Jill the Beekeeper

My friend Connie Brown is a beekeeper, also a quilter, a sewer, a quilt appraiser - a lady of many talents who keeps busy, busy, busy. My daughter Jill who teaches second grade was fascinated by Connie's talents. She wanted to meet Connie and her bees up close and personal - what a great experience to bring back to her second-graders! Soooo, off we went to spend the morning with some very industrious bees. Connie gave Jill an official suit to wear - every inch of you is covered. Jill is waiting to put on head gear because of the heat.
In order to relax the bees, Connie makes smoke in the smoker by recycling

egg cartons.

And it's up the hill we go. There are 3 hives to check out.

This is Connie next to the most productive hive; they live up to the term - "busy little bees". We didn't want to disturb them so we moved on to the next 2 hives.

Connie gave us so much background into the way a hive works. The top layers are the honey we eat, middle layer is the honey for the bees to eat and the bottom layer is the Brood box where eggs and Queen live and the young are raised. The first job of a newborn bee is to clean out the cell where they're born. I think these bees are onto something!

The head gear is zipped into place - not a chance for any little bee getting in.

And of course, long sturdy gloves that come up to your elbows!

Jill is "smoking" the hive to relax the bees

and a little more smoke on top.

Connie and Jill are using a "chisel" like tool to get between the panels of honeycomb. This makes it easier to remove them.

Jill is using big tongs to get down and grab one of these panels to remove.

There's been no activity on this panel;  as you can see, none of the combs are filled with honey or sealed.

So this panel will be placed on the end temporarily, making it easier to remove the other panels.

Here is a panel of honeycomb that the bees are working on - filling and sealing. It was fascinating. They are totally oblivious to you being there, they're working their little tails off.

I loved this - it's a special type screen to place on top of the layer where the Queen lives. It's open enough for bees to get out and come and go but the Queen is too big to fit through. But don't feel sad for her, she has attendants; there are housekeeper bees, nurse bees and guard bees all to make her life wonderful!

The bees are very active here; these are the worker bees, the ones that leave the hive in search of nectar. They have the strongest venom and a better defense system making it safe for them to be out and about. Bees that don't have a strong venom have jobs keeping them in the hive.

And here she is - the Queen Bee. You can see her towards the bottom and a little right, she has a longer and little bigger body. Bees pick their queen, they choose the most perfect egg and it is fed Royal Jelly throughout. All other eggs are fed Royal Jelly the first few days only. The nurse bees feed the larvae.

And a comb that has lots of honey.

And all that for this! And it is yummy - Brown's Backyard Honey.

It was just such a fascinating day with so much to learn. I took loads of pictures for Jill to bring back to her second-graders. I know they'll love it and be very impressed that their teacher was BRAVE to get that close to so many bees.

Thanks Connie!

In the Words of Erma

The late, great Erma Bombeck was a gifted writer who gave us her light-hearted insights into life, people and mostly herself. I read her column on a weekly basis; I always looked forward to it. She always made me laugh but on a few occasions, brought a tear to my eyes. I'm not a saver of articles and such, but one particular column I've saved for over 30 years; it's yellow with age, it still brings a tear to my eyes. In honor of Independence Day, I give you Erma's take on the American Flag - What's red and white and blue and true?
"No one ever taught me about the flag.
When I was 5, I was in a dance recital. My costume was a silver leotard. Attached to it at the shoulders and wrists was a flag. During the last few bars, I spread my arms revealing 48 stars on a field of white. The audience went crazy cheering...I learned a flag could make you look like you had talent!
A few years later at a baseball game in Cincinnati, 2 men were calling each other names that would starch your underwear. One said Ted Kluszewski hit like a girl and the other guy threatened to rearrange his nose. Just then, they hoisted the flag; both of them stood with their hats over their hearts. I learned that a flag could break up a fight!

During the second World War, my Grandma sent her son to war. I never saw her cry when he left, or when he wrote or when we talked of him, but one afternoon when she thought no one was watching, she went and put a little flag on the sill in the front window. There were flags all up and down the street in windows. I learned the flag could bring tears to the eyes of people who didn't usually cry.

When I was in New York once, I saw a group of demonstators protesting the war. They lit a match to the flag. I watched in horror as the silk stipes curled in flames because I knew what was coming. Within minutes, there would be a bolt of lightning and thunder to strike them all dead - Nothing happened; the earth didn't part, the sky didn't fall and the VFW was open regular hours. I learned that a flag could touch the ground and life could go on.

Later I was to learn that people would make underwear out of the flag, key rings and toilet seats. The flag was a successful commercial venture.

I would learn that you wouldn't think about the flag for a long time, then you'd see it being raised slowly over a gold medal winner at the Olympics and you'd get up out of your chair quickly and say "Anyone want a beer while I'm up?" and go to the kitchen to hide your tears.

I'm still learning about the flag. It's an enigma to me. I've known it all my life. It's so familiar, yet it occasionally touches a nerve that excites to the point where I square my shoulders and say to a perfect stranger at the UN, "See that one with the red and white stripes and stars? That's my country."

Have a safe and wonderful Independence Day.

