Ambling at the Arboretum

This morning we did a 10K walk at the NC Arboretum with a group we belong to, the Asheville Amblers.  We've done this walk before and it really is my favorite time of year to explore the grounds.  I took a few pictures, so I thought I would share a few with you.

Well, I just learned that I can download lots of pictures at once.  I chose 14 to share with just a few comments.

Russ and I had our pictures taken in the native azalea repository.  We learned that 17 of the 18 species of native azaleas are represented in this area of the arboretum.  The 18th specie only exists in California because it requires a different climate.

I was wearing a cap the same color as the flame azaleas behind me, but you can't really see the color of my cap, but the bush behind me was brilliant!

Some of the walk was along Bent Creek... that is just to the right of this shot of bracket fungus growing on an old stump.

 Here's a shot of the walkers up ahead.  Russ is the man on the left.  I kept stopping to take pictures and then I'd get behind and have to hurry and catch up and then something else would beg to be photographed and I was behind again.  Sometimes on these walks I can be on the slow side, but this time it was really the fact that I was stopping to take pictures.  I just love the fresh spring green foliage!

I have taken some courses on identifying spring wildflowers, but it's been a few years, so I really need to brush up on names.  I believe this is a May Apple.  The upper leaf that I'm grasping is like and umbrella, but if you lift it up you get rewarded with a sweet little flower dangling just underneath.

And I've seen these things along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  They look like corn cobs, but I'm not sure of the name... maybe Indian corn?

Again I had to move some other foliage to get a picture of this guy, but if you look closely, it's Jack-in-a-pulpit.

                                                    Baby pine cones?

 I can't have spring go by without taking a few dogwood pictures.  This is a nice variation with it's pale green pointy blossoms.

A lot of the containers were planted with anemones.  They are a pretty flower I don't see very often, in spring pastels of pink and purple.

This pretty foliage was in the bonsai garden.  Just look at that pretty color combination.  The beige stones, the copper, lime and grass green plants...

 And the quilt garden was planted all in pansies and you could really see the pattern, though I don't know the name of this square.  Cheryl, if you read this, you probably could educate me about this.

And finally, some more dogwood, the blossoms forming a stripe across my photo.

This is just a small sample of some of the things we saw today.  I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my photos!  It was a beautiful spring morning and perfect conditions for our walk.

STRAWBERRIES!

We are happily into strawberry season here in North Carolina.

Well, technically, most of our "local" strawberries actually come from just over the border in South Carolina.  This time of year you see lots of makeshift roadside stands show up.  Usually there is a truck and a tarp and some kind of a table with buckets of strawberries for sale.  We bought our first container full last weekend, and we are down to the last few.

The buckets hold 3.75 quarts of berries.  I apologize for the fact that these berries are getting a little dull looking from spending the week in the refrigerator, but I have since cleaned and consumed some of them and they are still very tasty!

Several years ago I bought a hanging basket of strawberry plants at the Farmers Market.  Late in the summer, when I thought the plants were pretty much dead, I just set it in the garden and the plants sent out runners and now there is a corner of our garden (between the chives and the birdbath) that is overrun with healthy, blossoming strawberry plants!  We do harvest a berry or two from here when we notice them, but mostly the birds enjoy them.

Each year Quilt Guild members are invited to make a quilt block to be given to the outgoing president as a recognition for taking on the job of leadership for the year.  Last year's president requested "food related" blocks in primary colors.  Her goal is to make her quilt and donate it to MANNA, the local food pantry that distributes food to the needy in our area.  In addition to her work with the Asheville Quilt Guild, she also sits on the MANNA board.  Likely the quilt will decorate an office or conference room at MANNA headquarters.  

Inspired by strawberry season, I decided to put strawberries on my block.  Here it is:

It measures 9 inches, as all the blocks will measure 8 1/2 inches in the final quilt.  I modified a free motif that came my way this week in a blog from Lark Books.  I had to enlarge the motif by 3.5X and then added a third strawberry to help fill my space.  I stenciled the berries, leaves and blossom and used fabric paint on white cotton.  I then embroidered the stems, seeds, branch and major vein on each leaf and some highlights on the blossom. 

 I think it is a simple and sweet block for Janie's quilt!

TWENTY

The Quilt Alliance (QuiltAlliance.org) is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year, so the theme of their  small quilt competition is "TWENTY," and the little quilts measure 20 x 20 inches.

This is the fourth year that I have participated in this fund raising activity.  The collection of submitted quilts travels to several large quilt shows and then each of the quilts will be auctioned off on Ebay to raise money for the Alliance's programs to document, preserve and share quilts and their stories.

My plan was to celebrate the theme by showing 20 marbles tumbling out of a canning jar.  When my quilt was pretty far along, I realized that I really needed to add a second marble jar to balance my design.  So this is my little quilt, "MARBLES."

The theme can be interpreted rather broadly, so the fact that I have too many marbles does not pose a problem!

I used fused organza to create the semi-transparent canning jars.  And fussy cut and embroidered the marbles from two of my background fabrics.  I was pleased with the effect.

