Tag: re-working art

Stepping Up My Embroidery Game

Dear Liza,

The French quilt was coming along. I mean, I kept putting in more crops row by row… but it was feeling very flat, and not very interesting.

The apple trees were an improvement, for sure. More color, more texture.

Then your Grandpa Nelson looked over my shoulder and said, “Where are the sunflowers?” Hmmm. Sunflowers. Because I was impatient to see the quilt finished, I had designed the symbols for the crops to be one color, simple, and easy to sew.

But I LOVE sunflowers, and I don’t want them to be easy. I want them to be pretty.

And they are! I love how the rows look, bouncy and bright. Trouble is, they made the rest look even flatter by comparison.

It was time to step up my embroidery game. I started with the lavender fields by Angouleme, giving them more color and texture.

So now I have had to re-think every single crop to make it worthy of the sunflowers. So far, the wheat and barley fields are coming out nicely.

I am so glad I did! The artistic process isn’t fast, but it sure is interesting. I’ll keep you posted.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The Other Dandelion

Dear Liza,

Yesterday I told you that I had made two sketches of a dandelion, and only used one. Here is what I did (and learned) with the other one.

I put in watercolor green for the distant lawn, but it looked flat and not ‘distant’. And the fence wasn’t right.

But I fiddled with it. I think this ‘fiddling’ is what they call The Artistic Process. Auntie Bridgett showed me how to shade the grass so it would recede, and I played with the fence to make the boards look more like boards.

By the time I was mostly happy with it, Grandpa Nelson was ready to go for a walk. We enjoyed the cool fall sunshine, changing leaves, and tiny weeds growing from our latest rains.

And then I saw it. My mistake.

I had drawn a dandelion and put on the wrong leaf! Dandelions are so-called because someone thought their leaves looked like the tooth of a lion (dent du Leon). And I had put in a leaf that was more of a langue du chat. Could I fix it?

I could try. I picked a leaf and took it home to trace. I cut and colored and placed them as best I could over the wrong leaves. And it is better.


My mother always said that since we got smarter when we made mistakes, she must be the smartest woman on the planet. Today, I learned about leaves, paying attention to details, my own capacity for patience, and the myriad ways to correct errors.

So, educationally speaking, it was a good day.

Love,

Grandma Judy