For the Rhodie-oh......! You Might have come here, Dear Readers, looking for another view of the Lovely blooming Lilac Shrub, only to find it is already past it's time of bloom. (How does the time pass so quickly?) But what is this, you say in surprise, I don't recall seeing this here before... and yet, it seems as though it has always sat in that corner on the other side of The Folly Porch! (At least, I would have you believe so!) The astonishing burst of red blossoms seems to have opened overnight..... And the early morning light  is just beginning to illuminate their brillian ..read more

  And Sorrow.... It is That time of year, Dear Readers, when the Lilacs are blooming in the RL world, and so I must rearrange my properties and dig out the Blooming Lilac for The Folly garden and set it up so the morning light can bring it to life. The early morning light is still dim because it is a bit overcast today. But you can see the tall arching stems of this old and much loved shrub where it stands beside The Folly porch. And as the daylight grows stronger  you can perhaps see the blossoms better... Each and every one lovingly made.... it took more than a year to do! (Some ..read more

  The Tree Stump House.... Way Back last Fall, Dear Readers, my Very dear Aunt by marriage (my Uncle's former wife) was visiting my house and meeting all the characters who share it with me, and when she got to the Cloud Palace to meet the Fairy Bears who live there she said "Ooooh... I wonder if I could get the person who made these to make one for me.....?" And I replied that I would ask, but I wasn't sure that she would be able to make one. And when I asked Birgit.... she said she would gladly "try", but it might take some time to complete. I told her to take all the time she needed ..read more

  Progress All Around.... Way back in March, Dear Readers, was the last time I showed you any progress on the carpets I am stitching. It seems hard to believe so much Time has flown since then, but truly it also means I have progress to show you! I had just completed the outline of the second dragon, to make sure they were not bumping too closely anywhere. This was especially necessary because I had made an error in my stitching of the first dragon's tail which effectively "lifted" it up towards the second dragon by one whole stitch! You would think that would not matter.... but in the ..read more

   It's Been a Busy Week.... I Hope you will Understand, Dear Readers, that the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that rumbled through our region last Friday has been completely Overshadowed by the solar Eclipse of Yesterday! Earthquake...? WHAT Earthquake?? It only shook the ground for about 20 seconds and then was gone. Nothing in my house fell or broke, although it rattled and shook quite alarmingly! The Little People also seemed to have fared well as no-one fell over! But Really....! An Earthquake!! These are not often felt around here! It was centered in New Jersey, about 200 miles fro ..read more

   Roots and Trunks..... Well, Dear Readers, I apologize for the dark and gloomy picture of the Rhododendron Shrub Skeleton, the weather has been dark and gloomy again, and this is the only picture I have showing the "before" scene for the shrub roots! As you know, I am making three of these Shrub Skeletons, as identical as I can so that I can have "seasonally changeable" Rhododendrons in The Folly Garden. I was eager to get the skeletons moved on to the next stage of construction and didn't pay much attention to the photography as I went along. This is to show the Roots of the shr ..read more

  And More Leaves.... I Hope you will not be Surprised, Dear Readers, to learn that I have been making lots and lots of leaves! I really need to get ahead of the blossoms with the leaf construction, and finally decided that the best way to tackle the project was with small batches. Lots of small batches! It feels so much less daunting to start a batch of forty leaves (20 stems worth) and know that in about an hour and a half, or less if all goes well, I will have a completed batch. I had tried an eighty leaf batch.... which would be enough leaves for the ten blossom clusters per week th ..read more

  Sewing And Shaping.... I Reassessed the frame pieces in my pile of different sized pieces, Dear Readers, and came up with a larger frame that almost fits the entire William Morris carpet. It was enough larger that I could make considerable progress with the main design area. This will keep me going for a while! The carpet is a square one, so there is an area of border all around which will need to be scrolled a bit to stitch all of it. I will deal with that when I need to. The design is really coming along and is fun and easy to stitch. I just love to stitch these wool carpets! As for ..read more

   Continued... I Hope you won't mind, Dear Readers, if this is a boring post about the Rhododendron Shrub construction... again! There is not a whole lot to show you because it is slow going on three different skeletons which are all supposed to look the same. That is the trick... it is nearly impossible to make them look exactly the same... so I have to constantly try to adjust a little one way or another. And as I mentioned on an earlier post, I have to make each step on all three of the shrub skeletons at the same time so I don't lose track of which branches I have done what to ..read more

  Slow But Steady... Because, Dear Readers, I cannot spend All my time making rhododendron blossoms and leaves, only Most of my time, I have managed to make a little progress on the petit-point stitching as well. In the above picture, you can see my first cushion in progress. I had neglected to design it so the shape would end up square, and needed to adjust the outer border in tiny ways so it mostly repeated in a pleasing pattern. But I learned a lot, so the next cushion will perhaps be a better product. I was surprised at how quickly one small section of the carpet could be stitched ..read more