Fabric Birdhouses and Potato Bins

This is how I've been spending most of my time lately - putting in raised beds for a vegetable garden. Yesterday Bob and I finally finished getting the soil in and they are ready to plant! Finally!!

I did a little sewing. A homemade potato bin to grow my few potatoes. Ha-ha. It seems like a far fall from quilting and art quilts. But it should be functional. The sides are rolled down but they could be raised up to about 36 inches as the potatoes grow. It's made from landscaping fabric and sewn with a couple of rows of polyester thread because I was afraid cotton would rot in the elements.

The birdhouse in place but not inhabited yet. It's hanging in our cherry tree in the front yard where I can see it. I really enjoy the bright colors in the yard. It's fun and cheerful.

My favorite plant find of the season. (but it's early, there could be other better ones!) I never saw a hardy orchid before, but here it is. Bletilla Striata, a small woodland orchid that also apparently comes in white or yellow. So I bought one for myself and one for my mother, who also love all things flowering.

And then, motivated by some other gardening artists, I did a little drawing of it before planting it outside. It turned out all right considering I haven't done any drawing for at least a couple of years. But, I tell you, drawing detail with bifocals is NOT any fun! Maybe that's why I stopped drawing!
So this can be an entry for the Creative Every Day challenge that I have so neglected.

Fabric Birdhouses

Just for fun here are some experimental fabric birdhouses I've been working on this spring. I've been trying to make them strong and water repellant enough to last at least one season outside with the hope that wrens will move in. The colorful fabric is zigzagged crazy quilt style onto very heavy pellon interfacing then coated with clear acrylic matte finish paint inside and out. The bottom has 1/4 inch square dowel rod glued on to stabilize the bottom better. I think the top will be glued on but with a few stitches at the corners to make it more secure in case the glue fails in the weather. Don't want the babies to take a tumble!

My problem right now is that I wanted to use buttons and elastic cord to fasten the bottom so I could clean it out after one season, but that idea isn't working very well so far. Any suggestions? If I glue it or sew it I'll have to try to clean it out through the entry hole (which is about 1 1/4 inch). Probably not a good idea. And I still have to decide what to use for a hanger.
This is the square one. On this one I sewed clear tablecloth plastic on the roof to waterproof it and put the clear acrylic on the rest of it. This one is a little bigger because of it's square design, but still only about a 5 inch square. Nice and cozy - hope some little birdy likes it. I hope to put these near my new garden to encourage bug killing birdies to hang out.

A third birdhouse ended up with my granddaughters as a home for their webkinz cardinal. I didn't take a photo but it was the square one minus the top. I bent the four corners in and made them to fasten with buttons and loops. It also has a little cord handle on top. They like it.
What do you think about these?

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter!

EcoQuilting and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

After following the link from Allison Aller's blog to Esther's Eco-Practical Crafting blog I remembered that I wanted to post links to some articles I read online recently about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I've never been particularly 'green', but I've never been against it either. I'm not much of a recycler, and I do throw away lots of stuff. But when I read these articles I have to say I was shocked right down to my core. I think we're ruining our home quickly. So, God bless anyone like Esther and so many others who are using their creativity to recycle things that would otherwise be wasted. I'm going to try to do much better!
Here are the links if you haven't already heard of this and you too want to be shocked:
Honolulu Magazine: Getting Trashed
The Great Garbage Patch org
Wikipedia: Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Treehugger.com
These are a starting point with lots more information out there for anyone interested.

March Madness

This last month has been pretty busy - yardwork, flooding, taxes, grandkids, etc. No sewing. I started a new blog for gardening called 'Sow This, Sew That, So What!' Silly, but I've kept this one primarily for fabric and just didn't seem right to start posting lots of gardening stuff on it. But I have big plans for the yard and a new vegetable garden and wanted to write and share photos of it.
Amaryllis blooming on the ledge.
Spring floods - the worst for us since we've been here - 30 years. Our crawlspace was flooded to the point of water sloshing in the ductwork each time the furnace went on. Not a good thing, but no permanent damage. And under all the water in the back yard were our 2 ponds. I'm still wondering how many goldfish got liberated. I rescued 3 in a shallow area on our patio and have seen some in the pond since the water receded, but the ponds are too muddy from all the flooding to really get a good look at who's still there. Hopefully some left though because there were too many little fishies living there anyways!
Hopefully I'll get a chance to do some sewing soon!