POKE BERRY DYEING RESULTS & QUILT CAMP

After about a week of soaking in the vinegar/poke berry dye I washed out the fabrics. This is the wool! I could not believe how purple it dyed. I washed it with Ivory dish soap, I'll watch it for a year and see how the color holds.

This is the raw silk. It had color when it was soaking but then it disappeared.

I wanted to show you a picture of my blanket flowers (gaillardia) still blooming in November! These flowers are planted in crappy soil by my mailbox, they don't get a whole lot of watering and have been blooming since June! I highly recommend them for the little care they need, long blooming time and the wonderful blue dye the flowers give.

Last week it was off to our annual quilt camp. 10 whole days of friendship, food, fabric and lots of inspiration.

Our makeshift studio looks over the lake.

My friend Deb C. (over the past months) hand pieced this wonderful "hexi" quilt.
She will be putting it in a rustic frame. I couldn't leave home without picking these last flowers of autumn.

Two Christmas's ago my quilt bee exchanged Santa blocks. A few of us added one more Santa exchange, one member appliqueing a sleigh. I also appliqued some wool reindeer and trees blocks. I put it all together at camp.

Of course I had to make a moon Santa.
There are a lot of embellishments on the blocks. I needle-felted fur on some of the Santa's caps,

snow on the trees and in the sky.

Sequins, buttons and glass beads were stitched on by the makers.
The plan is I will machine quilt it this weekend.

My friend Kay had us put her Santa's on black backgrounds. Hers is almost all put together, one more block then borders.

I added wool borders and linen rick rack to this wall hanging.
I'll hand quilt it. I can't imagine not, I dyed the wool with natural dyes, many of them I grew or picked from the wild. Designed and hand appliqued the piece, I think it might be illegal not to hand quilt it:)

This is one of the original cottages on the lake, very old with a out house in the back. It is so charming up close, many of the leaded glass windows are boarded up. I've been wanting to take a picture of it with a quilt piece from the week displayed on it.

This little heart seemed to fit right in the window perfectly.

I hand stitched this scissor/ needle keeper, it took 10 hours of stitching.

The front of the heart is cotton velvet.

The lining is Liberty of London fabric with wool pin keepers.

My girlfriend's daughter came to spend a couple days with us and piece herself a Christmas quilt.
Her mother (and my good friend) passed away when Vicky was 13. My daughter and her were practically raised together.
After she graduated from college (with 2 master degrees all on her own), she began finishing up her mothers quilts. She's a perfectionist and does a wonderful job.

Her Grinch quilt.

After 10 days our last sunset.

I put my "super moon" together.

Hand sashiko stitched with antique and vintage Japanese fabric.

I will hand quilt this piece also.

And the next night the real Super Moon over the last of the Autumn leaves.

Last night was Herb Society, November is always our Harvest pot luck, while we ate and shared we made these cute corn husk dolls for our holiday center pieces.