Summer is finally here!

It is spring and summer finally! I have been busy cleaning closet and putting away the wools and sweaters! I don't know which is worse, putting away the winter stuff or finding room for the summer stuff! The weather changed so quickly and last evening it was 94 degrees. We didn't even have the time to put up the air conditioners yet! Thank goodness it's a long weekend and we can find the time to do it all. Today it's a little cooler at 74*.

We have been working in the garden and last night I picked two quarts of strawberries.

They are yummie. I'm adding some pictures of the garden. We just planted our summer crop of tomatoes, peppers, cucumers, green squash, radishes, lettuce, egglplant, green beans, parsley and basil.

My herb garden is also doing well. There is thyme, oregano, chives, tarragon, sage, chervil and fennel.

 

The spring flowers poppies. bearded iris and dutch iris are bloom and everything is looking like summer!

This weekend we will put in the seasonal plants, geraniums, pansies, sunflowers, marigolds etc. I wish everyone a safe Memorial Day and enjoy your celebrations!

Saturday is Tag Sale Day

Up and out early to bring the unwanted household and garage items half way across town for a huge family tag sale. I was practically giving the stuff away because I didn't want to carry it back. I was able to sell two 3 yard  pieces of artic fleece for $4.00 each! I still have six left. In addition to normal stuff we all collect over the years I also had a lot of craft items...sewing, yarn, christmas panel cutouts and three years of Sew News, Threads and Sew Stylish magazines.  I didn't end up unloading them, I think it was because the Tag Salers were not looking for the crafty item in the beggining of summer. However I did sell the Rachel Ray magazine collection for $3.00 and ended up with $75 for the day. What I didn't sell and didn't want to hold to anymore went to the local Good Will. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and say goodbye to stuff that was just hanging around.

After we all cleaned up the "Family" of six (we call the "old timers") went out to dinner. We choose "Lenny and Joes" Fishtale in Madison, CT near the Hammonassett State Park. It is only 25 minutes on the interstate and they have the BEST seafood on the shoreline, you can either use take out or dine there if your lucky enough to find a table.  Of course my eyes were bigger than my stomach when I ordered a soft shell crab dinner and a side of whole bellie clams! We were lucky to find a table inside the building and waited for our order. I had #59 and while we were enjoying dinner we heard them announce #59 again! That means they served 100 orders within half hour! I was too stuffed after devouring the crab that I unable to take on  the clams. I had them wrapped for take out to enjoy the next day.  After we were finished we went outside and strolled around to get the food to go down.  Lenny's has an ice cream stand  and a carousel.  And of course we were unable to  resist the ice cream!

The Magical Charity Carousel is a joint charitable venture of the Madison and Westbrook Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tales $ll the proceeds from the carousel goes to the local community food bank and charities. Since 1998 $605,000.00 has been over 11 Seasons! Check out their T-Shirt page. You may see someone from your state who's been there!  http://ljfishtale.com/page/2683-Home

Since it was almost eight pm and the state park closes at sunset we decided to drive back and stop in Branford and walk around the green. It was a perfect ending to long day.   

Painting Class 4/26/10

This is where I go on Monday evenings, over the last six months it has rained three times and snowed once! But somehow we ladies always seem to show up. I think it's mostly to share our talents and work off the stress of the day. This is one of the girls working on a new project. The canvas is blocked her painting with acrylic first and then with oil. This will be a beautiful daffodil when she finishes!

Here we have an out of the box idea..the Tetons with Carousel Horses!

Here is one of the TA's working on a minitature painting, see the magnifining glass she uses as an aid to see those tiny strokes! On the back right is my painting of tomato's and my landscape trying on a frame for fit.  I still need to give it a coat of poly acrylic to seal it before securing it in the frame. I will post that when I get that done.

Here is a cute little painting of a birds nest with an egg. Isn't this cute! This is done with water based oil. I kind of like the look of the water based oil compared to the pure oil I use. It was pretty exciting at class this time as the instructor gave us a lesson on how to frame our pieces. There will be a fair on June 12, on the town green and we are encouraged to have pieces ready for show and tell.

