Making the Seasons :: June

As you have no doubt gathered by now I absolutely love having fresh flowers in the house and always try to have a jug of something pretty and floral on my dining table. Mostly the flowers I have indoors are cheap and cheerful seasonal market flowers, but at this time of year I prefer to have small home-grown posies in a jug, or even just a few tiny stems in an old glass ink bottle. Being able to go into my back yard and snip blooms to bring to the table is one of my all time favourite pleasures, gosh it makes me almost delirious with happiness to be able to do this simple thing.

This past week I've been enjoying a beautiful bunch of flowers bought very cheaply from the supermarket, although these aren't your typical supermarket offerings. I was thrilled (like almost peeing my pants excited) when I spotted a bucket of flower bunches labelled "Summer Growers Choice", or something like that (I knew I should have written it down, I just can't remember if these were the exact words, but you get the drift I hope?!). Each bunch was slightly different and contained a mixture of single stems, a real English cottage-style mixture which made me giddy with delight. I mean, just LOOOK at that delicious stem of pink snapdragons, isn't it ravishing?!!! 

But it was the daisy-like stems of Feverfew which really captured my heart. My Mum used to grow these all over the place, in the garden and at her allotment plot and I loved that she would have them in her cottage, spilling out of jugs and vases. Some people think that Feverfew is a weed as it freely self seeds and grows in the most unlikely of places. But it's actually a herb and has medicinal properties, although neither of those things matter much to me to be honest. Weed or herb, I don't particularly mind, I just love the old fashioned simplicity of this flower and the fact that it reminds me of Dorset and childhood.

Last week I'd been pondering on what I might like to make for the June edition of Making the Seasons, and knew it had to be something floral. Summer months are just overwhelmingly flowery in my mind, they really are. Inspired by the flowers on my table, I thought I might like to try stitching some daisies. Not just any old stitching, but that irresistible placement of weeny little crosses that has me so in it's grips at the moment.

I wanted my cross stitch to be small and simple - 2 shades of green, plus white and yellow.

A little square of pale grey 14 count aida and a dinky little 3 inch embroidery hoop.

Creating a design for such a small hoop is harder than it seems, and it feels like every single cross has to be very carefully considered and placed. However, I happen to LOVE this kind of design challenge and it didn't take me all that long to create a daisy design on my laptop that pleased me.

So do you see my lovely printed cross stitch chart??? I made that chart All By Myself!!!!!!!! Yes, I did indeed!!!! Well, with  a little bit of help from my other half. 

You see, my very, very, very talented and clever husbundo can write computer programs to do pretty much anything that tickles your fancy. So a few months ago when I casually told him that I might like to have a go at designing some cross stitch patterns, he offered to whip me up an app for my laptop. See how casual I made that sound?! In truth it took us a couple weeks to work on it together, and through trial and error with me figuring out what I needed as we went along we came up with a really fantastic and very workable cross stitch design app for me to play with.

I can select my thread colours to create a colour palette on my screen, then I'm able to click away on the little grid to fill each square with colour. It's soooooooo good!! 

Once I had my chart printed out I couldn't wait to get started on the stitching. As you can see, this is cross stitch on a very small scale so it didn't take long at all to stitch the stem and leaves.....

....and then start work on the flowers. As I stitched, I realised that I wanted to change one of the flowers (the little one on the right in the above photo, as it has no yellow centre showing and looked a bit forlorn). So I took my very sharp little scissors and hacked out the flower stitches completely (far harder to remove crosses than it is to frog crochet let me tell you), then went back to my computer, altered the chart and re-stitched...

.....ahhhhh, that's better!! So so so sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how proud I am of this dinky little design, it just pleases me so so much!

J's app also allows me to save these nifty stitch charts to my computer, so that I can then share them here on my blog if I want to.

I don't know if anyone is remotely interested in stitching themselves a tiny little daisy cross stitch, but if the idea grabs you then please feel free to use my chart :) If you want to print it out, you'll need to right click on the image, select copy image, then paste it into a word document to print.

You need 2 shades of green, plus white and a rich mustardy yellow. I used 3 strands of DMC embroidery thread when I made my cross stitches. And 14 count aida fabric, but I think I already said that.

The actual design (stitched on Aida 14) measures 5cm / 2 inches square. Find the centre of your fabric and start stitching from the centre of the design (which is marked on the chart). I think that's about it - cross stitch is pretty straight forward really.

This whole thing has been beyond exciting for me, and has opened up a delicious new part of my very greedy Creative Mind which is always on the look out for new things. Oh, the possibilities!!

Endless, exciting, thrilling possibilities for creating pretty seasonal designs to stitch with joy.

I can hardly contain myself.

The small scale of this 3 inch hoop is just delightful, and I really want to make more. More and more and more. For Summer, for Autumn, for every season throughout the year and everything nature inspired that makes me happy. I am thinking of little cross stitch strawberries now, or maybe some wispy summer grasses.........oh my heart!

I've popped my hoop on my mantel along with the feverfew daisies which found their way into my old glass ink bottle. I might eventually create a little bit of a display on the wall somewhere, if the stitched hoops start to grow and multiply and happen to become a collection.

So that's June for you, all joyful and stitchy and making my summer loving heart sing. I'm already wondering what July might be about, I never quite know what little seasonal thing will take a hold of my heart and bring forth a surge of creative inspiration. 

