Summer Strategies

It is NOT going to be those 'lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer' like the old song says. Well, maybe crazy! ;~) I have been focusing on the summer plan.

As I had said earlier this will be a Summer to Dye For! I have taken the Pledge to talk about the Process and this I shall do, not exactly my quilts but the process of turning a very ramshackle potting shed into a summer dye studio. Hopefully I'll be dyeing/painting/stamping and generally messing around by August 1st. And thankfully my dear hubby is talking about what needs doing first. He suggests raising the whole thing so it can be blocked higher as it sits in a low spot and all the water collects inside and the mosquitoes breed in the damp and dark. But speaking of water, we've had 4 inches already this weekend and as I type more is coming down.

As you can see the grass luvs this cool, wet environment. So I need to find the shed and trim all the grass that surrounds it. I also have paint and can be painting the chicken coop as we begin the preliminary stuff on the Puttering Shed. Hmm, perhaps I need a better name for this 'studio'. Any suggestions? It is backed by That Faerie Place although a whole herd of frogs have been sneaking in as well! lol

Summer also means yard work and the North bush needs some attention. Poplars clone themselves. One tree has dozens and dozens of trees all off of one root system. So when the main tree dies the rest succumb. I like the poplar bush, birch is better, but... The wood is light, not like birch, but not dark either. I'm kinda dismayed to see oak which is very black moving into the stand. This will eventually change the whole feel of the bush.

So I need to fell these dead trees and add some more of the newer hybrid poplars that we got with our tree order and then pretty up the edge. This rain has done some flooding in the basement so we need to make a dry creek at the edge of this bush and have the water go further from the house. So there is some summer landscaping planned for this area.

I had said I'd make do with the quilts I have for summer decor. I originally was going for whimsical with a bit of thirties styling for a summer cottage look. But focusing has made me see that I'm better to do 30's with a bit of whimsy thrown in. It works better for a cohesive flow throughout the whole house. So I do have the main fabrics in their allotted space on the shelf.

I have a WIP as well. I'd started an Irma Gail Hatcher Conway Quilt that has not ever been finished and I decided after seeing so many of them at shows that I wasn't going to add another to the pile. But I'll finish up the individual blocks I have and design a new simple setting for them. A quieter simpler version.

I have very much admired the Quiet Quilts that Malka Dubrawsky wrote about in the April/May issue of Quilting Arts Magazine and that has got me very excited and ready to start fiddling. But I'm remembering Triple F so I'm whoa-ing! Focus, dye shed. Jot down the ideas for these quiet quilts but get out there and fiddle with the dye shed process. There'll be a few more rainy days to plan quiet quilts! oops, another whoa!

I also need to start to work through my Journal Spilling book. That will be part of getting ready for playing with the wet stuff in the dyeing shed. Isn't focusing great!

But I hope you'll join me as I process thru an exciting summer, a summer to dye for!