Salsa Skirts

I seen this pattern on the McCalls website and thought how cute this would be for my three granddaughters! I just had to make these skirts for them.  After reading the pattern guide and adding up the yardages required I had second thoughts since I knew this was going to cost me a pretty bundle for the three skirts.  Then I threw caution to the wind and ventured out to find the nine co-ordinating fabrics. My first stop was at Walmart and I don't usually shop for fabrics at Walmart but as luck would have it , while passing by the spring fabrics that was just put on display I found a section of color co-cordinated childrens fabrics!  I was in shock that I actually found all of the colors needed to make these cute little skirts and the best part the fabric was only 1.99 yard!  

I bought eight 1/2 yard pieces of each of the fabrics I wanted for the strips and 3/4 yard for the upper tier for three skirts. I then looked in my stash for jumbo rick-rack and found I had enough red and green for the bottom tiers but had to buy another eight packages of blues, yellows and orange. The cutting went quickly using the rotary cutter and mat method. I sewed the 1/2 yard strips together then cut each 1/2 yard into 2.5" strips then stacked and sewed the strips end to end. After ruffling and sewing the tiers together I finished the seams with the serger and sewed the rick rack on. These skirts came out so cute! You can see two of the girls have them on and they fit perfectly!   

This is my latest finished acrylic 8 1/2 x 16. I still need to overlay this with polyurethane. This is a painting of a reserve in Burnt Church, New Bruswick Canada. My mother was born there and her family still lives there . My Uncle was a Chief there until his death and now his son's my cousins serve on the council. Burnt Church is located on the northern most coast of the Atlantic and the water you see in the picture freezes in the winter and the locals can go ice fishing and drive trucks out on the frozen ice. Starting in April through July the native people have lobster traps and have fishing boats for the seasonal catch.

Aloha Wear

I made these four sleeveless shirts three days before our last trip to Kauii last September.  These tops are a much needed fashion item when on the islands! The fabric is a rayon/cotton blend and are wrinkle free! The blue shirt was a purchased sundress I wore on our last trip to the islands and decided to repurpose it and make it into a shirt instead !  

These are Hawaiian quilted totes.  I took a quick class from Poakalani in Hawaiian quiltiing at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center on one of my trips there. It was a challenge to learn this method of quilting, it makes one appreciate the labor of love that went into all those beautiful Hawaiian quilts that are on display in the hotels and museums.  If you go today to Oahu and want to take a class Poakalani has moved their classes to the Iolani Palace Archives building every Saturday 9:30am -  12:00pm.

This is an oil on a 14 x 16 canvas and was my first paintings done in class. No acrylic was used as an underlay.  

My homework assignment was to paint in acrylic a landscape scene, I found a picture of a stream I took a couple of summers ago and laid it out on a 9x12 canvas board. Everyone liked the way I captured the scene at dusk. I still need to cover it with a varnish then frame it with a 3" gallery frame.

Newest Acrylics and Oil paintings

This is an acrylic I started in class a week ago. I still need to layer the water and add multiple layers to the detail. I thought I would just block it in with acrylic and finish it in oil but my instructor said it was looking good in acrylic so go with it. The location is in Burnt Church Canada, a reserve where my mother is from. So I'm hoping this will come out good enough to give as a gift to my brother who lives there.

Sewing Room

This is my sewing room where I create and have classes. Pictured are four of the machines I use to quilt, embroider and serge on. There are four more tucked under cases and on display.

Sewing update

I finally figured out how to post and update this link. I know it's supposed to be a "Sewing" blog, but I get sidetracked easily, what can I say I'm an Aries. I don't quilt but I do like to make cute things with fabric.  This is quilt top from a pattern I picked up at Kapaia Stitchery by Vicki Stratton when on Kauai.  I also bought most of the material there too because the mainland do not carry the same types of fabrics the Island stores do.. If you see a pattern that you just have to have make sure you pick up the fabric to with it before returning to the mainland.