Judy

Looking Up

Last week on a morning walk, I luckily had my camera with me. I don't always remember to do that, but this morning I did. I love looking up and seeing the wonderful silhouettes of trees and other things soooooo - I took some pictures and put them into Photoshop Elements to play with. It's fun to try the different filters. This one is the "poster edge" which I use a lot.

I also tried "photocopy" which is a good filter to use if you're wanting to make it into a silkscreen; it's necessary to have sharp edges.

This next filter which was "stylize - find edges". I thought this was the best one for making into a screen - some interesting texture lines.

After making it into a screen, I transferred the image onto some "sky" fabric which I microwave dyed for a mottled effect. I like the results and also the fact that it doesn't jump out and say "I'm a tree" - just some interesting texture.

Tomorrow, wonder what I'll find on my morning walk. Sometimes walks are very ordinary but sometimes they lead to something great - hope tomorrow is a "great" one.

Focus June Meeting Pt.2

Hi again, continuing on with my Focus group and the many talented members - I was talking about a challenge this group is doing to be displayed at the Blue Ridge Arts Council in Seneca, SC. Marge did this wonderful piece based on a piece of petrified wood she had. I look at this and wonder - is it made of fabric or wood? It's so dimensional, I feel like I could get splinters if I touched it.
Marge is also a weaver and created this wonderful long scarf she plans to cut it in half for her daughter and daughter in law - lucky gals! I was so fascinated by this piece; she wove it, then felted it and all the while, both sets of yarns being intertwined with each other! They do not come apart. It's amazing to see and impossible to figure out - I love pouring over pieces when I can't figure out the process - this is one of those.

At the last Focus meeting, Marge was sharing with us a new "quilt in the works" - just on paper for the moment, but since last month, she has come up with a wonderful color palette. I'm not a piecer so this kind of work truly fascinates me. Marge plans to take her time with this, it's a king size quilt and many pieces.

Dixie Haywood did this wonderful piece for the wood challenge. Her dad was a woodworker and made everything in these photos, including the playpen. I'll post the full view next time. It's wonderful.

Marilyn took a workshop a while back on creating faces in fabric. This is her granddaughter.

And this is the photo recreated in fabric, still not done but a great start.

I was fascinated with the branches on the trees which Marilyn created by stitching on water soluble stabilizer.

Marilyn has also created a piece for the wood challenge based on a photo of a log and ferns.

And notice the face in the lower left - it's very subtle.

A good meeting!

Focus June Meeting

My Focus group from SC met yesterday at my home; as always it was fun and inspiring. Janet Ginn showed us her latest piece made for her grandson; the pattern is her own design. It's a wonderful "man/boy/male quilt". The colors are very rich - a great combination of solids, plaids and stripes. It's a fairly easy block but so effective.

Many brought their challenge pieces. Focus is participating in a challenge with another fiber group - the Thread Heads of SC. The challenge is to make a piece depicting wood of some sort. It can be color, trees, things made of wood etc. They will be on display at the Blue Ridge Arts Council this fall. Diana Pickens made this wonderful piece depicting trees in a very abstract presentation. It's very effective with long strips and an organic themed fabric. It's not completed, but looks pretty great like it is.

At the last meeting, Diana was showing us a quilt she was recycling.  I never saw the original - just the blocks after she removed all the quilting and took the quilt apart. It's a beautiful piece - here's the block from last meeting

and the front. It's beautiful in person - wonderful color and lovely machine quilting. You can see it up close and personal at the Asheville Quilt Show this August at the NC Arboretum.

This is a detail of a piece Veronica Moriarty is working on. I love the quilting motifs in the center.

Veronica is working on a piece based on a picture near and dear to her featuring a boat and water. She's had some problems finding the "perfect" water, bringing the piece to meetings to share and get our input and has finally found something that will work really well. The first is the original photo, next is some fabric she painted and far right is her solution. I think it's an interesting way to interpret the background she's trying to create. The "mock-ups" were done in paper - a good way to design. I can't wait to see the finished piece, know it will be another beauty!

Have lots more to share with this group so please come back and visit - til then, keep creating! Judy

Waiting Impatiently

I've been planning the colors for my Sunrise quilt - kind of muted, grayed colors. I found the perfect swatches of color but didn't have enough dye to proceed, still waiting impatiently for the order. I work with a lot of procion mx dye; I know there's lots of great formulas out there for mixing hundreds of colors but over the years, and before I knew of the formulas, I started buying lots of different colors. It was not very cost effective, I admit but they're there when I want them (most of the time). As each new jar of dye enters my studio, I dye a large swatch of fabric. I do both cotton and rayon since I use both in quilts. It's hard to judge a color by the tiny little colored paper square on the color chart. I need LARGE so here you go. After each swatch is dyed I do a sample discharge - 1 for Softscrub, 1 for diluted bleach and 1 for discharge paste. You wouldn't think there would be a difference, bleach is bleach right? Not always - take a look. I like to know how a color will discharge since this is a process I also use a lot. These are some of the colors I'm thinking of using.

I also do swatches for silk; I have found having these samples invaluable over the years.

Have a wonderful weekend.