Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.

"Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy."

                                                            John Denver

Hope you had a Happy Summer Solstice  Day yesterday.

The sun reached its highest peak in the sky yesterday and we had the longest day of light of the year.  I stood outside at noon to have a look at my shortest shadow of the year. There didn't seem to be either one at all.

The sun is a common theme in quilt making and a joyful one at that.  These patterns for sunshine quilts are available from the Quilting Inspiration Blog, a great spot to visit anytime not just for summer solstice.  Many of them are free and also have accompanying tutorials.  It is interesting to see how the sun gets represented, especially when you think we can't really see the sun as such.



I think they are each and every one glorious.

Of course, the sun is also depicted in many forms in embroidery.



This hand embroidery pattern is available from the HyJackArt Shop on  ETSY for around $10.

The sun in my little Danish cross stitched piece is very simply a circle of stitches with a spot in the center like a bull's eye.  I debated working it like this and wondered if I should have used a traditional rendering of the sun.  In the end I decided to work it exactly as the pattern showed it.
You can read my post, My Danish Cross Stitched Pictures where I wrote about this set of embroidered pictures  Here.



This particular flower always makes me think of  the sun- a round circle with bright yellow beams radiating outwards. It is just the way so many children draw the sun. The sunflower enjoys a close relationship with the sun too; it tracks the sun's path across the sky during daylight as it grows.

This particular sunflower was the showstopper of the garden last summer.  At its peak, it reached almost 10 inches across.  I was proud of it and it seemed to bloom on forever which was an added bonus.


The flag of Japan is a wonderfully rendered sun; they say it is the rising sun. 






Probably the most famous book with sun in the title.  I read it too many decades ago to really remember it, which I guess, is my loss.  I should really read it again but I doubt I will.  But what glorious sunny colours on this cover.