A Whisper of Spring....

 

Snowdrops....! 

The Deep snow is all gone from The Folly Garden, Dear Readers, and so is the Snowy Winter Rhododendron Shrub! In its place we find the bare branches of the early Spring Lilac shrub and the Skeleton of the soon to be Green Leafy Rhododendron shrub. I needed to pull out my storage boxes and create the Safe Storage for the Snowy Winter Shrub... like it's sibling, the Flowering Rhododendron Shrub, it required some special engineering to build the holding space that would not crush or damage any part of the shrub. This is a bit complicated because the shrub goes around the corner of The Folly and hangs low on the embankment. I had to make a shaped framework that mimicked the Folly Garden space! 

 

I used the same pink builders foam that is used on The Folly Landscape.

Here you can see the two completed shrubs in their boxes!

And while I was looking at the now bare garden at "The Folly", I remembered that there were some tiny snowdrops I had made years ago... where did I put them? 

I found them in a little dish in The Conservatory.... just waiting for Spring!

 

I do not glue these in place, Dear Readers,

 because this is the same shrub that must be usable

 in the Autumn before the snow comes... 

or in the winters that don't snow....

 

There are a few little holes poked into the foam base

 and I simply insert the stems carefully...

They are such brief and temporary visitors!

 

So tiny and delicate!

And just whispering that Spring is on the way!

 

 

And while the snow has Not yet gone from my RL garden

it is slowly receding! 

 I was able to climb over the gate and find the spot near the foundation

 where the sun warms the earth the soonest...

And was overjoyed to find the Snowdrops are up

 and nodding their little heads! 

 

The temperatures have been above freezing, Dear Readers,

the snow is melting... the Snowdrops are blooming,

And I have finally heard that first Whisper of Spring!

Progress....

 

Is Progress....

I am making good Progress, Dear Readers, with the tiny cushion stitching, in spite of only being able to stitch for a couple of hours a day. The stitches are so tiny, I have to have very good light, and around here that means for the morning. The days are getting longer, but the evenings are still pretty long and dark. I content myself with gluing Rhododendron leaves onto stems in the darker hours. In the above picture you can see I have outlined both the deer with the darker red color, as per instructions. I have also begun to stitch the flowers, starting with the ones on the original chart which I would not need to move! Also adding the new blossoms into the extra corner areas. Once I realized how many flowers I was going to have to move... I decided I needed to draw the chart for them, otherwise, I would be hopelessly lost when it came to the background stitching.

 

I started with drawing in a few of the small blue flowers that would not need to be moved.

 

And gradually adding more that needed to be moved from the original chart position.

 And began the stitching of all the flowers.

And here is a picture of the growing bunch of Rhodie stems with the leaves attached!

 

And I added the dark red outlining to the chart showing the new flower placement.

Here you can see the flowers and greenery have all been stitched!

 

And at this point, Dear Readers, all the flowers

 and greenery need to be outlined in the darker red!

And because in many places there is only one tiny stitch

 left between the flowers....

you need to follow the chart very closely, 

because that stitch needs to be in the bright red color!

I have yet to begin the bright red...

It is slow going... but it really clarifies the design!

 

 And this is as far as I got, Dear Readers,

Stitching a little bit every day..

Making good Progress... 

because Any progress is progress!

 

Are You Dreaming of Springtime....

 

In Spite of the Weather....

Have You noticed, Dear Readers, the gradual returning of the morning sunlight? The Conservatory has been asleep, it seems like forever... but a few weeks ago, I noticed the early rays of morning sunlight shining on a tiny pot of snowdrops! Oh, how I long to see some snowdrops! At the moment, they are buried under mountains of snow in my RL garden, so I will not be seeing them soon. This picture was taken a couple of days before "Groundhog Day" (which is really Candlemas but it is not known by that around here). In this part of the world, a very important Groundhog (woodchuck by another name) comes out of his burrow on February 2nd, and if he sees his shadow it will be six more weeks of Winter. If he doesn't see his shadow... it will be an early Spring! This year he saw his shadow... and yes, we are still being Slammed by Winter! We just endured a very windy three days and two nights, and we were lucky that all we got was lots and lots of snow and sleet... ice and freezing rain had been predicted, but we stayed just cold enough to spare us the ice!

The view from my window the morning after the sleet...

And I stepped outside to get a few pictures but it was very windy and very cold!

But inside the Conservatory.... we can Dream of Spring ...

 

 And perhaps begin to plan the tasks for this year....

 

 And even enjoy the sight of little bunnies frolicking in the flowers...

Even though in RL they are an annoying pest in the Gardens!

