On Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:45:01 +0100, Kate XXXXXX
wrote:

NightMist wrote:
and loaded down with blue. Mama now has a bottle
tree in the yard, and I am making a blue star quilt for the youngster.
Betwixt the good wishing and the working to keep the bad off, this
girl can't help but get better!

Now I may not agree with all that stuff (I ain't saying either way!
), but it sounds like fun! And all that positive energy cannot help but
improve things!

Could you tell me about the bottle tree? That sounds intriguing...

Sure.

Bad spirits and suchlike are facinated by shiny things, compelled (as
in obsessive compulsive disorder) to follow mazes or figure out
patterns, and count things. So circles and spheres can keep them
going nigh unto forever.

A bottle tree is aught but a tree or shrub that has bottles thrust
into and about the branches. Some people go to the trouble of hanging
them like christmas tree ornaments, some don't.
A bottle tree will catch bad spirits out in your yard before they get
anywhere near your house. They will follow the circle and get caught
in the bottle.
The color blue is magic against all things evil. That is why some
folk paint their doors blue and suchlike. I myself have a blue glass
fisher float in my window and wear an ancient turquoise bead around my
neck. So blue bottles are favored. Milk of Magnesia used to come in
cobalt blue glass bottles, and those were a favorite for bottle trees
for years. Now days I have known people to fill clear bottles with
water colored with indigo (indigo has magic all its own) to get blue
spirit catching bottles, though the color doesn't come well unless you
fuss(1). One of my aunts filled a bunch of fancy Avon bottles with
colored water of all kinds and tucked them about in a shrub. That was
a bottle tree that caught people as well as any badness floatng about!
(G)

And finally, yes pieced quilts are a magic of that order. Particularly
endless patterns, patterns with circles or spirals, scrappy, and crazy
quilts.

NightMist
(1) natural indigo prepped for dye needs to be exposed to oxygen
before you get a good blue out of it. So you get a rather weak blue,
sometimes even green, while it is still fluid.
--
I'm a little teapot, short and stout
here is my handle, here is my...other...handle?
Bloody Hell!!
I'm a sugar bowl!