May Ramblings

I spent Mother's Day yesterday with my son who was sweet enough to take me to two of my favorite places, The Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville and The Waldo Flea Market which is about a 30 minutes apart.

I love strolling through the Botanical Gardens when the flowers are in bloom though May in Florida can be hard on flowers as well as the drought we have experienced over the years. Still the scent of Jasmine was almost intoxicating, some roses were in full blooming glory and the bamboo trees took my breath away.

some potted plants

more in pots

lizard posing for a photo

roses in the herb garden

Buddha among the Bamboo

Bug sculpture

The day was perfectly balanced with sun and clouds, a nice warm breeze and the wonderful company of my son.  The day before we had much needed rain for most of the day and it was nice to wake up to sunshine and my own garden thriving though it was too early for the blooms to be open.

I finished the hand embroidery on the Goddess of Willendorf piece she is just off the hoop though so she will need to be pressed before I finish her and while looking at the photo I may add another flower between the two flowers above her head.

hand embroidered Willendorf

If you aren't familiar with the Goddess of Willendorf she is inspired by: The 'Venus of Willendorf' is the name that was given to a female figurine that was found in 1908 by an archeologist named Joseph Szombathy in a Aurignacian loess deposit near the town of Willendorf in Austria.

The statue was carved from oolitic limestone and was colored with red orche. It measures 110 mm in height (4.4 inches) and is dated 30,000 and 25,000 BC.

I was fighting off the last vestiges of the bug I had for two weeks so I plan to be back to my normal self this week and hopefully not as tired as I was over the last few weeks so I can start a few of the embroidery projects I have planned.

I will link up at Supermom No Cape and Kathy's Quilts today.
https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/05/slow-sunday-stitching_14.html
http://www.supermomnocape.com/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-110/

First Week of May and Some Slow Sunday Stitching

I am finally over that nasty cold I came down with at the end of April, it wasn't so much the cold symptoms that were nasty but the overwhelming tiredness and need to sleep which usually with a cold seems to hasten getting over it not this time, it seemed the more I slept the worse I felt, and not sleeping wasn't an option.  As soon as I sat down I would begin to drift off, then after a few hours sleep I would wake with a too much sleep headache, which would make me close my eyes and back to sleep I would do, what a cycle. Thursday afternoon I began to feel awake I hadn't had to take any cough syrup for 3 days, I wasn't blowing my nose all day, sneezing or coughing as much.

I actually had the chance to pull out my embroidery and put in a few more stitching in the Goddess of Willendorf piece I am working on.

top flowers

Those flowers took me nearly a week to complete, my long short stitching needs lots of practice but I do like the overall look. My fingers ached by the time I was half through with each flower and I needed to take a day break in between, and the itchy watery eyes from the cold kept the work out of my hands for the most part.

leaves and vines

When I began to feel better I was able to load up the needles with green flosses and start the leaves and vines on the bottom of the piece.
I'm just starting the other leaves and vine section since I have my needles full of the green flosses, I

don't know if anyone else fills up several needles at a time with the colors they are using but I always have, it makes things flow easier when I don't have to stop to thread the needle.  I do that when I hand quilt too though for hand quilting I have 10 to 20 needles threaded and waiting.  For embroidery depending on the area I have 3 needles of each color I'll use.

I have my piece drafted for the Stitch at Home challenge sponsored by the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design.  The challenge, Summer of Love, coincides with the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Be-In at Golden Gate Park.  My design is reminiscent of a 1960's poster,  I am trying to decide whether to use white cotton fabric or a light denim colored cotton fabric, I'll know more once the 3 color DMC floss arrives.  I think I mentioned in my early post DMC is a supporter of the challenge and once you sign up you choose from several color palettes of embroidery floss DMC will send to you at no cost. What I like is you get to select your main choice and 2 other just in case the first choices aren't available. The challenge is free to anyone here is the link if you are interested it taking part in this challenge.
http://www.sfneedleworkanddesign.org/rules-and-entry-form/
You also have the choice to send in the finished piece or a photo of the finished piece for the exhibition.   Also you must use the 3 colors from DMC. You are not limited to embroidery other forms of needlework are also welcome.

I'll post my piece once I have it ready to stitch, knowing myself I will tweak it a few times before I transfer to fabric.  Right now I am trying to decide if I want to trace my pattern onto the fabric or scan my pattern and print it on the stitch and wash away product which I love using though at time can be a bit difficult to stitch through depending on the fabric.

I am linking up to Kathy's Quilt today https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/05/slow-sunday-stitching.html
and Monday I'll link up at Supermom No Cape http://www.supermomnocape.com/