It has been so cold in RL, that it is a bit chilly to work in my downstairs studio... 

so I have focused on the stitching (when I wasn't cowering from the Storm!).

I have made good progress!

 

 Here you can see the first two cushions are completed!

(At least, the stitching part is.)

And I am starting the outline for the third cushion!

There were four designs in the original set,

 and then Mary Corbet designed a fifth one

 which, of course, I had to have too! 

I started the next one right away! 

And I am stitching the Deer Cushion... 

mostly because it is the one I have already printed the chart.

You can see I am making it "upside-down"

 compared to the other two... 

this is strictly because it is easier for my hand

 to reach the stitching area in this direction...!

It is an 8" hoop and reaching all the way across is challenging!

 

And I just Know you will not be surprised that I had to add another Deer!

 

I tried to tell myself that I should just go with the design as it is....

but there is all that room....!

I took out my graph paper and colored pencils

 to see if it would work.....

 

 I needed it to look a little different... 

but tried to keep it really similar to the first one.....

 

 I cut it out and tried to find the right position on the printed chart...

 

 And decided pretty quickly that She was a Doe...

so no antlers were needed!

And I decided it was a "go"

 and all I needed to do was carefully mark

 where it sat on the chart...

(I ended up taping it in place....  carefully so as not to damage the chart)

And got right to the stitching!

 

Of course, I made an error early on with the counting... 

and didn't catch it until waaay too late to unstitch...

something about the position of her neck...

which means the whole rest of her body 

ended up being farther to the left than the design had suggested...

but no matter, she fits! 

(I was going to have to adjust the placement of the blossoms anyway!)

And that's as far as I got, Dear Readers,

Stitching Millefleurs and Bunnies and Does,

And Dreaming of Springtime

 in Spite of the Weather!
 

Rhododendron Shrub # 3...

 

 

Green Leafy Shrub Take 2.... 

It Was just about a year ago, Dear Readers, that I was contemplating the feasibility and wisdom of launching the Rhododendron Shrubs in Three Seasons Project! I was making rough calculations about how long it took to make the blossom clusters and the leaves, too, and trying to calculate whether there was enough Time to complete the Summer Blooming Rhododendron by blossom season at the end of May. As you are probably aware, I figured it was a "go" if I got on it right away and did almost nothing else til the Blossoming Shrub was complete. And I did succeed! Along with constructing the basic shrub skeletons for the remaining two Seasonal versions. And you might even remember that I made a mistake when attaching the shrub skeletons to their bases.... accidentally putting #2 Skeleton on base #3, and #3 Skeleton on base #2... causing a bit of an identity crisis for these remaining shrubs! And you are probably aware that I sort of completed the Green Leafy Shrub.... (the all year 'round version....) at the end of July. But I wasn't happy with the density of the leaf placement and so I "converted" it to the Winter Snowy Shrub a few weeks ago. (You tell me which it is... shrub #2 or Shrub #3!) Which leaves me needing to re-make the Green Leafy version... hopefully with a better leaf density result! I know I showed you the container full of all the leaves I had made last Fall, knowing I was going to have to just keep producing leaves if I was ever going to get the final product made! Here it is again, in case you missed it!

 It is 50 batches of leaves... each batch having forty leaves, for a total of 2000 leaves!

 This is more than I used in either of the previous versions.

Here I am starting the process of making the stem tips (the buds) using the "glue trick".

Once the glue is dry the tips need to be painted a light green.

I know my mixture is a little less "yellow" than I think it should be... 

I am running low on the yellow paint and need to remix the batch.

 

Here I am starting to glue the leaves on a batch of stems. 

The single leaf doesn't want to stay put very well unless the stem is lying flat.

 

Here I am adding the second leaf. 

Once these are very securely dried...

 (don't rush this or they fall off!)

then the next two can be added

 to each stem at the same time.

At this point they need to be vertical while they dry.

 And I forgot to take pictures to show you...!

I also decided I needed to try to "map" the shrub skeleton

 to get a good count of the branches. 

I counted the different limbs and branches and

 came up with about 100 stem tips to which I will attach

 all the leaf clusters I will be assembling!

I still need to test my construction for these... 

because rather than glue each cluster to a branch one stem at a time...

 I plan to try to add a "grouping" of two or three leaf clusters

 that have already been "combined".

This is because I realized my real problem last year 

was that I forgot that the Rhododendron

 never drops all it's leaves at once!

 It keeps most of them for two years,

 and a few for three and maybe even one or two 

are four years back along those growing stems.

 They produce the denser leaf cover I am wanting! 

