A Time to Plant

That's what I did yesterday afternoon - planted some seeds. It was one of Queensland's magnificent end-of-winter days with a quite pleasant, sunny, warm day. To me, that says 'Spring'!  

One of our daughters gave me a number of packets of vegetable seeds for Mothers' Day. Amongst them are some different types of beans, zucchini and pumpkin that I have never grown before. They are not the normal ones that you buy in a supermarket, so I am excited to see how they turn out.

I love growing my own vegetables and have been doing it for many years whenever it's been possible. It gives me great delight to go and pick something for a meal, knowing that five minutes earlier it was still growing in the garden - can't get much fresher than that ... and I know exactly what has NOT been sprayed on them!

Some time ago, I designed a wall-hanging which I called "A Time to Plant". It combines quite a few of my craft loves - embroidery, felt, and applique ... and of course fits in with my love of gardening.

I have decided to now offer this pattern for sale in my store. You can find it here in my Wall Quilts and Hangings Section.

I chose to use some different stitches for this project. Felt lends itself to showing off embroidery, and Perle thread is the perfect match for working the stitches. 

I used Cast-on loops around the Irises:

Palestrina Knot highlights the Campanula flower, and I even made this one three-dimensional with the top petal floating above the lower one.

Palestrina is definitely one of my all-time favourite stitches so I also used it around and inside the turnip - here's a close-up:

The Capsicum is worked in Pekinese Stitch. I hadn't even heard of this one until a couple of years ago:

Bullion loops feature around the Potentilla:

Fly stitch gets a work-out around the pumpkin and I did Coral stitch around the leaves:

... and the lilies are also in Fly Stitch.

Tete de Boeuf stitch is a fun combination of fly stitch and lazy daisy stitch:

I hope you like this design. You can read details of the size etc in my store.

I'm happily typing this on my new computer which I've had for 5 days and it's working like a dream. I can't say the same about the broken blind!!! I have had the run-around from a local company which previously used to give good service. The guy came as planned to see what needed to be done, and that was the last I heard of it. I phoned a week later, thinking that maybe they had to get a part in - was told they would ring me back - but I never heard from them again. Waited another week and yes, they had forgotten all about me, with some pathetic excuse and very little apology. 'It's a part they have in stock, but the guy doesn't have one in his van today, so we will make an appointment for 3 pm Friday.' Good! 3 pm Friday turned up and no show. I waited till 4 pm to give him a chance to be late, then rang again, only to find that the shop was shut!!! I am still debating whether I forget this company entirely and try someone else. Problem is a new company may be busy and I may have to wait another couple of weeks! I'm thinking a firm phone call first thing Monday morning might be the way to go.

I'm not finding it so easy this week to be thankful!!!

Happy stitching,

Val