Something Sweet at the Grove Park Inn

We had company, so we decided to go to the Grove Park Inn for lunch on the terrace and view the Gingerbread House Display from this year's competition.  First of all, here are three shots of the winning "house" which is displayed under glass in a rather elaborate rotating display.  It's a nice reminder that these edible creations are often as detailed and interesting on the back as they are from the front.  Isn't this door inviting?  

 But the real display is are the Magi on the other side...

 ...and the very realistic pack camel.

 And now some others...

 This decorated tree was actually stacks of circular branches, very intricate.

 And the Holiday Hoedown was another that was detailed both front (above) and back (below)

I can't even imagine how they made these realistic looking canning jars.  The intentionally broken jar is spilling out some very realistic looking cat-eye marbles.

And now, since I'm having some difficulty formatting these pictures with text, I'll just let you enjoy the rest!

The Oriole Mill

Last week several of the members of my bee visited The Oriole Mill in nearby Hendersonville.  Our cohort, Jane, was kind enough to make arrangements for our tour.  We were part of a larger group that was divided into three groups, as we rotated to various parts of the facility.

I've added these photos roughly in the order that we were introduced to this textile operation.  Here is one of the jacquard looms ready to go!

The owner is showing us the Egyptian cotton that she uses in their products.  This particular fiber is chosen because of it's long fibers and resistance to pilling or producing lint.  I was surprised that there wasn't any lint flying around in the air as these massive looms worked.

 This cute "face" fabric was on the loom that they used for our demo.  We got to watch the mechanical shuttles at slow motion to get an idea of how the woven strands get put into place and then got to see the loom work at its usual speed, making the shuttles virtually invisible because they were flying back and forth so quickly.

 This is one of their commercial fabrics on the loom...

 And a closer view so you can see the design a little easier.

 In the design and sewing area we saw racks like this of fabrics they have produced.

 As sewers, we were particularly interested in the sewing room...

 And here is a stack of completed baby coverlets next to the sewing machine that forms and sews on the bias binding.

 The final stop was the warping room.  Each fabric requires thousands of strands of yarn many, many yards long.  Spools of the warp thread/yarn are shown here and they feed together...

 ... and are expertly wrapped around a large drum.  When the proper length is reached, the worker ties off the ends and starts the process all over again.  Eventually these threads will be transferred to a spool that fits a particular loom.

 This worker has a long history working in the textile industry, which used to be an important domestic industry in North Carolina.  About 15 years ago the local textile plants closed as this type of production is now largely outsourced to China.

 Looking through some of the machinery you can see a wall where product samples are displayed.

 Here are just a couple more shots of machines in action.  The strands of yarn made interesting images... I'm not sure my little camera really knew what to focus on!

I do like the way the strands coming down from the header look.  These are the strands that lift specific warp threads so that the pattern can be achieved.  The orange strands will create the pattern and the lighter yellow strands at the end will form the salvedge.  (Autocorrect does not like my spelling of that last word, but I think I spelled it correctly.  It's the narrow band of tighter, unpatterned fabric at the edge that keeps the edges from raveling.)

I thoroughly enjoyed the factory tour.  Though I'm sad that we have lost most of the domestic cotton fabric production in the United States, I'm happy that there are some people who value and are preserving locally produced heirloom quality textiles.

Sunset at Scarborough

Today we went to the Portland Art Museum and they had a special exhibit of Winslow Homer's work.  The museum is in the process of restoring Homer's studio which is located at Prout's Neck in nearby Scarborough.  Inspired by our new knowledge about Winslow Homer, we decided we would drive to Prout's Neck and it was just our luck to arrive there at sunset.  So I thought I would share a few pictures.  The sky was magnificent!

 So much color tonight!  (Not really "tonight," as sunset happens just a little after 4 PM!) The colorful sky predicts that we will have good weather for our travels tomorrow as we head back to North Carolina after a very nice Thanksgiving holiday.

 Here's Maggie and Dave posing in front of the sunset.

Super Saturday!

Today IS Saturday, and with the brilliant sunshine streaming into the window to my left, I guess I would have to say it was a super Saturday, but that is not the reason for the title of this post.

