Tracey in Maine

Learn more about World’s End here.

When I looked outside my ktichen window this morning I saw a blanket of clouds covering the sky.  Every color was muted.  People moved by at a meandering pace with umbrellas tucked beneath their arms.  No one seemed particularly sad or depressed by the weather, just lost in thought, as if walking in a waking dream.  Dreams … that’s what I thought of as I snapped these photos of raspberries from this morning’s breakfast.

Recently, on a warm day in the city of Boston, I raced through one of its many squares toward my favorite hot dog vendor.  I’d already spent most of my half-hour break running errands and knew that I was going to be late returning to work, but darnit, I needed to eat and wanted a good hot dog.  As I made my way through the square, an elderly man stepped into my path.  He said, “Can you spare a quarter?”  I gazed into his watery blue eyes and said, “No, but would you like a hot dog?”  I don’t know why I said what I said that day, and he certainly wasn’t expecting me to say what I said.  He frowned and blinked a few times and then said, “You don’t have a quarter?”  I didn’t quite put my hands on my hips in exasperation, but I did raise an…

You know those cards that have the seeds embedded in the paper?  Well, a friend gave me such a birthday card a while back.  I’m sure it was meant to be planted outside but I tend to grow things indoors now.  And so I tore up the black-flecked purple card embedded with wildflower seeds, and pushed the paper beneath the soil of a planter or two.  I’d almost forgotten that I had done such a thing and then one day I noticed in a pot of marjoram, new green growth of a different hue. Wildflowers!  Still, I did not think that they would grow very much.  But the spring sun worked its wily ways and one day I peeked into the hallway where the pot does sit, and this is what I saw.

I hope you’re spending this special weekend with those you love!

Tomorrow begins the Nature Crochet Art Challenge! In preparation for the challenge, crochet your blank canvas using using a simple chain stitch.

Once you have the length that you want for your canvas, use the single crochet stitch to build on your chain until you reach your desired canvas size.

For the purposes of this challenge, I would recommend crocheting a smaller sized canvas, as our focus will be explorations through crochet embroidery.

As I’m sure you can guess, tomorrow’s challenge will focus on constructing your canvas for your embroidered explorations!

‘Til tomorrow…happy explorations!!

As promised, here is one technique that will be used in this month’s challenge: The Chain Stitch.

For those of you who have never crocheted anything in your life, here is a wonderful website to get you started with the crochet basics.

After you have crocheted your blank “canvas,”using basic crochet stitches,  you will begin the embroidering process!

Sketch your design onto your blank crocheted canvas using a washable fabric pencil. Then, begin following the lines with your chain-stitch.

To begin, insert your hook through the crocheted canvas and pull a yarn loop through.

Then once again insert the hook through the crocheted canvas, grabbing hold of the yarn underneath.

Pull that string through your loop to create your first stitch. Repeat until you are finished with your embroidered line.

The visuals provided in this post are from this excellent website.

Tomorrow, I will be posting more about crocheting your…

I have officially moved west! While I will definitely miss exploring the beauty of Austin, the mountains are calling my name! 🙂 I will have to take a few photography adventures in the coming days! In the meantime, I’ll start the ball rolling for June’s challenge (can’t believe June is only a week away! Yikes!)

For June’s Nature Art Challenge, I’d like to shake things up a little bit–moving to a completely new medium: yarn! In the coming days, I will be posting information about crochet and crochet EMBROIDERY (which is the technique that I will use for my nature explorations).

Here’s one example that I came across:

Click on the image to see close-up images of this embroidered work, and tune in over the next couple of days to learn the techniques that will be used for this month’s challenge!

Tools that you will need for the challenge:

yarn…

Respectful and attentive. This is what the country should be like.  Thanks for the reminder Dawn!

My absolute favorite flower is the peony. Of course it’s only in bloom for a few weeks but while they’re here I got a few photos of them.

This shot is up for voting at Static Instants May Photo Challenge so go vote!

Finally a garden bouquet.

I am a busy gal, in the very best way. Unfortunately my poor, lonely camera has seen little action in these past weeks. Perhaps this is why it’s dying on me (PLEASE HOLD ON UNTIL I CAN AFFORD AN UPGRADE!). I pulled some great photos off the memory card with some delightful shots from the zoo. The giraffes stole my heart!

Funny thing about this photo. My sister posted this link on her facebook today, and this giraffe was totally posing just like the photos featured.