Spring!

Well, it finally moved from early spring to mid spring - I think! The spring weather here in Nova Scotia hasn't been as warm as last year and there have been lots of gray days. However, when the sun did shine, it was warm. On one of those sunny days, we made a trip to a couple of plant nurserys. 

Last fall, all the grass was stripped off the lawn between our two driveways  -  75' by 40' (and that doesn't include about another 40 feet on the other side of the driveways)! All the sod and a foot of clay was taken out and replaced with new topsoil and compost. There was also a layer of rocks put in front of the 'lawn' to keep the soil from running down the slope.

This year, the soil and compost were rotor-tilled together. We now have a two foot wide strip filled with ground cover plants across the front. I'm hoping these plants will spread down over the rocks. Of course, we get visits from deer and bunnies, so that determined the types of plants we used!

The next warm day, black ground cloth covered with mulch, will be installed around these plants. At the moment, we have no plans to replace any of the grass. I believe this endeavour will be a work in progress for the next couple of years. 

Four Gold Star Juniper - 3' x 6'

Five Blue Rug Juniper - Genevrier Wiltonii - 8" x 6'

Four 'Wiltonii' Juniper - 10 cm x 2.5 m

Twelve Periwinkle

Embroider a Garden:

• Kathy Thomas has lots of ideas on her Pinterest page 
• Stitch your own garden  Mary Corbet 
• More Pinterest ideas HERE,  HERE, 
  
• DMC - free embroidery patterns
• How to Hand Embroider Flowers    
• YouTube: 10 Gorgeous Flower Ideas  
• How to Embroider Flowers

Enjoy!!

Stay Safe 

 

Don't forget to check out my new website https://judycooper.ca  I've been adding photos, blog posts, etc. Take a look around!

 

Birch Trees

I have another miniature piece finished. Needing a quick name, I've called it Birch Trees. Yes, very original, I know, but something else might pop into my head. I'm open to suggestions. In creating art, I find that coming up with an appropriate name,is  the hardest thing to do. I don't want something corny.

The trees and rocks are hand appliqued in place. Check HERE in a post from a few years ago (scroll down) to find out how I created the rocks for using in my pieces. The daisies were first hand stitched onto Aqua Magic water soluble fabric, spritzed with water and left to dry then stitched on the background fabric. The lupines were free motion stitched onto purple organza. French knots were used for the dandelions and tiny forget me knots.

Below is the piece before adding the extra flowers. 

Summer Garden

On such a winter's day, I'm wishing for summer heat and of course, lots of flowers! Here is my latest small embroidered piece, Summer Garden. The fence is a snippet from a photo of my mom's garden from many year's ago. The opening is 4.5" x 4.5" and the mat will fit a 10" x 10" frame.

Maybe I'll do some trees in my next one . . . 

Enjoy

• Garden inspired hand embroidery patterns (eye candy)
• Embroidered Gardens & Landscapes on Pinterest HERE & HERE 
• A variety of Hand Embroidery ideas / patterns on Pinterest HERE 
• Embroidered Knot Gardens, Royal School of Needlework on YOUTUBE 
• Vegetable Sampler free pattern 
• Hand Sewn Garden Embroidery   

11 Flower Gardens Finished!

Oh, dear, I have been a bit slack posting this year so far! But, I have been working. Here are eleven small pieces that are finished. The backgrounds have to be touched up with the iron. New photos will be taken as I want to turn some of these into prints.

These will be matted to fit an 8" x 8" frame. The actual opening is 5" x 5". All my small gardens have a few dandelion flowers embroidered in them. When I was a child, I would pick them in the grass and bring them to my mother. I can hear her now: 'Oh, Judy, these are lovely'. I also remember that they never stayed long in the house either!!
Enjoy!!

• QuiltCon 2019 is opened in Nashville, Tennessee this weekend. You can see the winning  quilts HERE   

Work in Progress

I've been working on some Flower Gardens that will eventually be framed. These are a bit bigger than the framed 5" x 5" ones previously created. So for the past few days, creating the bits and pieces needed for these small art pieces, from threads and organza, have taken up a chunk of my time.

In this photo, I've hooped green organza and free motion stitched small irregular pieces to use as foliage.  I do like the spring action hoops for quick release. These can be purchased quite inexpensively. I believe, mine came from Wal Mart.

I use trays to put project pieces on. As you can see, some of the tools needed are in easy reach. Besides that, I can carry them from room to room, depending where on where I wish to work.

Cut out stitched pieces from organza

Small flower pots were drawn on fabric, stitched, cut out and machine appliqued to a background.

I put a temporary mat over the background to give me a boundary for working. As you can see, some of the pieces are already stitched to the background. Some applique pins are holding a few other pieces in place that will get stitched tomorrow. Then the hand embroidery begins.

I will post about the finished pieces when they are completed. Stay tuned! Check out HERE how these came to be created.

On another note, I joined the Mahone Bay Quilt Guild in September. They have a great web site that goes back quite a number of years. Grab a cup of something and check them out HERE. 

Enjoy!!

More Fibre Art Pendants with Embroidered Flowers

I just finished embroidering flowers on the rest of the Fibre Art Pendants. They are ready to be packaged. That's a job for some other time.

Fibre Art Pendants - Embroidered Flowers

Embroidery on Pendants

Since Mother's Day is tomorrow, I thought I'd post a few Fibre Art Pendants with embroidered flowers on them.

Also, one of my heart pendants has been highlighted today on Face Book by the Craft Council of Newfoundland Labrador. Thanks for the extra promotion of my work. The scarf is also one of my creations.

Here's the caption copied from Face Book:

What a lovely way to say "Mom, you are pretty great!" Come in to see our full selection of these

beautiful fibre pendants and scarves by St. John's crafts person Judy Cooper

Art Card Update

On Wednesday, I showed you the beginning of making art cards with a painted background. Today I finished stitching the grass and stems for the flowers. I used variegated green pearl cotton in the bobbin and free motioned the greenery. In fact, a few flowers were also stitched in place. The art piece is 2 1/4 inches wide. The height sometimes varies.  Hopefully, the cards will be finished this weekend.

I also have a couple of new shimmers in the works. You'll have to wait to see these.

Don't forget to check Grow Your Blog. There are over 400 blogs to visit!

Enjoy!