Super Saturday is the name of an enrichment program for 8 to 13 year-olds that is held at the local branch of our college.  Our quilt guild teaches a three level program called "Quilt in a Shoe Box" for the six Saturdays of the program in the fall and in the spring.  We just completed the fall session last week and I was able to volunteer for four of the six sessions working with the level three students who were all doing the Moda "School Block Challenge."  Each of the four girls I worked with got three pieces of Moda fabrics, a primarily black piece with orange dots, a two-toned purple print, and a green, white, orange print.  Their challenge was to design and make a 16 inch quilt square that included all of the fabrics.  There were some other criteria, including that the work had to be 100% their own, they had to use some machine and hand sewing skills, and so on.  The squares, if completed, would be entered into a competition and exhibit at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY.

"Staring into Space" was created by BR who is a 7th grader.  In her entry statement she says she was inspired by her own cat at home who likes to stare out the window.  She added a little fiber fill to add dimension to the cat and the man in the moon before appliqueing them to the background.  I really like the tassel she added to the man in the moon's blue night cap!

 EM, an 8th grader, was immediately drawn to the Double Wedding Ring because she wanted "an ambitious project that would allow me free reign with color."  In the process of making this block she learned about paper piecing.  She also became more familiar with her own sewing machine which was a gift from her mother and grandmother.

 AL#1 is 7th grader and she wanted to combine two four patches with two cat faces, so she created "Cats in Bow ties."  She prefers machine work to hand work, but did the cat face embroidery at home where her own cat tried to chew on her embroidery floss!  The purple ribbons she tied and sewed below each cat face inspired the name for her block.

AL#2 is a 5th grader and sister to AL#1.  She drew a rather complicated lion face using the black fabric as the mane.  She remembered making prairie points for her project last year and made modified prairie points for the ears which actually flop forward slightly when the block is held up.  She enjoyed embroidering whiskers and adding "3D" eyes made of stacked buttons.  She calls this block "Serious Lion."

I enjoyed working with these very motivated young women and I probably learned more than they did!

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE...

For the last few years, the unofficial start to the holiday season for us has been a visit to the annual open house at Van Wingerden International, Inc., the huge propagation nursery greenhouses that are located in Mills River, NC.  They supply plants that are sold in many of the big box stores year round. In early November, many of the plants they have in their acres of greenhouses are poinsettias, ready to be shipped to the market place.  It's not all poinsettias, though.  Here are some hibiscus in bloom.  They are a favorite of mine, so I was delighted to see them in bloom in a variety of colors.

 This year it seemed like most of the poinsettias were traditional reds like this one that was in a dish garden pot.

 You can see why the layout of color appeals to the quilter in me!

 I usually try to find a picture that I can use for a screen saver during the winter.  Usually I pick a deeper color of poinsettia, but maybe this year, I will use this pale version.  It's white with just a tinge of pink.  What do you think?

 Here's another shot that shows the densely placed pots arranged by color or variety.  The greenhouses are enormous and we commented that it seems like every time we go to this open house we have spectacular weather.  Today was sunny and 72 degrees... pretty darn nice weather for November!  And great light for showing off all these brilliant blossoms!

 Here I am amid a background of red and white plants.

 And here's another colorful shot... of begonias in every imaginable hue.

"Y" I Love Fall

This morning I started my week with a class at the "Y."  I was there a few minutes early and found myself staring out the window of Studio A.  This is the view from there on this beautiful autumn day.  

I zoomed in just a little so that you could appreciate how beautiful the mountains in the distance are with their colorful foliage.  There's also lots of nice deep reds and rusts in Biltmore Park.  The view from the front side of the building is always nice, as BP is really a picture perfect little town center.  It does make me a little sad, though because in a week or two all the trees will be bare.

As of this weekend, we are past the date of the average first frost here, a reminder that any day now I could wake up to all the annual plants on our slope gone.  With that in mind, I took a picture of the sourwood tree in our neighbor's yard, which has turned scarlet.  It's a nice contrast to the darker boughs on the tree to the left and the bare bark of the tree to the right.

And one of the casualties to the first frost will be our elephant ears, which sprouted up very tall this summer.   Here are some of them toward the top of our slope.  They dominated when everything was lush this summer, but now that things are being trimmed back and dying back, they look even larger!

As I was taking the picture of the elephant ears, I noticed a single yellow day lily in bloom in front of the ornamental grass clump.  So here it is... one of the last blooms of 2012!