Monday, January 31, 2011

Embroidery / My favorite tree flower

I love tree flowers. There are two tree flowers I really love. One is Sakura which is Cherry blossoms in English. Sakura means a lot to me, maybe to many of Japanese people. It will be a long story if I tried to explain why it is so important to Japanese. So I think I will put it off a little bit. Another tree flower I really love is Dogwood. It is called Hanamizuki  in Japanese. When I see Dogwood flowers I know my most favorite season has come. I love the shape of Dogwood  tree, leaves and  flowers, I love the colors of flowers both in pink and white. Sometimes you see pale green on the petals.


I always wanted to make an embroidery pattern of this flower. And I finally did it. Not only making a pattern. This is my Dogwood flowers on cotton canvas.


I am a little afraid that they might look like Cherry blossoms. Well, Cherry blossoms have five petals. So if you knew it you would think they are not Cherry blossoms. What do you think?

Regarding Dogwood and Sakura, there is a story I want you to know. From 1912 to 1917, USA and Japan exchanged trees for wishing amicable relations. About 3,000 Sakura trees were sent from Japan to America . Some of these are the cherry blossoms which people enjoy on the riverside of Potomac river in Washington D.C. every spring. Japan received Dogwood trees from America. There are still some of those dogwood trees in Tokyo as well. This is not the reason why I like these two tree flowers, but those flowers always remind me the importance of peace and that it is very fortunate I can happily live in this country with people who I love.


Thank you for reading. I hope you all have a great Tuesday!

3 comments:

  1. Dogwood flowers and Cherry blossoms are very similar to me too. I love both of them but Cherry blossoms give me nostalgic feel always.

    I'm looking forward to seeing more how the embroidery work goes!

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  2. Hello PortulaKa,
    I understand your feeling so well. I am glad that there is someone who I can share that feeling with! It is kinda hard to explain. Thank you.

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  3. Oh, what lovely embroidery!!! I, too, love both of those tree flowers. I have a Japanese pink dogwood in my front yard that I stare at for hours when it is in bloom. Thank you for sharing your beautiful design.

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