Squish and Harvest

I'm squishing it up, I'm squishing it up. Do you remember the song about squishing up a bumble bee and licking it up? Gross, but given the bees in the backyard, I could do it. Instead, I continue to squish up backyard plant matter. Below is a single peony petal. It gave a lovely soft pink. Beside it is Saphire Blue Lobelia. I love it. It is a very pretty flower, lasts ages and gives great colour.

I have added some Lady's Mantle florets to the page. I am using a Japanese paper, I think it is called Koziko but I always get it wrong. I like the pale yellow.

The florets have tiny little bumpy bits to squish and it can be hard to not smear them as they slip around. I used the end of a handle on a thicker paintbrush. A pestle would have worked as well, but I was lazy and didn't want to go back into the kitchen. I had a brain storm. Instead of cutting flowers and taking them into the kitchen, doing the squish and then heading out for more flowers, I clued into the fact that I could work outside because it is summer. Sometimes I can be stoom.

Since the Lady's Mantle gave such a nice yellow, I decided to see what it's leaf would do. Not too much as it turns out. It has a very nice gestural appeal but the colour is a bit too vague.

I tried a bit of leaf from a Liatris plant. Worm like smears but a nice intense green.

February and March and into April, I worked so hard to get seedlings to go. I had massive failure. Even the little poor wretches that made it to their secondary leaves didn't thrive. I managed to get these Japanese turnips to a transplantable stage. I used a different soil in the hopes that this would improve conditions. Nope. This is a plant, like radishes, that children can do. Not me.

That's my pinky finger to give you scale. These should be the size of golf balls. Normally ready in 4 weeks, I lost count on how long these took.  These 8 little turnip buttons are what is left of 24 seedlings. Sigh.

My herbs, on the other hand, were bought as small transplants and have done well over the years. In fact the marjoram and oregano can take over if I don't give them a good haircut or two. This week I am drying herbs for winter use. There is marjoram on the left, loveage in the middle, a fabulous celery substitute all year round and on the right, golden oregano.

It is time to put seeds into the ground for a fall harvest. Since I am a sucker, I'm going to try again.

Two done

There is a gardening vlog that I've been following for a couple of years now and his motto is "Do a little, often" With stitching, this is good advice. Over time a lot of stitches finally add up.

This paper piece was sitting on my table for ages and it just did not satisfy. I took it with me to a gathering of other stitching women and I received some advice. On this piece, the line is not distinct enough.

So, I distincted it. By adding some dimension and bringing the pink into the line, as well as strengthening the green, It has a better focus. Not that the photo is any good of course (as I discover once all the photos are uploaded and re-taking photos would mean no time to blog ---- choices).

I used Sulfolk Puffs or Yo-Yo's to do the job. Looks like a better close up photo is in order also. My cloth piece, "Yellow Bowl" is also done to my satisfaction.

Here, I also knew the focus was unfocused. My supportive stitching friends gave several suggestions. In this case it wasn't dimension and texture that were missing, but depth of colour.

I added the blue dots behind the lace flower and strengthened the blues and purples threads in the other flowers.

These two pieces are now in the queue for decent photography, a project I leave for very snowy days. I have started two new pieces. The one is a squished piece that has Rowan (or Mountain Ash) berries squished first, with a wild briar rosehip squish over top. Lots of oranges and red and dark greens. I have sent off to Hedgehog Handworks (here) for supplemental threads and a new to me white thread that has a flat matte that allows for larger french knots.  I've bought threads and an embroidery hoop from here in the past, Coton a Broder and Floche a Broder, which is slightly different in hue and thickness. 

The second piece is a surprise to me. I received the ends of two pillowcases, the parts where the lace is sewn on. There is a band of about 3 inches of doubled cotton, then the original lace, possibly tatted. The two were lying on the table, side by side and a Eureka moment happened. It will start as a white on white piece, until I become bored and then we will see what happens. It should be a nice change to all the oranges and reds of the squished piece. If the threads arrive in time, that will be next Monday's post.

In the meantime, I am headed off to Toronto. I'm taking my mom to see the musical "Matilda" for her Christmas present (early) and then going to hours and hours of sitting at a two day long business meeting for Quakers. For that, I am taking socks along to knit, so I don't kill anyone. Quakers are supposed to be non-violent but there's nothing like a long business meeting to make me reconsider.