Woodlawn, Spring cleaning, and jewelry making

Well, I finally made it to Woodlawn to see my Arch-Chancellor's Hat on display. I was very disappointed as it was placed so that the words were unreadable. After they displayed my Priest's Stole on a bed and hard to see, and not in the same room where all the other vestments were placed, this placement is a big disappointment. Not sure that I will be entering anything else, as I doubt that I will ever do something good enough to get any prize. Yeah, I've heard the stuff about not entering just to win, but... Plus, I have just as much fun showing my stuff off at my local stitching groups, and it doesn't cost $20 to do so either. I would count the gas to get to meetings, but I have to drive to deliver the piece to Woodlawn, drive to Woodlawn to see it, and make a third trip to pick up my piece. All so they can display them in the worst possible ways. I have a picture of it, but they let us past the ropes so my friend could take the picture straight on. From the ropes, you can't read the quote, and it just looks like smudges. Talked to a friend of mine, who was incensed that they didn't give the stole at least honorable mention, and she agreed that they do seem to be doing a good job of putting my things in the wrong place, and that it was an expensive way to be disappointed.

Meanwhile, the cleaning goes on, and I actually got rid of four boxes of stuff last week! And, I found the supplies for my rainbow crystal bracelet, and made a new one for myself, having given my other one away. I designed this as a look alike for a very expensive bracelet made of sapphires--they come in every color of the rainbow, and the bracelet is gorgeous, but wearing something that expensive--as Rita Rudner says, "I don't want anything around my neck that is worth more than my head", and for me, the same goes for my wrist and hand. This bracelet, if someone steals it, I can always make another one. I'll have to do another picture, as this one dates back to when I was using only nine colors of swarovski cubes (all the colors they had at the time) and I now have twelve colors, they came out with indigo, olivine and jonquil after I designed the piece.

Lastly, my avocado tree is doing very well, and once frost danger is past will be moving out on the back porch, along with the lemon tree, the castanospermum, the pointsettia and the plumeria. I lost one of the stubs over the winter :-(, but the pink/red one is doing fine, and still has the flower buds she set last fall. Over the next week, I plan to start a bunch of seeds, tomato, pepper (green and hot types) black beans, corn and other veggies, and a few herbs. I also am going to be rooting some sage for a good friend of mine who is starting an herb garden.

THE Magpie

Cats. More Cats. And, of course, stitching. And Hawaii. And quilts, but not Hawaiian quilts, not yet anyway.

So aside from the flowers and vases quilt that has grown a bit with time, I also have a long term cat quilt that I've been working on.

Cats have been on my mind today, partly because in an ongoing effort to eradicate the fleas (I have a dog. He goes on walks. He brings home fleas. Yeesh!) everyone got a bath. Yes, I give my cats baths. No, they don't like it. But after a few dozen kitty candies, they start sitting on my lap again. So. I had four cats, two children and a dog in an eight by five foot bathroom, and no, that isn't enough room. But I got it done, and everyone is much more flea free than previously, and so I could get back to my stitching and gardening.

So, I have four cats, so you can tell that I love cats. I also love humor, and there are several designers who do cat designs that are humorous. So I started accumulating them. And stitching some. And realizing that framing was _not_ an option if we wanted to keep the house, not to mention not having near enough wall space. So, the black cats quilt idea was born. The designs I have for the quilt are from several different lines, Kats By Kelly, Diane Graebner, Silly Snobs and Springberry Kreek, all of which I have located on the web doing a simple Google search, so here are a few of the designs...

http://www.katsbykelly.com/

http://happypages.com/diane_g/cross1.html

http://www.123stitch.com/cgi-perl/itemdetail.pl?item=02-1504

http://www.abcstitch.com/designers_php/designers.php?category=Springberry%20Kreek%20Designs

I am stitching them on white aida as being something that can be washed when necessary, and using plain cotton floss and occasionally some of the Kreinik Metallics. All the various designs tend to be black and white with a few touches of color, such that when I do put the quilt top together, I plan to even up the various sizes of stitched piece with black and white calico and then use the bright colors for sashing between the mostly black and white patches. I've been collecting the sashing fabric for a while, and have been trying very hard not to collect any more cat charts, as I think I currently have enough set up to do a king size quilt,  only they are so funny! I'll put a list of the charts I am using in a later article, in case anyone is interested.

Meanwhile, I've almost finished the Chrysanthemum from the Oriental flowers series, so will have to decide which flower to do next. Actually, I think it will be another yellow one, as the metallic gold backstitch is trickier because it is harder to see.

So, Hawaii...

This is a pretty close in picture of a white and yellow plumeria tree. They smell wonderful, and the flowers look artificial to begin with, mostly because they are so perfectly formed. They sell rooting stubs at the airport in Honolulu, so on your way home from this blissful gardener's paradise, you can take a piece or two home with you. Um, I picked up two "stubs", little branches that you take home, stick in some potting soil mixed half and half with sand and wait. Well, I got one pink and one yellow, and both have leaves growing out. I'm so excited. I feel like a Mom all over again. I also got lilikoi and guava seeds, and a red ginger root thingie, all of which have sprouted and are starting to grow secondary leaves.

This, I learned, is called a Heliconia. It is formed a bit like its much more famous/well known relative, the Bird of Paradise flower

which I have pictured here. Incidentally, my fifteen year old daughter took most of these pictures. Partly because once she had the camera in her hot little hands it took dynamite to dislodge it. So I finally gave up and let her at it. She is pretty good at framing, so I think I came out ahead.

This is called a traveller's palm, because water gets trapped at the base of the leaves and so if you know about it you can get a little drink if necessary. It is also a heliconia. I didn't get a good picture of the one with the flowers on it because I couldn't get close enough to the tree. And those fronds are something like 10 or more feet long. I think they look like some of the Hawaiian headdresses the dancers wear so this might be where they got their inspiration.

This is a closeup of a poinciana, albeit not a very good one. If you want to see a good picture of what the flowers look like, try this address. http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/royal_poinciana.htm. Tradewinds Fruit is where I got a bunch of seeds that I am currently waiting rather impatiently to sprout. Since a lot of them can take several months!!! to sprout, this is a lesson in patience for me (although the seeds I bought in Hawaii sprouted in a couple of weeks). Still, I like gardening. It is kind of like gambling, only less chance of losing entirely.

THE Magpie