Spent Hydrangea

I did a REALLY quick one of the dead Hydrangea and played with the h quercifolia floret. Fun , but very quickly done! I love the crackly texture of the dead flowers but need to work on my technique as this is not perfect. For one thing, I stuck to HB lead . Could not put my hand on the harder pencil :-(

Sketchbook Challenge for February

Hydrangea florets

...and some more...

...and a couple more!

I am not madly keen on large flowers, generally so when I find a large one made up of small ones...! Anyway, these are from closeup photos of individual florets on large flowered hydrangeas. I have some other pictures I took of dead, dried up ones too which I may tackle next. I have not done too much closeup this week , but I have been in my sketchbook every day. Here are a few examples. The Zentangles ARE helping. My hand is much better behaved now and I can tell it what to do, and mostly- it does as it is bidden!

You see, I am a Capricorn, which, in my case, means I am a January baby. Remember the theme from January? Doodling!! I LOVE to doodle. I love to draw seriously too but I LOVE doodling!

A whole page of doodles

These Tangles are really captivating!

I keep telling myself it is therapy for my hand- yeah! THERAPY for my HAND ! The head is happy too:-)

I will try to do some serious drawing next week - maybe those dead, dry hydrangea heads.

Sketchbook Challenge for February

More closeups . This time, mushrooms in Pigma Micron on paper. They are not TOO close up but I liked the picture - just from a magazine about food.

Mixed mushrooms

Not much else happening here today. I am gathering stuff for a class tomorrow and cleaning the house up a little- not that it needs it or anything ;-) This may be my only offering for today.

Sketchbook Challenge for February

Fooling around in the sketchbook again yesterday. The lichen is from a twig from our Sunburst Locust and the pears are part of a photo from a magazine.

                               Slightly out of focus lichens on the little branch from our locust tree.

Flyer Inchies

Wouldn't we all LOVE to be able to fly! I have often thought about that and then decided, looking at some of the things that DO fly, maybe to be grounded is ok after all. Birds get to eat worms! Bees get covered by dusty, sticky pollen and die when they get ticked off enough to show their anger. Clouds are ephemeral- dry the air out and - poof! You are toast! I'll stick with my feet of clay and be happy watching flyers instead of joining them.

Beautiful, but short lived :-(

How about those electrical wires?

Dynamite gourmet meals of mosquito larvae!

Pretty jolly, but one sharp object... and then!!! Eventually your shape changes as you gradually lose your air!

Here is a dude with the right idea. Just PRETEND to fly!

Happy fun till the wind drops or your string breaks.

Many life lessons contained herein. Never mind. Fly in your mind and enjoy the view. It really IS a grand life here on terra firma :-)

Fini!!

The Reemay project- still seeking a title!

Well, I have finished it, all bound and with a hanging sleeve on the back. I finished the beading of the edges last night. This was a new venture and I learned a LOT. I even used my own hand dyed fabric to bind it. Quite a satisfying experience all round. Next? Well, I have some other things that need doing right now but my next step in THIS department, is to work on more subtle colours with the dyes and to really improve my hot knife cutting of the Reemay.

More close ups for the Sketchbook Challenge. I need better subjects and less wiggle in my pencil.

Part of a book cover. Look, Ma! No rulers!!

Still no ruler :-(

These are just done with pen and pencil crayon. Not sure how this little sketchbook would take paint - and I guess , now that I think on it, I have given my watercolours to my daughter - who will make much better use of them now.

Well, in theory, I should be getting dressed and getting on with my day.It is beautifully sunny and bright here and a walk beckons. Spring is upon us. I wonder how long this will last?

Liebster Award

Somehow, I seem to have been given an award for my blog! It is apparently given to bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers. No problem there! Stitching Lady, Anneliese sent it to me and I think her VERY much. What a kind gesture!

There are rules attached to the Liebster Award-
1.- Thank the giver and link back to her/him.
2.-Reveal your top picks and leave a comment on their blog.
3.-Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4.- Have faith that your followers will spread the love too.

So, I want to thank Anneliese VERY much for this. I am overwhelmed. You can find her lovely Blog at
anaslua2.blogspot.com/

I would definitely agree that Anneliese deserves this award too . As well, have a look at the following blogs-

elainequehl.blogspot.com - Elaine is a wonderful quilter, dyer and teacher and her blog is ALWAYS     interesting, educational and entertaining. Her skill as an artist and quilter are exceptional.

bettybusbyblog.blogspot.com- Betty's work is to die for. Her blog is fascinating, very open and instructional and so lovely to look at. Betty is a very kind woman, very generous and encouraging  and I truly appreciate that.

multicoloredpieces.blogspot.com-Nadia lives in Tunisia and her blog and her recycled work are fascinating.

tanglewoodthreads.blogspot.com-Penny is now a Maritimer, living in Nova Scotia. Her blogs are always informative, creative and VERY thoughtful . She is a stitcher, a dyer and a philospoher.

morningaj.blogspot.com- AJ'ss blog is really fun, thought provoking and very interesting. She is a Jill of many talents!

