Sunflower Days

It's hot here.  Really hot.  Normal for Arkansas but after the couple of weeks we had earlier in the month when it was cool enough to open the windows it's kind of like a slap in the face.  One good thing about heat is that it drives you inside and invites long slow days of stitching.  I've finished the embroidery on three of my Kathy Schmitz BOM patterns but only one has all the final finishing touches.  I added two pictures, one looking each direction off my deck, so you can see what this heat has done to my yard!  Everything had dried up and the dirt patch under this huge oak tree just seems to be getting bigger and bigger.  :(  Thankfully my azaleas and other plants are holding their own with my husband's watering.  And farther out, close to the lake, the grass remains green in direct proportion to our water bill.

All of this particular set of patterns comes with a bit of iron on applique....in this one it's this sweet sunflower face.  I love that component.  

I used both stem stitch and back stitch in this pattern, as well as a running stitch, some satin stitch, and a few french knots.

This isn't the border shown on Kathy's pattern.  That one was darling flying geese, which I automatically assumed I would do.  However, one of my geese decided to fly north, another west, the third east and so on.  Honestly I do not know what happened but my mother would have called the strips "wonky jawed".  I tossed them in the scrap heap and went for something a bit simpler.  Which translates to something that wouldn't have me pulling out my hair.  I hope this afternoon to work on the other finished ones but their borders are debatable....we'll see if simple becomes better.  :)