"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands........" 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Thursday, February 7, 2019

The wind is blowing hard and knocking on the house,

yet, I still venture outside to water the new growth that is spouting 
in the flower beds .  
and after I am finished, I come in with my hair looking 
just like this! Although it is only February, we have not had much of 
a winter and not much rain.  So I water these plants that are starting to bloom.

This seems to be the month of purple.   As  you remember from my last 
posts, the yellow jasmine shows up in January. 
This is stock flower.........it always shows up and has the most wonderful fragrance
in February.

The large patch of Vinca also shows off it's light purple blossoms.

Out in my "woods garden"  the wild conifer bushes
are starting to bud.

from a distance they look as if they have been embellished with
tiny french knots.

Up close they look like very tiny pine cones.  They are an
evergreen bush.....much like a pine tree, except they do not grow tall
like a tree, but spread out across the ground.  They do not 
have pine cones.  The deer love to eat on these.  They grow
abundantly in the woods here.

The pink primrose garden has spread out farther and looking
healthy. It will bloom a little later. 

The primrose leaves are so pretty at this time of year.........
they make me want to copy them onto fabric to work in
embroidery stitches. 

Speaking of embroidery.........most of you know I have an embroidery blog, 
Yesteryear Embroideries  at this link
but for those of you who do not know, I wanted to share my latest project I have been working on for the past 5 months. 
You can read about  where the inspiration came for this piece on my embroidery blog.
It is a small quilt made with  tiny triangles and embellished with my embroidery, all by hand.
All together there are 3,200 triangles
which ,when sewn together make 1600 squares that
are 3/4 ".
the quilt, at the moment measures 28" X 22"
It will be a wall hanging.
I now need to place the batting and the back fabric on ,
and then hand quilt it all together.
I have titled this piece " My Summer Basket"
As you can tell from the wood garden photo in this post, it is 
dry and clear here in Texas.........
but for many of you there might be a blanket of ice or snow? Maybe even a frozen river
as is the case of one dear friend in New Hampshire.
And for some of you .....such as my dear friend in Arkansas......
you may have a back yard full of daffodils of all kinds! 
Where ever your backyard is and whatever your weather may be,
I hope this finds you happy and warm!

11 comments:

Sally said...

Isn't it wonderful to start seeing a bit of pretty color! Love your photo's.

Our camellia bush? I thought it was dying; actually part of the back did - it's huge. Now, I see some of those buds have bloomed! They usually do in December but not this year. The same with the azalea's; usually we have a LOT blooming but just a few so far. Don't know what's up with that!

When I was 'over home', I saw tons (well a lot) of camellia bushes; they were filled with the most beautiful colors and everywhere I looked most homes had several. My cousin cut back his late mother's and now they are blooming again. :)

We haven't had too much cold weather, today it's 80 here in NE Florida. It's a beautiful day, thank the good Lord.

Take care; I'm going to visit your other blog now.

xoxo

Nancy J said...

Oh those tiny triangles, this will be" Full of Love" when all done. My back yard is just grass, a trailer, and a small wood shed. But in the front garden, we have day lilies, no flowers as they have been transplanted, some Gossamer Grasses, hundreds, yes, that is true, of various bulbs, and this morning I saw some tiny green shoots, maybe Grape Hyacinths showing that there is goodness hidden under all the new garden mix.

Prims By The Water said...

Love learning about the different plants and flowers you have. Vinca vine grows like a weed here in Michigan. Janice

Granny Marigold said...

We usually have one very cold period for our winter and right now is it. Wind chills are breaking previous records and more snow is forecast. I'm wondering which perennials will make it through the winter and which will die. It amazes me how even just in North America we have such diverse climates.

You have put so many hours into your lovely wall hanging. It's truly a marvel.

lil red hen said...

Wow!! Kathleen, you already have so much beauty in your surroundings! None here yet, but there are a few daffodils pushing up greenery. So far we've only had one dusting of snow, but rain has been too abundant all winter. Mud is everywhere; I made the mistake of trying to go through some and sunk down almost to the top of my boots. If it hadn't been for the fence panels to hold onto I think I would have needed the farmer and his tractor to pull me out! lol

And, your basket of flowers is a work of art for sure. Being a quilter myself, I know how tedious it can be to work with such tiny pieces. You have a splendid talent!

Debra said...

It's amazing to see flowers blooming this time of the year. Texas must be very beautiful..

Henny Penny said...

The little quilt, or wall hanging is absolutely beautiful. Your flowers are interesting and pretty. We've had a week of warm weather but winter is coming back and now the jonquils are blooming. This happens a lot in NC.

Henny Penny said...

Oh, I meant to say something about the picture of the hair. It's funny. I've come in many day with the same hair style. :)

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

We don’t have much snow left except in lots where it has been piled up, but there are no colorful blooms here like in your backyard, Kathleen. I remember when we had blue vinca in our VA front yard. I like the future wall hanging and appreciate the time and talent that went into making it.

Connie said...

I enjoyed seeing your photos of what is in bloom there. Your quilt is beautiful!! So much work involved in that. We have cold temperatures here. No snow at the moment, but some is on the way.

NanaNor's said...

So wonderful to see your flowers and think of spring. Here in northern Co. we are in the midst of melting snow and frigid temps. No thought of spring until May. Enjoy. Love your embroidery, so pretty. Can’t wait to see it finished.
Hugs,
Noreen