how does your garden grow?

 there is not an awful lot to show for the past two weeks... it's been busy in these parts with the heat of summer upon us already

usually the transition from winter to summer takes time, allowing me to settle in to the changing seasons and adapt my routine to new ways of working

not this year - we've gone from winter to summer in a heartbeat and as far as the yard and gardens go it's been nothing but a huge challenge though i seem to have finally found my footing

the chives and chamomile are in bloom as are the raspberries, the roses are just about to and the lilac is finished

whilst waiting for more to bloom in the yard to work with in my sketchbook,  I've been playing with a few different ideas 

the first came from a book i borrowed from the library

Folded Book Art by Clare Youngs

it wasn't exactly what I was expecting but there was an example of a book page with embroidered flowers that I really liked so it thought i'd give that a try

loosely following the provided design, picking and choosing the elements i liked and softening the colours slightly, i used an old letter from france, written shortly before the great war on "ministère de la guerre" stationery

 backed with an ultra lightweight iron-on interfacing, it was surprisingly sturdy to stitch into

the letter was from a young man to his family and though i can understand most of what was written i decided not to try and do a proper translation... one hundred years and more have passed since it was written but it still feels rather private and i like that my stitching has obscured it somewhat

it's now taped into my studio trials sketchbook with the caption

"before the flowers were all gone"

which came to me just as i finished the last few stitches - and how very appropriate a title it is

i have several more letters written to his family so even though this was initially done as a reference for  stitching flowers on paper i am thinking there may be something here to think about and perhaps pursue a bit further

next, a pencil sketch adaptation of a watercolour painting from another book had me thinking more about yarrow, and a desire to stitch some in the brownish-gold dried stage rather than in full summer bloom

wanting to reinforce the idea of age and decay i prepare a base using a piece of the "greige" 110 year-old hand-spun, hand-woven linen from the netherlands topped with a piece of painted, waxed and burnt silk chiffon

once the edges were burnt the charred bits were rubbed away which was a VERY messy business that resulted in black flecks all over the place, including the chiffon which added greatly to the aged look

this sketch is just a warm up though - i'll be going out in the coming weeks to find a real-life version at the appropriate point of decay to sketch, photograph and then stitch and make it my own

if you click on the image of the linen/silk stitching base you'll get a better idea of just how grungy it is

and finally, a pink version of the white queen anne's lace card i posted a while back

 the effect of the stitched flowers on the faded tapestry-like fabric still holds a strong appeal for me and i'm thinking about what flower to tackle next

in the meanwhile, a trip to the garden centre this morning for a new watering can also yielded a white and a pale blue delphinium along with a pinkish-coral dahlia

i've a strong urge sketch dahlias and stitch delphiniums so we'll see how that goes

there are a few others on my list of flowers i'd like to tackle in one manner or another so the garden is an ever-evolving subject for art in the making and I'll be trudging off to the garden centre again before too long

there are kitchen gardens, cutting gardens, cottage gardens... why not an art garden?