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 and placed an old sundial in the middle. 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 then a square around that for a mulched path.
Finally, 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 additional boulders in for vertical structure and textural interest.
Our house and soon-to-be-bigger garden
Flowers from this garden have decorated our table and provided floral images for Pat's quilting image library. All the flowers growing in our yard, including vintage perennials, gave us ample choices for our experiments in flower pounding last summer. We tried many different flowers and labeled the results. Time will tell which produced lasting images that might be used for crafted or quilted items.
We also use the flower garden as a background for pictures of quilts. A photo of this 1940s Crazy Quilt, appeared in The Quilter Magazine, Nov. 2001 as part of an article called "Crazy Quilting in America." A similar article is now posted on this site.
1940s Vintage Crazy Quilt and our Daffodils
©Copyright James Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH.
Comments or questions? Write to: pat@quiltersmuse.com