How big can soap bubbles grow ???

Brothers having a go in the "green" water
(not easy to determine what direction to go,
when each has one paddle )

*

Other bits of garden :

Filipendula rubra "Venusta"
(meadowsweet)
Always worth waiting for till they bloom !
(and they spread ... !)

Blue Phlox ... WITH fragrance !

Seedling from somewhere (?)

This one the same colour as the Filipendula !

Sanguisorba (obtusa ... I think)

Rose campion and  drum sticks

and this funny Euphorbia (...?)

Summer is such a good time in the garden

fresh start

After I finished the Sweet Sunrise

and the little Solstice piece

I looked for some water soluble and red fabrics in my stash

and put the sewing machine on the table :

time for "something completely different"

Flowers are on my mind,

poppies !

I always love stitching on the water soluble stuff.

It's like painting with little snippets

and drawing with the machine.

This time I used the thin, plastic-like water soluble.

I have the other, thicker kind,

that looks more like interfacing, too,

but this is OK for the small things I'm stitching right now.

It's such fun you can use any snippets you like !

Now that I've finished the first batch,

I'm not sure about the size ...

They're bigger than I thought they would be

I might have to re-think what background I use ...

Started with some "break-down printing" piece

but I might need something else

something bigger.

My plans aren't fixed yet ...

(they hardly ever are   ;-) ... )

summer solstice

We're right here

on a hot first day of summer.

Right time and right temperature

for my little

Solstice piece

Summer Solstice 2017

It has a hot whirling center

in soft rainbow colours.

The cross hairs started as just a thin black line

in checkered fabric that I wove for the center.

Next I extended that line with dark stitch,

Then stitched my "magic thread" 

perpendicular of that first line.

At some places there's tulle on top.

Happy Solstice !

(either summer or winter)

so privileged !

I feel very privileged

that I can call myself the owner

of this beautiful textile work of art !

An original MOLA

I am sooooo happy with it !

Mola's are made by the Kuna Indians

which live on small islands off the coast of Panama.

The women make two, with related images,

for the front and back of their blouse.

They get their inspiration from their own culture (like this one)

but also from any other image they come across and like.

Even political ones, floral or animal pictures,

but also geometrical patterns.

This mola is about the INNA ritual : a puberty ritual for girls

cutting their hair to the short way the grown women wear.

A three-day feast (where everyone wears a new mola-blouse) 

with lots of "chicha" made out of fermented cane suger

with lots of rum !

Here the chicha is brought for testing to the two "Kantules",

judges and masters of ceremonie, who sing about the history

of the  INNA feast

It's a kind of reverse appliqué with three layers of cotton

cutting out images of the top layer,

adding extra colours underneath

and stitched with the tiniest of stitches.

Smoking a pipe while preparing the chicha.

(you can compare the size with my fingers)

Such amazing tiny and precise stitches !!!

The back of it.

We not only purchased one

but also one for our daughter !

A man and woman gathering fruits in the jungle.

The figure in the middle is the spirit

that guards the tree.

Some details.

(No need to say daughter LOVES hers too)

A Dutch lady, Els Mommers, who lives on the small Caribbean island Saba,

has visited the Kuna Indians for almost 25 years

and buys the molas from them, so the women

can earn an honest living with their Craft.

(please check out her blog to see these wonderful works of art)

nearly midsummer

Sometimes time rushes by

and I don't really notice

what date it is

(being retired does that to you)

But now I have started a small piece (15cm x 15cm)

for Summer  Solstice.

The weather is very warm right now

so why not take colours that match that !

Of course I started with

"glue-stitching" it all together,

so no nasty pins that catch your thread

when you start stitching !

In my stash was something a St'nB-friend gave me

It's the finest batiste

and believe it or not :

this is definitely hand stitched !!!

It's so hot right now

that the garden isn't the right place to do the stitching.

The sunshade down, the garden door closed,

to keep the heat from getting inside,

hmmmmmm ... that's better !

*

Here's the "Sweet Sunrise" piece of some days ago,

finished but not yet mounted on a canvas.

(I think the crochet is a bit from my Australian friend Jacky)

Love how the thick bundles of stitches work ...

A few weeks ago it was

"fish" time

See for yourself !

But not only for me,

also for Man who started drawing himself !

Around the drawings of his favorite colouring book

(always thought he couldn't ...)

Isn't that FUN !

stitching in the garden

The fun of the warm weather these last few days

is sitting in a bit of shade in the garden

...

and stitching.

A piece that was in my hands quite some time ago

nears completion now.

"Sweet Sunrise"

*

Stitching. but also
working in the garden from time to time

...

I took out all of the Allium roseum stems

I have enough of them

and don't want MORE little bulbs to fall of the old flower heads !

But I saved the bulbs that came out while pulling the stems

I'll send them on to friends !
(with a secure warning about the behavior of Allium roseum :
they spread like mad   ;-)  !)

But the Alliums have been followed up already

by lots of others

by small ones or tall ones !

all kinds of shapes !

old and new goes together quite well !

a new Drumstick Allium in a week, 

new bluebells in years to come !

small and even tiny

(but I don't want these micro moss "palm trees")

A garden is such a joy !!!