There's Magic Down The Garden Path♡

 

Hello lovely lovelies♡ Sunday has found its way back to my little place again and here I am chatting once more about not a lot really; excepting of course..........flowers, meanderings in the garden......and a little stitching.

Thank you, lovely lovelies, for visiting my place last week and gifting me with your beautiful comments♡ My little stitched garden has progressed a little. All the wildflowers are now stitched and what seems a gazillion and one little stem stitch leaves. Goodness, the itty bitty leaves took an age. Hours and hours to be precise. =) A garden gate has now been 'built' and an arbour laden with a  climbing rose has now been embroidered. The gate is a snippet of lace from my 'dowry of cloth', to which I applied Mod Podge making it less flimsy. For the arbour I wrapped embroidery cotton around wire and stitched it on. I wound plaited embroidery thread around the arbour for the stems; stitching lazy daisy leaves and french knots for roses here, there, everywhere. I woke up very early this morning, hiding in my happy sewing room before dawn broke, to stitch the last couple of hundred laisy daisy leaves in the wildflower garden. =) I also stitched another blue applique flower from a placemat to the top left hand corner to add a more balanced aesthetic.

Last week Karen said in her lovely comment "I think I could actually imagine stepping right into that magical scene". I thought about these words as I continued to embroider this pretty through the week. It is a magical little scene, which I can in my mind's eye picture each one of you lovely lovelies and I, sitting in the cute little embroidered house, looking out the window to the garden beyond, relaxing with a cup of tea....in a pretty tea cup of course....enjoying a natter and many giggles. I can see you and I, wandering around the wildflowers drinking in the potpourri of fragrances as we go, with our feet leading us to the garden gate, where the rambling, climbing roses touch our cheek as we walk under the arbour, sprinkling glorious scents round about us. We would then stroll along down the garden path, stopping here and there to joy in the beauty of the flowers. It might take a while though, as there are many flowers sashaying for our attention, so we would have to return to the cute little cottage, put the kettle on.....again.....and of course chat some more. Wouldn't that be the best fun?? There are many of you who I just know would be kindred spirits♡

Indeed, there is a touch of magic here in my garden which is growing and thriving through these summer days.  A magical garden where hydrangeas, sweet peas, roses, dahlias, cosmos, impatiens, snap dragons, gladdies, anemones........all sprinkling magic dust as the breeze drifts by. Indeed, to walk through the numerous garden arches and strolling down any one of the paths does give one a sense of magic to behold around each little bend. Meandering along a garden path always brings me a sense of calm, peace and tranquility......and wonder♡

I had fun embroidering Down The Garden Path wall hanging this week. Though it perhaps doesn't look like it the arbour and all the embroidery took quite a while. The next prompt is being announced this week, which I am looking forward to. I want to start adding details to the top of my path but am still deliberating how I will do this. Hopefully, the next prompt will cause my imaginings to spill out and, as if by magic, find their way onto my pretty. I'm off to visit with all the other slow stitching lovelies over at Kathy's place♡ 'Tis always a joy to chat with you♡ Hoping all is well with you♡ Hopefully, I have sprinkled a little love and beauty into your day♡

Until the next time................

Down The Garden Path♡

 

Hello lovely ladies♡ Welcome to my little place♡ I find myself here again on a Sunday afternoon, sitting at my happy place thinking upon the week that has scurried along at breakneck speed. How has your week been??   Were you able to savor moments of beauty in the ordinary of your day?? I did. My week, was filled with flowers, walks down the garden path, a little stitching,  birthday celebrations (mine)....and lots of moments for which to be to be thankful. 

Last week at Kathy's place, there was mention by one of the ladies that there was a  slow stitching caper taking place by Rachel of Roxy's Journal of Stitchery; and ladies all around the world were joining in the fun. The name of this stitching initiative is Down The Garden Path. Of course, my interest was piqued and I decided to stroll along the garden path; sometimes skipping,  and join in the fun. After all, I walk along many a garden path every day of my life. =)

For inspiration I plucked out some of my books on all things embroidery, flowers, garden paths etc etc, but really I only need to walk in the garden, sit a while, drink in the flowers and listen to the birdsong, to have inspiration soak into the depths of me. So, so much enthusiasm and inspiring visuals to be had for this pretty from the garden that whispers to me every day. 

