Got Spring Fever?

These past few weeks I've been kept busy printing lots of patterns. Sometimes the orders come in waves with certain designs (usually the newest ones) being the current favorites.  And sometimes the weather gets stitchers in the mood to start new projects and also revisit older designs.  Case in point: I've had a flurry of requests recently for an old floral collage favorite, my BEARDED IRIS COLLAGE... (and I'm guessing there are quite a few stitchers out there with real bad cases of Spring Fever, ahem!):

Actually, I have this piece hanging up in my house right now, because every time I look at it, it makes me smile.  And it's also a gentle reminder that I have my own irises to look forward to in my garden.  A gardening friend gave me some extra irises to plant in my garden last fall, so I can't wait to see if they bloom later this spring.  They're looking very healthy and strong right now, but I have no idea what color they will be... but a very nice surprise for later this spring, I think...

So for now, I'm enjoying this piece in my house, with the warm, soft pastel colors of the Watercolours thread I used here (which is named, ironically, "Harvest").  The soft apricot colors are a yummy match for the dark greens in the borders.  And I've always thought it would look equally "iris-y" to use the same "Harvest" Watercolours, but select a family of soft purples instead of the apricots, and then stitch a purple iris in the center. Wouldn't that be a wonderful springtime project?

Here's an up-close look at the variegated threads....

See that pale purple color in the variegated thread used in the upper left box?  Can you just picture a soft purple iris stitched in those colors? (Maybe that periwinkle family of DMC 333, 341, 340?)  Sigh... I wish I had time to go back and re-stitch this in those purple colors just to see what it would look like, but I have to let it reside in my imagination, while I go on to stitch on a fresh batch of new designs....

But for those of you who are starting to get a bit of spring fever right now, maybe you'd like to stitch up a BEARDED IRIS COLLAGE for YOUR fantasy garden, as a gentle reminder that Spring is indeed just around the corner...

Happy Stitching this weekend!