Fun With Lettering

I knew I would have some "sitting-around time" in Sarasota last week, so I downloaded two Joanne Sharpe videos from Interweave to play with.  I had brought along a small journal, some watercolor pencils, an Aquarelle water pen, a small watercolor palette, and a few black markers

Volume 1 deals with the elements of art.  Here are my attempts to work on the lessons.

Volume 2 deals with making coloring-book style letters that can be colored in with crayons, markers, pencils, paints, or whatever you like.

I like the floral doodles of my letter A.

The B is for Beach is probably my favorite.

 Butterflies used to form a letter C.

I have another one started but not colored yet.  It was fun to have something new, quick and not too hard to work on while playing the waiting game in Florida.

Back to Florida

This week it was time for Phase 2 of my husband's cancer treatment in Sarasota, Florida.  Most of our time has been spent on doctor and hospital visits and pre-post op exams.  We are now out of the hospital after a rough night.  I am glad to say that all went well.  I thank God every day for Dr. Michael Dattoli, a prostate cancer expert who has figured out a way to save men's lives from this disease.

He met us at the Sarasota airport!  (That's him in blue on the left on this electronic sign at the airport.)

We did have a couple of nice times this week.  The best was on Tuesday when we drove to Nokomis to meet my brother Jeff and his wife Anna for dinner.  First we went to the North Jetty beach and enjoyed a brief walk just before sunset.

Then we ate at Pop's Sunset Grill.  It was great to see Jeff and Anna again.

The restaurant is on The Inter-coastal Waterway, and it was lovely to watch the boats and birds as the sun set.

This shore bird landed on a roof above us and enjoyed watching us (and our seafood dinners!)

We go back to Raleigh tomorrow, grateful for the chance for healing in this beautiful place.

More Lucky Stars

I got a little time on our mountain weekend to cut and sew a few more Lucky Stars blocks.  Here they are, laid out on my kitchen counter!

These are my two favorite.  I love the blue/yellow combination.  I fussy-cut the big sunflower on the left block.

I played with a few of the sashing strips.  This is going to be so colorful!

Sewing in the cabin is somewhat challenging because I don't have a dedicated sewing area.  It has been a long time since I have had to drag everything out, clear the dining table, find extension cords, etc.  On top of that, I got a new iron and a new sewing machine for Christmas that I have only used about twice, and I was referring to the manuals for awhile before I got going.  But that's okay.  It was a rainy mountain day and I got to do one of my favorite things.

Lucky Stars

Guess what, quilters?  I've been sewing!

My good friend Marcia collected lots of fabrics from travels to France and Italy, back when her mother was still alive and an active quilter.  Marcia has now given me the bin of fabrics, and we went shopping last spring for background fabric to make the Lucky Stars quilt pattern by Atkinson Designs.  Then life intervened when my husband was diagnosed with cancer, and this project was put on the back burner.  It has rained the past few days, and I thought I would finally get started on this project for Marcia.

The fabrics are in cheerful primary colors with some greens and golds.  There are both Provincial prints and some fabrics that are solid or that read as solid.  There are also some other fabrics from her mother's stash that I think will blend well with this project.

The background fabric is a pale yellow cotton.  I wish we had chosen one that did not have a right and wrong side.  I have already had to unsew a few blocks because it is hard to tell the right side of the fabric.

After you sew the stars blocks, you trim them down to 9.5" square.  I have not done that yet, since my square ruler is in the mountains (I think...will have to look this weekend.)  

This is meant to be a Fat Quarter pattern.  You cut strips from each fat quarter, then subdivide to make both squares and rectangles.  The longer strips will form a sort of double sashing around each block.  I have not sewn the sashing strips yet, just placed them around the stars to get an idea how the top will look.

  

Now I have made about eleven stars.  To make a king size quilt calls for 122.  Yikes!  I guess I will get faster as I have more strips and pieces cut in advance.

I also painted two more maple leaves to go with the series I began earlier.  This time I traced around the actual leaves and built up the color more slowly.  I also scratched some veins into the wet paint with a craft knife.  I added a little bit of shadow around the leaves to give a little depth.

Getting there!

Maple Leaf Studies

Yesterday I practiced painting maple leaves.  What could be prettier this time of year?

 

Influenced again by artist Bob Burridge, I am trying do series of paintings.  I brought in some maple leaves from the yard and put them up on the drawing board with some 5" x 7" papers.

 I sprayed some watercolor paint  to get the mottled effect.  

On the next one you can see the drips from the painting above it on the board.  I kind of like it!

I think I got the colors right, but feel like the paintings are a bit overworked.  I think I will try it again, and seek a lighter touch. 

Coffee Time

Artist Bob Burridge has a weekly newsletter/video called Bob Blasts that I have been following for awhile.  When the latest Fall in Love With Journaling Prompt was Tea Time/Coffee Break, I decided to try to emulate his coffee cup series using watercolors.

First, I did just one cup in a small 5.5" x 8.5" Strathmore Mixed Media journal.

 Then, in my 9 x 12 Strathmore Visual watercolor journal, I did another and added some text on card stock.

 Finally, I did a double page spread in my Canson 7" x 10" Mixed Media journal.  

I think I like the first one best.  Bob recommends working in a series and painting very loosely.  He is fun to watch on the videos.  By the way, he sells his coffee cup paintings (9" x 12" acrylic on paper) for $195 each!

The Smell of Chocolate

The latest journal prompt from the Fall In Love With Art Journaling Challenge was "Do You Smell That?"

I immediately thought of the delicious aroma of chocolate that hits you upon entering Norman Love's Chocolate Shop in Ft. Myers, Florida.  I painted some of his jewel-like candies with watercolor for my journal page.

I loved that place.  It appealed to all my senses...well, maybe not Touch!  Do you see the sign in front of the chocolate bouquet?

 Love me some chocolate!

I just found out that there are two chocolate shops in downtown Raleigh.  Field Trip!