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....)

Summer Is Heating Up!

Whew!  It's 101 degrees today in Cloverdale, CA.... and we're expecting hotter weather over the next few days.  I ran my errands this morning, so I have plenty of drinks, munchies, fruits and salad fixin's for the weekend ahead.  And I'm planning to camp out under the ceiling fan and stitch and/or read most all weekend.  Sounds good, huh?

Here's one of the "work" projects I'm planning to (hopefully) finish:

One of the very first patterns I created over 20 years ago is a classic called LONE STAR.  But the black and white graphs are awkward by my standards today, so I thought it would be fun to revamp the pattern, and recreate the graph in color... and as long as I was doing that, I'd tinker with the original design and jazz it up a bit.  I'm using the same Watercolours 018 - "Peacock" that I originally used, since the blues and browns still look well with this quilt design.  I'm thinking to call this new, revised pattern "NEW LONE STAR."

I have to say, it's been really fun to go back and just do simple straight stitches and diagonal stitches... a real no-brainer project that is just the thing for watching tv in the evenings when you don't want to think about what you are doing -- know what I mean?!?

For a more summery project, I'm going to be working on a "fun" project as well; it's a Sandra Gilmore "HYDRANGEA" canvas I purchased many years ago at a local ANG's auction. 

It's one of those painted canvases I've been staring at on and off over the past few years, and I finally decided to start to work on it this summer.  I'm planning to do more tent stitching of the flowers and watering can; then maybe satin stitch the leaf sections.  Nothing too difficult, so I can stay calm and cool when the outside temperature rises!

Have you got your projects planned for the coming weekend?  Is it going to be a scorcher in your neck of the woods, too?  Well, stay cool and stay stitching!   HAPPY FRIDAY!

Need Magnets??

Do you remember a while ago I posted a picture of what I was stitching with a "bottle cap" magnet next to it?  Here's what I'm talking about:

Well, yesterday I got an email from a very nice Emilie at LittleEMbellishments on ETSY.  She was letting me know that she's created a special set of magnets for stitchers that says "KEEP CALM AND STITCH ON". 

When I ordered from her last time I explained to her how stitchers use their magnets -- not on the refrigerator, but to hold their needles on the canvas -- and she was kind enough to create some just for us!  Here's what the new magnets look like:

Aren't they great?  There are two different color sets.  You get a set of four magnets for $6.00, and she's also offering a set of backing magnets as well (5 for $1).  Is that a great deal or what!?!  And they are flat on top, so the needle rests securely on the magnet.  And while you're visiting her site, check out all her other cute magnets, like these:

Sooooo, if you happen to be the kind of stitcher that likes having a matching magnet for each/all of your stitching projects, ya gotta go visit Emilie's store to see her fun items!

A New Pattern for Summer

In my typical Gemini fashion, I've been fluttering between several new projects, flitting from stitching to graphing to sketching, but this one was the first one to actually get finished -- and just in time for the long sunny days of summer....  It's called BARGELLO AND BUTTERFLY, for obvious reasons:

I've used the same basic size and format as my previous BARGELLO AND VIOLETS, shown below:

 

which I enjoyed stitching so much, I got to wondering what other sorts of four-way bargello designs I could come up with.

BARGELLO AND BUTTERFLY is a larger piece - 10.5" by 10.5" on the Santa Fe Sage Green 18 ct. canvas.  I chose the sage green canvas because that cool green color is my favorite and I thought all the colors would pop against it  - and they do!  But if you want, you can certainly use the pale blue, grey, or eggshell canvas too.  I think the blue or grey canvas would give a much cooler feel to the piece, while the warmer eggshell canvas would be brighter and "sunnier" if you wanted that look instead.

I've altered the bargello pattern just a bit to create a different sized opening in the center.  And this time, I've place a big, shimmery blue butterfly in the center (and it was rather fun to tent stitch with #5 pearl cottons and a shimmery blue metallic, although you can always substitute DMC floss colors if you don't like tent stitching with pearl cottons.)  Here's the butterfly up-close:

And I wanted to create a different type of outer border for this piece, so I've laid blue metallic Ribbon Floss "in the ditches" and stitched over it with a "fan" or eyelet variation, which gives the border a more lacy, airy look (not to mention providing a neat place to add a few gold beads - grin) ...

And, although you can't see it very well in the photos, the background filling stitch is a plain four-way "lattice" stitch that has itty bitty upright crosses on top of the intersections.  For something different, I also mixed the background colors a bit; using blue metallic #4 braid on the north and south sections (see the blue arrows) and then a teal #4 braid in the east and west sections (where the green arrows are pointing).  Just a subtle color change that adds a bit more mystery and interest to the design.  (You can see the two different colors behind the butterfly as well, if you look closely in the previous photo...)

So if you're thoughts are turning to butterflies and bargello this summer, please visit my website to read more about this new BARGELLO AND BUTTERFLY design.

And of course.... HAPPY FRIDAY!!