CQ Inspirations

This post is the first in a monthly series to inspire those of us in the Crazy Quilt group involved in any of the CQ projects.  The format of these posts will be monthly and will have ideas and links to information about the month they are written for. 

The first month for us is June.  June is an end and beginning month.  The end of Spring and the beginning of Summer.  Some things I associate with June are:

Weddings

The end of the school year for summer break

Vacation plans

Outdoor activities

Trips to the lake or the beach

Gardens

Evaluating our summer wardrobe

Lightening bugs

June bugs

Lady bugs

These are just to name a few. 

The flower of June is the Rose.  There are many websites that discuss the meanings of flowers.  Here are just four of the many links I found in a quick web search. 

http://livingartsoriginals.com/infoflowersymbolism.htm#rose

http://www.perfect-wedding-day.com/birth-flower-meanings-bridal-flowers.html

http://www.flowers-magzine.com/flowers_and_birth

http://www.handmade-adelaide-baby.com/birth-month-flowers.html

Many cultures have attributed symbolism to flowers.  I would suppose that the most well know would be the rose.  Everyone knows that red roses are given to ladies when true love is intended.  Other color roses have meanings, too.  For example, Pink roses mean happiness, Yellow roses are for friendship and White roses symbolize purity.  The Victorians had a whole language of flowers that is quite interesting.  Wikipedia has a Language of Flowers article that goes into much more detail.

The birthstones for June are Agate or more modernly, Pearl or Moonstone.  It's probably safe to assume that everyone knows what their birthstone is.  In a search for birthstones by month, I was surprised to find that it depends who you ask, lol.  There are tons of websites, many of them jewelers, that have a list or table on birthstones and that over the ages there have been changes.  One in particular, Bernardine.com, had 12 different stones listed for June!   I suppose that's great if you are a crazy quilter, right?  Anyway, it seems to me that the subject of birth month stones is open for interpretation.  Using birth stone colors is a great way to start selecting your fabrics for a June themed block. 

There are even birth month birds, which is something I never knew.  According to one website, Eagles are the birds assigned to those born in June. 

The trees of June are Hornbeam, Fig, Birch and Apple.  Apple tree blossoms are pretty.  My best friend had an apple tree orchard in her back yard.  We used to climb one particular apple tree and sit and read books in the summer.  My oh my, I haven't thought about that in a long time.  We were just girls then.  Life was still simple and good. 

See, that's the stuff that CQs are all about...those sweet memories...One picture brings a whiff of those days.  What a lovely thing.  No wonder the Victorians loved to make Crazy Quilts.

With all this in mind, here are a few links to pictures to inspire your June CQ:

Roses

Apple Blossoms

June Bugs

Fire Flies

Weddings

These are just links from simple word searches for images, so pardon anything inappropriate :)

A great resource for embroidery motiffs is coloring books.  I found this Squido link to coloring pages.  It's alphabetical, so just scroll down the list to roses and there are some nice ones in there.  Most are simple and easy to translate to stitches.

So, do you have a favorite memory from one of your Junes?  Have any birthdays or anniversaries?  What comes to your mind when you think about June?