Union Jack Pillow

Several months ago I had a customer wanting to stitch the US, Canadian, and Great Britain flags as pillows for her son's room.  I searched through many designer sites with little success.  Although there are charted flags, none were large enough for cushions.  So, I thought why not chart them myself.

And this week I had sewn the Union Jack cushion, that another customer had stitched.  It is stitched in needlepoint with Anchor wool, and it's completed size is 18" x 16".  I love the finished result, the gold trim (not my initial thought) looks great.

Clivia Update: the flower stem continues to grow taller.

But the most exciting confirmation to the wonders of rice water is the changes to my other Clivia plant.  This one is huge and very dense.  It  also has never flowered in all these years, but it's green leaves have always been lush and the plant constantly grows  new shoots.  Even though all my plants now received rice water, I was quite disappointing when this Clivia did not flower.






I thought it was all my fault, as I have been meaning to separate all the shoots and give them breathing room. So imagine my surprise this morning; as I was watering my plants (with rice water of course) I spotted these blossoms hiding among the cluster of leaves.

Not that I doubted it's benefits, I just don't know why rice water isn't common knowledge.
So spread the word!!