More Flowers, More Dimensional Stitches, and The Showy Evening Primrose

I usually have company whenever anything is happening - like breathing, or whatever. This is Emmy. No, she doesn't get to drink the Snapple, but she could make a good commercial.

This evening it was around 9 p.m. - just enough light outdoors for a nice surprise. Admiring the roses my hubby brought for our 50th wedding anniversary yesterday and how nicely they are opening, I decided to snap a picture.

And then I noticed in the primroses outside, blooming in the twilight. (They are all in bloom early morning, too, and it actually looks like Someone turned on the flood lights.) This is now, 9 p.m. on a Saturday night:

Before it got too dark, my camera and I headed out the back door and captured this lucky shot of the Showy Evening Primrose that has been volunteering in my back yard (wherever it feels like - different locations each year). Isn't this pretty?



The blossoms continue up the stems until frost, and then all of the little former flowers/seed pods fill up the stems. About that time the little finches come and perch up and down the flower stalks, munching and stuffing till their little birdie hearts are content.

 

 

Finding them here is kind of like playing "Where's Waldo?", isn't it?

so .... a long, long time ago - about the time I was writing my book "Take A Stitch", I played around with the dimensional drizzle stitch and discovered that I could make a "double-crossed drizzle" and also a "star-crossed drizzle".  The Star-Crossed Drizzle makes a perfect stamen center for the Showy Evening Prims:

I have used it for some of my Millefiori designs, including "Love-In-A-Mist" -- a beautiful flower that doesn't EVER go away. It re-seeds and repeats, over and over each year. But it's pretty, so I don't mind. Here's the design I made with this Brazilian dimensional embroidery stitch technique:

Since the evening wasn't completely dark yet, I turned the camera to see what else I could find. This is the blue lobelia. It's supposed to be an annual, but someone forgot to tell the flower that - I've had it repeat itself for several years now, and the hummingbirds love it.

There's also a lighter, sky-blue version of this flower.  And, of course, those cute little hummingbirds are always attracted by a hardy fuchsia near my kitchen window, and also by this flower -- the Hot Lips Salvia:

Getting pretty dark out there now, so I'll give myself a rest. Cuthbert, as you can see, has already started his 24-hour rest.

Rosalie