Purple

Queen Anne's Lace No 4 & No 8 in Progress


No. 8 on the left and No. 4 on the right, both of which are upside down.  I love the orchid interior that's framed with the gold metallic paint.  I will create a panel for No. 8 this evening.


Also on my desk Queen Anne's Lace No's 4-6 which I'm hating at the moment, but will continue to push until I'm in love with them.  Acrylic paint on baltic birch raised panel frames 8x8x2 inches.

Lilacs


The neighbor's daughter brought me a huge bouquet of these lilacs, he's 94 and they came by to do some yard work for him.  The heady smell of lilac now wafts throughout the house.  Not much in the way of studio work today, it's the rush to get the gardens planted before the rain falls.  Check out my other blog Survival Kitchen, linky in the right column, to see what we've planted.

Beading Resumes


Was starting to make mistakes so decided to take the rest of the day off from writing and started beading instead.  Am working on the branch portion now, trying to integrate it as part of the whole piece.


More bead soups, this time greens, browns, and brownish purples so as to look like an actual branch in my crabapple tree.




Ok I know I've shown this last one before, multiple times actually, but I sooooooo love this color combination!  The only colors that make me even more happy are sage greens, purple sages, and golden greens.  It's hard to explain... except to tell you to go hang out on the open prairie in the fall.

Purple Easter Eggs

If your wanting a natural purple for your easter eggs I suggest using beets or cabbage.

HOWEVER, there is a catch to getting the purple color and getting it to stay purple and not turn grey.

Beets or Purple Cabbage chopped fine
Place in a stainless steel sauce pan
Cover twice as deep with Vinegar and add one cup of sugar to the mix.
Bring to a boil.
Strain the vegetation out of the liquer.
Return the dye juice to the sauce pan.
Bring back to a boil and then remove heat source.
Place your eggs in the hot liquid and roll around in the liquid.
Do this for about 15 minutes.



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North Garden Planted

John tilled the north garden for the second time in 24 hours this morning, it is now two thirds planted.  I chose to plant mainly cold/cole crops in the north garden this year, later this spring I'll plant tomatoes in the remaining area.  So far I've planted rhutabega's, beets, carrots, purple and green kolrhabi, and red kale.  Can't wait for the greens to start popping up ;-)  We put up the fence, replacing parts of it that was damaged, and are now calling it a night.

Purple Bison

I started this piece several years ago, click here, I'll have to search the archives to find the first post on this piece. I found it in a drawer last night and decided it needed finishing!

Digital print on brown craft paper (paper bag actually)

Logwood dyed silk chiffon

Linen and hemp threads dyed with natural dyes

8x10 inches

Seedling Progress

Strawberries that are ready to go into the ground but we are supposed to have a blizzard tonight, wish John wasn't otherwise occupied or I'd be putting up the hoop houses right now, instead of sitting here blogging!!! The wind is blowing here around 30-35 mph constant and has been most of the day.

Purple Cabbages in sorry need of being transplanted into the 2.5 inch pots.

Looking pretty good, running out of places to put flats of veggies!!! A hoop garden is in my future, maybe two weeks???

Tomatoes (right) and Green Cabbages (left)

Pickled Cabbage

The jar on the left has been processed and has turned a dark red violet color, the jar on the right needs processing still.

Purple cabbage jar on the right has the syrup added and has turned a lovely bright red color.

Purple cabbage ready for the syrup.

It was supposed to be Spiced Red Cabbage but I decided at the last minute I didn't want all of the spices in my cabbage. Dh wanted them but I think we'll be much happier about my choice later on, cloves tend to make me sick and the recipe called for a quarter cups worth, and we didn't have any mace which means the only spice we would have used was Allspice so what's the point.

Spiced Purple Cabbage



I'll post the remaining pics tonight as this batch is STILL in progress. I've rinsed the salted shredded cabbage leaves and spun them in the salad spinner they are now resting on paper towel lined plastic food wrap - so my countertop isn't stained purple for all eternity - and needs to drain/dry for six hours. The pickling portion will happen sometime around nine tonight; the purple looks pretty good against my koi yellow walls! We used a kraut cutter to get the cabbage this uniform.