I need to make the grouped stems 

with the previous year's leaves still attached!

I know I have taken pictures to show you of my RL shrub... 

but I can't find them in my photos

 and it is too dark to go get new ones.... 

so you will just have to trust me on this! 

And of course, I haven't yet tested my construction methods.... 

but that is coming next!

So, Dear Readers,

 I am tip-toeing my way into the

 Rhododendron Shrub #3, 

also known as the Green Leafy Shrub.... 

take two!

Stitching Update....

 

Tiny Stitches... 

It Has been a while, Dear Readers, since I showed you any stitching project progress! That is because until recently there hasn't been any progress. From the beginning of December until the middle of January my energy was devoted to the Christmas Card and little stitching projects were strictly forbidden as way to distracting! I had been making good progress on the Tiny Mille Fleures Tapestry pillows, little kits by Mary Corbet of "Needle 'n Thread" blog. Her designs were meant to insert into jewelry bezels or make into scissor fobs.... but I wanted to make them into dollhouse pillows! this meant extending the frame to a square shape and adding details in the new corners. Above you can see where I left off at the start of the Christmas Card work. These are stitched on 48 count silk gauze..... and believe me it is challenging! It requires very good light and a magnifier, which I use for all the stitching over 30 count. Even so, the evenings are long and too dark to work at this time of year. And when I was delving back into the petit-point projects I came across one of the Baktiari carpet inspired pillows I had started.... and it being on only 40 count silk gauze, I gave it a try in the evening light.

You might recall that I had decided to make several pillows

 by taking parts of the design from the still not quite finished carpet

 (it needs the fringe added once it is removed from the frame)

 and adding a small edge border. 

The first one was not square.... 

a detail I overlooked when beginning the project!

The second one I am trying to make closer to a square shape.

 

I still think it is off by one stitch....

 but keeping the design balanced meant I had to compromise.

The stitching goes quickly compared to the tiny Mille Fleures designs.

 

As you can see I am using a different colored

 section of the carpet for my second pillow.

I still have not decided how the border should go.

And meanwhile, I did get back to work on the Mille Fleures pillow.

I started adding in the bright red background color,

 beginning in the upper right corner.

And I finished designing the added flowers for the new corners.

 

And because I was getting close to the finish of the first pillow...

I decided to stitch the framework for the next one.

 

Here you can see I have finished adding

 the flowers to the new corners of the first pillow.

 

And here you can see the bright red 

background is all completed too!

It was very very challenging to get all those

 red stitches located and properly stitched!

Because the stitches are so tiny

 it was nearly impossible to notice missing stitches.

 I had to consult the chart very closely!

Holding the stitching up to bright light helped too!

(Those missing stitches showed as a tiny prick of light!)

 

 

And then I was off and running with pillow number two!

Here you can see I didn't even stop to take pictures

 'til after the bunny was nearly complete!

And then, Dear Readers, the usual thing happened....

I wanted to make changes to the design!

*sigh*

(Why does this happen so often?)

I looked at the pillow shape 

with that lonesome bunny off to the left side... 

and thought "surely where there is one bunny another is nearby!"

 

I got out my graph paper and colored pencils

 and sketched a companion bunny using

 the approximately same amount of stitches tall and wide, 

but in a slightly different position. 

I tested it the best I could against the chart....

 

The graph paper is almost the same size as the printed chart....

 just a tiny bit smaller, so the actually stitched bunny will be a little larger.

 But it looked as though it could work

 without making too many changes to the blossoms.

Close enough that I went for it!

 

Here you can see both bunnies have been stitched.

It remains to be seen how the blossoms will have to shift...

 I will address that as I get to them!

 

Here you can see I started with the blue blossoms

 that would not need to move at all.

This is so I could have a good reference for counting

 the stitches in order to place the yellow blossoms.

 Some of them needed to move a lot.... 

most only one stitch to the side.

Later I added an additional one on the top of the bunch.

 

Adding more blossoms....

The blush pink ones to the right of the

 new bunny mostly had to move over!

 

Here you can see the blossoms are mostly done

  and I have begun stitching the greenery.

It is impossible to tell at this point,

whether or not the new Bunny has improved

 or spoiled the design balance.

With the addition of the blossoms in the corners, 

there is a shift of the colors overall.

The two tan bunnies in the center

 with the bright yellow flowers

 might look imbalanced when finished.

But even if it does, 

I think I will be glad I added him in the end!

So that's what I have been doing, Dear Readers,

 in this cold winter weather....

 Stitching teeny tiny flower blossoms

 and warm brown bunnies!