Spring's arrived in Michigan!

I have been trying to get back to blogging but family members' illness, work and my illness has kept me hopping. It's been a long 6 weeks!
I did spend the first day of Spring at the Lake finishing the handwork on my bee skep wall hanging. A couple of hours of stitching at the lake is like being on a micro-mini vacation.

The green houses in our area are almost ready to open.
Our garden club had our last meeting there. What a blessing to walk in and feel the warm humid air around you and smell the flowers and soil. It's wonderful after the long, cold winter.
Everywhere carpets of flowers.

More primroses.

Thousands of geraniums.

We each planted our own container. I used a new petunia variety called "Night Skies".  The petunias that were blooming looked just like a night sky, deep purple with white specks scattered all over it.

 

I dyed this wool scarf for my daughter last summer using dyers chamomile.

She put it out as a Spring table runner. I took it home and machine quilted it for her, 

adding a binding.

I went on a weekend quilt retreat with my one quilt bees, just a short one to celebrate Spring.  To get ready to go I put on the dye pot, boiling black walnuts to dye the back ground wool for the project I was going to work on.

We rented a beautiful little cottage on Lake Michigan.

Not as big as our Fall cottage but roomy enough.

With a gas fire place in the corner which we did enjoy.

 

Cute bedrooms tucked upstairs.

Coming down the stairs,

a black & white graduation quilt being made by grandma.

Mary, who loves paper-piecing worked on a miniature quilt with scraps left from a large version she made.

Our son bought a new house last Fall. At quilt retreat I designed, dyed and cut out his house block to go into the Family tree quilt I'm making.
As soon as I get this house stitched into the quilt I'll take a picture of the full quilt.

The pieces are just laid out on the fabric ready to be stitched on and all the details embroidered in. All the personal information will be embroidered in the yard. Birth, address etc.

(Forgot to flip it around)

The lattice strip will show all his hobbies etc.

I finished stitching on the binding at camp.

Resist dyeing with hearts for Valentine Day!

Wool is folded, clamped and simmered in cochineal dye.

First batch using foam heart stickers as the resist. Okay, but not great.

Next batch, add more cochineal and squeeze a half of lime in to the pot.

Use plastic heart toys from Wal-Mart for the resist, simmer and let set a couple of days. Much more intense.

Same pot with a more cochineal added, I add wool, simmer of few hours and let soak a few days. I end up with almost purple! An over-dye with indigo and it will be a deep purple. There's still dye left in the pot so in goes another piece of wool. The other fabrics behind the purple are the fabrics dyed  with avacados, they have a much more intense color than the picture shows.

Spent a few hours this weekend with my friend creating natural face and  body cream. Also face wash and hand soaps.

Melted the coconut oil, Shea butter, and mango butter, cooled and whipped it until it looked like whip cream.

Added different essential oils to the different creams.

With lavender, frankincense, Full moon, and a comet streaking over I should be free of all wrinkles when I use this cream:)

Dyeing wool with avacados

Ingredients for guacamole...

Ingredients for a dye pot!
Avocado pits and skins simmered in a water bath,

with premordanted wool

dyes a beautiful peachy apricot color.

 

Cochineal crushed,

tiny little dried bugs from the cactus of the South West.

I folded wool and placed plastic hearts (on each side of the fabric) as a resist.

Two different cochineal pots with two different wool heart fabrics to dye. The second pot I placed a squeezed lime in the dye. When I was in the South West they taught adding the lime juice to the dye would make your wool redder.  We'll see, the results next week:)

Thursday bee last week we finished beading ornaments that Mary started for us.

She had cut and stitched winter/Valentine fabrics,

we stitched on beads to hold the sides together and make the shape.

This was a fun sparkling project to share on a dark winter night. Thank You Mary!
See the pink pin cushion on the table, my friend Jamie made that for me and my friends in my other quilt bee. Thank You Jamie.
What great Valentine presents.

Stitching memories with my wool quilt.

January 2013 I finished piecing my wool flower/leave eco print quilt. It was a beautiful January day for Michigan, I took it outside to photograph it on my husbands teepee.

