Summer Shadows
Petal & Pins
Tag: geraniums
March 17, 2015
Summer’s End
One of the peony trees in my garden kept me guessing for several years as to the colour of it’s blooms (yellow).
It doesn’t flower often or profusely but it’s saving grace is beautiful pink stems so when I pruned some of the height I set about finding what pink flowers were in the garden to combine with the peony foliage for a decidedly pretty vase arrangement.
I’ve photographed it in front of a length of fabric I bought on our travels that hangs in the hallway to the backdoor. This piece we bought in Paris and the delicate illustrations of bathers at the seaside are charming.
Are you enjoying the delights of Spring in your garden or are you too at Summer’s end? I’m linking this post up with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her challenge to find something from the garden to put in a vase each week – why not join in?
January 5, 2015
Shades Of Pink, Shades Of Green
This morning I made my first Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe dress for 2015 with two different pink geraniums that grow in my front garden.
© Sandra Alcorn 2015
I decided to use two shades of pink together inspired by the two colour effect of the fabric twine I’ve started making.
A Xmas gift of The Sustainable Fashion Handbook by Sandy Black combined with a workroom tidy up spurred the start of this new project to recycle some of the smaller scraps that mount up in my studio.
© Sandra Alcorn 2015
© Sandra Alcorn 2015
I found the instructions on My Poppet. It’s easy to make and all ready my mind is sparking with ideas for what I might do with it.
You can see other ways I use my scraps in my posts Macarons, Memories & Momentoes and Treasure & Mermaids.
Always better than them ending up in landfill.
February 21, 2014
The Last Days Of Summer
© Sandra Alcorn 2014
As summer draws to a close so too does the wedding season.
A bride picked up her dress yesterday for a wedding this weekend on Bruny Island and I’m finishing off another for a garden wedding next weekend.
With a slightly less hectic schedule, today I made time for some other creative pursuits.
It’s been a few weeks since my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe gained something new so that was the first thing I did.
Already there are little signs of Autumn appearing when I look around the garden – the apples are almost ready to pick, there are rose hips and a blush of colour on the leaves of the lilac bushes.
Some of the geraniums I struck last year are coming into their own and it’s the flowers from one of these that I’ve combined with fuchsias for this Garden Fairy dress.
With a birthday party to go to tonight I then turned to making a present. I had decided earlier in the week to make a bag and came up with the idea of printing some of my ‘kaleidoscope’ photos onto the smooth underside of a heavy cotton drill.
I chose a different image for each side of the bag and finished it off with a pink zip closure and hot pink silk lining. The bag could be used as a clutch purse, to hold jewellery or a pencil case.
I’ve been wanting to play with those images on fabric since I took them and I’m pleased with how it’s turned out.
I’ll post some photos soon – for now it’s wrapped up ready to give to the birthday girl – I just have to write on a card – a Petal & Pins ‘Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe’ card of course!
December 9, 2013
Lucky Strike
© Sandra Alcorn 2013
Geraniums remind me of my father. He liked to strike them from cuttings and had quite a collection of different varieties at my childhood home.
This Garden Fairy’s dress is made with geraniums my father planted in a terracotta pot in my garden.
© Sandra Alcorn 2013
I too seem to have caught the ‘striking bug’ with a regular collection of jars with cuttings on my window sill. I recently discovered that like roses they can have rather romantic sounding names like ‘Attar of Roses’, L’Éléganté or Spanish Angel – but of course cuttings don’t come with labels so it will take some detective work to identify the ones in my garden.
Geraniums are cheerful flowers, and my dad was a cheerful man.
I miss him.
Petal & Pins 