The Wild and Lovely Neglected Garden

The summer is nearly over, and my neglected little backyard garden has gone wild!  It is overgrown with grasses and volunteers from past grown flowers.   I have abandoned it totally for the past three summers, always thinking that THIS year, I will tend it like a loving gardener would.

My garden tends itself, it seems.  It flourishes in spite of my neglect and good intentions.  The summer rains have brought color and beauty to this little patch of untended ground.   I can't complain.  I have chosen to do other things with my time.  I do pull weeds on occasion.  I even pick some of the flowers and bring them inside to enjoy.  But, mostly, I am either painting canvases, stitching my designs, designing new things, or tending to my extended family who live an hour away.

Look at that stunning bud in the above photo!  The actual little flower pales compared to that precious star!  This is a weed, but I love it!

I've always cherished a garden.  Such was the inspiration for these two canvases which I introduced years ago.  For some reason, these two canvases have never sold well at the trade shows where I've displayed them.  I've always been puzzled by this.  I see them stitched with glorious color, with lush stitches, and amazing fibers:  silk ribbons, velvet threads, transparent overlays, and of course, humble cotton flosses.  But overdyed cotton flosses!   I see them finished and framed, hanging in a hallway, leading to the back door, and out to the back yard garden.  I see them turned into charming pillows,  embellished with ruffles or pom poms, propped on a wicker settee in a sun room.  I see them as the garden I WOULD have if I were not so busy stitching!

And to that point, I have been stitching wildly myself.  So many canvases, so little time! Time! 
I do love to stitch, and I also love to teach.  I'm teaching my design, Summer Flowers on
Sept. 10, 2011 at  Be Stitched in Scottsdale, AZ.  (www.BeStitchedNeedlepoint.com)

                                                         We will be turning this canvas:

                                                                       
                                                                         Into This:

I would love to see you there! 

I figure if we fill our time with that which we love, our hearts will be as a beautiful garden, don't you think?  Ok, Ok, that was corny!  How about this:  If you can't manage to find time to at least stitch a garden like Summer Flowers,  much less cultivate a real one, then, I say, BUY a flower for your lapel.  Make mine diamonds, amethyst and rubies!