landscape

expressionistic, colorful, spiritual, imaginative

Finishing a Watercolor Painting in the Mountains

Colorful watercolor of Mountain rocks garden

Unfinished Watercolor

Every watercolor I work on is an exercise in capturing the flickering light that is experienced in nature. I try to combine that light with colorful elements that flash before me while I move through an area. I love spending time in the mountains in the summer because I can get outside and hike around to experience these elements easily.

Colorful mountain garden landscape watercolor

Fantasy Mountain Garden

Here are some photo notes I took yesterday on a walk.

Quilts Speak at NC Museum of History

Highlights from our day at the Quilt In with the Cedar Grove Quilters

NC history Museum Quilt In

Sarah Troxler at NC History Museum

Quilts by Cedar Grove Quilters at the Quilt In

Quilts by Nancy Oliver, Marcia McDade, Ruth Richardson and Joanne Mathis

Cedar Grove Quilts at the Quilt In

Orange Peel by Sarah Troxler, Small works by Kathi Lewis, and Morning Glories by Shirley Scarlett

Quilt In with Cedar Grove Quilters

Quilt Design by Barbara Phillips

Cedar Grove Quilters

Rachel Ray, Shirley Scarlett, Marianne Kimbro, Ruth Richardson

Members of Cedar Grove Quilters at NC Museum of History

Sarah Troxler, Marianne Kimbro, Ruth Richardson, Guest Quilter, Shirley Scarlett, Rachel Ray

Cedar Grove Quilters

Shirley Scarlett, Rachel Ray, Sarah Troxler

A New String Quilt 2018

Finished on June 24th in 2019

The Blue and Yellow color scheme is a favorite of mine these days. After an inventory purging and reorganization of my quilting scrapes I am ready to start. I have come up with a pattern and I think I can pull it off with Four different string blocks. I am using a paper piecing technique.

Fiber Scraps
Fabric Scraps
fabric scrpas

Sorting and Ironing String Scraps
What a process.

Blue and Yellow

all my blue and yellow fabric scraps

Blue and Yellow

Fabric Scraps to be ironed

Blue and Yellow Scraps

I have been ripping some of the scraps so that the process goes faster.

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I like to use tissue paper for paper piecing strings because it tears off easily

My sketch of the pattern and the number of squares I think I will need: 16 yellow patches, 76 blue and yellow patches, 12 light value (pale) patches, and 28 dark blue patches.  These numbers will change I am sure!
**If you look at the quilt you will see that I did not use any of the yellow squares.  It was a nice idea but I came to the conclusion that since the room was yellow–the all yellow patches would be too much.
The only yellow square is in the center and is made up of 4 yellow-blue squares.


for sketching and figuring graph paper works well

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As you can see I like to design as I go.  This sketch today will help me to make some more adjustments while I am making the squares. At the present I have made 21 squares. I have enough to layout the center section and I can see that some adjustments are in order.

The corner where you see the B’s I will add the light blue strips. So I need to make 8 light+dark blue squares. This will provide a nice border in both the inner and the outer bands.

 

I have now added the dark blue and yellow string blocks which surround the lighter blue string blocks. Next I think I will add another row of lighter blue blocks.

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The blue border I added did not work so well this time.  It stretched during the sewing and did not lay flat.  It was on a roll and I inherited it and have had it a long time.  I think it is time to give it to the scrap exchange.  It was trouble!

I Hand quilted this by myself and it took me over a month and then I finished it off with a yellow ochre print binding.

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Final stitches on June 24th 2019