Friday Flowers

What flowers have you got growing in your garden this summer?  It's hard for me to get excited about planting flowers when the temperatures get into the 100s and the dirt is hard and dry as cement, but when it cools down a bit, I start craving new flowers to perk up the tired old flowerbeds.

This week I bought a few giant zinnas to add to my patio pots.  And a few petunias as well.  I needed something that LIKES the heat, right?

I got some purple and yellow petunias as well, and not until I got home did I read that these are considered LIME petunias.  Who knew there was such a thing?!? (I sure didn't, but I really like 'em...)

I also went looking for Portulaca, one of my favorite hot summer flowers, to replace the pansies I planted last fall that finally withered away in our scotching hotspell.  Portulaca has such bright happy colors, and with their succulent leaves seem to have a much better time surviving the hot weather once they get established:

And then I found THIS one -- a speckley, stripey geranium and well, I just couldn't resist getting it too:

Soooo.... guess what I'll be doing this weekend?

Happy Friday, Fellow Stitchers and I hope you enjoy your summertime weekend!

Ahhh, Summer Days!

This past week has been the most perfect summer weather.  Cool, grey mornings with the layers of fog reaching down and kissing the lush green vineyards on the valley floor; then when the fog burns off, warm, sunny afternoons with just enough of a breeze to move the air and keep it pleasant.

The weather these days brings to mind a happy blue and yellow quilt design I did a few years ago. I was pulling out this pattern today to send to A Stitch Above, in Cincinnati, Ohio and it got me thinking about how it was created.  A shop owner asked me if I would please design something that would use up the last 12"  strip of canvas that always seem to get left over when the larger canvases are cut.  Since I was getting tired of the normal square layout, I was happy to make a rectangular quilt that would be terrific as a longish pillow (or hey, just stitch four of the center stars and you could square it up!)....Here it is, and it's called SUMMER DAYS:

It uses Caron Watercolours 214, "St. Tropez" with denim blues and primrose yellows, and just a touch of sea glass green.  Isn't it a beachy feeling colorway?  I particularly like the wavy yellow row that looks "puffy" but is just stitched with one of my favorite threads - YLI Ribbon Floss. There's a bit of Ribbon Floss in sea green too.  The sheen of the rayon thread is a fun way to add just a touch of shimmer to the remaining pearl cotton colors.

I'm thinking this is real fun, fun, fun in the sun....
Hope you are enjoying these long days of summer and putting the extra daylight to good use by getting in some extra reading, gardening, hiking, dozing and of course -- stitching!

This Month's Trunk Show

Just a brief note, Stitchers:
If you're anywhere near Grand Blanc, Michigan this month, please stop into HOMESTEAD NEEDLE ARTS (www.homesteadneedlearts.com or 810-694-3040) and say "Hello" to owner Theresa Sziecicki.  I've sent a Trunk Show to her shop for the month of July and I packed up lots of fun models and as many different patterns as I could fit in the box....

Now's the time to stock up on patterns and threads for your stash.  Summer is flying by, and autumn will be arriving sooner than you think.  (I've already seen lots of acorns on the oak trees out here, so I'm wondering if fall will be early and winter a long wet one..... Time will tell!)

So enjoy this nice summer weather and of course, KEEP STITCHING!!

CELEBRATE!

Have a Grand and Glorious,

Sizzling and Safe,

Restful and Relaxing,

Happy and Heartfelt

INDEPENDENCE DAY, Everyone!

(Hope you get some stitching done, too....)