Pansies are everywhere now -- in the garden, in pots and windowboxes. A heart sampler has been incubating for a few weeks now -- the bottom petal of the pansy flower is heart-shaped. Mercury Retrograde guides us to look back -- when I did, I relived my first flower memory, the pansies in my mother's garden, at about three or four years old.
Looking back helped me to go forward.
The sampler took form. Both the pansy and my memory are stitched onto it. A good beginning, I think.
The pansy is dyed rayon, the center is wool and silk. That cotton square is the next heart. Sort of a mosaic vibe.
More pansies from sitting on my butt in front of the TV last night -- these are all wool felt. I don't know much about them yet, we're still getting to know each other, but I do know they won't be on the long cloth.
When you look back, what is the first flower you remember and how old were you?
Violets, growing under hedges and in the wild field called Fairy Glen near my grandmas.
ReplyDeleteShe lived in yorkshire agricultural countryside and we lived in Birmingham, miles away in an urban environment. So going to her village in the country was sheer joy to me. Wild flowers everywhere in those 1950s days.
Sadly wild violets dont seem to have a strong smell lol but I have them, grown from seeds collected there in the wild all those years ago.
Look forward to watching your long cloth grow!
Lyn, your memory is magical -- Fairy Glen? -- how lucky were you to visit such a wonderfully-named place! So cool that you have violets growing from those very seeds. Love that, thank you.
ReplyDeletethe stitched pansy is lovely. better view here than on SEW. the only flower i remember from my childhood is the gardenia and not from a garden. we lived in NYC, in an apartment. the only plants we had were mint on the fire escape. my father always bought my mom a gardenia corsage on mother's day.
ReplyDeletePrimulas! when I was about 3 or 4, we lived next door to people who had a huge garden full of these, and I went and picked them all one day and 'kindly' walked up and down the street giving the neighbours little bunches. No-one knew until one of those neighbours thanked me in front of my mother for being 'so sweet'. I didn't think it was wrong until I got a good spanking.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing how your sampler grows
Deanna, a gardenia -- what a lovely memory. Especially nice that you remember Mother's Day at the same time -- people used to do such nice things like that on special occasions ... happy sigh.
ReplyDeleteOne man's weed is another man's flower: I remember, dandelions, buttercups, and indian paintbrushes. in that order.Either dandelions or buttercups (I don't remember we would hold under people's chins and it they reflected yellow it meant you liked butter or some silly thing. I hadn't thought about that in years.
ReplyDeleteNanette, I love that -- you were just being generous, you sweet little flower-girl, you! Primulas are such a happy flower, it's too bad you got yourself a spanking out of it! (It probably wasn't a very hard one?!)
ReplyDeletePansy is my favorite flower and you can dye with them too! I like the idea of flowers sampler. I can't remember when I met pansy!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about weeds being flowers, etc., Helen! And a fun little "divination" you did with them, too -- that must've been with the buttercups? It's wonderful!
ReplyDeleteNat, oh yes! The dyeing on top of it all. But I don't have the heart to start harvesting flowers just yet. Soon though!
ReplyDeleteOh I think it would be shooting stars growing wild in South Eastern Alaska. I would have been three or four.
ReplyDeleteDeb, a fabulous flower name to remember -- shooting stars! I love that so much...
ReplyDeletePansies were one of my mom's favorites. My first favorite was from grade school...honeysuckles! We used sit out in the schoolyard at recess and suck the little droplet of honey out of about a million of them!!! Then we'd sneak a few back into class with us to enjoy on the sly. If our teacher ever knew what we were up to...she never let on. Enjoy them like that to this day!
ReplyDeletePansies always make me smile :)
ReplyDeleteI agree about the lint roller. A lot of my pieces have black fabric in them and our white cat seems to have some sort of crazy affection for jumping on my desk, needles and all, right into my work. She refuses to listen to me! Anyway, her white hair is on my black pieces along with dust(eek!)So, I use fat tape to remove any dust/hair. <3
Bluebells, they were so plentiful when I was a child but sadly quite rare in most areas now. There was a creepy old house on our street that had a huge overgrown front garden, in spring it was literally covered from side to side with bluebells, and I would muster all my courage to sneak through the gate and grab a bunch. I like bluebell's so much I named my daughter Bluebelle! (the E on the end was a mistake my her papa who clearly cannot spell so well!).
ReplyDeletehaving grown up in Spain, the scent of Hibiscus and Jasmine takes me back.
Nancy, honeysuckles!! -- you remind me of some other tucked-away memories -- they were so sweet, weren't they? A natural sugar-high in the classroom! Haven't tasted them for so long...
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea, Marie -- tape probably gives a little more control -- a white cat on black velveteen could be tough! Sort of like our black dog on light carpet -- I should vacuum every single day. I'm really up for hardwood floors these days.
ReplyDeletehere's a better view! love those pansies they were always in my mother's garden, too. such happy flowers with imagined faces in them. first flower memory...the bleeding heart, they grew in the grumpy old woman's yard across the street, they were so intricate and beautiful, she told me their name & i couldn't believe it so perfectly described them, though the bleeding part creeped me out.
ReplyDeleteHoola Tallulah, bluebells! -- I absolutely love your daughter's name being Bluebelle! Your memory of gathering them is like a fairy tale -- I think by allowing children to gather flowers we give them a nature-spirit connection that lasts a lifetime. I hope Bluebelle gets to collect bluebells!
ReplyDeleteCindy, that makes me laugh out loud -- the bleeding part creeped you out! You have a fairy-tale there, too -- wouldn't it be fun to see a replay of your experience?The look on your face when you heard that part, was the grumpy old woman so old, just the whole interaction...!
ReplyDeleteLove your blog and the pansies are so beautiful!! I saw your blog on Jude Hills SewIn blog. You have a lot of interesting things over here. I'll be back!!! :)
ReplyDeleteTammy, thanks!
ReplyDeleteAnd now I'm going to visit you, too!