I was also part of another submission, a group effort called "Time for Tea."  Several of us have been talking about making a slice quilt and this seemed the perfect opportunity.  There were actually 6 of us involved.  Cheryl offered to locate an image and give four of us a quarter of the image to creatively recreate.  After considerable research for an appropriate image, Cheryl consulted her friend Dorry in Virginia.  Dorry arranged some china (traditional 20th anniversary gift) and some hot cross buns (XX being the Roman numeral for 20) and took the photo.  Cheryl then cut the photo into four vertical slices and presented Susan, Alice, Christina and me with a 5 x 20 inch portion without sharing the total image with any of us.  The idea was for us to work independently and reproduce our slice the way we wanted, but to be mindful of the placement, as the slices needed to be able to be put together again for a recognizable finished product.

So this is what each of us were working from.  I'm sorry I don't have the original photo, but you get the idea.  A table set up outside on a deck with a checked table cloth, a mug and tea pot, and African violet, and a plate with hot cross buns.

And here is our little quilt!

It was great fun to be part of this whole process.  We were encouraged to be creative in our interpretation of the table cloth, and I think it's very charming to see the variations that all seem to work together nicely. As Cheryl pointed out, it almost makes the plate look transparent.   

Susan did the first slice and she happened to pick a table cloth fabric that had yellow in it without knowing that two other portions of the picture had that yellow theme.  Alice did the second slice and it's amazing how nicely the leaves of the violet mesh.  Susan's are a little flatter and Alice's have a bit more depth.  Alice stuffed the appliquéd frosting and raisins on the hot cross buns and actually found that gradient brown fabric that give the buns their three dimensional look.  I used fabric paint to create my checkerboard fabric and my challenge was to recreate the darling lemon pig mug that Dorry used in her photo.  I was actually told I could change the shape of the mug or image on it, but that I should keep it yellow.  Cheryl had several "lemon" fabrics and I was able to fussy cut a lemon and turn it into a pig and it comes pretty darn close to the original.  Christina did the final slice.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but she added a button to top off the tea pot and fancied up the table cloth with some decorative lacy stitching.

Cheryl connected the four pieces and did the quilting.  Alice bound the quilt.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my "TWENTY" quilts!

Orchids!

Since I had some nice photos from the annual orchid show at the NC Arboretum this weekend, I decided I had better do a blog post.  

The best thing about the weekend was that my family was here... and here they are:

Now, as for the orchids, I will just share a few pictures for your enjoyment.  

It's pretty hard to pick a favorite.  I'm always amazed at the variety of size, color and shapes!

Signs of Spring in January

I know it's only January 29th and the Groundhog hasn't even yet made his predictions, but today is a beautiful springlike day, currently 71 degrees and sunny, so I just had to go looking for some signs of spring.

And I didn't have to look very far!

The lenten roses don't seem to realize that Lent doesn't start for two more weeks.  Maybe they are predicting an early arrival of Hot Cross Buns.  We can only hope!

We have two plants in our yard, tucked slightly under the deck.  The pink one isn't quite open, but the flowers on the cream colored plant are more progressed.  

The sedum is sending out some green growth.

 This isn't the best of photos, but the mums have some green growth, too.

 The vinca, which grow wild along our south foundation wall have the courage to flower this time of year!

 There are nice little bright green leaves on the roses.

 I meandered down the slope to check on the daffodils, which seem like they are ready to open whenever we get a string of days like this.  See how big the flower heads are already?

 And the iris are up quite a bit, too.

 Since I was at the bottom of the slope, I decided to include a couple of pictures of our little stream.  There are some new sand bars that have formed during the last few bigger downpours and that is changing the course of the stream a little bit.

 I bet the turtles will enjoy crawling up on this mound of sand to sunbathe!

I also noticed that the super market weeping pussy willow plant that I planted last spring after it "bloomed" indoors has a few branches with fuzzy white showing.  I tried, but I couldn't get my camera to focus on the open buds... the lens just wanted to focus on the rocks under our deck which were in the background.  

Likely all these plants will suffer through a few more frosts and maybe some snow before spring is really here, but it is fun to see them showing such promise so early in the year!

Laena and Charlotte

A week ago we were in Charlotte.  We went to meet our new grand-niece, Laena, who was born on 12/19/12 and bring her a quilt.

Then we spent the night downtown, enjoyed a
nice dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery,

and visited a couple of the museums in the city.

The Levine Museum of the New South gave a nice overview of the economy and the social issues that have impacted Charlotte and piedmont region since the Civil War.  Though much of the same story is told in the state museum that we visited in Raleigh earlier this year, we thought that the exhibits were really nicely done and it is a museum well worth visiting.  In their upstairs temporary gallery they had a very unsettling photo exhibit of lynchings.

 I posed under the reflective sculpture in front of the museum of contemporary art, but we chose to visit the Mint Museum of Art and Craft next door.

It housed a nice collection of permanent and special exhibits featuring art of all types.  We enjoyed it a lot and hope to come back and see future exhibits.  We also discovered that our entry included the Mint Museum in nearby Randolph, as well, so next time we will allow enough time to visit both.