The Garden of Eden

Good morning everyone!  I don't know about you, but my head is still spinning from last night's Olympic ceremonies.  I didn't get a single stitch in, it was all so mesmerizing.  Who'd have thought the Queen would enter on parachute, escorted by James Bond?  Well done London, well done!

I do have news from the Garden of Eden - I'm back fast at work on Jean Rattray! Last I posted about her, this is where I had left off:

If I remember that far back, I abandoned Jean in order to wrestle into submission finish Frances Burwell. So it made sense that I take back up with her now that Frances is finally defeated  done.

And I'm enjoying every calm, placid stitch of her!  There's nothing complicated or stressful about Jean, so she's suiting my mood right now very well.  I love the openness of her design, the rhythm of her stylized border and the fact that there's not even an alphabet to be concerned with.  Here's how she looked last weekend: 

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Since then, I've been working on the Tree of Life that goes in the open space next to Eve, and adding a bit now and then to the borders on either side.

I did give Adam and Eve a little bit of pigment.  The original design had them stitched in the same pearly white that the center of the blossoms are worked in.  To my eye, that made them look more like squid hanging out under that apple tree than people!

I'm hoping to have Jean all wrapped up by September 6th, which is the date I'll be starting work on my Atocha sampler.  So many plans!

And in other news from the garden, I can't stop myself from crowing a little bit about our success as okra farmers!   The growing seasons in Florida are very different from those up north, and it's taken a long time for us to learn the flow of them.  However, last winter we had a lot of luck with tomatoes, peppers and herbs in our patio pots.  On the heels of that success, we put in a packet of okra seeds in June.  Here are the results:

Much as I'm thrilled with the harvest, I also love the look of the okra blossoms themselves.  They only last a few hours, but are spectacular in their glory.  Guess I really have turned into a southern girl!

    Hope all is well in your corner of the world, and thanks so much for stopping by!