All hand dyed and pieced.

January 31, 2017 and I'm still hand quilting it. I'm getting close to the boarders. This is my winter project, it's much to warm to work on during the rest of the year. I come home at night from work, make dinner, and curl up by the fire and stitch. After stitching a short while I can hardly keep my eyes open, nothing is more relaxing but I don't make a lot of progress stitching with my eyes closed:)

I eco-printed this block with Navajo tea. After spending a week on the Navajo reservation learning to weave and natural dye using plants from New Mexico, Sarah, the Navajo teacher sent  Navajo tea cuttings home with me. When ever I stitch on this block it brings back all the wonderful memories.

 Cosmos from my garden. I love harvesting them in the early evening when it's cool and peaceful. This all comes back to me as I quilt this block.
I think it's fascinating quilters and textile artists remember where every little bit of fabric came from and the wonderful memories it holds.

Wool Sun block and more

I cut out my next Sun for my wool Sun/Moon quilt. I solar dyed this wool last summer, layering wool fabric with cochineal, madder root and a little Osage orange bark.

Here are the blocks so far. Not laid out in any particular order. There will be one more resist dyed crescent moon, pieced stars and indigo pieced filler strips

My favorite moon with moon beams sprinkling down.

Found these wonderful dried berries on a bush.

Beautiful color for winter.

    This year's "Herb of the Year" is Cilantro/Coriander. People either love cilantro or hate it. Our Herb group will be studying and tasting it all this year.  We'll try and have a few of the haters converted. Coriander is the seed from the cilantro plant.
A few facts on the herb. It is indigenous to Italy, cultivated for at least 3,000 years!
 Romans used the crushed seeds made into a strong teas for fever, chills and flu.
Crush seeds and keep in a small container, inhale deeply 5 x several times a day to improve memory and clear thoughts. can mix with ground cloves.
Active ingredient reduces muscle tension & spasms, use in tincture form. Rub oil of coriander on arthritic joints to reduce swelling and pain.

Members made a few soups for the meeting, wonderful with chopped fresh cilantro in them.

A dessert made with the coriander.

I walked in my kitchen and here were my grandsons "flying" the magic carpet! They are so much fun

Winter happenings in Michigan

😃😃

Like half the country the snow is piling up, even under our covered porch!

 

The only one outside weaving is Mother Nature.
Love her embellishments!

The dye garden is beautiful in the fresh snow.

Besides putting "Christmas" away I did make a batch of bath salts for winter soaking. Quick and easy but so enjoyable, this is my recipe:

1 cup of Epsom salts (which is not a salt but a mineral)

1/4 cup of baking soda.
15 to 20 drops of good essential oil. I used lavender.

Mix well and store in a covered jar.
I use a good 1/4 to 1/2 cup full in my bath.

I finally had time to work on my "Super Moon"  block representing this past  November's moon.  I resist dyed wool for the moon dyeing it with indigo.  I quilted in "moon beams" with Sliver metallic thread and a halo of glass beads. This will be added with the rest of my moon journal blocks.

I love, love and collect textiles made by Native people from around the world.
Last Fall I went to the best estate sale I'm sure I will ever see. The owner was a Dr. and his wife was a weaver and collected textiles and everything on their vacations around the world. Everything was top quality.
They had a armed guard in the jewelry sale room. I didn't even go in there. People came from other states lining up the night before the sale!
I did buy a few wonderful pieces, the first being this hand knotted rug from Turkey. 

I told my grandsons not to walk on this rug with their shoes on as this is a magic flying carpet, note the magic lamps woven in! I explained that women all over the world put a part on themselves in their textiles, with their own secret thoughts and messages put in.

I know all us quilters do:)

 

I picked up a assortment of baskets to dry my herbs/dye plants on next summer.

                                                               

                            A great hand woven cloth from Guatemala.

Hanging with the peppers.

This is a hand woven  huipil  (women's blouse) also from Guatemala.
Woven on a back strap loom. The red weaving is the full huipil with the more intricate weaving stitched on top.