Happy Spring and Slow Sunday Stitching

 Spring arrived in north central Florida with sunny skies, clear cool air and birdsong from the early hours of dawn to my walk in the park and home to sit outside with a cup of tea and my newest hand embroidery project. 

I began stitching the Greenman with Weeks Dye Works floss in Monkey Grass 2158,  for me the greenman has always been a symbol of Spring and nature so beginning him on the Vernal Equinox seemed like a good idea.

I like using Weeks Dye Works floss for my greenman/greenwoman pieces because of the shades of green in each skein, and the names are herbs and other vegetation.  I may also use a few Gentle Arts floss.

I am also working on the Moon Flow piece by Cozy Blue, I bought the kit planning to have it stitched by today unfortunately I had a few days where I didn't feel like stitching.

I love the kits from Cozy Blue, I'm partial to Moon Phase patterns so I bought the kit and the pattern, I made this one in 2017 called Lunar Blossom I also bought the pattern and an iron on pattern to use.

I like to have a kit or two to stitch especially when the pattern is pre-printed on the fabric it takes care  of tracing the pattern.  A friend of mine suggested a company called Avlea and I bought a kit from there called Aegean Sunrise.

Here is my progress on the Moon Flow kit,  I started with the flowers and now I'm working the center leaves then I'll move on to the small flowers then the moons and the leaves on the outer rim.

The bright yellow fabric is what attracted me to the kit, I bought the pattern too so I could make it on a different background.

I'm linking my post to Kathy's Quilts https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2022/03/slow-sunday-stitching_0188912250.html

Check the link to see what other bloggers are slow stitching today and perhaps add your link to what you are slow stitching this fine Spring day.

 Here are the links for the 2 kits I mentioned Cozy Blue has an Etsy shop and a Website to shop on.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/cozyblue

https://cozybluehandmade.com/

https://www.avleaembroidery.com/

And Spring rose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And Each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast

rose from the dreams of it’s wintry rest.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Art Janie Olsen

Happy Spring

 Happy Spring!

Art by Janie Olsen

And Spring rose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And Each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast

rose from the dreams of it’s wintry rest.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 

Fresh from my oven this morning my traditional Irish soda bread.  I have been making this bread for several decades, changing it every few years either adding raisin or currents, sometimes caraway seeds and candied citrus left over from the fruitcakes of Christmas. 

Signs of Spring's Arrival are Popping Up in My Garden.

 Every day I walk around the outside of my house to the sounds of birds, bees and the scampering of a squirrel or two. Today I noticed the pear tree has flowered, last week there were just a few small buds. It's a scrawny tree that doesn't get much sunlight when I first moved into this house almost 3 years ago there was a few small pears. I don't know who planted it where they did because it is overshadow by a very large oak tree and several other trees so I think it was doomed from the start.

March 7 2022

 

March 1 2022

I also noticed the yard is full of fallen leaves, it looks like autumn in the north, I have documented this falling of leaves in March in my garden journal and it happens every year so I'm sure it's normal for my area in Florida.

  A few other blooming plants in the yard, the purple flowers, I believe is Spiderwort, are everywhere in the backyard, there were a few bees buzzing about, the ever faithful dandelion coming up through the driveway. 

I can't recall the name of this shrub the flowers don't last too long. I think the plant below is Indian Hawthorn.

There are 3 of these plants along the side of my garage, they are quite pretty the flowers are like stars and remind of jasmine. 

There are signs of Spring's arrival everywhere except in the weather where the temps are in the high 80's. We are expecting so rain tomorrow and Wednesday.  We need it everything is so dry and there is yellow pollen everywhere which makes my allergies flare and my car looks like a breaded pork chop.