Summer Solstice

We had a beautiful day on the first day of Summer. After all the Father's day activities were done out back I went. My husband lit a fire and I wove on the loom.

I had to add a few rows to the sunburst on Summer Solstice.
Before I could start weaving I had to unweave some of Mother Natures work, the bittersweet vines have been working hard on the project.

Fist I added a row of dyers chamomile, next a row of lady's mantle, finishing up with a wool strip previously dyed with eucalyptus.

This year I planted two moon flowers at the base of the loom, they should be beautiful climbing up the loom.

The roses and first summer flowers are in full bloom.

This September our Herb Society meeting is about making herbal sugars and salts. To get ready for the meeting I'm making the sugars. The first is rose petal. This sugar will be used to top sugar cookies or cakes.

To make the sugar is easy but it's important to make sure you use roses with no chemical sprays on them. Absolutely no florists roses. Next important is to taste the rose and see if it is pleasant. They say the red and pink roses are the best. This came from my pink climbing rose bush.
First step I do is to pick and lay the rose petals out for 24 hours so some of their moisture dries out.

Next keep layering them with sugar. I keep them covered with a napkin so the excess moisture can get out and stir them everyday. After there's no more moisture left I'll put the lid on tight until ready to use.
The next herbal sugars will be lavender, lemon balm and rose geranium.

My girlfriend, quilt artist Deb Hardman made me this wonderful "earth day birthday" quilt.
When I opened the package I about died! It took my breath away.
From the internet she printed a picture of the moon and earth, traced the outline then painted it on silk.

Then machine quilted it. It looks just like a photo taken from outer space.
Simply beautiful. I've never seen a more perfect Earth day quilt!

Thank you Deb.

I bundled up the pine bark from our vacation. I was a little nervous about pitch coming off and getting into my fabric so I wrapped the bark in cheese cloth and used a old dye pot. I simmered the bark a few hours then added the wool and simmered it another hour. Turned off the pot and let it set overnight then washed it out. It came out good, no evidence of any pitch.

This is the finished fabric (still wet). It turned  a rich gold. It will be a beautiful reminder of Spear Fish canyon when in the Fall all the aspen trees are in full color.

Back home in the dye garden "Peter" has been enjoying my dyers chamomile, reminding me of the Beatrice Potters tale of Peter Rabbit and his mama rabbit making him chamomile tea to sooth his stomach.

Travel to South Dakota

My husband and I slipped away for 8 days, all by ourselves. We loaded our RV, packed my quilting and out to South Dakota we went. It was heaven.
First stop the Bad Lands. Barren but beautiful. They were so dramatic against the threating skies.

To really appreciate them you have to get out of your vehicle and hike in, feel and smell them.
This is looking back at our RV.

There are many different formations, this group looks like the sand castles we make on our beaches.

My husband on another area.

Everywhere there is wild life. Prairie dogs running and squeaking.

Mountain sheep scattered throughout.

Wild buffalo roam the grass lands.

We spent a couple days there then off to the Black Hills.

Total different mountains, green with pine.

We camped in a wonderful campground with spectacular scenery.

Our campsite overlooked this mountain lake.

Every morning I'd make a chai, hike down to the lake and quilt. Mornings in the mountains are chilly but the peace and serenity is worth it.

I  started stitching on the sun's rays.

I did three different embroidery stitches on the different rays, blanket, chain and feather stitch.

We stopped at Prairies Edge, a beautiful, beautiful (high end) Native American store in Rapid City. I bought some glass, silver lined beads to stitch around the center of the sun. Not a lot of them, a few every few stitches.

I brought this fabric along to practice my stitches before stitching the sun. Later it was turning out so cute I kept stitching around the flowers and adding feather stitching sun beams.

A few days later we're off to Spear Fish Canyon. The most beautiful canyon I've ever seen. We usually travel here in the Fall when the aspen are in full color, this time in the early spring they were just beginning to open.

With all the rain this Spring, Bridal Veil falls was roaring.

Driving through the canyon the walls rise up.

Following along the road was the river.

In the middle of the canyon is the film site where Dancing with Wolves was filmed.

This area is where the final scenes were filmed. In the winter with the Native man on his horse overlooking the canyon.

 

Finally to the campground with only seven sites, we were the only ones there. Perfect!

Set up camp and off we went on a hike. I found this pine tree down and took some bark for dyeing. I'll try it this weekend.

And here I am quilting in this beautiful, serene surrounding.

Leaving the canyon we head to Wyoming to Devils Tower (so named by white man, the Natives called it Bears tepee)

It was so much more awe inspiring then we thought it would be. Can you see the people in red starting to climb the rocks

This mountain is very sacred to the Native people.

There are many prayer bundles left.

Scattered throughout the aspens. It was so spiritual.

We brought our own to leave with our prayers for the Native people.

Along the bottom edge of the mountain is a paved walk, you really feel a part of it from the walk.
After a couple of days there it was back home, rested and refreshed and back to the real world.
I hope I didn't bore you with too many "vacation" photos, it's hard to pick from the hundred I took.
And more importantly if you love the wilderness I hope you can visit these beautiful places.