Posies and Tulips!

I love real flowers. However, I don't have a flower garden yet, so in the absence of real flowers, I enjoy stitching them. :-)
In the spring, my favorite flower is the tulip. This past spring, I stitched a number of them on pillows, tea towels and little candle mats like this one............I designed this candlemat for my Wooly Wednesday class at Firefly Quilt Shop. I realized that I had never done a post about it sooooooo ..... as I mentioned a few days ago, I'm going to be doing some "catch up" and this is one of those "catch up" items. I made samples for the class (will post photos soon) but the candlemat in the photo above was made especially for Nihal, a blogging friend in Turkey. I wanted to make something special for her as a thank you for a book I won at her blog a couple of years ago and for the lovely earrings she sent last Christmas. Since Turkey is synonymous with tulips, I knew I had to make one of the little candlemats for her. I am happy to know that she really liked it. :-)
When summer comes, my favorite flower is the rose. I am hoping that I will find some hardy rose stock to grow in my garden next summer. In the meantime...........I am stitching rosey posies. :-) This is a design by Erin Russek that was created for the Posey Needlecase Swap over at QuiltingGallery. All we had to make was the needlecase but I decided to make a coordinating pincushion, too. Each swap participant listed the colors/theme that they wanted. My partner likes fall colors so I found a fat quarter pack in my stash that was perfect for this project. I had it all stitched together when I decided the pieces needed a little something extra. I decided to embroider around the edge of the pincushion and the needlecase. This photo shows that I have just started the embroidery............. and in this photo, the embroidery is complete...........

In the photo below, you can see the inside of the case. And then on the back of the pincushion I added a label but I blocked out the name so it will be a secret in case my partner would happen upon my blog post.

I wrapped the pincushion and the needlecase, plus some other goodies in those fabrics you see in the background. Then I took it to the post office and it is winging it's way to my swap partner as I write this. :-)

I didn't get much done yesterday. Had to take Kaiser the Wonder Beagle to the vet for removal of a small growth on his leg. All went well and it has been removed. I picked him up at about 5:00 p.m. and he was still a little loopy from the anesthetic. His back legs weren't going the same direction as his front legs. LOL! He slept all evening and then got up and went to his cushion to sleep all night. :-) Just glad that it is over and he's going to be all right. Jacob was a bit worried about him.

That's it for now. Finishing details on my wintery projects are on the list for today. Have a good one!

Sandi