I hope you enjoy sharing in my seasonal inspirations and creative makes - you can find all previous months tagged in the {Making the Seasons} category. I love sharing my monthly making adventure with my bloggy friend Gillian - I've not seen her June project yet but I do know what it is and I am squeeeeeing with excitement waiting for her big reveal. We chat back and forth about our ideas and thoughts for each month, and it amazes me how different our individual styles are, but how similar our projects often turn out to be. This month we are especially in tune with each other......do go and see over on her blog Tales from a Happy House.

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Comments

[Ariadne Desarro]

Well Ms Lucy showing me your cross stitch daisy flowers had brought me down memory lane. One of my mother's favorite flowers were daisies! So you see I must make this little picture in her memory! It is time! Thank you for posting your chart!!

[Janet Finlayson]

Hello Lucy,

Lovely to hear from you. I always look out for you & often look through your patterns.

It was so nice to read about your summer & see the really lovely pictures you post from the places you go to.

Take good care of yourself my love.

Janet X

[Lynda]

My dear Lucy, I have always had a love of daisies. I love this cross-stitch pattern of yours. Hugs to both you and your J for creating it and sharing. Thank you both!

[craftyshanna]

Hi Lucy, I haven't checked in on your blog in a while (several years, probably!) but your mandala hoops on Ravelry brought me back.

I think your feverfew is a cousin of something called snow daisy we have growing in our yard. It is a biennial with small (~1 cm) flowers that also reseeds prolifically. In fact, much of our front yard was taken over by it this year!

In addition to seeing your similar plant, it was also a joy to realize you live in Yorkshire since I was there in June with my family. We stayed just outside the village of Kirbymoorside at a lovely AirB&B. We kept joking that they were going to have to evict us because we had no intention of ever leaving! Such a beautiful area.

Thank you for all of your lovely splashes of color and happiness.

[smith]

love it,,, very beautiful

[Suse19]

So lovely! Haven’t looked at your blog in a while and was really pleased to see you have taken up cross stitch. I have just discovered it myself and have been looking for a pattern app. Would you consider selling the app to people so they too can create their own patterns?

[Carol Juniper]

So clever and so generous to share your lovely design - many thanks.

[Estelle Salem]

Lucy I really love your Daisy cross stitch design. I have ordered my fabric today, will make it into a needle case when finished. I wish you would publish a book, even if I never made anything from it the colour "fixes" i would get from your beautiful work would be amazing!

[Elaine allerton]

Thank you,, so much,,,
Have not cross stitched for years,, and years,,,
Your colors have inspired me, to try again,,,
Love ur sweet simple daisy!!

[Helen Lightly]

Your cross stitching is simply lovely! I love to cross stitch and am very jealous of your talented app-designing husband! Thank you for sharing the chart with us, is such an adorable little design 😍 thank you for brightening up my days 😊🌱

[Jacinta]

Thank you so much for sharing this lovely pattern!

[Raluca]

Oh that is ever so pretty and so tiny! Great job! As for the flowers, I would have never thought of putting snapdragon in a posy, but it looks splendid!

[Caroline]

Fab little pattern. I couldn't get the grid lines to show up well on the print out. Could be our printer settings though. I'm off to buy supplies to make this at the weekend!

[Ipukris]

Oh, just what I would also like to create! Small and beutiful. Oh , could this application be downloaded? Basic and easy app, please????

[Lynne Stankard]

Aw Lucy, you are the answer to my prayer!! I needed a tiny daisy chart - and look what you did!! Amazing!
This will be stitched tomorrow, ready to send to my daughter in Portland, Oregon for her Birthday, complete with hoop! Her favourite flower is the daisy! And it will make a nice change from all the Christmas cross stitching I'm doing at the moment xx

[Conni Mitkowski]

Your little hoop is so lovely! I make the same sort of thing, but when it’s mounted in the hoop, I take a strip os complementary fabric, hem the rough edge, gather it into a ruffle, and hot glue it to the back of the hoop. Makes a nice finishing touch . Sometimes I use eyelet lace.

[Ann]

I'd love to know the name of the book that you have open showing the daisy family. Hope you can let me know, thanks.

[Lu]

Lucy, I just started cross stitching when i saw your lovely stitched coffee cup! thank you for this pattern! i love the small projects best of all. Always something new to learn.

[Karen]

Love it!

[Alex]

That's so lovely but how do you finish off the back once you've framed it in the hoop?

[Joya Roy]

you're simply a delight of a human being, lucy!

i share your love of cross-stitch. have you seen the old Japanese pattern books? ondori published them and there are quite a few inspiring old-timey (well, 1970's, lol) designs, tho i love your sweet design you've created, and how supportive your J is, and how tech savvy that he can whip something up for you like this. you're a dynamic duo!

if you'd like, i have an extra set of Misako Murayama cross-stitch pattern books i'm happy to share with you. i know you're well inspired already (!) and more than capable of designing your own lovely patterns, but just let me know if you'd like them. i'd be happy to share.

cheers!

[Tracy]

You could have a seasonal display of hoops. Just swap them out size for size on a wall. I take feverfew tincture for migraines (one of the vitamin things I take), nice to see it flower form we don't have it here in northern Canada.

[Melody Anderson]

Good Morning Lucy, the app sounds like many of us would love using it, might be something worth looking at from that angle. Love your sweet design that will not take so long to do, thank you for sharing it with us. As always, your ideas inspire all of us!!! Happy Stitching from Iowa

[Barbara Baines]

I knew it wouldn't be long before you made your own pattern! Well done, it is beautiful. I will stitch it this weekend, as always thanks for sharing!

[Angela - Southern USA]

Well done the pair of you! It's lovely! I could definitely see a collection.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx