Anticipating Spring at the Biltmore

The calendar says we still have almost a week until Spring officially arrives, but this past week we have had some lovely pre-spring weather and Mother Nature has already started to embrace the new season.

Yesterday I went to the Biltmore Estate with my friend Alice to see the display of movie wedding gowns in the house and the new display featuring three generations of Vanderbilt family weddings at the Legacy Building in Antler Village.

We took a walk through the gardens to see what was happening there.  

 As you can see, it's still a bit early for tulips.

There were nice colorful rings of daffodils. (You can see the estate peeking out in the photo above.)

Delicate crocuses were bordering the tulip beds.

 Here's a nice spray of daffodils or perhaps they are narcissus.

 The crocuses looked pretty in the sunlight.

 And a few hyacinths were there, too.

Inside the conservatory we were momentarily overcome by the fragrance of the hyacinths.

The flower heads were so heavy, many were drooping, but I liked the yellow color of this pot.

I'm not sure what this is... kind of looks like a yellow artichoke, but I thought it made an interesting picture!

There are always orchids in bloom and these are some nice examples.

And I couldn't pass by this brilliant red amaryllis without capturing it!

Less than two weeks from Easter, so I needed to include a lily, even though this isn't the traditional white Easter lily.

I have to admit, I like yellow better!

I hope you enjoyed this spring preview!  Perhaps I can get back to the gardens to see the tulips, but they might be at their peak when we are in Maine for Easter.  Oh, well, the lucky Easter weekend visitors to the Biltmore Estate will be getting their money's worth!

A Quilt for Everett

My niece, Emily, who lives in California, had a baby on March 1st. 

I knew from her baby shower registry that they had a "fox" theme going.  I was unable to attend her shower, but decided I would make a quilt and send it when the baby arrived.  We knew it would be a boy, so I wanted something with foxes and something that looked "masculine."  

A friend at my bee brought in a simple baby quilt she had made that featured a fabric with very suave looking male foxes, so that was my inspiration.  I was able to find the fabric in a local store and thought it looked good with the black and white cross hatch fabric.

This is not the greatest photo... I don't know why I didn't take time to smooth the quilt out better and center it properly in the frame.

 Here's a close up of some of those handsome foxes.

I was delighted to find a flannel fox fabric in the same color scheme for the backing.

And here's 9 day old Everett enjoying his fox quilt!

Now, isn't that pretty darn sweet?