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 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............