Song Sung Blue

Hello lovely lovelies♡ I hope your week was a pleasant one. Mine was. A week with chilly autumnal mornings,  smiles of sunshine, warm Indian Summer days with a little rain thrown in for good measure; more hexie sewing....and enjoying capturing oodles of happy snaps........♡

Summer. It has left my little part of the world but oh, how lovely it was.  The echoes of summer days are still with me.  The bright and vivid colours of the dahlias and cosmos are still singing a song, albeit a wistful song whose tunes will soon fade away. But it is the harmonious melody of blues of the hydrangeas which sing the sweetest tune to me. A calming, melodic song which has been crooning since December and the strains will be heard until May. Though I adore all flowers, it is the hydrangeas which will always make my heart beat just that little bit faster.

The blue of summer hydrangeas are now wondrously beginning to transform into beautiful muted autumnal hues. The miracle of the autumn hydrangeas. As I look outside my sewing room window it is the soft song of autumn that is playing. The hydrangeas have taken on another life changing into earthy, vintage-like hues for which hydrangeas are acclaimed. Pale blue into green, deep blue into wine, lilac and mauve into plum, maroon into currant.....all are gorgeous. Some shrouded in veil-like, silky spider webs. So, so pretty.

To some the colour blue is associated with a feeling of sadness, with a feeling of ho-hum. For me the colour blue makes me happy, joyful, peaceful; fills me with a sense of calm. Blue has been my favourite since....well.....forever.

Springtime always explodes with yellows, blues, purples, pinks and oranges; a succession of flower after flower bursting on the flower scene but quickly passing. It is the summer garden filled with hydrangeas that linger month after month, casting contentment around our humble abode. Why, here in my little corner it is 'The Land of The Blue Flower'.  I bought a little blue book by Frances Hodgson Burnett ages ago and found it sitting in the bookcase this week. If I remember correctly I bought it because it was a little book with a blue cover and with the perfect title, The Land of The Blue Flower. Any book with a title such as this had to come home with me....a gal whose favourite colour is blue and whose little plot of land is covered in blue hydrangeas. =) Shallow gal that I am, I oftentimes purchase a book purely because of  the title and the cover/binding which envelope the pages within. Though I must say in this case it is a sweet little story, a fairy tale, where a land and its people are transformed by the planting of magical blue flowers everywhere. Mmm.....I feel as if  I'm a character straight from the pages of this sweet book. =)

This week I fashioned a few more hexies. Alas, not a lot, but then those of you who love to make hexies, know it is never a fast process; is it?? Especially when a lot of the hexies require fussy cutting. But that's okay as I am never one who is in a hurry for a quilt to be finished. I am still finding more fabrics with different floral patterns. Surprisingly, thus far there are no repeats, though I am certain soon there will be. More flowery hexies in pinks, purples, peachy oranges, apricots.......and blues, of course.

Hexies hanging on a ric rac line....again. Though, to be fair, the  view......the backdrop.....is different.

We intuit colour. Each one of us has a penchant for a certain colour or colours. I wonder what colour or indeed colours, make your heart sing?? So many colours in all their variations of tones make me smile, but it is the hue blue which will always sing the most lyrical of songs. I have read "the hydrangea represents gratitude, grace and beauty, radiating abundance because of the lavish number of flowers and the generous round shape. It's colours symbolises love, harmony and peace." Who am I to disagree??!!  So, so very thankful, every day for this little patch of God's sweet earth hugged by blue, blue hydrangeas. 

Summer has gone and the hydrangea song, sung blue, with it. This week I have picked armfuls of blue hydrangeas, those which still have the appearance of summery blues, ones where autumn has not sprinkled it's magic upon them. They now sit in vases where over the next few months they will hopefully dry into beautiful earthy hues. Some have already done so. Some do, some don't. There is no rhyme or reason why some are successful and some are not. It is one of life mysteries to me. For the time being though, as I sit  and look out my windows on this Sunday, and a little hand stitching is enjoyed; I will listen to the song sung blue, throughout my day.

Oh....I almost forgot.....I picked an armful of pretty, blue hydrangeas just for you♡ May your Sunday be filled with your favourite colour♡

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

A Trove of Hexies♡

Hello lovely lovelies♡ Welcome to my little place where the last of summer days are ever so slightly beginning to drift into autumn. There is a change in the light. That soft, opalescent light which autumn shimmers upon everything, has arrived. The early misty mornings are beautiful. The sun is beginning to rise later and the evenings casting darkness sooner. I must enjoy these days while I can. I must make the most of these lovely days.

