A prayer in spring...

 Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;

 And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

 

All simply in the springing of the year.

 

  Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

 Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

 And make us happy in the happy bees,

 The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

 

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

 The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

 And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

 For this is love and nothing else is love,

 

The which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

~~Robert Frost

Things in our neck of the woods are sprouting, blooming, and budding. Like answers to prayers.

Have a blessed week.

Pansies

The Pansy is a large group of hybrid plants cultivated as garden flowers. Pansies are derived from Viola species Viola tricolor hybridized with other viola species, these hybrids are referred to as Viola × wittrockiana^[1] or less commonly Viola tricolor hortensis. The name "pansy" also appears as part of the common name for other Viola species that are wildflowers in Europe. Some unrelated species, such as the Pansy Monkeyflower, also have "pansy" in their name. (from Wikipedia)

These sweet violas came home with me today.

I totally love pansies and violas. Totally.

One of my most favorite tops was made several years ago,

featured in Sew Beautiful Magazine.

I used Madeira rayon thread to embroider the Jenny Haskins pansies on linen table topper used as the collar on this blouse. The hemstitching and the sage band were already on the topper. What a time saver!

 The I turned a portion of the design into an applique (but removed linen fabric and added silk organza to the area) and stitched the grid portion with Sulky 2116.

The back of the collar.

Each sleeve sports a different motif. 

This one embellished with a Bernina lace monogram.

And this one, simply more pansies.

The beautiful embroidery designs are by my dear friend Jenny Haskins.

This is an older embroidery design set and can be purchased HERE.

Go to Jenny's website HERE and see some of the most beautiful embroidery designs, ever.

Source

A long time ago, I had also created this window shade for Designs in Embroidery Magazine (did I say a long time ago?)...  Note the use of a different pansy motif. These are Bernina Debbie Mumm embroidery designs and the project can be found on the web HERE.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today. I love hearing from you and seeing by your comments that you've been here. Have a blessed week!