Twilling, wool house

My girlfriend Beverly bought this premarked piece at a antique store, premarked for embroidery. She did the embroidery in Twilling stitches. A type of knot but not a french knot. Close up of the end of the table runner. Her stitches are perfect.

And one side. She has the binding sewn on but has not finished sewing it to the back.

I've been working steadily on my "family tree" wool quilt, this block has been the hardest to do. This was my father-in -laws childhood home (one of them). I've never seen the house and it was hard to design, my fathers was young when he lived there and it was hard for him to describe. Yellow house with white brick halfway up the front of the house. The front door area was indented in. With tall shrubs on each side. It looks a little plain yet, I'm trying to decide what to add to the yard, he doesn't remember any trees. It's also been hard finding all the family dates but I keep adding them slowly but surely, the dark writing I've embroidered, the lighter is ink that I still have to embroidery, and the blank spaces are still waiting for dates. I have learned so much with making this "family tree" quilt. So many family stories that never would have been shared, no one thought was important. When I put the quilt together the lattice strips will have all the "fun" stories with applique and embroidery.

My girlfriend and her husband came to visit us from Illinois last week. She brought me this beautiful necklace, it's made from dry corn cobs. It's very, very light weight.

Birthday package from Alaska

It's always exciting when a package arrives from Alaska I know it will be wonderful, my good friend Deb sends the best gifts and this birthday present was no exception. It started with her hand made card featuring Alaskan "snow" machine stitched between layers of white netting.
A beautiful snow globe.

And inside the package was a snow dyed jacket (only in Alaska could you still be snow dying in the middle of May). This will look so cute this summer with black capris and sandals. Thank you Deb!!

The back, she used black and red dye. I love how the snow does it's own thing, mixing the dyes however it wants.

I finished my apple tree, as I was embroidering the blossoms the wind was blowing and they were coming down fast. The flowering trees of spring don't last long but they are beautiful after the long winter. I thinkl some spring flowers will be the next block on my Earth quilt, hopefully I will start them this weekend. I'm not sure how I will sew this altogether, still working that out.

Close up, leaves and blossoms done with silk ribbon.

Last evening the Herb Society took a hike to Lost Lake. This was private property for years and years and when the original owners died the grandchildren put it up for sale. Nonprofit groups raised money to buy it and keep the land out of developers hands. Our group donated money towards the purchase. Now it is public land that boarders on State Park land for everyone to enjoy.

The yellow water lily's are just beginning to open.

The surrounding property around the lake is acres and acres of woods. The sunlight coming through the trees made it look magical.

And one of my favorite spring woodland plants are the fiddle head ferns. They have such personality!

The spring woodland plants are very small and you have to look carefully, but worth taking the time to see. I have never seen this flower before and am not sure of the name. It's not a violet.

And this tiny white star flower.

This is the Mayapple, a large umbrella shaped plant with a white flower under its leaves that turns into a little green "apple". Someone said that the fruit contains pectin and that it use to be used to thicken jams and jelly's. (I'm not sure if this is true so don't try it without checking further, used Sure Jell).

Orange

This beautiful, vibrant quilt was made by Jill Gallagher, all of the "flowers" were made from recycled coffee bags she buys in Guatemala. Jill is a nurse who goes to Guatemala to her Church's mission and volunteers her nursing skills to help the people. A sample of the bag is in the bottom left hand corner. The flowers are 3 dimensional and represent the different missions they have there.
Please double click on the picture to see the beautiful fabrics and workmanship.

There was a lot of dye left in the pots after my demo for the herb society, I dyed some wool in it to use it up. The fabric on the right was dyed from my daffodils. Next to that is chamomile flowers, then the next two were onion skins. I put the fabric in dry so there would be a mottled look, bundling the last piece for even more mottled results.

The pansies I planted last fall are beautiful this spring. These orange and black one are called "trick or treat" pansies.

I found this fellow sunning himself in our grass, it's a boxer turtle, I believe their on the protected spieces list.

And one more fellow out sunning himself in our brush pile was this garter snake.

Pink Moon

I appliqued my "pink" moon Thursday night, watching the moon as the clouds rolled over. I thought I'd better add a few clouds floating over mine, some tulle with silver beads gave it a light, wispy feel. This other block is the beginnning of my apple tree, it will be embellished with silk ribbon leaves and blossoms. Thinking about the name "pink moon" I realized all my flowering trees and spring flowers were in full bloom, take a little tour with me of my blossom filled yard.

Our poor old apple tree is around 60 year old, I don't know how it's still standing the inside is almost hollow.

It's a good thing the outer edge is alive.

Bleeding heart (there is another species of this plant also). This is a wondeful perennial that blooms early in the spring and continues to bloom into the summer, also self seeding its self around the yard.

My lilacs are blooming a week early this year. This bush is around 60 years old too. I have several vases full in my house and it smells wonderful.

The dogwood are so light and airy, I planted this one when my girlfriend died of breast cancer, she and I both love dogwood.

I planted this red bud a few years ago and it's finally in full bloom. When we would drive to Florida every spring, these were one of the first blooming trees in the mountains of Tennessee. After the drab winter they're wonderful to see.

And I have a pink dogwood.

My rhododendrons are a small shrub type.

This flowering crab is on my neighbors property that boarders ours, so I enjoy it likes its mine.

And speaking of pink this is the new flannel fabrics I bought to make my nephew a quilt for his baby, due the end of the month. My husband was surprized to see monkeys on the fabric, he wondered where the teddy bears or ducks were. I thought they were fun and cute!