The concept for Down The Garden Path is to create an unfolding snippet roll to be sewn onto a vintage spool when all is finished. I do have a few vintage spools and I did intend to use one, but of course I deviated from my first thoughts of using one of my vintage wooden pretties. Rachel did say that if one wanted to fashion a wall hanging, a quilt....or whatever, that is fine. I decided upon a wall hanging because it is going to be wider than the spools in my collection. Actually, I have deviated from the concept of using a plethora of snippets of lace, bits and bobs etc etc. Oh dear, but when one's imagination begins to run away, careering off the narrow garden path, what can a gal do??!!  I will include some snippets of doilies, fabric and other pretties.....just not a lot.

There have been two prompts. The first one is wildflowers, and the second one a door or a gate. I joined the party late and am still working on my wildflowers. I might say at this juncture that I have added a cute little house and embroidered an ancient, gnarly tree overladen with a canopy of leaves, as I do have a semblance of a picture in my muddly mind as to what I want my wall hanging to look like. Now, there may be a prompt later on for a house and perhaps a tree; and if there  is, well......fabulous......mine's done, nestled among the wildflowers.  But if there's not, for what I'm imagining my wall hanging to be, there has to, has to be a cute little cottage resting under the shade of a centuries old tree. Of course, there might be prompts which don't sit well in my pretty. I might want to leave them out...that's perfectly fine, too.

The fabrics I chose for the background of the embroidered wildflowers' prompt, is one in my stash. It is a digital print which is perfect for what I have in mind. Strangely enough it is called Wild Meadow. An intoxicating, delicious, digital print by the artist Chong A. Hwang, exploding with gorgeous flowers and vibrant colours. I used a piece where there are smudges of pansies, foxgloves, daisies, zinnias, lupins irises.....leaves.......all reaching to the distant horizon where clouds drift by in a blue, blue sky.  I love it! Truly, this fabric is a right royal, floral extravanganza!  It brings to mind a wild meadow of happy, dancing flowers. I embroidered flowers amongst the mix. Nothing detailed just impressionist flowers. I will mention at this juncture that as I go along, stitching as I go, collecting fabric to be stitched, all of this is stitched to a remnant of curtain lining. You won't see this at all when all is finished.

The cottage is part of a very old doily on which moths had feasted for a bit. Love the embroidered garden hugging the cottage....oh....and there is a little gate, which if one was to open, one would find themselves stepping into the wildflower meadow getting lost in the scents and colour where a symphony of wildflowers sashay in a happy dance. Perfect!!

Normally one wouldn't start to think about bordering a wall hanging until the end is nigh. But not I. In my armoire where a lot of my doily treasures are stored, I happened upon some placemats. Beautiful placemats with gorgeous blue flowers skipping around the edge. Again....perfect to frame the wall hanging. Truly, sometimes, just sometimes, in my little corner of the Milky Way, all the stars align. So I very carefully snipped around one of the placemats and carefully stitched the flowers and leaves to the wall hanging, carefully cutting the overhanging fabric as I went so that it cannot be seen from the front. I'm not quite sure if I will stitch the finished piece to a fabric or do something else. I'll figure that out later. I'm sure grandiose imaginings will come to me. =)

Such a fun week I've had, skipping down the garden path; both the ridgy didge one; and the stitching one. I'm off to embroider a few more wildflowers in my meadow, and 'build' a gate with thread....perhaps wire....who knows what I'll dream up. I think too, there will have to be a trailing flower vine tangling it's way around an arch above the gate. Best get a hurry on though for there's playing to enjoy. Oh.....and a visit to Kathy's place is a must. =)

Until the next time............

