Spring Remembrance

While reading a gardening magazine, I made an amazing discovery.  Yes I enjoy other pastimes besides patchwork.  Anyway, back to the gardening magazine.  I was looking for different bulbs that I could plant in order to have a riot of colour in the spring.  The following picture caught my eye.

Next to it was the following caption:

LEST WE FORGET:  Plant "Prinses Irene" tulips this Remembrance Day to honour Canadian veterans.  These vibrant orange flowers were created in the Netherlands to thank Canadian soldiers for their efforts in the Second World War.  Streaks of purple appear on the petals in the shape of the maple leaf. -- J.E. (cited from "Inspiring ideas for Everyday Living", November 2010, p 24)

What a wonderful way of remembering our veterans on days other than Remembrance Day.

Some new acquisitions

At my local Guild meeting there was an announcement that the LQS was closing its doors.  The lease had expired and the owner had leased the building to someone else.  Let me just say, isn't that a bit unfair? Isn't it good form to ask the current tenant if they wish to renew the lease?  But I digress.

As it turns out this means shopping at bargain basement prices.  The discounts being offered at the LQS started at 50% and went as high as 75%.  So I opened up my wallet, checked for disposable income and ended up coming home with these lovely goodies.

A Block of the Month series from Piece O' Cake Designs.  All 12 patterns were in the large plastic envelope.

 

Some wonderful reading material 

   

 

and some additional supplies for embroidery.

 



Great way to support the local economy, don't you think?

How time flies...

when you are having fun.  Isn't that how the expression goes?  Working through my colour study course, I hadn't realized how much time had past since I last posted.  Despite being totally immersed in colour, I've had a wonderful time.  I now view colour in an entirely different light.  You saw exercises I did regarding value in a previous post and monoprinting.  Along with those we explored tints, tones, shades and various colour schemes.  Here are a couple of colour scheme examples from my sketchbook.

 

We experimented with colour proportion by examining pictures of nature and the world around us.   All in all it was a wonderful course, and all from the comfort of my home.  You can check out the various course offerings at the Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts, here.

 

I also had the opportunity to explore my new community and discovered a thriving quilt guild here.  Their website is here.  I joined this friendly group, was given a "new member" button, instructions to help me make the Guild's standard name tag and an invitation to get together with a member of long standing that would act as a "buddy".  Nice to meet you Nancy!  I managed to complete my name tag in time for the meeting tomorrow.  Here is what it looks like.

 

Oh and let's not forget that along with six others I have also been studying with Catherine Nicols, where we have been learning various different techniques to add to our artistic toolbox.  We've covered such things as the elements of design, pointillism, and paper & stitch to enhance our work, and there is still more to come.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of one of the samples I created from Catherine's class.



 

Like I mentioned, time flies when you are having fun.  Till the next time, stitch creatively.