A floral firework show!

These are Missouri Primroses. They bloom in about a half a minute. This is not trick photography. And they are really amazing to watch.

It is definately a show I'll never get tired of watching

On finding sea glass

Finding sea glass is a great hobby. When I'm out beach combing, I notice that I now look for glass more than I do for shells.
There is a good article on sea glass at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_glass

I put some of my recent finds on my glass table top so the color comes through more.
Sea glass is formed when pieces of broken glass is tumbled and polished by the waves and sand.
The pieces that aren't completely finished look like broken beer bottles. The nicely polished pieces look like gems.

Brown and clear are the most common colors now-a-days. Clear glass turns into frosted white. Some colors such as amber, lavender and blue are rare. Red is one of the rarest.

You can wire-wrap them to make beautiful pendants. I haven't tried this craft yet, but my sister has made some. It's also hard to find pieces large enough for jewelery. I keep my smaller pieces in a clear glass bottle.
I haven't been able to find glass in Florida. I have heard that Caribbean beaches are a great place to look. My hunting grounds are the Lake Erie beaches. I am by no means a sea glass expert. But I have come up with a few pointers.
It seems like some Lake Erie beaches are better for some items than others. So if you don't find glass at one beach, try another. At one beach near Catawba Island, Ohio, we found loads of little spiral shells. We've had lots of luck finding fossil coral at Marblehead, Ohio. The beaches at Huron, Ohio are the places we go for glass.
There is no perfect time to look for glass. We have found as much glass in the evenings as we have in the mornings. But a great time is to hunt the morning after a storm.
I don't look right in the water. The dry area right next to the water is a good spot. You want to stand where the sun will reflect off the glass. It's amazing how much shiny brown pebbles look like glass.
And look through small piles of pebbles. Glass will be with pieces of stuff that's similar in size. Be through, I have found up to four pieces in a row in a pebble pile. If you have already covered an area, go back and check again after a while. Some other goodie might have washed up. If there is a large rock or log on the beach, glass might have washed up next to them.
And always look twice. I almost walked past my large piece of green glass.
I thought it was a leaf.
Most importantly, relax and have fun

Letterboxing on June 25, 2009

Long arm quilter

I finally learned how to use a long arm quilting machine. This machine belongs to the Humble Hands group at my church. It was donated by a group member.
We quilt, crochet, knit, and sew items for people who need them.
One of our projects is knitting shawls for cancer patients.
We also make costumes for our church's Christmas and Easter programs

Fisherman's Throw

This is a quilt I finally finished today. The fabric was donated to Humble Hands, my sewing group at church. I was going to cut it apart to make squares, but I thought it was too cute. So I went with panels instead.
I quilted it on the long arm quilting machine. I tried to make the quilting to look like fly fishing line