Sewing up a storm

It sounds like a great name for a project to help floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or other natural disasters. But I was just thinking about clearing the last few sewing projects off the dining room table so we could go back to eating in here. It's funny how your mind wanders, isn't it? The title would be a good one to help the military as well.

This place looks like a little of each but the battle is between my priorites. How do you separate the things you need to do from the things you want to do. Sometimes we're lucky and it all comes together, clearly it's a disaster of some sort....creativity seems to come with it's own debris field so I'd better start clearing this one up before I move on to other projects.

Watercolor Lily

Lily in Blue and White China

Fresh Flowers and Pencil Drawings



Distracted Again

I went to find my sketchbook and came across this photo of my tulips so I used it to decorate some letter paper and drew a tulip on the envelope. With the sketchbook on hand I reached for the lilies and ended up drawing lilies around another letter before settling down to start some regular drawings.

Having the pencils handy I eventually settled down to do a serious drawing of the lily, unfortunately I did it on a note card instead of in my sketchbook and I ran out of room on the page.

50 Ways to leave your lover

I was thinking of Paul Simon's song "50 ways to leave your lover" while out in the garden today. I often think of music while enjoying the sights and sounds of the garden and when this song popped into my head it occurred to me that he had a point. There are a number of ways to approach any situation so when I cut this lily, the first thing I did was drop it on the scanner because it provides a different perspective than just shooting photos of an object. Next I went to photography and shot it against a variety of different backgrounds both outdoors and in where the lighting would vary as well. I'll set these images aside to work with later while I use the actual plant to base a series of drawings and paintings on. How many images and in which media will depend on how long the flower itself lasts. I've only got 2 or 3  plants of this variety in the garden so I'll have to work fast and as usual I'll post the results of my work as soon as I have any (good, bad and all). I'll be looking forward to it as much as you will so be sure to post a comment or two or just check a box to let me know how I'm doing. Thanks!

Better Weather

We had some rainy days so I reached in Carol's scrap bag and made a couple more tote bags. The denim one had been bits of a shirt that I put together in a way that saved most of the embroidery and bordered the bag nicely. There's not much to say about the small bag except that the lining had been part of another shirt at one time. I'm sure everyone will get a lot more use out of these.
After the sewing the sun came out again so of course I headed for the garden. Here are a few of the latest pictures:

I don't know quite what to say about the garden, it's always an untidy mess but I love it. You never quite know what will be blooming next and It's nice just to sit and listen to the birds while resting up from the latest bit of weeding and transplanting. I keep thinking I should work harder at it but it's more fun to draw, paint and photograph than it is to enjoy from the end of a shovel.

The computer ATE my painting!

I did this oil painting about 20 years ago and just sold it recently. As I thought about this image I'd always wondered what it would have been like if I'd made other color choices. Doug ran it throough the computer and came up with these:

I printed these pictures because I was curious to see what they would look like together and of course since I had the photos they had to become todays mail which of course made me think that they would make a nice set of notecards...which made me think...

Well, you'll just have to come back and find out-won't you?

Iris dies, news in the mail

By the time I finally got in the mood to paint that last Iris it had died and I had to work from photos instead.

Mail and other projects

It's funny but with all of the other fresh flowers I have to work with I just kept thinking how much I missed growing sunflowers this year. No matter what else I tried it all came back to sunflowers so I'm painting this and reminding myself to buy plenty of seed for a border of them next year. It's a lot more fun than a privacy fence and the birds love it.





Meanwhile as I looked over the flowers and the photos of them that I shot, I decided to share the garden with an Aunt and Uncle so the little pencil drawing was on the corner of the envelope that I sent the letter and photos in. I didn't draw anything on the letter itself because I had a cute little garden themed folder to fill and write on. Yes, mail is my very favorite thing!

Purple

I only have one Iris like this and knew I should be drawing and painting it before it was gone but I just couldn't get in the mood for it and all I wound up with is this 8X10 inch abstract as I was trying to mix a purple that would work for me. I'm not sure what to think about that...



Treasure Hunt

My yard and garden are a weedy mess just now but I manged to gather these and plan a series of drawings and paintings based on them. The fresh flowers won't last long so I'd better get busy. I don't like to work from photos unless I absolutely have to.

Wrapping it up

I've done about all I can with the Iris this season, rehung the larger paintings and am still working on the small one where I'll add the flowers to the spirea bush and the much and borders to that corner around the pots and Iris. It may not be my best work but I learn something new each time I revisit a subject or rework a painting. I'm also still sewing, crocheting and gardening but you've read enough about that lately so I thought I'd move on.

Before and After with Iris