Even though these wild carrot flowers (Queen Anne's lace) are considered noxious weeds here in NZ, I do like them. Especially their incredibly delicate white petals. I found these on the roadside over the weekend. For me, they are synonymous with my childhood summers, as they grew abundantly all over the family farm and alongside the path we walked down to reach the school bus in the mornings.
Of course, I had to try embroidering them.
i am sure from all my photographs of the queen that you realize I am a big fan.
She looks beautiful every season.
Your capture with thread is wonderful.
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I love your embroidery. I am also partial to Queen Anne’s Lace, but I do not love it’s propensity to take over my borders. But lovely work. Another lovely project.
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sweet embroidery melissa. Isn’t it sad that it’s considered a weed here, it’s such a delicate and beautiful flower. I always pick some to put in a vase when I see it growing wild.
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I love queen anne’s lace too. In the summer, I’ll bring it in and sometimes I’ll a healthy does of food coloring to the water, like I did when I was a child. I love that’s it’s so abundant and free for the taking!
I love how you embroider all these flowers. Lovely!
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I agree – Queen Anne’s Lace is so pretty! but your embroidery of same: even. more. gorgeous. I don’t know how you do it but I’m increasingly obsessed with getting fabric into an embroidery hoop so I can try it too, and actually bought a hoop when I wasn’t paying attention, presumably for this purpose. Meanwhile, I am totally stalking your next shop update if this is going into it ;^)
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and you did an amazing job….growing up in the UK countryside…our hedgerows were bowing with the stuff…
HAPPY SWEET DAYS!!!
Char.x.
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I did not know they were called “wild carrots” also! I remember these from my childhood, too. There were fields of them that I walked through on the way to a friend’s house.
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Man, are they really considered noxious? I knew they were weeds but that sounds harsh for something so lovely. I hate that jasmine is a noxious weed up here in Auckland too, I love it beyond reason but not so much that I can be naughty and grow it. Sucks to be responsible.
I was noticing the Queen Anne’s Lace yesterday as we walked along a harbour trail, and I was thinking of a embroidery I did awhile ago where the flowerhead was done with lots of little French knots. Took ages but it looked (and felt) so fabulous. It must be a flower that lends itself to embroidery.
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I like them too, they’re beautiful.
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weeds, flowers, flowers, weeds… all in the eye of the beholder, no? i’ve always rather loved dandelions, rather better than grass. just lovely on linen, these.
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Oh, this makes me so incredibly, overwhelmingly and happily homesick. Thankyou for the reminder.
I spent my childhood summers on the West Coast of the South Island, and picking wild carrot and yarrow, pulling seedheads off the long grass on the side of the road and throwing them into the air, and feeding big wet bunches of red clover to the goats are such poignant memories.
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thanks for your amazing comment, jenn!
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thank you, mary! hope you enjoy using your hoop sometime- when youre not knitting! 🙂
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We have them here too (I had no idea they were either noxious or wild carrots) though I rather like your embroidery better:)!
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It is again one beautiful morning after watching your flower pictures dear Melissa! They do fit even here in the snowy landscapes: yesterday was very foggy and today it appeared to become beautiful cover of frost around every single tree branch. So white landscape.
Have a warm Monday!
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I love this.
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so pretty … like that you call them wild carrots
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Interesting (and pretty!), I thought when looking at it that it was Anthriscus sylvestris (Cow Parsley) but I see that it is something different that you have there.
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Oh how I love these wild weeds (Queen Ann’s lace, tansy, dandelion) and the way you capture their essence so beautifully.
By the way, my lovely husband bough me some embroidery supplies for my birthday. Now I only need an extra 4 hours to my day…
I’ll know where to come to get my inspiration!
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we aromatherapists have a very important essential oil distilled out of the roots of those wild carrots. it is a real beauty booster as it helps agains dry and itching skin and wrinkles! and it it considered as absolutely harmless and even healthy as it can help to detoify your system especially the liver. maybe there are confusions with very very similar plants from the same family which are indeed poisonous.
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Queen Anne’s Lace is great to do science experiments with kids. cut a flower head leaving a long stem. put food colour in water in a jar or glass. Pop the flower in the water and pretty soon, the white flower petals will go the colour of the water! Visual evidence of Capillary action.
We did it all the time when we were kids. you can see an experiment and explanation from Lisa at 5 Orange Potatoes.
http://www.5orangepotatoes.com/blog/2009/07/01/queen-annes-lace-fireworks/
Sandy in the UK
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I love them too! With cornflower, my favorite summer weeds. The embroidery turned out very nicely.
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Nice embrodery!
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Beautiful photos! I love Queen Annes too. It reminds me of the rocky shores of Maine, where it grows freely. Ot along the roads and in the meadows where I live. I was so upset to hear that it is invasive. I still like it too though.
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I’ve always loved Queen Anne’s Lace and pick it for display in our home. I was very surprised to discover it is considered a weed here in Oregon too. Lovely embroidery.
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Beautiful! I love it too, always reminds me of snowflakes.
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Your embroidery is so exquisite. I love reading your blog!
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So beautiful!
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Beautiful – I love that you took a plant that might be otherwise overlooked and made such a lovely piece of needlework.
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I’m a big fan of Daucus carota too
I think I’m going to make a fan club with Margie 😛
I specially love the soft pink some of them are
another gorgeous botanical capture, my friend
xoxo
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What great embroidery! IIf you don’t love a noxious weed, who will!?
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Smitten, in L-O-V-E.
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the wild carrot is natures natural birth control!! Its called a carrot due to its root structure. If you pull the plant out of the ground, you will find a carrot like root attached. I LOVE this herb, and it is an herb, not a weed like most people believe it to be. It grows wild all over our property, but due to the amount of children we have, you would think Id be eating it at every meal!!
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So glad you did!
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tiny happy 
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