Have spent the week working on my Japanese quilt mostly I keep changing my mind taking away and adding some thing instead???? Managed to sashiko quilt some more wee circles and thats it sewing wise.
I have all most completed sashiko quilting this wee wall hanging
Back of quilt
close up so you can see the bigger stitches I use for sashiko quilting, my circles are not so good from the back but over time hopefully it will improve LOL
close up of one corner
Love how the sashiko makes the circles pop out.
I unpicked the yellow embrodered flowers in the centre and replaced with solid yellow fabric, Im much happier with the end result, the embroidery looked messy to me.
What is it?????
A giant bush slug, its quiet amazing how big the shells get to. This is the first time I have seen one actually moving. I could not hold the torch and camera and my self upside down at the same time to take a photo of the front of the snail LOL ???
Berries are dropping from a giant palm outside my kitchen window and fermenting faster than I can pick them up, there is a certain butterfly coming in and eating the nectar, some times there are dozens there. Anne Marieke if you zoom in just to the right of the water container you will see a butterfly LOL.
Looking up to the palm head.
Here you can see the berries still not quiet ripe or that the rats, possums and bats have not eaten? There is a bunch of green ones behind the ripe ones.
A much smaller palm just flowering and covered in bees. These berries will be bright red when they finally grow.
May be this close up you can see the bees swarming around for the nectar. On the right is an old stem all that remands of a bunch of berries.
Self grown bunch of heliconias.
3 young tree ferns they will reach up to 8 metres high or higher over 15 years.
New fern uncurling of the tree fern.
Hard to see but this is the fern almost completely uncurled then the side branches will uncurl too and grow in to fern leaves.
Driveway is full of fresh green colours after all the rain. I added two small urns to the new gate posts.
Even the smallest fruit and flowers are a treasure when you find them
Broms never fail to amaze me, there are 100s of different shaped and coloured flowers and all so exotic.
Close up Incredible colours put together.
Another Bom but this one throws what looks like berries instead of petal flowers.
These just pop up in the garden, my mum loved them and grew them inside in NZ when I was a child and now they just grow around me out side?
My red poinciana just starting to turn red.
Thank you for dropping in and getting this far LOL
Im off to link up with Esther
http://estheraliu.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/wow-curating-fabric.html
on her WOW or WIPs today
Happy stitching all Glenda
I think your circles look wonderful. They don’t look irregular from the front, so just don’t look at the back!
Your tropical garden is enviable as winter strikes in the southern parts of the country.
Hi Vireya, thanks for stopping by, my brother this week put up a photo of trees covered in ice taken down in NSW I think it was, so you must be getting very cold days and nights at present, I’m sitting here in a sleeveless top it is 26C and it is just after midnight LOL. We are still having very warm days and nights.
Guess what I just sashiko quilted around my last circle that’s why I’m still up I was on a roll tonight and couldn’t stop. Only 3 more of these quilts to make !!! So that’s what I did on Wednesday this week. Cheers Glenda
Your garden always amazes me – such wonderful plants and such colour from them too!
Wonderful stitching on your circles, they look fabulous! A great project!
Dear Plum, after all the rain the rainforest and our garden is looking wonderful for this time of the year, it’s normal very dry and dusty looking unless I put the over head sprinklers on that we used to use on the farm in N Z. Hand watering is not worth doing with our big tree ferns as they have to be watered from their heads which are 6 metres above me LOL. I’ve just finished quilting my first Quilty364Quilt so I’m very very happy 3 more to go!. Hugs Glenda
Dear Glenda
Doe the berries grow into trees? Silly question I know, because we had something similar along the east coast of South Africa in our garden. Funny how plants our Moms grew indoors as house plants do so well outdoors with the right conditions?
