Green Memories for Think Green Thursday

Those of us living in the frigid, white-covered landscapes. we remember green grass, right? Luckily for me I have a few patches of green on my lawn right now that I can lovingly gaze at each day until that awful white stuff starts falling again..

But I have other memories of green hanging over the window of my front door. Several years ago in the early 80's I made a wall hanging , creating leaf templates by running outside in my yard and picking actual leaves from trees and flowers in my yard. then appliqueing the fabric designs I had traced and cut, onto a beige broadcloth background and then embroidering the veins in the leaves and outlining them with coloured embroidery thread. When piecing it all together I used background foliage andfloral designed fabrics which I had purchased at a Salvation Army Thrift store in Toronto in the form of old draperies and/or curtains
. I can date this creation as I created it after we returned home to NB after living in Toronto during the school year of 1980-81

My husband was a teacher (turned student, being on sabbatical leave, for a year). This was a restricted income year for us and our family of three elementary school aged children. We found some great places to shop that year and recycled all of the bottles we could for cash. The word 'memories' is misleading me as I am wandering from my memory filled wall hanging. I can look at the block of oak leaves and remember they were from an oak tree we had planted for our youngest son. The mountain ash leaf is my favorite block and it brings back memories of the many birds that used to feed on its berries in the fall. Each fall large flocks of black and yellow Evening Grosbeaks used to come and stay for a few days until the tree was stripped of all of its berries. Bohemian Waxwings loved these berries of the Mountain Ash too as Robins did also. The maple leaves remind me of the tall, fast growing maple that we had planted at the top of the driveway, and the heart-shaped leaves of the purple violet reminds me of my love of finding this beautiful wild flower in our yard each year in late spring. The large purple leaf is poplar shaped although it looks too big to be one, but we had many of those trees growing on the slight hillside behind our house. I think the smaller yellow leaves might be from our very beautiful flowering crab apple tree that adored our yard in a decorative glorious pink each June when it would blossom. And of course it also attracted its own share of avian feeders. How I wish I had had a digital camera in those days. But all the more reason to enjoy my wall hanging and to savor the green memories that it holds for me and my family. One feature of the wall hanging I have noticed recently, although it was not planned is that the foliage of green leaves of the material I used for backing show through the broadcloth of each block giving the entire project a 'green' theme.

To learn more about Think Green Thursday please click on the green Thursday icon on the right side of thi gage. Thanks to
Michelle of Rambling Woods for hosting this meme. A happy Thursday to all.