Needle Lace

Day 33: I seem to have got caught up in the web of slow-stitching. The appeal of being able to do what I feel like doing at any particular moment, and doing it wherever I want to do it is rather liberating after hours, days, months, years, decades of devoting myself to specific projects and their particular demands. For the last several days, I have been thinking that my current piece wanted some needle lace in one of its open areas. To that end, I backstitched a rectangle to be the framework, and then worked several rows of simple corded buttonhole. Halfway through the patch, I said, "Hmmm...it wants some holes," so I made a few over the next couple of rows and then finished off with corded buttonhole again. Why? Because I could. And that's what slow-stitching is all about. Having fulfilled my zen moment, now I will resume the rigid discipline of quilting until I have completed the obligatory ten "petals" for the day.

Memory Wreath - A Plan

Day 32: Back in the days of my innocent youth, I decided I wanted to start quilting. I browsed through all my books (I had quite a library of needlework references even then), and I came across "Memory Wreath" (aka "Crown of Thorns") in the "Woman's Day Book of American Needlework." I had no idea what I was getting into or what problems I might encounter along the way, so I just dived in. In the end, my "meets" may not have been as perfect as I would have liked, and some of the blocks required a substantial bit of easing to get the seams to line up, but the quilt was beautiful nevertheless. I made at least two more on the same pattern over the years, each one coming together a little more accurately than the earlier versions. Since then, my skills have improved even more, and I kept thinking, "I'd really like to make one more 'Memory Wreath' before I leave this world." And then I discovered English paper piecing, and a whole new vista opened up. Now I have a Plan. While I don't intend to make it "scrappy" like most of my quilts, I have a lot of fabrics to choose from. I want to theme each block in a different colour combination. The pieces shown in black here will be solids of the basic colour of each block, as will the center square (at least I think that's what I want to do, because it gets some solids out of my stash). Prints will be used for everything else, repeating as shown in the illustration. I will probably only make twelve blocks (lap size).

The List Keeps Growing

Day 31: To date, I have contributed 240 photos to the Burke Herbarium (WTU) database, covering 133 taxa. The most recent addition was Cyathus striatus, also posted here on the 10th. The list keeps growing! And so I can keep a handy record, I decided to slow-stitch the name of each species onto a piece of cloth I dyed lightly with tea and lobster mushrooms. The embroidered list will be wound on a wooden sewing spool if there's room. Where pieces of fabric have to be joined, I've used lazy-daisy flowers and leaves to cover the seam. I add at least one species each day, sometimes two (to make up for the days I occasionally miss). That's about all my eyes can take when working on cloth with a thread count of 40/inch. Right now, I'm working my way through the vascular plants. Then I'll dip into fungi and lichens. I suspect my four-inch hoop isn't wide enough to add "Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae" all in one go.

Helvella Lacunosa

Day 30: The Latin word "lacuna" can be translated as "pond," "gap," "hole" or any number of synonyms implying an empty space. It gives us the English word "lagoon," and in literature, it refers to a missing portion (intentional or accidental) in a manuscript or poem. In the case of Helvella lacunosa, the modifier refers to the physical structure of the mushroom. As in poetry, these lacunae lend to the overall beauty and, at least in my opinion, this Helvella is one of the prettiest in the genus. We found half a dozen or more during the Nisqually Land Trust's mushroom walk near Yelm, nearly hidden by a fall of autumn leaves. Sometimes called "false Morels," the group known as "Elfin Saddles" are not considered edible. A few fruit in the spring, but most are cool-weather species and erupt after the first few chilly nights of autumn.

Cyathus Striatus, Streaked Bird's-Nest

Day 29: Bird's-nest fungi fascinate me, and this discovery gave me the opportunity to add a new species to my growing list of photo submissions to the WTU Herbarium. It is Cyathus striatus, variously known as Streaked Bird's-nest, Fluted Bird's-nest, Ribbed Splash Cup and a host of other common names. It is relatively easy to identify (at least here in the Pacific Northwest) by the combination of two distinctive features: the striations in the interior of the cup and the fluted "nest." It is somewhat shaggy (tomentose) on the exterior when fresh and not waterlogged, and young specimens may exhibit a pale "lid" on the cup. Once the lid opens, the peridioles are revealed. These lentil-shaped "eggs" hold the spores, and in this species, they are attached to the "nest" by a fine cord. This prevents the peridioles from being washed any distance from the parent, so the "nests" are frequently found in groupings such as this.

Trichia Decipiens

Day 28: "From across a crowded room, she heard someone speak her name..." Well, not exactly. I was at the back of the line (the mushroom walk had about 20 attendees), thoroughly engrossed in explaining how to identify Usneas as a genus to one of the other participants, and the words "slime mold" caught my attention. Funny how the ear can pick out significant sounds among the noise. Immediately, I wove myself tabby-style through the group, passing one person on the left, the next on the right until I was at the head of the line where I saw someone holding a palm-sized piece of bark studded with tiny orange pins. It had been too long since my last slime mold hunt for me to recall the name on the spot, but it was one I'd seen before. Checking my blog at home quickly brought up Trichia decipiens, sometimes called "salmon eggs" for the colour (NB: the scientific name is under revision and may now be Hemitrichia). These cute little buggers are 2-3mm tall, and occur on both conifer and hardwood bark. Although we'd been out to learn more about mushrooms, a slime mold made my day.

Xeromphalina Sp.

Day 27: I've just come home from spending a very interesting afternoon on a "mushroom walk" sponsored by the Nisqually Land Trust with Prof. E. C. Cline from UW Tacoma. We found a lot of LBMs ("little brown mushrooms"), identified as such by E. C. Yep, you got that right. Professor Cline did her best to put them in the right genus, but she also said "I don't know" almost as often as I do. Even so, the walk was very educational, and now I know that Xeromphalinas are fairly easy to place in the correct genus because of their very thin and very stiff stipe. That stem is almost as rigid as a twig (branch) of the same diameter! A few other specimens will appear in my posts over the next few days, and will include a delightful slime mold which for me was the highlight of the day.