I've been harvesting some new materials.

Today is April 29th, Sunday.  WOW!  Where is the time going.

Anyway, I was sitting by the pool with some friend's the other day and (same friend's where I got the cool Oak center's for my basket) once again her hubby was busy putzing around in the yard.  This time he accidentally cut the wrong limb from a Queen Palm.  He meant to cut a dead ugly one, but instead got a beautiful live green one.  So I immediately sprang into action and took off the frond leaves.  They were a VIBRANT green, but then got a softer milkier look to them.  They have only dried for about a week, but here is one of the two bundles.

Here is a shot of one of these tree's.

Also, in my daily walks with my dogs I did indeed find a new growth Palmetto spear.  They come right up out of the center of the Palmetto bush and before they fan into a frond they look like a spear.  I got two small ones, love the whiteness of the new growth.  They will turn a lovely buff color with age.  I also got one about 3 ft. tall.  They kind of accordion out when you want to use them and I then split them into the size for what I need at the time.

Here is the tree.

Here is a pic of one of the smaller spears parts.  They dry out very quickly, alot quicker than I would have thought.  These are often used instead of thread by the Gullah ladies who do sweetgrass baskets in Charleston.  Much longer ones of course.

So far I am only adding in these things to my Pine needle baskets for color variations.  In this case I am not looking to make solid stripes but very much like the look of the colors swirling around which ever way they want to.

Yesterday I worked on this basket until my shoulder was really bothering me, so it is bigger than you actually see here.  In reality I have 5 founds of the added in colors of green and white along with the brown Pine.

And I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this type of Oak for the center.  It has a much different center than any of my other Oak.

Keep watching, I am also trying out Needle Tatting.