Ferns in the forest

A fern frond made from fabric, 22" long

A search for royalty free images of ferns yields a huge variety of examples to choose from, such as the frond worked in fabric pictured above.

In the warm, humid south we find ferns everywhere, as prolific as weeds.

My backyard has a crook and hanging bird feeder holder and each summer a fern/vine climbs and trains itself around the metal. I cut off an end, sandwiched it between two pieces of clear Contact paper, and scanned it at 300 dpi.

After opening the scanned image in Paint, I set the printer to 400% of the original. Below you see the result. The enlargement is clear and distinct - providing all I need in the way of detail.

The 'live' fern is the tiny one, the larger image the print.

The Golden Flute

"The Golden Flute" is a story quilt: it tells a story not yet told. A riddle, perhaps...but sometimes life is a riddle. Stories can be entities that demand to be told. From where else come our dreams? They grip the mind of the teller and shake them up until the story comes out.

I began this quilt with little idea of how it would come about. I knew I wanted a curved border, that the colors purple and pink would figure prominently, along with lady bugs. In the quilt world where squares and triangles are called "churn dash" that could mean almost anything.

Where do lady bugs live? On leaves and flowers, in sun and shade with their friends the butterfly and dragonfly - and fairies if we are lucky.