Summer Lilac Shrub.....

Done With The Leaves At Last....

A Few weeks ago, Dear Readers, I left you with the above picture of the Summer Lilac Shrub showing that there were still not enough leaves to call it finished. Since then I have added twenty more leafy stems! (Each leafy stem has a dozen leaves attached.) Since a picture is sometimes worth a Thousand words, I will show you the progress pictures!

Immediately upon my return from my Travels, I started in on the Ten Leafy Stems production line, but I did not have time to complete them or attach them before my post last week. Believe it or not, the above picture has the ten leafy stems attached! They do add a sense of density to the middle of the shrub which was lacking before.... but it is really heard to tell that anything has been done at all! And because I was sure this would be the case, I made another Ten Leafy Stems as well....

For the record, here they are begun....

And here they are done!

Well, I am still "shaping" them prior to attaching them....

And here they have been attached!

Can we say Ta Da Ta Done.....?

Well... maybe not quite yet......

I am still finishing the seed pods.....

But I had to test the shrub in the Folly Garden....

Of course, the Sun is setting so early now....

 there is not enough daylight to show it well.

We will have to be patient waiting for the sun....

And I am still making the seed pods.....

I am not entirely satisfied with them....

And I have only completed six so far.....

Not that you can See them once they are attached....!

Can you see them....?

(There are four or five visible in the above picture!)

I need to make another dozen or so......

 

I've even started about eight more already.....

And I have begun the painted glue blobs that make the pods... 

I will have to make a whole bunch more.

But I think I can say, Dear Readers, 

that I am Done making Leafy Stems!

And I know you want to see it in The Folly Garden where it belongs!

Even though we will have to use artificial light...

 I think I can say it looks just the way I hoped it would!

And while I cannot yet say that

 The Summer Lilac Shrub is Done, Dear  Readers,

At Least I am Done with The Leaves!

There And Back Again......

And Back To Work....

Well, Dear Readers, the Excitement of Travel is behind me now. I made it out to see my Folks and we had a Wonderful time, but it always feels much too short and passes so quickly! And yes, I have already begun another Ten leafy stems for the Summer Lilac Bush! I plan to ignore all the evidence of the Changing (or Changed!) Seasons and will just keep working on the Summer Lilac Shrub until it looks the way I want it to!

I got as far as adding the leaves to the stems before 

my fatigue caught up with me.

(Traveling 2300 miles (more or less) there and back again is not easy!)

As you can imagine, I made sure to bring with me

 a mini-project or two that I could work on

 while visiting with my family.

It was during last year's trip that I started stitching

 on the Snowy Village Christmas stocking, 

so it seems appropriate that I was able to finish it this year!

I still have to cut it out and attach it to the backing, 

but the petit-point is finished.

 I do Love how it turned out!

(And only one noticeable mistake!)

I am sure you will not be surprised

 that I brought along another kit to make

 because they are so small and pack up easily.

It is another Janet Granger Christmas Stocking... 

this time it is Santa, or Father Christmas.

I spent a lovely day with my Mom, Dear Readers,

 while she knitted socks

 and I made tiny petit-point stitches

 and we chatted and napped and had tea and cookies!

Of course, these stockings are a bit more challenging than they look!

The tricky part is in counting the threads properly

 between one part and the next!

I ended up pulling out the stitches for one section more than once!

 

And I know it doesn't look like much, but this is how far I got....

And yes, I have found a mistake in the counting

 that I will not be able to undo!

 I will have to work around it... 

I think it will be okay in the end.

So that is as far as I got, Dear Readers,

Thousands of miles there and back again, 

And Precious hours spent together

 Stitching and knitting.

And even though I miss them dearly.... 

It is good to be back to work again.

Leaves... Again More Leaves...

Leaving It All Behind....

It Should come as No surprise, Dear Readers, when I admit that I am growing Weary of the seemingly endless rounds of Leafy stems that disappear into the branches of the Summer Shrub with no apparent effect on the fullness of the shrub! Above you can see the batch I completed this week.... I have lost count of how many it is and will need to scour the records to add it up with accuracy. But I will Leave that task for another day! I have too much to do to get ready to go on Vacation to visit my Folks in the Southwest!

And I am sure you must be getting as weary as I

 of seeing nothing on this blog but more leafy stems

 in various stages of assembly! 

There is a limit to the need for documenting

 tiresome repetitive effort!

(Or at least there should be!)

Here you can see the Summer shrub as it now stands

 with almost all the currently finished leafy stems attached.

Is it enough?

*Sigh*

It still doesn't look like enough to me....

Standing a little farther back.....

Nope.... still doesn't look like enough.

And with three more leafy stems added....?

Can you even tell there are more?

Well, Dear Readers, I am sure I can no longer

 "see" the shrub for the Leaves.....

It is Time for some Time away!

Perhaps when I return

 I will be able to spot exactly what is still needed

 (besides a bunch of seedpods... 

and a whole lot more leafy stems...) 

But for now, 

Like a certain Mole of Storied fame...

I am going to declare "Hang Whitewashing..."

 and Leave it all behind 

while I run off to Play!

 

I'll be back in a couple of Weeks!

Not Enough.....

Leafy Stems......

I Hate to admit that I was right, Dear Readers, in thinking my latest batch of ten leafy stems would Not be enough to make the Summer Lilac Shrub complete! Above you can see them being painted, the pale green undersides and stripe on the top were done using the newer green paint as it would not show enough to matter that it did not match exactly with the rest. The proper green paint I am eking out in the hopes that if I only use it on the top of the leaves, it will last me another batch or two of ten leafy stems! Those Summer shrubs do fill in beautifully over the summer and mine just looks too sparse as it is. Ten leafy stems do not actually cover much when we get right down to it! And lest you despair because I refuse to show you the shrub as it stands... I will show you another tiny detail I am working on...

"What is this?" I hear you asking.

Well, let me give you another hint.....

"Hmmmmm.... isn't that the way the blossoms went together....?" I hear you say.

"But these blobs are green.......?"

Yes, perhaps you have guessed that I have begun

 to make the Summer Shrub's seed pods!

Can you see I have begun to assemble a few....?

I know it is hard to see them... they are pretty small...

 and I am just getting started.

Here is an example of one in the RL shrub where I work.

You can see that not all of the florets become a fertilized seed... 

but quite a few in each blossom do!

No, I will not be making 52 seeded blossom heads....

but I will be making a good many!

But as you can see, I am just getting started... 

this might take me a while.

And meanwhile, Dear Readers, I will keep making

 ten leafy stems a week, for as long as it takes!

And in case that runs on waaay into Fall.....

I will remind you that Somewhere in my Mini worlds

 it is already snowing!

Even if it is only counting a few tiny stitches!

So there you have it, Dear Readers, 

It was a very busy week with Not enough Time,

Not Enough Leafy Stems,

 and Not Enough to Show!