TyQuilts Designs

I love Vinca they are so hard to kill. They live through heat and drought and in the worst soil. They also look great and have lots of blooms. When this weeks watercolor pencil workshop assignment was on flowers how could I resist doing this little painting?

I haven’t been able to show my quilting on this blog lately as I have been working on this baby quilt.  Now that it has been mailed off to the recipient I can post it here.

My husband and I enjoy a group called Bounding Main. They are a group of a capella singers with wonderful harmonies,  and great comraderie and showmanship.  Bounding Main  sing Sea Shanties and Maritime songs. As  fans we are treated so warmly that  we feel like friends.    When I learned that one of the members of the group was expecting a baby boy,  and I found this fabric with ships etc, how could I resist using it in a baby quilt?  It does have nice soft minkee on the back to make it more baby like.  This was fast and easy and a lot of fun to do.

More of a painting than a drawing because I need to continue my pieces for the watercolor pencil workshop I am taking. This was done from a copyright free photo I found on morguefile.com

I am having a blast in the class. Some of my classmates are doing amazing things with just three pencils.. Not me.  By the time I am done with a painting, I may have dozens of pencils spread all over my work surface, and little tests scribbles of blended colors. I just love all that color.

When I first read the this weeks lesson for the watercolor pencil workshop I am taking with Kate Johnson, I had a moment (okay many moments) of pure panic. I have never painted before.. Why did I think I can do this?? With a self pep talk, and Kate very kindly talking me down I took a breath and…. today worked up the courage to actually put pencil and water to paper. This was my result.

Our photography class is coming to an end, and our assignment this week was loads of fun. Taking closeups using the macro setting on our camera or a macro lens as the case may be. I love how this one turned out. I put water and oil in a clear bowl with a swirled pattern and set the whole thing on top of a piece of hot pink cardstock.

The watercolor pencil workshop with Kate Johnson has begun. This first week we are just getting acquainted with our materials, mixing colors– Making color charts– deciding which brands of paper, pencils etc we prefer. It has been a lot of fun, but very hard not to feel intimidated as most of the other members seem to have so much experience and knowledge and skill already. I have never painted, and am just learning to draw. But I am bravely going to go forth and work the exercises and post my homework. I hope to see lots of progress from beginning of class to the end.

This is the color chart for the 15 colors of caran d’ache watercolor pencils, I plan to keep in my portable kit. I did the chart on the first two pages of the moleskine sketchbook that I will keep with the pencils. This way, I have easy reference to all of the colors I can mix from my 15 pencils.

One of our assignments was to paint something simple like a flower. The tulip on the left is the first time I have used these pencils without an ink outline. I did draw it lightly in pencil first and I am very pleased with how it turned out, especially the shading.
For the tulip on the left, I wanted to play with a mottled background and so needed the brush pen outline so the tulip would stand out. Loving color as I do, I am having a wonderful time in this class.

Both ends of my motherhood spectrum

To Motherhood with it’s many joys and occasional sorrows…..

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.

The other night I watched the Michael J Fox show on optimism – Great show. Overall I think I am too much of a worrier to call my self an optimist. However, every spring I have my own little optimistic ritual. Off I go to the local greenhouse to buy a few annuals and hope that I can arrange them artistically and more importantly… Keep them alive. I did really well last year, we will have to see how I do this year.  I really love these colors and textures together so that should work in my favor.

Spring is finally coming to the frozen north! Flowers are peeping through. I off to a green house today for a few annuals which is the extent of my gardening. Love flowers, hate to garden. I have been enjoying spring vicariously now through many other blogs.

Yesterday while taking Annie for a walk all of the flowering trees were blooming in the neighborhood, the scent was heavenly. I wish I could bottle it.

Finally, I leave you with a picture of how our diva Annie looks when I won’t leave the computer to take her out for another walk.. Can we say drama queen?

While taking photos yesterday for a photography class assignment I spied this lone dandelion and snapped a quick pic. As you can see it inspired a page in my art journal.

Then on my way home, I spied this pond, there is something so mysterious about ponds surrounded by trees. I love the trees reflecting in the water.