Easter CQ and Memories

Remember that block from this post here ? It's all dressed up for Easter now

I was inspired by the Victorian panoramic eggs that have the scenes inside





The pic above is from D.Blumchens Co, if you're not in the mood for Easter, you will be after a visit there

Confectionery Artists Guild of Orlando has a great page in place with these beautiful sugared eggs and how to make them....hmmm , maybe an idea for next year. And here's another site, Sugar Eggs that customizes these little gems with names and dates if you're not quite inclined to make your own..

I just loooooove these and remember the one and only Easter I ever got one

Anyway I had to fish into the wool/felt box to find a pale pink back for "The Egg" before I stuffed it and came across some of last years booty from the big city. This will turn into another springy post of its own, I'm sure

basket on the kitchen counter

Now for the flashback.... this is sis and I before church back in 1969. Grandma S made my sisters coat and my coat including a lined linen dress... I was so proud of that outfit

it was chilly but I had to show off the dress

and again for Easter in 1970... alittle shorter in the arms and the knees... and more demurely worn than by the little brat a year before... who only knew then what the 70's would bring

I think this was '71... with the coconut bunny cake my mom and I made together. Good memories, spring in the air and all the Hopes that Easter brings makes this my all time favorite holiday.

Wishing that this years big bunny is good to you , too

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I don't know whose blog or what site I saved this photo from but it's for sure NOT mine but I loved the idea. My bras would only be good for seed starting, not growing plants, LOL

HAPPY SPRING !

Big Quartzite Falls Part 2

The river really starts to flow here... down to the Big Fall. I can't believe I'm walkng in with no snow boots so early this year. See Quartzite Falls Part #1 for the beginning of my walk down the river.

Come summer , I'll share the idyllic pool of fern and moss found at the bottom of these gem veined falls but for now it's all about a power wash.

PS. You can turn the music down at bottom before viewing...

Little Quartzite Falls Part 1

March 16th... spring is coming and the snow off Mount Arvon is melting..... please check link to BIG Quartzite Falls part #2 for the real deal... I'm dreaming tank tops and vegetables, stitching on porch swings, green vistas and aqua waters early this year

PS. You can turn the music down at the bottom before viewing...

My Take on a Dorothy Bond Stitch

Page 60, bottom set ...

working my way up this seam of teensy pine stitches...and now finished, aching for another seam just like this to lose myself in.... finding great pleasure in these minute stitches after the basics are hashed out. While working it, all BS gives way. This is the stitching I crave at present. Most people don't understand why I put this much of my hand to something that is 10" x 10". Obviously, they've never prayed with a needle... so many of mine have been answered this way

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shaggy bull... from todays ride through Elo

Feeling quite bullish myself lately. I hacked down my blog feeder and rid it of all things that don't pertain directly to what my interests are. The past 2 years I've bombarded myself with ideas. Those " One day I'd love to do this" and " Isn't this cool?" kind of blogs. Let's get real here, there's only one of me... I'm done with knitting, crochet and mixed media .... done with looking at tatting, needlepoint and cross stitch, too. Necessary "house cleaning" for where I'm headed.

Aunt Jane of Kentucky...

by Eliza Calvert Hall , the the story of a Southern quilter

My Grandma S gave me this book when I was 11 or 12. This is my original copy dated 1906. It's now available online through Harvard Edu here. I'm sure you'll enjoy the chapter entitled " Aunt Janes Album".

Here's an exerpt from it...

"How much piecin' a quilt is like livin' a life. Many a time I've set and listened to Parson Page preachin' about predestination and free will and I said to myself, if I could just get up there in the pulpit with one of my quilts, I could make life a heap plainer than Parson's making it with his big words. "You see, to make a quilt, you start out with just so much calico. You'll go to the store and pick it out, n' buy it, but the neighbors give you a piece here and a piece there and you'll find you'll have a piece left over every time you cut out a dress and you just take whatever happens to come. That's predestination. "But when it comes to cutting the quilt, why, you're free to choose your own pattern. You give the same kind of pieces to two persons and one'll make a nice patch quilt and the other one'll make a wild goose chase. There'll be two quilts made of the same kind of pieces, but just as different as can be. That's the way of living. "The Lord sends us the pieces, we can cut 'em out and put them together pretty much to suit ourselves. There's a heap more in the cutting out and the sewing than there is in the calico." –Eliza Calvert Hall, 1898

While fishing around for info on Eliza, I found this sweet poem....

A Treasure

by Mildred Hatfield

It's more than a coverlet, More than a spread, This beautiful quilt That graces my bed.
It's laughter and sorrow, It's pleasure and pain, It's small bits and pieces Of sunshine and rain.
It's a bright panorama Of scraps of my life- It's moments of glory, It's moments of strife.
It's a story I cherish Of days that have been, It's a door I can open To live them again.
Yes, it's more than a cover, This much-treasured quilt, It's parts pieced together Of the life I have built.

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Felon cooling off

the begininings of spring