This year Skipton Stitchers are doing phenology wheels as a group project. I was delighted when this was suggested as I’ve been toying with the idea of stitching one for a couple of years. A phenology wheel is a circular visual nature journal, you can paint them, stitch them, create the picture however you wish. I’m stitching flowers and plants which are in the garden or on the back lane each month.

Last time I posted about my wheel I had just finished the snowdrops for January…

Well I’m not much further on! We’ve just this week had wardrobes fitted in our bedroom for the first time, so of course we had to completely empty the room, so there’s furniture everywhere, bedding and clothes heaped up, I’m the chief decorator in this house so I repainted the walls, hung wallpaper, glossed…the house is in chaos! Luckily the carpet goes down tomorrow so we can start finding a new home for everything and get back to normality!

Yesterday evening I finally managed a little stitching on my wheel.

I decided to stitch catkins, they were particularly lovely this year. Catkins are the petal-less flowers of certain trees, willow and hazel are most common down the back lane. They are long dangly flowers, apparently there are male and female catkins, I didn’t know that until just now! They appear in February, before the leaves, usually hanging in twos or threes, it’s lovely to see them dancing in the breeze.

I decided to use French knots in a variegated greeny-yellow. I’ve also another variegated which is slightly darker and more orange, I might use that where the catkins overlap. I’m pleased with the way the catkin does looked rounded. I’ve not done much as you can see but at least I’ve started!

The next SAL post will be on May 3rd, two days before I go on my big adventure interrailing round Europe with my daughter. I’ve a lot to do in the next three weeks including trips to London to see friends, visiting my daughter, sorting out the garden, never mind the house…so I’ll do my best to get this project up to date but I’m not promising

Please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching.

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Helen