I have a dream.

OK, so my dream is nowhere near as lofty and admirable, say, as a day when our children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, but it is, as the Bard might say, mine own.

I have long been obsessed with cross stitch designs based on seasonal themes–so obsessed that I have an entire 3-inch binder filled with designs labeled “Seasons and Holidays other than Christmas” (just imagine how many binders I have devoted to Christmas!). One day, if I can ever afford a home of my own in California’s insanely overpriced real estate market, I’m going to have an entire wall devoted to seasonal and holiday-themed cross stitch designs that I rotate in as the year progresses.

If you can understand that dream, you’re my kind of crazy.

For now, I am content taking steps towards that goal by stitching the Mirabilia “In My Garden” series, beginning with “Summer in My Garden”:

My goals are to stitch “Summer in my Garden” in summer, “Autumn in my Garden” in autumn, and so on. And, as a major geek, I’ve chosen to define the seasons according to the solstices and equinoxes. Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, so I begin today with my summer project. This plan gives me three months to complete each one–doable, I think. Yes? No? Anyone else care to join in?

Since these are (relatively) simple patterns with a lot of “white space,” I am going to do them on hand-dyed linens. Coming soon: you get to vote on what color linen I should use!