Spring's Blush

Nature is all a-blush with the exuberance of spring.

Her passion, having welled up from too long a winter, bursts forth...

And we are under her spell.

Our pulses race at the sight of her show...

And the whole world is colored with optimism...

Her beauty energizes our spirits and, by her side, anything seems possible.

Head over heels we tumble about in the sweet scent of the wind...

Accompanied by the best performances that the birds have to offer.

They're singing their hearts out...to create new life...to fill their nests...

It lasts only a few days...

This blush...

Until the petals wither and fly away and the leaves come forth to cover her naked beauty.  

The explosion of colors that follows competes for our senses, never wielding quite the same magic as those petals that ushered us into spring.

The first blush is like love when it is new.  

It's fresh, it's exciting and we open ourselves most fully in its embrace.

Happy Spring.

Happy Opening...

A Palette of Petals

Rain drops and snow drops...

And snow...

The last of the season?  It must be.  

But Spring is doing her best to stay on schedule and push out the petals...

Even if she has to shake a little snow off her shoulders.

I've taken a page from her book and have been pushing out petals too.

A whole palette of rose petals for Mrs. Rose's block...

Inner and outer petals in four different sizes...

And in many shades of pink...

That way I have a palette of sizes, shapes and colors to choose from when I start sewing them into branches, sprigs and canes.

Now I need a similar palette of leaves.  Since I don't have the right ribbon for them in my stash, I've had to place an order and am waiting for the mailman.

In the meantime, I'm working on some Japanese embroidery.

Happy Monday.

Flower Field Trip

With snow in the forecast yet, those of us in the Northern hemisphere are longing for the beauty and warmth of Spring.

Since we're not getting it this week, I thought we'd take a virtual Flower Field Trip.

I missed the Philadelphia Flower Show so instead, I'm taking you to the Garment District of NYC to the home of M & S Schmalberg.

This field trip is courtesy of Allie Aller who took us there in April of 2011...

We were introduced to the owner Warren Brand and his son, Adam, who took us on full tour of the flower-making operations.

The company is fourth-generation,  family-owned and it shows in the personal, warm service that we received. 

I can see why Allie had been working with them for the past few years.  On this trip, she brought Warren a copy of her first book which she autographed and left with him...

Here's how it works.  You can choose fabric from their huge selection of silks, velvets, organzas, etc... or you can provide your own fabric.

Then a flower type and size is chosen from the hundreds of dies that are available...

Here are some of the smallest options that are available...



The dies are then placed on top of many layers of the fabric and cut out by using a large press...



Once the petals are cut out...

They head to another machine where they are put into a mold and pressed into shape...

After shaping, they head to the folks who assemble the petals into finished flowers...

What a job title...Flower Maker.



The flowers are all hung by their stems upside down on wire until the glue dries...

They are the prettiest rows ever.

The flowers are then placed in boxes to either be shipped out...

Or to be placed on the shelves...

Where beautiful people like Cathy Kizerian can shop to their heart's content...

We all had fun gathering flowers and planning our "gardens".  Allie uses hers in the quilts she makes and the classes she teaches...

If this all sounds like too much fun...you're in luck.  Allie will be teaching a class as part of the Quilt Alliance's Quilters Take Manhattan Event called Composite Flower Motifs at The City Quilter in NYC on Friday, September 19 from 1:00pm-4:00pm which includes a field trip to M & S Schmalberg.

Allie will also be participating in a Quilters Design Mash-up at the Event where, in an iron-chef-style smack down, designers will have fabrics thrown at them and only one hour to design a quilt top on a design wall.  I would LOVE to see that.  

If you can't make it to NYC for the Quilt Alliance event or to visit Schmalberg in person, you can always send them an email or call with special requests.

If you enjoy Allie and her work, her second book, Quilting: Just a Little Bit Crazy is coming out in May, details are here...AND she's on QNNTV teaching 3-D Fower Embellishments...details here.  

I hope you enjoyed my flower field trip today and that it gives you a bright start to your weekend.  

Happy day.

Celebrating Sunflowers

We read in the paper that there were fields and fields of sunflowers...300 acres of them...planted in Harford County and that they were in bloom.

We decided to throw our bikes on the car and travel the hour or so North in order to ride amongst them.

I was way excited and couldn't wait to go. And I wanted to celebrate our trip in a special way.

Celebrate the sunflowers, celebrate our bikes, celebrate my friends...

So I made those little fabric sunflowers and sewed a snap onto the backs of them so they could be removed to wash the hats.

I snapped the flowers onto the visors.

One for each of us.

That way, we would have something to wear on our heads, something to cover up our sweaty, flattened, helmet-head of hair after biking...

A much prettier option...

The sunflowers were intoxicating. And we started out quite tame, demure and lady-like...

But before we knew it, we were completely under their spell...soaking up sunshine and the acres and acres of beauty.

And then the Instigate-trix...the Provacateur pictured above...

She gets an idea a la Calendar Girls. (And she hasn't ever even seen the Calendar Girls movie...)

She thinks it would be fun to pull down our bra straps and use the sunflowers to cover ourselves.

And take pictures so that we appear as if we're naked, in the buff, unclothed, au naturel...

And the giggles began...

But one of us was a bit slow to disrobe...a bit modest and it was taking her awhile to get up the nerve to pull down her bra straps. (Yes, there is a sane one among us, PTL)

And being the good friends that we are, we're goading her and egging her on to take down her bra straps...

"Come on, it will make the picture sooo much better. Take them off!"

Being so focused on the task of defrocking our friend, we hadn't noticed that a group of people had come down the hill and were walking up behind us. Ms. Modest saw them but failed to give warning...she was paralyzed with gut-busting laughter...

And then we turned and saw them too.

And just like the garden of Eden...

We hid.

And laughed so hard we were driven to incontinence.

And it's a good thing those people came along when they did. God only knows what might have happened next.

To say we enjoyed those sunflowers is an understatement.

The day was the perfect mix of simple, silly pleasures...great weather...glorious flowers...good girlfriends...

And I'd like to think there was some magic sewn into our hats.

I hope you're smiling.

And if you're not, rent the Calendar Girls movie and have a laugh.

And remember me and my friends.

Who knows, we may end up on a calendar one day.

Hmmm...that gives me an idea...