Barb and I have been busy working on the next Loose Feather series. Six of the twelve samplers in this series are already stitched! (Must be a first for us....usually we are always a bit late. We can't take all of the credit on being timely though...we've had lots of good help with this series.)

 Last weekend was the Kansas City Garden Tour. These pictures are from Cody Hogan's home. His Chef's garden was a true delight and my favorite of the entire show. He's the Chef de Cuisine at Lidia's Restaurant Group, and his garden is planted to not only be enjoyed visually, it also provides fresh produce to use in his recipes. He's a new beekeeper too!



The espaliered pears border large formal herb beds. The water table was created by Peter Crump who owns Urban Stone Concrete in Kansas City. (His countertops in the kitchen and table tops throughout the home and property are just stunning.) I think the concrete planter above was done by him too.



 Wattle fencing surrounds their shrubs.


Love all of the boxwood in the garden. They were all pruned to perfection. Cody and Peter have planted over 90 boxwood plants in their yard. I evidently don't have enough. I only have one and it's large and unpruned.




Peter and Cody built the outdoor oven. After it's fired up they cook bread, pizza, meats and finally add a pot of beans which cooks overnight in the oven as it cools.


The gold fish love this bit of water.



The knotted topiary hedge of boxwood, red barberry and euonymus shrubs along the driveway was just lovely. It made me rethink the shrubs in front of my home. The visual interest the knotted hedge provides is richer than the line up of Japanese yews in front of my home.

Below is a bit of show and tell from Susan. 

     Last year I ordered about 9 different dwarf iris rhizomes. I was out of town when they arrived, so I asked my husband if he could heel them in until I had a chance plant them. They stayed there all winter as I didn't get around to moving them. Even thought they aren't in a permanent location, it hasn't stopped these jewels from blooming this spring. They range between 5" - 10" in height. These petite iris are one of the first flowers to bloom and come in many colors. They are just too cute! I don't think one can have too many of these.

     The great thing about these small wonders is they do well just about anyplace. They are perfect for the front of a border, a rock garden, an edging or in a container garden. Their only requirements are water, soil that drains well and some sunlight. After a year or two there will be plenty of rhizomes to share. Divide and transplant them after they bloom.
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      My grandmother grew a field of iris for her floral business. (I'm not kidding when I say she had a field of them either!) She was especially fond of one variety with a huge purple bloom that grew on a 40" stem. I have some of them in my garden too....but they are not my favorites. I only grow them because she shared them with me and because of my love of her. Just when these huge flowers are in their glory, a strong gust of wind and/or rain can bend the stem to the ground. Here in Kansas we have those storm events every spring, and I just can't get too excited about flowers laying in the dirt. I've never found these sweet blooms on the ground. They always look perky and upright.


      You can see each plant still has the tag so I know it's name. Each day I'm out to photograph them to record their colors. I think it will help when I transplant them. It probably won't matter though. I have found I'm a careless gardener. I just mix flowers in where ever I find a good space. Mine were purchased from Schreiner's.

 

     Barb and I are back home.....a week at the beach is never enough. We wanted to stay another week, especially when we found out it was snowing at home. All good things must end though, and after developing project themes we want to accomplish this year it was time to come home to begin the implementation phase. (Now the work really begins.)


     We didn't have the best weather our entire week. There were a couple of the worse thunderstorms I've ever experienced. One night it rained 6-8" and explosive thunder shook and rocked the house. I asked my daughter Laura, to stay up during the night to make sure we didn't need to evacuate. She declined the offer and went to bed early. Luckily the storm awoke Barb, so she got to watch sheets of water pour down. As flashes of lightening lit up the sky she checked to make sure the gulf wasn't racing up over the dunes toward the beach house. I just put a pillow over my head and tried to sleep through it all.


     I dropped the next Loose Feather pattern files off at Boelte Hall before our trip. The pattern will be delivered to our warehouse tomorrow. Agnes Platt's lovely sampler belongs to Barb. It has hung in her home for years. It's been one of my favorites because of the colors and the bee skep. This sampler seems just right for spring and summer. Agnes stitched wonderful alphabets, a wending strawberry border and a sweet bee hive under a tree. Agnes didn't have any bees swarming around her skep so Barb added plenty in her sampler pictured on the top of the pattern cover.

     The original sampler looks square, but that's because it's stitched on uneven weave linen. The reproduction sampler stitched on 30ct. Vintage Gray linen by R & R Reproductions will be a wide rectangular shape. (18 3/4” x 13 1/4”) However, if you would rather have the look of the antique piece, you can stitch over 2 linen threads horizontally and 3 threads vertically. Just remember to adjust the size of linen you purchase.


      Spring is a buzzing finally in Kansas City! When I walk outside I hear "the girls" working. Our pin oak tree is in bloom and the bees are gathering nectar. I didn't realize how much honey bees are involved in pollinating oak and maple trees. When I heard the hum of activity I looked up and found them working the bloom in the tree. Guess we will have tons of acorns! It was hard for me to be in the right place to capture a picture of  one of our gals....but below is one beginning to land. I guess oak nectar is delicious! Who knew?


     I love the hearing them as I walk around the yard. It was really quiet until we began keeping bees.

Until later!
Alma

     Barb and I are renting a beach house for a week in Gulf Shores, AL. We have made this trip every year since 2009 except for one. It's a great way for us to work and plan projects for the year. As Barb works full time and lives 45 miles from me, we don't have much time to plan and brainstorm. Last year we missed this planning time and we really felt it didn't serve us well.
 
     We bring notebooks, sewing machines, rotary tools, linen, floss, my bike....and the list goes on and on. Our one fun "requirement" is to decorate the dining table in the screened-in-porch. (The table inside is covered with fabric and books and is considered our work table.) I brought a old white linen tablecloth and faded chipped dishes. Usually, I choose plates with pink flowers on the rim. I like the center of the plate to be white so the food is the main focus, but when I found these they felt just right. Although the pattern on the dinner plates is really faded and worn it makes the plates even more dear to me.



     I bought a set of 8 small dinner plates and 2 salad plates. The salad plates don't show much wear. Aren't they sweet?



    Barb purchased this vintage crocheted tablecloth and the table runner at an estate sale. They were both white and stained. She dyed these pink to match the dishes. It took 1/2 bottle of pink and 1/2 bottle of tan Rit dye and a cup of salt to get this soft warm shade of pink. They are just beautiful!


     Barb's been working with our Nature's Basket prints. She uses Charm Packs from Moda when planning a quilt. The squares are big enough for her to visualize how the colors will work together, and they are large enough to check how the scale of the print will work in her design too.

Back to work!

Until later,

Alma

     Our latest project is finally coming together! This one is going to be published by the Kansas City Star Quilts and will be available at spring quilt market. Even though Bob Deck, our book designer,  isn't quite finished with our book design, I wanted to give you a sneak peak at our cover. This book is full of quilts and other projects too.



     We photographed the projects at The Vintage House in Overland Park, KS. It was a very fun day working with Aaron Leimkuehler and Edie McGinnis. We showed up at the house without really knowing how we would display the projects. A bit of spontaneity became creative fun as we looked around the house finding the perfect spot to photograph each project.We couldn't go wrong as the house was so cute. Don't quilts make every house look warm and inviting?
 
Stitches Unlimited from Lancaster, PA, gave us a call to notify us of an error in the chart Honeybee Hill. The word experience is misspelled. The correction is above. We are very sorry for the error!

Linzee from Moda's Cutting Table did a write up about Blackbird Designs on Saturday, April 13. Click on the link for her posting and then take a visit to Linzee's blog site and read about her latest trip.

Until later dear friends!

Alma