Silk Scarves

My friend Kelly wanted to dye some silk scarves so I got the dyes out yesterday. I found a few in my own stash that needed some color. Here is the result.

Sophie dyed the second and fifth scarf from the left.

Detail of first scarf on the left

Detail of the scarf fifth from the left. Dyed by Sophie.

Really large scarves/shawls. I used a shibori technique for the scarf on the right.

It appears we used a lot of orange this time around. I also dyed some cotton but I wasn't happy with the result. My dye powders are old and tired so for Father's Day I order new dyes. There will be lots of dyeing in the studio this summer.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Summertime Yard Work

I keep getting friendly reminders from Facebook that I have not posted in a while and that my "followers" are getting anxious to hear from me. I don't know how much truth there is to that statement but I'm posting today to let you know what I've been up too!

YARD WORK!!!

We have neglected our yard for the last five or so years with the exception of mowing. Even then, we don't water our lawn so mowing comes to an end mid July or so when the grass burns up. Makes life so much simpler. Everyone else's lawn is nice and green and our lawn is brown. Oh well.

When you build your home on the side of a hill, there is no flat area to enjoy so we had our friend John do some excavating for us, which, incidentally, leads to a lot of work.

In preparation for excavating, I had to take up some retaining wall block that I had used below the hill. That led me to rework the area around our fountain.

In the above photo you'll notice a bare area in the upper left. There were three quaking aspen trees living quite happily until they got diseased. They were beyond the point of saving so we had to take them out. That opened up room for the path down to the fire pit area.

New Pathway

Flat ground for enjoying mountain views and fall campfires.

The CAD truck is coming tomorrow with a load of topsoil to finish off the lawn.

John needed some fill for the fire pit area so he took it from this hillside. I then had to build a couple of retaining walls. I guess you could say I've been piecing with bricks and rocks.

The area between the retaining walls will be a new perennial garden.

Front view of new retaining wall.

Front view of new rock retaining wall.

There is still lots to do. 

On the west side of the house, we had the hill pushed out to open it up and allow us access to the back of the house. We can now get a vehicle into our yard if we need too.

Soil in Montana sucks. It is so full of rocks. Rock that have to be picked up and moved someplace else which makes me sore and tired. UGH! I think my next quilt is going to have a rock theme. We are going to have some 3/4 crush (or gravel for you novices) put down but the bigger rocks need to get picked up or they will just rise to the top. 

For those of you visiting this summer, guess what you will be doing?

I hope you enjoyed this post. Have a wonderful summer and come join us around the campfire.