Center of diamond crazy quilt

By golly, I thought I had posted the center of this quilt already.

So, here it is. The background is brown velvet. The roses are made of satin, each petal is made separately, then sewn onto the velvet. The forget-me-nots and daisies are silk ribbon. The leaves are silk chenille thread. I hand-dyed the butterfly and hummingbird lace motifs.

Diamond Block for Crazy Quilt

I'm working on a crazy quilt that will be composed of diamond shaped patches. It is based on an antique crazy quilt that I saw. It will be a combination of highly embellished crazy quilt patches and "whole" patches. Some of the whole patches will be velvet with chenille embroidery. Four of the patches will be these youths in costume. The youths are based on line drawings from Victorian booklets I have in my collection. There were no directions for making up the design, simply a line drawing. This allowed the imagination of the needleworker to take over and do whatever she felt best. In a few Victorian crazy quilts, I have seen figures that have been portrayed dimensionally. I decided to try my hand at that. So, the face was painted onto Peau du Soie fabric. Then, all the roses were embroidered with silk floss. Next, the costume was added. I think it turned out well. Now, to finish the other three youths.

Birds of a Feather

I am including more photos of my Hoffman Challenge quilt, "Birds of a Feather". Scroll down to the previous post to see an overview.

Fruitful week!

It's been over a month since I posted last. Been very busy! Our anniversary was July 5th and we took a little trip to the Robison York Herb Gardens in Ithaca, NY. I've been there many times, but not since they revitalized the gardens. What a lovely job they did. We also went to Baker's Acres nursery, which is just north of Ithaca. Tremendous gardens and wide selection of plants. I came home with many new things for the garden including a hardy gloxinia, acanthus and lavender mint.

Middleburgh, NY has started a farmer's market on Friday afternoons and we have participated as a vendor. Really good turnouts.

We had a garden club tour the gardens and it was a lovely group indeed. Lots of interested, interesting ladies. As they were leaving, a reporter from the Catskill Mountain Guide magazine showed up to do an interview about the gardens. The August issue should hit stands soon and I'm eagerly awaiting to see what was written!

Then, I was off to the Maine State Quilt to teach for a few days. Never mind driving through horrendous rainstorms, tornado warnings and hail to get there!! White knuckle driving, to say the least. On the way up, I decided to take a side trip to Avena Botanicals and Deb Soule's gardens there. Be still my heart! Deb has created a magical fairy world of plants and I was lucky enough to experience it. ~sigh~

Green Spiral Herbs was asked to set up an herbal display for the Schoharie County Fair, which is running this week. We were happy to oblige. Saturday, I will be on hand to answer herbal questions.

Wednesday, I had my interview with David Winston to see about getting accepted into his 2-year herbal study program. The answer is yes! I'm pretty excited about this. I've done other herbal studies, but am looking forward to this particular program. Hooray!

Today, I found out my crazy quilt wall hanging, "Birds of a Feather" won an Honorable Mention in the Hoffman Challenge. There were 579 entries. Considering I didn't put a single quilting stitch in this "quilt", I think I did well. It is entirely hand pieced and hand embellished/embroidered.

Oddity in the garden

While working in the garden, I spied this large nest with three huge eggs in it today!! What do you suppose laid these eggs? A dragon? Bluebird of Happiness? Bird of Paradise? I suppose time will tell.

Pictures of the Garden

Paul's Himalayan Musk on the gothic arbor.

Daylilies and William Baffin rose.
Foxgloves, lupines, campanula and lamb's ears.

Borage. I will eat the flowers while working in the garden. I also have a white variety.

Apothecary Rose. Fragrant!

Yellow foxglove.


And the pink foxglove.
William Baffin roses near the birdhouses.

I've been tagged...

Tina Sams, of The Essential Herbal, just tagged me to answer the following questions and invite other bloggers to participate:

Ten years ago...
I was living outside Omaha, Nebraska. I worked as a medical transcriptionist. I belonged to a lot of fun groups including the SCA, EGA, ANG, (apparently groups with three letters) and a few others. My rheumatoid arthritis was becoming very bad.

Five things on today's to do list ...
~ meet with a producer at the local public access TV station (he wants me to do a few shows on herbs and crazy quilts)
~drop off a wholesale order of Green Spiral products to Wellington's Herbs and Spices
~work on the Hoffman challenge quilt
~harvest chamomile, roses, arnica and lemon balm if it doesn't rain
~read the latest Hollerbeier Haven herbal newsletter that came two days ago and I haven't had a chance to look at! www.ThreeSistersCenter.com

Snacks I enjoy...
Fresh cherries, peaches, strawberries and raspberries
Ice cream
Baked goods - which can easily be a meal
Popcorn (no salt and very little butter)
A square of good chocolate


Things I would do if I was a millionaire...
Make an artist's retreat and invite my friends to come create, laugh and play
Help out my kids
Really expand the gardens and put in that castle tower in the back 40 I've been wanting

Places I have lived....
New York state along the Canadian border
England
Mojave Desert
Great Plains
Catskill Mountains
Virginia Beach

Other bloggers:
Allie
Leonie
Marie