This week I have fashioned more flower hexies. A trove of little hexies bursting with bright, happy colour and pattern. A treasure trove of gorgeousness. The little flower gems all puddled together cause me to smile. A ric rac line of the flower hexies hanging out with the dahlias and cosmos are a delight to my eyes.

I have now begun to stitch the hexies together to begin forming the Flower Meadow quilt, to get a sense of what patterns and colours may be needed when I fashion more flowers. Little hexies made from a fabric called Flights of Fancy by Momo for Moda, are dotted here and there among the flower hexies because I want a muted and soft impressionist feel among the florid-hued hexies. I love the painterly look of grass and flowers these sweet little hexies will give to the quilt.

Sunday♡ The day of the week where I endeavour to join other slow hand stitchers from all over the globe and delight in a little hand stitching♡ I must say I spent a good part of my afternoon beginning to stitch my hexies together......growing my little Flower Meadow. Slowly stitching my little Flower Meadow hexies, delighting in the pretty, flowery prints; delighting in the tiny stitches which form the flower hexies♡ It's been one of those weeks....days.....when the meditative slowness of slow stitching has been balm to the soul♡ May your Sunday be a blessed one......when it comes aknocking on your door♡

Until the next time................. 

Just......More♡

Hello lovely lovelies♡ 'Tis a lovely Sunday morning♡ The beginning of another week♡ I must say last week was one with lots of snapshots of  moments of a little more of this and a little more of that. A week where the things that had to get done were punctuated with more, more, more of the things that bring me contentment♡

More......walks in the garden with my Maisie♡ More misty mornings♡ More blue, blue, summery skies♡ More gossamer, silky, shawl-like spider webs with beaded droplets of dew glistening in the mist♡

More.....floribunda......flowers♡ More Dahlias♡ More Roses♡ More Sweet Peas♡ More Hydrangeas♡  More Gladdies♡ 

More....hand quilting♡ Just a little. I have begun the begin of hand quilting  my quilt,  Crazy Flowers, with an explosion of crazy fabrics forming even crazier flowers. Simple, little hand-quilted stitches, do-si-do-ing round and round and round the octagon-shaped flowers; giving a sense of petals tightly wrapped together before they unfurl to reveal blooming crazy flowers. The little squares in between the flowers have a simple cross skipping through them. I was going to machine quilt this pretty, but on second thoughts I just wanted to sit and enjoy slow hand quilting. I really didn't want to wrestle with the quilt and the sewing machine. Sore shoulders, hunched back.....no, no, NO!!!!

More.....tea and cake.........book readin'.......magazine browsing♡ Actually, if truth be told, much, much, much more tea and cake. I am enjoying Renegrades, Born In The USA, the dialogue between Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, and I am loving reading The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. 

More......playing, designing and stitching another bag♡ When my very dear friend visited me last year she happened to see my pretty blue bag, and my pink bag she asked if I would make her one. I said "well.....if you can find bag handles of similar ilk, yes, I will whip you up a pretty bag". Now, I must say at this interval I was quite smug about my friend not finding handles such as the ones I had, as these days they are pretty much rare as hen's teeth. I might also add that I was quite certain that because of this I wouldn't have to make yet another bag. =) Yes indeed...very smug. Wrong!! Believe it or not, the next day we went shopping, my friend darkened the door of an op shop and lo and behold she came out with similar bag handles in her hand!! I might add at this juncture that she was beaming with a wide lookity-look-at-what-I-found smile on her face! Needless to say I am now fashioning my lovely friend a one-of-a-kind-Kim-Sharman bag. Be careful what you say, Kim. =)

More sweet little hexies♡ Hexies fashioned from my new Tilda, Pie In The Sky fabrics♡

A week with little bits of more, more, more♡ A week just doing more of what adds a smile to my day. How about you?? Were there more moments of beauty in your days?? More moments of doing what you love, squeezed in between the mundane, the 'must do's' of  the everyday?? I hope so♡ I have to hurry off now. It is a day where my good husband and I will be travelling over mountain and down dale as he is preaching at a couple of little country churches. On days such as this I call him the 'travellin' preacher man'. =) It will be a pleasant day where I will catch up with beautiful people and enjoy a little hand stitching as the beautiful countryside rolls by with the blue, blue, summery sky above. A little hand quilting perhaps.....or a few sweet hexies. I will just go with the flow and hand stitch some more, more, more. But then, I may just want to relax as the scenery whizzes by and read my book. In any case I will enjoy some hand quilting later this evening. As it is Sunday when all things slow stitching is celebrated, later this evening I will pop by Kathy's lovely place and see what all the other lovely lovelies are stitching. Love, love, love Sundays♡  Have a lovely day, lovely lovelies♡

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