small

The garden looks very beautiful this time of the year

although it was rather dry, which some plants didn't like very much.

But there is water next to our garden

where I can fill up the watering-can.

And the rain of last night was well recieved.

But

look at this normally nearly round leaf of the Lady's mantle :

what tiny lady is making herself a brand new dress

from all the pieces cut from it ... ?

Oooh

I'm sorry,

this little guy won't grow up to be a mighty oak tree 

No room for that in our small garden !

......

... not growing up to be a true "Tree Soul" like

Oliver Hertel makes them ...

( ... could I make a Bonsai out of him / her ?)

boy o boy ....

It was a hell of a day

This whole day and this evening we have been on our knees :

that was only

because of the  big  felt work in progress!

(and we are by far not finished)

Daughter had made the huge ring of sunrays in two halves of pre-felt

I cut out the ring with a duplicated pattern

and daughter did the details on moon and sun with a felting needle

Then we stitched the parts together on the big base of pre-felt

Then came the tricky bit :

two layers of wool tops that had to move under the sunrays !

Did we have enough of this or that colour ?

(though scarcety makes inventive)

PFFFFFFT

(and in between there were children to and from and to school again

lunch, swimming lesson, dinner ...)

.... and tonight again on our knees

BOY  O  BOY :

felting is fun!

square moon

The piece that I'm working on

for the Sun / moon / stars Whispering

is slowly getting to it's end.

But sometimes the stitching isn't easy !

Because some of the indigo fabric is very densely woven.

On top of that (literally) is the nine patch of the square moon,

so then there are about six layers ...

sometimes a pair of tongs is the only way to get the needle through.

In a thrift shop I found this beautiful blue hanky

that I immidiately planned for the backing as soon as I saw it.

It is very thin so I must think of a way to use it :

probably with another layer behind it

(then I could even cut out the middle part ...)

But

still a lot of stitching to do

(ánd I need to find a place for my magic thread)

(Tomorrow I will be assisting daughter with her big felt)

w.i.p.

This is about w.i.p.s

Ofcourse :  most of the time it's about work in progress here ...

That way you can see how things develop and grow,

that's more fun

then showing just a finished product.

(At least that's how I think about it)

So : Work In Progress

But this time it isn't mine, but daughter's !

(By the way : she's the one who got me hooked on felting)

This is the beginning of some serious felting !

a  big  project

2 x 2 metre

so there's no room on the table

First some pre-felt is made

on the drawing that is on the floor

And another part ...

This is the first time she works that big

(but there's a first time for everything)

Although she can work very small too :

The frog for instance is less than 4 cm !

so :

... other work in progress ...

mandala wednesday

(Well Blogger is still acting funny: this was a post I did
last Wednesday  May 11, and had to repair, but now jumped to Sunday ???)

Second Wednesday in the month

is mandala day,

sorry to say, that it was our last one

(for now)

This season

(that is September, October, November and December

of last year and Februari, March, April and May this year)

the subject for each evening was

animals of power

(or the power of animals ?)

Tonight was the dolfin

The other animals were :

snake, salmon, bear, owl, horse, wolf and eagle.

For a dear internet friend who was very ill 

I made a small mandala which I send to her

(I hope it has arrived safely in the US)

for Herm

*

And today my brother was a Birthday "boy"

He said he is going to count backwards

(for the last two years already)

that's more favourable, he thinks ....!

whispering .....

In May Jude Hill started a new "Whispering"

It's a beautiful concept :

she picks a subject for possible new work and

lets you in on all her thoughts, try outs

and techniques so that you can enjoy seeing how she works

and use it in your own work

as you are trying to work along with this 

"Master in Cloth and Stitch"

that Jude is.
Whispering in May is called
Sun, Moon, Stars

As an appetizer I started in April with a star

which now looks like this.

After some serious thoughts about the sun/moon/stars subject

and the possibilities for the composition and background,

Jude showed how to discharge dark cloth, simply with bathroom cleaner,

to make moons and stars.

That was so much fun that I had to try that

and started a dark blue cloth.

Jude is known for her "What-iffing"

so I asked myself (like her)

"What if the moon was a square ?"

I had some whitish inchies nine patches that I used

some time ago to make Biscornu's,

(the funny shaped pincushions Eva makes)

But the square didn't last long : SHE must be round I think

So here is my moon : round again

---------

Just as I nearly finished this post yesterday Blogger went "dead"
nothing to post, nothing to comment at friends' blogs
ánd worst of all :
I thought I had to start aaaaaalllll over again with this one !
So I was very happy when I realized 10 minutes ago
that not all had gone lost !
pfffffft

---------
(oops ... and now I see it's already Saterday ...)

Caterpillar versus Polygonatum

Today I can finally show the whole "Caterpillar"

The new owner (Rina) came this morning to collect it !

Caterpillar versus Polygonatum

The extra leaves stand out nicely, just as I intended to

and just like they do on the real Solomon's seal.

(These are the Solomon's seals last Sunday

in Arboretum Trompenburg.

They are much bigger than the wild ones I used to have

in my garden,

so two years ago I bought a few plants there)

The butterfly at the top is matching the quilt colour,

because I never really saw the butterflies that

come from those gray green caterpillars ...

And guess what : Rina loves gardening too !

So we had a lot more to talk about

ánd I could give her some of my plants she liked

Especially for Rina

this Iris, which was still closed in the morning 

but opened beautifully this afternoon

when the sun returned after a well recieved rainy night.

"Purple Haze"

(a name well chosen, I think !)