My name is Charlotte, sometimes known as Ms Lottie, occasionally as The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady. This is my blog, where you'll find me writing a lot about my quilting and textile arts and a little about my family's life in a small seaside town in New Zealand. Haere mai!
Showing posts with label kowhai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kowhai. Show all posts

Friday, September 5, 2014

Kowhai Flowers


There's a Kowhai tree down the road that I keep my eye on.  When it flowers I know Spring is on it's way.  Kowhai (pronounced caw-fi, hear it here) is also the Maori word for yellow.  After the tree flowers, it develops woody pods with distinct circular divisions, each containing a hard seed that is also yellow.


The Kowhai is special to me.  We chose to give our daughter Kowhai as one of her names.  I love the yellow colour of the flowers, especially when they are against the bright blue of a sunny sky.


Yet yellow is the smallest pile of fabrics in my stash.  I like butter, daffodils, sunshine and buttercups.  Lemons, grapefruit, and fluffy yellow chicks.  And now I'm seeing a spring theme to all the things I'm writing down.  I think I'm hanging out for some warmer weather and sunshine, but until that happens maybe I can lift my spirits by petting some yellow fabrics instead.