Detail from "Rain Dance," an original quilt by Sherrie Spangler

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Quilted and real desert flowers


I added 50 flowers to my desert quilt, AND the flowers in my desert yard are bursting from the monsoon moisture!



Anchoring 50 flowers with buttons sounded like too much work to do by hand, so I sewed them on by machine with the zigzag stitch. Much faster




The big purple bushes in my front yard are Texas Rangers, and they don't bloom until there's moisture in the air. Just irrigating with my drip system doesn't make them bloom.


The quail got turquoise bead eyes. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get pictures of the quail that I've seen in my yard, but they do come through now and then. I also get a road runner occasionally. Mostly I have hummingbirds and doves.

Here are closeups of some of my back yard flowers:




And some longer shots:




My ocotillo gave me the biggest surprise when it rained. It went from being a gray spiny stick to being covered with lush, bright green leaves! (In the spring it gets red flowers on the top of the branches.)




Check out this link to see what other fabric artists have been working on this past week: off-wall-friday.html

Have a colorful day

7 comments:

Janice Smith said...

Your quilt is joyful, and the flowers around your yard are lovely.. That’s a surprising amount of color for a desert environment. ;-)

Judy Sall Fiber Art said...

Love your quilt, and that you could attach the buttons by machine... smarty! And your flowers in the yard are beautiful! Amazing that in all the heat you get you can have flowers too... one would think they would shrivel up in all the heat!

Norma Schlager said...

Love those colors....in the quilt and in the garden.

The Idaho Beauty said...

Gosh, what a beautiful gift the monsoon rains bring. Your flowers are so gorgeous - I particularly like the Texas Rangers but the splashes of other colors are wonderful too.

I'm with you on sewing those buttons on with the machine. No shame in that! The quilt is looking good.

Gwyned Trefethen said...

This quilt makes me so happy. It has a joyful exuberance, just like the desert in bloom.

Robbie said...

Row by Row is awesome!!!!! Love it! The flowers are so beautiful...good you've had the rain!!!

Lynda said...

Love the quilt - so happy! And all the beautiful flowers. I also love the idea of sewing the buttons on by machine!!