I Love Pinks

One of my most favorite flowers is Dianthus - or "Pinks" - or miniature carnations - or "Gilly flowers"....whatever you want to call them, I just love 'em.



When I was a little girl, my grandmother lived next door to a lady who planted her whole walkway with a lush carpet of old fashioned pinks in all colors, giving off a heady scent of spicy cloves. I've never forgotten that flower bed, and always vowed to make my own one day. Well, I haven't done it yet - but someday I will!

Until then I just plant a few varieties every year. In pots or in borders; wherever I can find a place for them.



And of course I have tried stitching a few as well. Here's my DIANTHUS BOUQUET, that I stitched many years ago on 24. ct Congress Cloth (and yes, that's where I took my blog header close-up from). It was truly a labor of love (and I have to admit, extremely tedious), stitching all those small flowers, with each petal painted in different colors plus changing stitch directions to try and capture the delicacy of each unique dianthus flower:



And here's one of my earliest cross-stitched samplers called OLD FASHIONED PINKS, that I have hanging in my office. It's a large piece (apprx. 13" by 18" on 32 ct linen) and it's still one of my most favorite stitched pieces:



So I hope this inspires you to add a little bit of spicy PINK into your week.
Happy Stitching, Everyone! (and oh yeah, don't forget to stop and smell those flowers, too....)