A Bit Wonky

Happy Mother's Day! I've been lucky enough to be a mother for 40 years....one year longer than my mother had the chance to be. She died when I was just 29.

And Happy Mothers' Day!  Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter described how the first Mothers' Day (mother in the plural sense rather than the singular) was started in the 1870's by Julian Ward Howe as  part of the women's suffrage moment pushing back against a society dominated by men. So I'm going with that this year...celebrating the plural version....all women who mother and care for so many of us.

Before Sam and Kelly arrived....I had time to finish another free motion floral experiment I started last night.

This time I used a piece of bold floral upholstery fabric for the vessel with a few stitched doodle flowers. I need to remember to do odd numbers!

I remembered how much I enjoy stitching around the designs of printed fabric from the free motion class. I especially love when it gets extra wonky like with the little squiggles. The wonkier the better.

I'm going to keep playing with doodle flowers....love them too.

This piece was a little oversized to stitch onto one of my premade cards...so I stitched it onto folded a piece of cardstock. Afterward I trimmed it too narrow on the right side as compared to the folded edge on the left so I compensated with extra row stitching. If I didn't point it out....one might think I planned it! Sometimes a bit wonky works out OK! This card is going to my Aunt Beverly...who is one of my many other mothers. I'm also thinking about Margie, my mother-in-law....who was a very special other mother.

The Joy of Enough!

Dotty added the line "the joy and enlivenment of ENOUGH" in the comments on yesterday's post.  I absolutely love that notion.....and it can apply to almost every aspect of our lives.  

This bloom stopped Margaret in her tracks yesterday....

she also thought that no words were needed.....the image on its own was enough. 

Here's another free motion experiment....the stripes in the flowers were 

added with pen. I think they add a touch of whimsy and 

give a nod to the stripes in Margarets bloom.

I took it one step further and added a few yellow petal parts.

And I'm chuckling at myself because I probably should have let that be enough!

But I took it one step even further and added Dotty's line!  Smaller would have been better....cursive...or at least a mix would have been even better.

But it is what it is...and it's more than enough.

One Step Further

Instagram is always "suggesting" pages to follow....and I mostly ignore them.  But for some reason I stopped and read this quote and laughed out loud.  It's soooo true for me.  I love chips.  Any kind of chips.

The only thing that keeps me from going into deep despair about not having chips in the pantry is that Paul makes the best homemade tortilla chips from corn tortillas.  He makes just ONE serving a couple times a week....just enough for chips and guacamole for happy hour.

I planted some small allium bulbs last fall...and I didn't think anything was going to come of them.  We've had so much rain during this late spring that I feared the bulbs just rotted in the ground.  What little foliage that was there was pretty sad.

But a week or so ago I noticed there were three tiny little buds.....and just today I found one of them that had started to open was broken off....the stem unable to hold it up.  It did give me a chance to study it up close...and I'll put it in water and see if it will finish opening up. I'll also keep an eye on the others.  Isn't it the sweetest darn thing!

There were a couple experimental elements with this stitched flower doodle.  I wanted to use different colors of thread....and I wanted to incorporate some fabric. I learn a few lessons each time I make one.

The green thread was variegated....and the very light green doesn't show up very well.  Won't make that mistake again. 

Putting that issue aside...I think the little dotty flowers are pretty adorable.  And...they look a little like the pink bud in the second allium photo.

I added a few french knots and just a couple of beads.

I also wanted to experiment with a way to finish these little stitched gardens so they could be mailed it as a card. I decided to mount it on a piece of mat board and use my fused binding technique as a border.

I ironed on a skinny strip of fusible webbing on one edge of the striped fabric...and stitched the other edge onto the doodle piece.

Nex I wrapped it around a piece of mat board and secured the binding to the back.

It worked like a dream!  And it may just be thin enough and light enough to mail with just one stamp...making it an Ounce of Joy...so to speak.  

The pinky red thread is also variegated...and has a bit of a shimmer.  But unlike the green....the lighter colors in this thread show up pretty well. 

I cover the back with paper or fabric and add a simple stand.

I framed the blue one in the same way.  

I wonder what's next?