Sketch quilt

The quilt that I've titled "Generations" is finished. This was my entry to a challenge presented by my art quilt group. The guidelines were that it should be 15" x 24" vertical and monochromatic. We drew color chips from a bag and mine in a rosy sepia color. I know that most will have an array of colors, but I wanted to challenge myself to using a minimal span of colors. Maybe because of the sepia color, I jumped on the idea to do my grandparents wedding picture. The project snowballed and I also did my parents, my in-laws and on the bottom, my husband and me. The quilt has been quilted by machine and by hand.

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The figures were drawn with a Pitt pen and I brushed on color from oil paint sticks. The close-up is of my in-laws, Betty and Don. OK, there is something "off" in each portrait, but the love is there. In fact, it was a more emotional project than I have anticipated. I kept thinking about how each of the ancestors were married "until death do us part", the shortest was about 35 years. Really, there is no formal picture of my parents, so their drawings were done from a 1943 picture-they were married in 1939. I had on a silly headpiece that you can see was crooked in this picture. How unimportant the clothing-what is important is the marriage. A fancy wedding is no guarantee of a successful marriage.

Later this month, I will be able to see how other met this challenge. I've sure that there will be a wide variety of designs.

What one person can do

My friend, Ron, used to jog around his neighborhood. He began picking up trash. Then he realized that there was a strip of dirt between the sidewalk and wall that was just begging for some attention. Since he is a Master Gardener, he decided to plant a garden. He improved the soil and planted California poppies (our State flower) and iris. Oops! twice the city sprayed for weeds and killed the new plants. After going to the city council, he got them to realize that something good was going to grow.

People will stop and thank him or honk as they go by while he tends his garden.

We call it RON'S WALL. This is what one person can do.

Sketchcrawl in Davis, CA

Saturday, under the leadership of Pete Scully, we met to sketch at the Davis Arboretum. A delightful treat was meeting Barbara whose blog is One Happy Fool. She drove over an hour with her trusty sidekick dog, Demi to attend her first Sketchcrawl.

If you check Pete's bog you can see a drawing of me, Barbara and Demi. Below is the piece I drew while he sketched me. I was afraid to reach for another tool, so I left it as a pencil sketch.

No matter where we go, our eyes are opened to new scenes to draw.The journey continues.

Zentangle

Today we went to a birthday party and we were not to bring gifts. However, I made this zentangle card for our golf buddy. Happy Birthday, Shirley.



Within the next few days,  I'll post a few pictures from the unofficial Sketchcrawl.

Finally, Spring!

Sunshine is really important to me. I've set up the outside table and chairs and have begun to spruce up the garden. I even made a trip to the nursery before the crowd which will jam the aisles this weekend. Certainly I didn't want to overwork, so I sat at my table and drew this plant which will grace the table and some other spots in the yard.

Saturday is a Sketchcrawl day in Davis, CA under the leadership of Pete Scully. It's probably not the "official" one, but the gardens at the University are just waiting for us.

This was a warm up piece.

Clear day

Oh glorious wonders. We actually woke to a clear sky this morning. After two weeks of rain, spring has finally arrived. As I looked out our upstairs window I saw the moon positioned over this tall cypress tree (bush). A candle for our new day!

Bright Knights

OK, I decided to have some fun and chose to do a piece for the Bright Knights video. This is about one nanosecond of a claim to fame that I have contributed to a video. Now, back to the many other projects that I have going!