Oct. Full Moon

Here, with my husband in this tropical Paradise is where I was last week. We were on vacation in Florida, traveled around to the beaches on the Gulf and to the beaches on the Atlantic. Spent some time closing up my parents mobile home and putting it up for sale, went to Northern Florida and spent a few wonderful days with my brother.   

Every evening we went down to watch the critters and sunsets.

I brought wool fabric with me to soak in the salt water to use as a mordant. I'd seen this on India Flint's blog prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com awhile ago and this was the perfect time to try it. As you all know I LOVE her Eco techniques of dye printing plants and flowers on fabric and wanted a few more for my quilt as souvenirs from Florida..  

I brought my dye pot with me, set it on the outdoor counter (where my dad had cleaned fish, boiled shells collected from the beach and other outdoor projects for the last 30 years). We've been bringing  our children here on vacation at least once a year for the past 30 years also. What a lot of wonderful memories.

After soaking the wool in the water overnight I laid out bright red and yellow leaves (not sure of their name), rolled them up
tight, steamed them, stored them in a plastic bag until I returned home.

After washing, I was left with theses blue/green leaf prints.They look like cute little fish swimming. I love that red leaves give me blue/green prints, and up here back in Michigan the trees are at their finest red. This weekend I hope to capture some of it for the boarders on my quilt.

Another plants leaves I used are these which gave me a wonderful

yellow Sunshine print.

The hibiscus flowers were beautiful,

wrapped in a silk scarf with a little sea weed gave me a beautiful

gray blue print.

This is called Passion Flower, it is such an exotic looking flower.

I didn't pick any but it is beautiful.

Back home in Michigan there was a full moon shinning over our autumn trees. This moon was know to the North Eastern Native Americans as the Hunters Moon- White Frost on Grass Moon- Falling Leaves Moon.
Hunters Moon because it was considered the best time of year to hunt.  Like the Harvest Moon, the Hunter's Moon was also especially bright and long in the sky, providing hunters the opportunity to stalk prey at night..
White Frost on Grass Moon- The first frost usually occurs in many parts of the Northeastern regions of the United Sates in October.  First and last frost dates have always been of great interest to farmers and gardeners. Many old timers believed there was a connection between full moons and frosts, hence the old adage "Clear moon, frost soon." Old weather lore suggests that an early killing frost is a sign of a bad winter.
According to woolly bear weather lore, a harsh winter is expected if many woolly bears are seen before the first frost and their black bands are wider than the rust-orange band separating the black bands. The Banded Woolly Worm is the official name of the woolly bear, the caterpillar stage of an Isabella Tiger Moth.

"Magical Moons and Seasonal Circles" by Susan Betz

Arriving home Saturday night left me with little time to plan my October moon, but last night after taking our grandsons on their "Full Moon" car ride to photograph the moon I appliqued this frosted leaf fabric onto my next moon block. I quilted through the sky with Sliver metallic thread by Sulky.