Treesa's Crafting!!: Californica 2023- Wanna Stitch with Me?

Humans are strange. We move somewhere because we think it's amazing and then we immediately start changing it! It's so hard realize what is native or endemic to an area because so many people have come in and altered the landscape. When I think of trees in California, of course I think of redwoods but I also think of eucalyptus trees which clearly aren't native- well maybe it's not so clear. So I wanted a project that celebrated native flora, and I really couldn't find what I was looking for. Well, when you can't find what you want, you should make it!

So then I had to pick the style of the project and the flora. I pretty quickly settled on flowers for this project- hello embroidery has a lot of flowers- I mean A LOT! But then so does California, so after some time researching I decided my flower theme was going to be a year of flowers with the name californica in the scientific name.

This project also involves my figuring out how to embroider these flowers! Some flowers like the California poppy have been embroidered by plenty of people before me (and I've embroidered a California poppy before), but I haven't seen anyone's embroidery of most of these flowers! Will I do a good job? No idea! I mean I hope so but you never can tell until it's done!

If you want to stitch along with me, get ahead of me, do it your own way, I'd be thrilled! I'd especially love to see how you did the flowers! What follows is my road map- flower map?- for the year

Photography Note: I am not the photographer of any of the photos! All of them came up when I googled the scientific names of the flowers. I totally forgot to note where the photos came from in my excitement to research these plants.

A Year of Californica!

January- Paeonia californica or California peony (blooms: January-March)

[Wikipedia says: Flowers at tip of stem and nod: petals are dark red or purplish, sometimes almost black, while the margins are lighter, elliptic in shape and ½–1 inch long, usually longer than the sepals.]

February- Eschscholzia californica or California poppy (blooms:February-March)

[Wikipedia says: Flowers solitary on long stems, silky-textured, with four petals, each petal 0.79 to 2.36 in long and broad; color ranges yellow, orange and red]

March- Cardamine californica or Milkmaids (blooms: February-April)

[Wikipedia says: Flowers borne on a raceme inflorescence, each flower about ½ inch in diameter with four white to pink petals]

April- Encelia californica or Bush sunflower (blooms: February-June)

[Wikipedia says: Daisy-like flowers, with 15 to 25 bright yellow ray florets 1/2-1 inch long around a center of protruding yellowish to purplish brown disc florets]

I 100% want this beautiful bee in my embroidery! I think it's a valley carpenter bee, and I always get excited when I see one when I'm out and about! [Side note: Native bees is a pretty exciting topic too and I found this cool article about them!]

May- Lasthenia californica or California goldfields (blooms: March-May)

[Wikipedia says: inflorescences of flower heads, 3⁄4–1 inch across, contains many yellow disc florets with a fringe of about 10 small ray florets]

June- Justicia californica or Chuparosa (blooms: February-June)

Chuparosa is Spanish for hummingbird- according to the Internet and the Internet would lie, would it??? (I act like I didn't use the Internet for every aspect of this project! As if!

[Wikipedia says: Tubular flowers about 1–1 5⁄8 inches long, usually in shades of bright to deep red, or sometimes yellow, with a two-lobed upper lip and a wide three-lobed lower lip that falls open to reveal the inside of the blossom]

July- Carpenteria californica or Tree anemone (blooms: May-July)

[Wikipedia says: Sweetly-scented flowers 1–3 inches across with five to eight pure white petals and a cluster of yellow stamens & critically imperiled- YIKES!]

August- Aralia californica or Elk's clover (blooms: June-August)

[Wikipedia says: Greenish white flowers produced in large compound racemes (cluster) of umbels (think umbrella) 30–45 cm in diameter at the stem apex; each flower is 2–3 mm in diameter, and matures to small (3–5 mm) dark purple or black fruit, each berry containing 3–5 seeds]

September- Phacelia californica or California scorpionweed (blooms: March-September)

[Wikipedia says: Dense, hairy inflorescence is a one-sided curving or coiling cyme of many bell-shaped flowers. Each white or pale blue to lavender flower is 1⁄3 inch wide. This native wildflower is a food source for the Mission blue butterfly, an endangered species endemic to San Francisco. ]

October- Kallstroemia californica or Caltrop (blooms: August-October)

[Wikipedia says: Flowers five rounded or oval petals and a ring of ten stamens & Arizona Cooperative Extension says: Petals are up to 1/8 inch long, orange-yellow fading to white]