Changing boats in mid stream……

Yesterday I didn’t end up spending time in the studio, but did do some creating in my flower garden.   Many of the perennials that I had planted last spring did not make it thru the harsh winter so I set out looking for new ones.   Then I had the thought that, since the bed was so small, I could easily plant annuals each year and increase my flower to foliage ratio!!!   So, I first weeded the bed and trimmed back some dead stems and then I enjoyed planting about 25 new plants….about half perennial and half annual.  

Now I just get to wait for them to grow and bloom!!!

I also had to deal with a pesky set of deer who have been enjoying a few of my leafier plants and pulling up my tulip bulbs by the leaves!!!!  Hopefully the application of a deer repellent will do the trick!!

This morning I met a fellow quilter for coffee and then returned home to get started on my “Blue Mosque” project.

Now, if you cast your mind back to the previous post about this project, I had all of my fabrics picked out, organized  and ready to use.

I started laying those fabrics in roughly the spots they would occupy……

But then I realized that there needed to be a light source and that the fabrics were going to be too dark.   SO…….

The fabric that I found to be the light in the window was blue and not teal

….. so all of the other fabrics needed to change as well!!

At this point, I was starting to tense up because I wasn’t sticking with my original plan, but I gave myself a good talkin’ to and told myself to just go with the flow.  Apparently I listened  because I was able to go forward and keep making changes.

I had thought that the windows in each dome would be yellow, but as I tried lots of different fabrics, it became clear that these first ones needed to be bluish…..

I found one piece of hand-dyed fabric that I had bought at some point (I think that it was actually a drop cloth that someone just squeezed together to meld the dyes) and was able to cut the first set of windows from it.

I also made a decision to cut the windows as a unit rather than making each one individually.   This is a bit of a pain to cut, but it sure makes the layout process easier!!!!

At the end of my afternoon, the first dome was formed…..

I am fusing the pieces together and had originally thought that I would lay out the entire top before I started actually fusing.   After this one dome, I think that I will go ahead and fuse sets together as I go.

Tomorrow is free except for a trip to the gym early in the morning and dinner with good friends at their house in the evening, so I cant wait to get back to it!!!!