Trip to the Pruyn House in Colonie, NY
by James Cummings
Several years ago, Pat and I traveled to Colonie, NY to see a needlework show put on by the local chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America. The show was at an historical site known as the Pruyn House.
Pruyn House Garden
I was quite taken by the garden layout. A seed of an idea took root in my brain and finally germinated last spring. Beware of a man with an idea in his head, and a shovel in his hand. One bright sunny day I started to remove the sod from the side lawn. I started with a circle. I placed an old sundial in the middle of the circle. Bricks formed a border for this circle and the next circle out. The second circle is mulched with newspaper and bark and whatever stones came to hand when I was digging up the earth and planting the seedlings. I then dug up a square around the circle for the next planting and a square around that for a mulched path.
Lastly for that year, I put a rectangular space at the end. I will extend the beds this year, and next if necessary, until the entire lawn has been replaced with flowers and herbs. I hope to add an arbor with seats and cover it with grape vines, and I will haul some more boulders in for vertical structure and textural interest.
Our house and soon-to-be-bigger garden
Out of this garden have come flowers for the table and photos of flowers for Pat's quilting image library. With all the flowers, old and new, growing in our yard, we had ample choices for our experiments in flower pounding last summer. We tried many different flowers and labeled the results. Time will tell which produced a lasting image that we might use for crafted or quilted items.
We have also used the flower garden as a background for pictures of quilts. A picture of this 1940s Crazy Quilt, taken in our garden, appeared in The Quilter Magazine, Nov. 2001 as part of an article called "Crazy Quilting in America."
Vintage Crazy Quilt (1930s/1940s), and Daffodils
©Copyright James Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH.
Comments or questions? Write to: pat@quiltersmuse.com