Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Winter Garden, Part 2: Coral Bells

The winter garden persists with cloudy, gray weather. To brighten things up, the coral bells (Mother-of-Millions succulent) have been flowering since mid-December.
How could one ignore such abundance and beauty? Time to sketch. After lightly drawing my subject in pencil on a man's shirt sleeve (recycled shirt in my stash--I did not whip it off my husband's arm), I laid down some fabrics with approximate colors and machine sewed it all down with newsprint as a stabilizer.
                             Then I sketched with a permanent black marker,
                              however, I just didn't have the colors I wanted. 
         Ah, but I have some lovely, shining colors in thread. So I added stitching, 
                                                     and more colors,
           and then the black thread to get back to the idea of contour drawing.
       A work in progress, this piece will see more hand stitching in the background.
                 One can not really beat nature for color, but what inspiration!

                             And as winter loses its grip on the garden, 
       spring whispers that it's time for the wildflowers to make their appearance. 
                            Time to get out my sketching supplies again--
                             there's another shirt sleeve to be transformed!

36 comments:

CREATIVE KHADIJA said...

Very well! how clever you are, the images of your garden are superb!
Love ~

MARIA CRISTINA said...

Maravilloso trabajo!!!!!
Es usted muy creativa, algún día me daré el gusto de hacer algo así!!
Las flores blancas, narcisos, son bellísimas...
Abrazos!!!

ACreativeDreamer said...

Oh my goodness, that is just beautiful... Both the flowers and your interpretation. Just lovely!

Ms. said...

Winter? All that fabulous greenery! If this is Winter, what riotous bloom is in store when Spring breaks!

rtquilter said...

Hi Nadia . Lovely idea and beautifully done. We still have winter here, although it has been a sort of strange, non-winter so far. However, despite the snow, we had a very hungry deer in our garden a couple of days ago!!! He devoured a lot of the remaining green. Snowdrops are up, but- come on, spring!!!

Els said...

Dear Nadia, what a wonderful job you did on these flowers ! A joy to the eyes really.
Beautiful that spring is already starting over there: lots of inspiration probably .... ;-)

Unknown said...

I really enjoyed your description of your process, Nadia, and greatly admire the results (oh, and your beautiful winter garden)! -sus

Diane Wright said...

Thank you for the process photos...it's very interesting to follow. I really love your stitching. The coral bells are wonderful.

fiberchick said...

LOVELY!!!

O'Quilts said...

Great job!

Jeannie said...

I love your coral bells in fabric and in the garden! I have been watching my warmest garden spot to see if the early crocus are peeking up - no, they are under the snow. I have my amarylis blooming to break up the winter beige. Wishing you a beautiful week.

Rachaeldaisy said...

You've done an amazing job of bringing those flowers to life on an old shirt sleeve! I'm sitting here in awe!

liz said...

Thanks for showing the process. You make it sound so easy. I admire your talent.

Stitching Lady said...

Now this is very interesting to watch how you are working.

Carole Reid said...

Nadia, humans are blessed to have nature to inspire us. Your coral bells are beautiful.
I am very glad your husband is not sleeveless.

jan said...

I love your flowers , great way to use an old shirt sleeve. Thanks for the comment on my blog too. Best Wishes Janice x

KeyQuilter said...

So pretty! I have some bulbs coming up but we haven't really had a wintry cold yet. Hope they don't get frozen out!

angela recada said...

Your winter garden is gorgeous! And your interpretation of the coral bells in cloth is wonderful, too.

I just love all the new ways cloth and stitch are being used these days! It's so much more inspiring than the simple cross-stitching I learned as a child.

sweetypie said...

oooh, I am blown away, that is exactly my sort of stitching, I just love it, brilliant, ps thankyou for your best wishes, tina

Martha Wolfe said...

Hi, Nadia, Hope your holidays were wonderful! Love your Coral Bells.....what a lovely flower. I really like the "sketchiness" of the black thread outline......and your palette:) It has a vintage feel....and I really like that feel:)
Best, M

Michele said...

Just beautiful! So inspiring!

Teodo said...

You are a sewing painter. Fantastic.
ciao ciao Linda

artymess said...

Lovely work .........thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me a comment and now I have found your lovely blog .........x

dany said...

Gorgeous! I like this!
Ciao, Nadia
daniela

khadijateri said...

I really like the way you've blended in the colors and stitched in the colors on the flowers, leaves and stems - it adds such dimension and makes them look so real. Pretty, pretty, pretty!

Norma Schlager said...

I grew Mother of Millions last summer, but never got any flowers, but we do get an early frost here in the North East. I love your thread sketch of the flowers.

Susan said...

I like that you add stitch to your own drawing directly on the fabric - beautiful work!

Unknown said...

I love love love this! So beautiful!

bj said...

What a unique idea for transforming a shirt sleeve! I do love the colors and the patchwork...beautiful.

The Artful Diva said...

Your drawing in stitch is beautiful. What will you do with the sleeve once it's finished?

Katie said...

So gorgeous! Love your style,Nadia. Isn't it just more fun to sketch on fabric! :0)

Linda A. Miller said...

Wonderful flowers...love the technique, Nadia! And your amazing recycled bathrobe as well!

Radka said...

You have some lovely ideas :

Linda Vincent said...

Oh wow....you are so talented. And inspiring too!
I just wish I could control a machine like that....

Robin Olsen said...

How exciting to watch that piece develop and those coral bells come alive! Your ability to transform old bits is wonderful!

Ati said...

Marvelous idea to stitch those flowers with multi colored threads! They look great already!