Surprise on the River. I love Tulips and Spring flowers!

Came home after running some errands this morning and spotted this thru my window.

 I decided to go outside and take a closer look.  It looks like a fishing boat ran aground.  The river is tidal all the way up to Mission and I'm thinking that these guys weren't aware and moored overnight.  You can see another smaller boat to it's right side.

 A slightly different angle and you can see more of the sandy bottom being covered by the tide coming in.

 There are two guys sitting with their backs along the left side appearing to be talking with someone on the other boat.

 It looks like they will be heading off soon.  In fact I just checked and they appear to have been able to get under way and sail off.

 Love the look of these tulips fully opened.

 Grape Hyacinth under the roses.

 Pincushion daisies showing off.

 Pink tulips about to burst forth.

 Love the tie dye look to this one.

 Forget Me Not under an azalea.

 Rogue red tulip amongst the grape hyacinth and roses.

 A bit farther look at that tulip.

 Wall flowers in bloom.

 Love this colour combination.

 These were planted at the front of our condo last fall.

 Hmm,,,remind you of anything?  Working on my leaves and still have two more sizes of tulips to finish before I can start sewing the background and then the fun part.

By the way, it looks like we are heading towards another rainfall record for April!

Inspiration and Interpretation.

The tulips are blooming along the quay finally.

 Some are still in bud.

 This beauty was in Rita's Garden.

 Along with this one.

 Love this one amongst the Forget Me Knots.

 Love these pink ones.

 Interesting how many reflect the ones I'm prepping for a quilt.

 I've picked out 19 different yellows, pinks and purples.

 There are five different sizes

 If I pick one more colour it will make 100 blooms.

 Next up is choosing backgrounds, stems and leaves.

 View from the lobby this afternoon, the blossoms are dropping from the cherry trees.  It rained this morning and the skies are starting to clear.  Soon the leaves with replace the blossoms.

Back to prepping more tulips.

Down the Rabbit Hole Progress Report.

Last night I stitched on the last of my leaves on my centre Down The Rabbit Hole.

 I made my leaves using the template and starch method I shared in the previous post and pinned them in place along one side at a time.  I'm not one to use glue on my quilts.

I worked from left to right, top to bottom of each flower.

 Progressing my way across the top.

 Here are the steps I have completed so far, making the centre.

 Adding the bias stems.

 First appliqueing the small centre and then the larger bloom to each stem.

 Placing my rough cut leaves in place to see how the colour balanced. Sarah suggested 51 but I played with the placement and ended up with 54.  I liked the full leafy appearance.

 I also did used a black and white filter to see how it looked without colour to check out the balance.

Then I stitched 54 in place,

 Then I added some more.  In the end I have 81, 30 more than what Sarah suggested but I liked how it looked with the more fully leafy version.

Here are some other flowers to enjoy on the cherry trees in our courtyard on Thursday before we had a windstorm and thunder storm. View from the lobby of the weeping cherry tree.

 In the courtyard looking towards the lobby.

 Towards the Fraser River.  The trees on the right were replaced several years ago the ones on the left are almost 30+ years old.

 Standing in front of the gate looking back at the lobby.

 Love this close up of the blossoms with a hint of blue in the sky.

 Today I took mom for a drive down Gravely Street in East Vancouver.  Last Sunday these were hardly in but.  A few of the blossoms have started to drop.  In a few days the cars will be covered with dropped petals.

 Check out the size of this trunk!

 Looking up the street from the bottom of the hill.

 These trees have been peche, their centre branch cut to encourage them to spread out.

 Love the look of the fragile blossoms against the trunks.

 Another group of young trees close to the Nippon Community Centre in Burnaby.

 Today's view of the garden, remarkably many of the blossom stayed on the tree despite some severe wind gusts and the grounds being saturated with rain.

 Our gardens are getting a  make over and some new soil.

 Very few petals on the grass below the trees.

 Blossoms holding up nicely.

 Very similar to yesterday's view.

 Buds bursting forth.

 Such delicate blossoms.

 Rain soaked daffodils.

 Thankfully the rain had almost stopped as I was taking these photos.

 Delicate small narcissus blooms.

 Covered in raindrops.

 Some large puddles along the brick portion of the quay.

 Check out this curvy stem!

 I think this is a loon hanging onto the top of the deadhead in the river.

 Drenched by the rain but still standing tall.

Off to do some button hole stitching!