Flowering Blossoms

Spring has arrived in the wine country of Northern California. You can tell because everything is starting to bloom like crazy. The small peach trees that last year didn't put on much of a show, are going to town this year.

And I'm getting quite a rush of orders this week....especially in my kimonos. I just filled another order for a woman in Colorado who is stocking up on my kimono patterns so she has her stash ready to go for her annual RV road trip. Lucky lady!

Here's one of the kimonos she ordered, my APPLE BLOSSOM KIMONO:

It's another favorite of mine, because the colors are so delicate and they mimic the softness of tender flower blossoms. For this design, I used Caron Waterlilies (silk) in 88 - Mountain Meadow with several pale pink silks, and a soft pink metallic - Hi-lights H609. I love to use the soft rayon Hi-lights for the kimono lapels because the colors are very soft, and look very much like silk fabric.

This design, like all my other kimonos, was done on 24 ct. Congress Cloth, which is a very fine type of needlepoint canvas.

Here's a close-up of the individual kimono patterns. You can see that the kimono body is made with a small box grid, and inside are "flowers" made of an upright cross, covered with a regular cross stitch. Then the larger box grid on the sleeves echoes the body pattern - only the flowers are larger and made with lazy daisy stitches, topped with various accent threads, to create a little sparkle. This larger pattern is repeated at the bottom of the kimono, to tie the patterns together, and also, to create a little more interest in the whole design. And we can't forget to add a few beads, to create even more texture and dimension! And the flower branches are created with random straight stitches, with small lazy daisy flowers and leaves sprinkled on top.

As I look at this design, I begin to wonder what it would look like in pale plum or orchid colors.... Sounds like a good idea for another kimono: the PLUM BLOSSOM KIMONO...or maybe the ORCHID KIMONO....hmmmmmmm....