These Days

Suddenly we had a cats-and-dogs rain, with no disastrous floods or tornadoes. I admit to feeling more anxious than usual, lately.  The bee yard up on Salem Ridge was soaked. The random colors of Bill Pike's bee boxes were free for the taking, so, inspired, I rushed home to weave. The supple scarf is silk and cotton, mainly, with some tencel, and cotolin. It is one of the new ones with the great spring story moving through my imagination, and hopefully through my hands

(update: Bill was just here to look at the bees and told me he paints the colors on his boxes so the bees won't drift into the wrong hive when they come back from gathering. It's their address. He paints with paint returned to Walmart by people who had the wrong color mixed.  Can people do that? I thought once it was mixed you're stuck with it)

Honey Makers

 

Goodbye, Yellow Bird

The vibrant stack of fabrics were my purchases yesterday from Yellow Bird Art in Lansing, Iowa.  Yes, we crossed the Mississippi River successfully once more, on the steep and narrow, scary bridge.  Yellow Bird, sadly, is closing on May 15.  There are still so many beautiful fabrics to choose from, and at a very deep discount. It is never a better time to lay in a fresh supply of fabrics. Many of the fabrics to choose from are not easily available elsewhere.  This is a singular collection of fabric.  Yellow Bird has consistently carried the most interesting and highest quality of fabrics for sewing &  quilting, and I am very sad to see it close. Best wishes for a relaxing summer, Yellow Bird!  You created a wonderful place.

A new stack of my store postcards just arrived.  Waiting to see them is close to the excitement I used to feel waiting for our school pictures to come.  Miraculously, post cards take just a few days.

It shows my stack of weathered bee boxes, whose  chalky colors, dove tails, and rows of rusty nails inspired my spring/summer  linen, cotton, and silk Rosepath scarfs.