As requested!

Some of the border quilting.

Beading in the centre

These are some og the little beads I am going to use around the green border.

Add caption

Another corner quilted. This shows the beads pretty well.

This is all finished now. I should have waited to take the pictures!!!

I have been asked to show some photos of the beading on the Reemay project. Here they are. They are all small beads, scattered loosely over the whole piece. The border will have some beading too but I have not gotten that far yet. I did finish the quilting of the border and the beading of the centre tonight.Tomorrow, hopefully I will back this little piece.

Closeups

Here is today's offering in the Sketchbook Challenge. It is part of a closeup photo I took last fall of the junction of a seedhead on a branch of our Magnolia Soulangeana. I LOVE this photo! The colours and textures are like something out of science fiction!

Sketchbook Challenge for February

February's theme is Close Up! I love doodling but I also love closeups. Macro is mucho great. We have two very good friends, one of whom is a superb doodler and I would love  to see him share his inventive  and winsome doodles with more people. Oddly, his wife, an excellent painter, is also a photographer who really excels at macro photography . Pity they are not involved in Shetchbook Challenge . These two months are tailor made for them- and for me too. I will do more as the month goes on but here are a couple I did this morning after my walk. I collected evergreen cones of various sorts.

Told you I love doodling!

Some beading on the reemay

I started some of the edge quilting and continued with beading today. I am happy so far but really have to decide what to do with this in the end. I am thinking a pillowcase turned edge - no border. If you look closely though, you will see that this is not too square and I have some beads that will need removing while I sew the edge. That is called, ""PLAN AHEAD, EEJIT!" However, I was not expecting this to be as happy an outcome as it is becoming. Anyway, here it is - to date!

the centre beaded

one corner- beads are too close to the edge!

centre and one side beaded- mostly

The whole thing in a poor picture as it was draped over a cushion , so hard to get a good focus. You get the idea!

OK, tomorrow, onward ! If you have any great ideas for finishing, let me be thie first to know- PLEASE!

Reemay so far

Taken in natural light- VERY bright sun!

I moved it out of the sun as much as I could and got this with forced flash.This is truer colour. The first one looks faded.

I am making progress on this project and am liking it more as I go on. I really like the contrast between the crispy, hard Reemay and the glowing, nubbly Dupioni. The whole central motif is now stitched and I am in a quandary. Shall I leave the empty holes as they are or shall I do some quilting in there too? I will definitely do some work in a pretty variegated lime, yellow thread around the outer edge on the limey green silk.

I have no backing on this yet. I am quilting on the silk backed with batting. I should post a picture of the back side. I really like the wrong side of things.

The wrong side of the reemay

A little closer up but it does not look well focussed here. My apologies, but you do get the idea.

There! Done!! I LOVE digital photography!

Smile Inchies :-)

Fat Honey bees hang around flowers and make honey! What's not to love about that?

Butterflies are some of nature's extravagances- perhaps not fabulously useful, but SOO lovely. Maybe the Creator decided we needed a built in smile inducer. Works for me!

Dragonflies are a little more useful than butterflies, but still elegant and evocative of happy summer days beside peaceful ponds.

What makes YOU smile? I know some of the things that make ME smile. I adore little kids' art! It is filled with smiles , although I have seen some children's art that makes me very sad too. however, today, we speak of smiles. Make someone smile today. Smile yourself. It is good for you and good for everyone around you too. I have a friend in England who always says, " Smile! It keeps the opposition on its toes! " That is true :-)

Now, the concept of Happy Dancing Yaks just makes me guffaw! To heck with smiling!!These two are my copies of drawings done by our daughter, aged four years. Big smiles on the Yaks and on Mummy in the next Inchie. Note the tres glam high heeled shoes too!- and , smile!

Sad smile, Happy smile! This was what our daughter called frowns and smiles. Neat concept, no?

In closing, I would say that smiles are something we should all strive to show to the world. Try HARD to make someone smile every day. There is plenty in the world to make us sad and fearful, but a smile is always therapeutic- for the Smiler and for the Smilee!