Walnuts

Every summer for many years, I've collected a supply of black walnuts for dyeing  from a huge tree in the neighborhood.

The fruits of this tree usually ripen and fall to the ground around middle of August. This year each time I visited the tree I found barely any walnuts. The ones I did see were tiny. They gave very little color. I resigned myself to waiting another year for the beautiful browns and creams of walnut hull dye.

 Imagine my delight when our son presented me with a few dozen lovely, normal sized  ripe walnuts! He found a tree growing near his home and thought  of me, After jumping  for joy, I asked  him to bring at least 200 more...:)

Walnut dye and silk organza

Silk thread

Eyelet cotton

Meanwhile,our daughter, aware of my longing for walnuts, found a woman in her neighborhood with an enormous walnut tree. The tree dropped thousands of unwanted fruits all over her backyard and she was thrilled to share.

 This is one of 6 huge bags of walnuts from the generous neighbors' tree. I forgot to take a picture of the entire haul before I dragged the other bags onto the back porch. The fruits are not dry, and many are oozing dye. I don't know how I'll be able to store these. It's really too much, even for me!