Summer Colours

Hello lovely lovelies♡ A lovely summery welcome to my little place♡ 'Tis early Sunday morning and the sun is smiling radiant sunbeams upon me♡ Summer♡ The very word exhilarates all my senses. I am a summer girl. Always have been really. The warmth, the easy living days, the wide, blue skies, the myriad of flowers; the summer colours. Yes indeed, I could cope having every day of the year as summer. Though I must admit summer here has been a bit all over the place this year. A few hot days, but mostly it has been rather cool. On a brighter note, this week has been lovely and hot so perhaps summer has finally come and will keep on keeping on.

The garden has been delightful over the last six weeks. Glorious colours abound. Now that the days are becoming warmer the flowers are getting a hurry on. All the blooms are doing their thing; and I must say, beautifully so. For weeks now, to get my daily fix of flowers I have been picking sweet peas and roses every day. Vases of these sweetly, fragranced flowers have been dotted around my home. Such a joy. Flowers are my therapy......both in the garden and on fabric. The buddleia trees have been beautiful as well; the fragrance divine.  The purple and crimson, large, cone-shaped flowers have been striking. The heady mix of the scents of roses, sweet peas and buddleias have been intoxicating.

Early in the mornings, strolling in the garden, pulling out weeds as I go, picking a flower here and there, taking time to sit a while; gathering my thoughts and imagination; I never fail to be inspired by the summery colours and nuanced hues as the dawn sometimes sprinkles a cloak of mist everywhere. A garden wrapped in early morning mist before it disappears to reveal a sunny, blue summer sky is a picture. I need my daily fix of flowers. I need to seek out those quiet, early morning moments. The pinks, purples and reds of the sweet peas, the yellows and pinks of the roses, the purples and crimsons of the buddleias, the blues and pink's of the hydrangeas.......all delight the eyes. The dahlias and gladdies are just about to bloom; while it will be a while yet for the happy cosmos to begin to think about flowering. With summer being a bit late it seems they have been in no hurry to appear. But that's okay, it just means they will add happy colour when the other flowers are past their beauty.

With each day Pete is recovering from his knee replacement surgery and as I have been busy attending to him and doing other activities not a lot of stitching has been done. Though, I prepared the backing for my Crazy Flowers quilt. Nothing fancy. I used some mauve Kona fabric that I had, and because I didn't have enough, I stitched a panel to join the mauve fabric together using a variety of fabrics in a crazy panel. Over the next couple of weeks I will begin to quilt it. Hand quilting or machine quilting?? Don't really know; though the thought of quick machine quilting sounds pleasing. I can't remember when I last machine-quilted a quilt. 

Because I have been busy and not a lot of time to sit at my sewing machine, I felt the desire to enjoy some EPP. I wanted to make some colourful and happy flower hexies. For no other reason than I wanted to play with fabrics; and play with hexies. No thinking; just playing. After all, playing with hexies is my happy place. A mosaic of hexie flowers perhaps. I don't want a green fabric dotted here and there among the flowers, but I chose a muted fabric from my stash called Flights of Fancy by Momo for Moda. I bought this fabric for the butterflies which I appliqued to my quilt A Stroll In Pete's Garden. I love the painterly look of the grass and flowers. It evokes a soft, impressionistic look among the bright hexies. I just hope I have enough fabric. =) Of course if I don't, not to worry; as there is no definite design in my muddly head at the moment. Speaking about fabrics,  I bought a few lovely fabrics when I was in Melbourne. They are Botanical by Snow Leopard Designs for Free Spirit. I love the vivid colour combinations; purples with a gorgeous orange background, and yellow and pinks against a background of blue. The violet flower pattern is stunning. I just wish I bought more.

Let us, you and I, wander through a glut of happy snaps. Perhaps they will sprinkle a little summer colour to your day. I know they will mine. =)

A week playing with flowers, fabric and hexies♡ Me thinks, as it is Sunday, I might join in the fun over at Kathy's place; play with a few more hexies, stitching a few more hexie flowers♡ Have a lovely week, lovely lovelies♡ My prayer for you and me, this week, is that you, and I; enjoy moments of beauty sprinkled among the ordinary of our day♡ Much love to you♡

Until the next time..............