A year ago I did a painting of a cardinal landing on a stump. I meticulously painted each feather in the wings and the texture of the stump. But I was not satisfied with the painting, so I put it away. Last week I took it out and had another look. It was too stiff and controlled. I realized that I had painted a bird when what I really wanted to paint was flight. So this is the result. Flight escaped from the very neat and tidy original painting.

The painting is done in acrylic on stretched canvas and measures 18×14 inches.

Blossom Temari Ball

This temari ball was an experiment in using string art methods on a ball. It was divided into 16 sections and has 24 blossoms on it. The marking lines and the sun bursts were done with a blue metallic thread and the blossoms were done with crochet cotton in white and three shades of blue.  The ball measures 36.5 cm around.

Quilting

Today is the first day of Bonnie K. Hunter’s mystery quilt, Rhododendron Trail! Every year about this time she starts posting one step of the pattern each Friday. We don’t get to see what the final quilt blocks look like until the end! It’s free until the big reveal and if you are interested in finding out more about it go here.

I wasn’t going to do the mystery quilt this year. I am working on two quilts and two quilted table runners for Christmas and don’t think I really have the time. But I can’t resist. I pulled material from my stash and bought three pieces of yardage and I am all set to go!

Bonnie’s mystery quilts are scrappy quilts with many different patterns and shades of material in them. I didn’t have enough variety in the colours she picked for this year, so I changed them. I am using light purple, dark blue, yellow, green, and white and cream.

The green, white and cream are in yardage, though I have a selection of half a dozen patterns and shades in the whites and creams. The blues, purples, and yellows are fat quarters, so I can use a lot of different patterns and shades. I do like a scrappy quilt!