When Sketch Club Meets Textile Sketchbook

Proof that I'm behind on everything: I finally finished my September sketchbook/journal page about the fruits from my garden. 

It started with fabric stitched to a page of drawing paper in the looseleaf notebook that serves as my textile sketchbook.

The idea for this page came from the Sketch Club. A friend and I (and any grandchildren who might be around) get together to draw and paint about 
once a week. I recycled an 11" x 7 1/2" planner for a sketchbook, gluing in plain paper on some of the pages. 

Fruit always makes a good subject--easy shapes, interesting colors. We began with a couple of blind sketches--notice my first one is done on top of math problems done with my granddaughter on skype....math at midnight (ha! an alliteration--literary terms are invading my brain; residual effects of teaching literature).

Next, a sketch with watercolors.

Putting aside my planner/sketchbook, I sketched on the backside of my fabric page

and outlined it with machine stitching when I got home.

I pinned fabrics to the right side of the fabric page, using the watercolor as a color reference and sewed everything down by machine. 

First time around, sewing on the backside sketch with navy blue thread, instead of black. 



On the fabric side, I added machine embroidery, thread painting. Thinking about a light source I tiled in the background.

Text added and finally finished. 

Cross-hatching with a permanent felt pen helped create the shadowed area.

The presence of a full spectrum of color pleases me and suggests the warmth of early Fall in Tunisia. Green in the stems, yellow to orange in the background, pink to maroon in the grapes, purple figs, and a touch of blue in the shadows. 

That is what life should be: a full spectrum of color with delicious, ripe fruit to eat...

Linked to Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Friday."