It’s only been a couple months since my last post… Getting better with posting… It’s hard to believe that October is here and almost gone already! September flew by in a blur. I accomplished nothing in the gardens, other than taking some photos of the blooms and weeds. I did accomplish a lot of pattern designing.

The center section of the Maple Tree Garden stayed full of blooms all summer, despite the deer and bunnies trying to eat everything. For some reason, the Vista Bubblegum Petunias didn’t seem to be tasty treats like the other Petunias I planted. There are only four Petunia plants in this area. I took this photo before the lime green leaved Sweet Potato vines were eaten down again. They must be like candy, as the deer have munched on these since I planted them. Various repellents helped some, but all the rain we had washed it off frequently.

Due to the constant loss of plants to the critters and too much water, gardening this year was quite frustrating. Tomatoes that I planted late didn’t like the excess water, so my crop was really small. The only plants that didn’t get eaten down were the ones in planters. We got only enough tomatoes to eat fresh, with not enough to can for later use. The Squash did a little better… It took three tries to get Zucchini to grow.

Above is a little group of Summer blooms from the gardens. It was a challenging growing season, but I did get some pretty flowers.

September brought a new large collection of designs that started with a Spoonflower Challenge. To promote their new dyed Petal Solids, the challenge was to use three of the new colors. Lagoon, Cotton Candy, and Mustard were the colors we were to include. A couple other colors and white and black were also allowed, so I added Peacock and Peony. My Teardrops Flowers Collection was born.

All of the flowers in this collection began in a single sketch. I pulled all the little parts out of the sketched flower to make the different flower types. The photo below, shows the original sketch. It also shows stages of the flower pulled apart and the bits and pieces colored. Once I got the parts and pieces ready, I got carried away playing with the different coordinates.

The next challenge was much more challenging for me. The colors were Mushroom, Pine and Sky Blue. For some reason, this color combination didn’t light up the creative juices like the previous one. We were allowed to use one, two or all three of the colors. Additional colors as well as black and white were also allowed. This time, I ended up using just the Pine green with white Paisleys. It was fun to play with the different Paisley designs, adding swirls and curls. I also had to add some little flowers in and around the Paisleys. The photo below, shows some of the process.

Here is the finished version of my Paisleys, shown as a table cloth on Spoonflower. It is available in many types of fabrics and Home Decor items. They are also available in more colors in my Paisleys Collection in my Spoonflower Shop. In the next post, I’ll show my newest Calendar Tea Towel/Wall Hanging made for another challenge.

Spring weather finally arrived with all it’s colorful flowers! As the snow left, the Snowdrops started blooming, followed by a few Crocus, Snow Glories and Daffodils. I had lots of Daffodils, after buying a bunch f new bulbs in the Fall, and digging and dividing many clumps I’ve had growing for years.

I was amazed how many bulbs I found in the clumps I divided. Some had 30 or more in each… it had been many years since I had divided them.

Summer arrived in a blur again after the Flower Tent Season was over. It seems I’m always trying to play catch-up in the gardens after “living” at the Tent for all of May and most of June. This year, we also had a LOT of rain, especially in July. One storm dumped enough water to wash a big pile of gravel from the driveway to the Mound garden, burying a big hunk of that garden. Below, is a group of photos from the gardens.

I finally got back to designing again between working in the gardens and mowing the swamp… er… lawn. I had been in a creative slump again (what else is new), and decided to work on a design for another Spoonflower Challenge. Pastel Halloween was the first theme I worked on. I’m not into the oranges and blacks of typical Halloween decorating, but love pastel colors. I thought I would do a design with pastel colored pumpkins, and Glass Gems corn. While working on my initial images, I got thinking about my grandkids who love playing with googly eyes. After that, I ended up making my silly, cute Jack-o-Lanterns in pastel colors with googly eyes. That then led to me finally doing my original idea of groups of pumpkins, corn and Maple leaves, followed by several versions with just Maple leaves.

Once started with the Maple leaves, I worked with different colors. The original leaves were pulled from images of sunprints I had done in the past. My first version used the pastel colors of the prints, then playing in Photoshop, I ended up finding some interesting color combinations. Below is a group of photos of the above mentioned designs.

The next challenge I decided to enter was Autumn Botanicals… perfect for my style of work. I began again with an image of a sunprint. This time, a fern I printed with black paint on a brightly colored fabric. I thought I would do a design including the fern along with Oak leaves and maybe other leaves, but it ended up with just the Fern sunprint and pieces of it.

Again, I played with colors in Photoshop, and ended up with some interesting colors. Not all were “Fall” colors. Unlike many people, I am not that fond of fall and it’s colors. To me Fall brings the death of my gardens. The leaves are pretty, but I hate that day of the first killing freeze. I created some versions in traditional oranges and more, but my entry was the first one I made with a textured white background.

The current challenge is Ice Crystals… I’m not ready for Winter at all, but it was fun playing with photos I took of snowflakes and ice crystals.

I might be playing with snowflakes in the computer, but there are hopefully many weeks left for the gardens to bloom. Also hoping to be back with a new post in less than 6 months or more…