Between the months of Feb and June, I continued to work on the February installment of Nature Diary by Zoe Patching featured in Cross Stitcher Magazine. The little rabbit and the hellebore on the design was perfectly fitting for what I saw in my garden this Spring. With that, I was inspired to make a garden themed spread.
A Winter/Spring newsletter from my local garden center was the background pieces you see that say “Onions”, “Rhubarb”, and “Asparagus”, along with some other themed scrap papers. Towards the top of the left page I glued down a saved used tea bag, Calm Chamomile, a year round staple in my home. The focal rabbit was a printed image from The Graphics Fairy. Sometime in the spring, for Easter, they emailed a fun variety or rabbits, this one of course stood out to me as the perfect one for my journal. I originally had planned him to cover both pages of the spread, but in the end decided to cut him to half, as if springing forward from the crease of the pages.
What I found most fun about this spread, was using white gesso for the first time. I ran it across a brick stencil as a reflection of my home. I really love the texture and contrast that it provides. Highly recommend giving it a try!
And of course the stitching! I find the backstitch to be a little advanced. The placement the designer chose is not intuitive and hard to count as it doesn’t follow the natural over 2 placements as the stitches do. It is because of this that I took so long to complete the little project. I even left out a few of the design elements in order to finish it sooner. Going forward I have decided to be selective on which months of the Nature Diary that I will stitch and perhaps only stitch a motif or two from it — whatever calls to me.
I wrapped the cross stitch around a piece of cardstock and glued it down to the page. The right side page already had a stamped quote and I decided to collage around it and let it peek out from behind the fabric selvedge scraps that I tacked in. I continued the gesso brick design onto the page to help it flow together with the right and tucked a little journaling card in to remind of the bunnies that lived in my backyard through the spring months. Luckily, only a few zinnia seedlings and some of my gaura were nibbled on, but for the most part they fed on the grassy weeds, which was most welcomed.
I really enjoyed the process of this spread. Definitely a little more collaging than my first spread. Looking forward to working on another stitchy design for the next junk journal creation.
Petals and Pins 