Hi Maggie dear, yes the Palm fruit (I call them berries) do grow very very easy if thrown under a sack and it is kept damp nearly every one grows, I pull them out when I see them growing so we don’t get smothered in palms. I just let a new one grow if it is in the right place. There are 100s of different kind of palm trees from ones with golden trunks to stunning bright red trunks. Ones we have that are giant ones now have been here about 35 years. These flower, seed, drop, and germinate in to baby plants all year round so I have to pull them like weeds. Hugs Glenda
Love the tour of your gardens. thanks for sharing
Hi Chris, well it’s nothing like the gardens you saw when you visited Australia as we are in the tropics 2000 ks North of where you visited, they are having heavy frosts down there now. Glad you enjoy our tropical garden. Cheers Glenda
Thank you for taking the time to share your photos and explanations, Glenda! What a perfect way for me to begin my day here in Annapolis, Maryland. Your natural flora and critters are amazing!
Hi Jeanne, I just wish you lived closer and could drop in and see them in real life specially the exotic flowers their colours are so inspiring you would go crazy taking photos, colours we were taught should never go together here they are in nature together and in perfect harmony. I see them each year as they bloom but still they make me catch my breath in surprise. Cheers Glenda
Lovely tour of the plants, but I did zoom in on the water container but I couldn’t see the butterfly. Your Japanese circle quilt is so pretty and I love the heart flowers quilt. Both a very nice. Thanks for sharing with us. Blessings, Gretchen
Hi Gretchen it’s 1am here and I should be in bed a sleep, but woke up and decided to check my mail instead of lying in bed doing nothing LOL. It’s so so quiet and still tonight and a very dark night no moon to night, no forest noise which we usually have and it is 36C.
Butterfly is very small has its wings closed and is brown so yes very hard to find, but it is there LOL
Hugs from Australia. Glenda
the second from the last plant you show is grown here outdoors in the summer – it doesn’t come back though you have to plant it new each year – I supposed you could try to winter it over in the house but I have never done that. I think it is called a “Coleusue”? something like that I know my spelling is wrong. Love giant slug! although I really hate them LOL.
Love your circles and that red backing is great!!
Hi Karen yes it is a Coleus??. I had to look it up for the spelling LOL. And yes they do NOT like the cold, but spring up here all year round if our temps don’t go be low 18C. They never seem to grow the same as the mother plant but grow prolifically so easy to divide if one wants to.
Tourists love to discover a empty shell of the giant slug as they make a great talking point back home where a slug is about 1inch across not 3inches LOL Its shell is more cone shape and a dark brown and often very glossy.
Love what you are about to do with your felt border, I started using felts about 5 years ago but was making blocks which became bags, never added them to a full quilt though. They do make a MUCH heavyer weight finish to the fabric so adding cotton as well might be a very good idea? You are about to find out LOL. Hugs Glenda
G’day Glenda from Melbourne
(where it totally missed Autumn and went straight to Winter)….
As always, love the tour of your garden, and yes I found the butterfly – it was smaller than I was expecting!
I wouldn’t worry about your Sashiko it is much neater than my efforts!! 😉
Cheers Wendy.
Dear Wendy thank you for your kind positive words on my sashiko quilting, I’m sure yours is much neater LOL. This is my first time at doing it and I’m glad I stared on the out side and not the centre, 1 my first stitches don’t show up so much on the edges of the quilt where they would have in the centre, 2 I found the outer 3 rows quiet easy to handle and quilt, where the centre I had to pleat the quilt to hold in my left hand to make the stitches, so it was quiet bulky and fiddly to quilt. I tried to do it in a quilt frame but my thickness of the quilt was to much and I could not get the meddle to go down and up so just helped it in my hands, I did baste it ever 4inches though so had next to no movement when quilting. But I must admit to throughly enjoying doing the sashiko, I will do it much more now, as I love the look of it and the peace and joy of doing it. My stitches are about the size of a short grain of rice, this was what I was told to do when I watched Japanese ladies doing it in Japan, so I concentrate on that in m mind as I take each stitch, of course the back is meant to look the same so it is a real rocking motion need to get that, but I think it will take a year or so till I archive that LOL
Yes it is a small butterfly for up here as you know we have the birdwing butterfly w high is up to 6inches across LOL.
Are you still coming up this way??? Hugs Glenda