Summer Solstice

Last night was my Herb Society meeting, this year we celebrated the Summer Solstice, (a couple days early but just as happy for the beginning of Summer).

It was held in the country at one of the members farms. Along the way there was a farm full of poppies, also planted all along the road in front of the farm.

Everyone brought a dish to pass,
(cupcakes with fresh violas)

 many with fresh herbs.

After dinner we all made wreaths with fresh flowers.

Kristie ready for the Sun,

PJ,

Everyone celebrating.

Beverly reading us the history of Summer Solstice.

 

Tossing in our written wishes for the Summer.

 Hemlock anyone?

PJ sharing her heirloom roses with me.

Back home, my Summer Solstice silk scarf I rust dyed

with Summer Suns swirling.

My roses ready to go into the dye pot,

I'm going dye my wool with them on the longest day of the year, it should be magical!
I'll show you the results next week.

DYEING SOCKS. Kuba Cloth

My girlfriend Kay called and said she just took a dyeing class and had some dye left, did I want to dye socks with her. Absolutely! I mixed up some of my old (a few years) Procion dyes, (not sure how they would work), and we got started. I prewashed my cotton socks and put them wet into Zip Lock bags, added two colors of dye in each, then added 2 Tbsp. of soda ash water. Sealed and left over night.

                                             The next day I rinsed them out, what a beautiful rainbow of colors.
                                                             The old dyes worked just fine.

                                                                                                Just too much fun.

With the still left over dye my grand kids and neighbor girl made themselves tie-dye shirts. We first soaked them in soda ash water, then twisted them into a nice twirl, secured it with rubber bands. 

                       Each picked two colors to squirt on their shirts. We put them in plastic bags and left over night.

                                                                           After washing their ready to wear.

                                                     One I had to drag out of bed for a picture before I left for work.

                                                                                      How cute is he.

                                                    And our cute little neighbor girl, Bella with hers.

                           I just received a piece of Kuba cloth I ordered from Cloth Roads.
                     This cloth is made by the Kuba people who live in the Congo in Africa.
        idn't have any of this cloth in my collection and was thrilled to buy it from a reputable source.

The Kuba make their cloth from raffia. Men, women and children participate in production, but labor is strictly divided. Males collect raffia leaves, boys prepare the fibers into fine silk-like threads for weaving, and women participate in producing fiber for embroidery. Men weave the base fabric on a simple loom. Women soften the base fabric, and dye the cloth, usually using natural dyes. Red dye from Tukula wood, black from iron dross or clay.

Women hand stitch the cloth. Either applique, pieced or embroidered. My piece is appliqued, the red over the natural color base. The decorator positions appliques at her discretion or for more practical reasons, such as covering up holes in the cloth. Hence, the design of an appliqued cloth is never complete, for future tears will be covered with appliques.
I love that my cloth is old and I can see an applique patch covering a bad spot.

.

Also, reverse appliqued, the black whole piece cut out and stitched with the base showing through.

                                                                      And the back of the fabric.

The information on Kuba cloth was taken from the book African Fabrics by Ronke Luke-Boone.

Kids Summer Quilt Blocks

"Way" back at the beginning of Summer in 1982 when my kids were done with school for the year, I bought some fabric crayons and the kids began a summer journal quilt. They colored  pictures on paper and I then ironed them onto fabric.

We documented our viewing of Halley's comet.

The reopening of the Statue of Liberty.

My daughter's favorite Care Bear.

After they finished the blocks I put it together into a quilt, just tying it. Someday I really need to machine quilt it. The grand kids love it so...

I bought them new Fabric Markers by Crayola.

I washed white cotton fabric and ironed it onto freezer paper to stabilize it. Cut it into squares and off they go.

I love how the markers bleed into each other like water colors.

With out much time yet I'm thankful for my perennial herbs, they pop up with not a whole lot of care.

My chocolate mint pops up everywhere.

I have an old pine stump I planted with ivy and put a bird bath on top. The mixture of greens are beautiful.

And my little walk way is at peak with different greens.

My father is home from the hospital now, thank goodness for home health care. They are wonderful, kind people. They make it so much easier than me having to take him to therapy everyday.
So, I go to visit my parents yesterday and I hear this funny noise coming from the fire place, I look inside and what do I see, 3 baby raccoons looking me. Did we really need this? Thank-goodness they have glass doors on the fireplace. Now we're in the process of getting them out.