CQ, The Guardian and a Charcoal sketch

Hi y'all, well my title just about covers it doesn't it?   I guess I could have made it longer and more descriptive?   No, I bet y'all know exactly what I am talking about.

We have been getting major rain the last few days, our little rain gauge after being emptied several times tallied up to 14 inches.    Now all the years we have had the gauge in West Texas it has never had to work so overtime as it did this past week.   We were fortunate enough to get this in about 3 days, maybe less but it did give the rain time to not just stay and flood our area.  Some areas around here got it bad even a creek close by did rise a lot !!!  Part of South Texas the rain all came at one time and that is just to much for the streets etc to handle and the poor people of there had to go thru the flooding.  Like the water was shoulder high to them.   Man alive when Mother Nature clears her throat she clears it. Just had to share what was going on in this part of our world.  The sun is shining and that is a beautiful thing.  I try not to complain about the weather, it is what it is.   Just go with the flow and enjoy it while it is here.  The rain did have a wonderful sound while sleeping, just a good comforting sound.

We voted today, lots of little things to get settled here in our state.   We only had one issue to vote on but we did vote.  I was visiting, I know you can't believe that at all---me visiting,  with the ladies that worked there and asked did any of them remember paying $2 to vote?  Some of them never heard of it .    I remember so clearly, I was 21 and legal to vote and  it was and is such a treat and honor to be able to  vote.  I know I marched up the courthouse steps like I was in charge of the world, getting to vote.  I giggle now about it but it was such a monumental part of my life    I think it was in 1965.  It was call a poll tax but now is no longer in existence.  You know thinking of years past a lot has happened in the years I have had and can remember. 

Now don't laugh I said something about the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team,  Hubby said they haven't been that is years.   I didn't know much about baseball growing up and the first time I got to play it I was 12.   I didn't even know it existed.  My Mother was from England and didn't speak of it and  I know I didn't have a clue what to do and when came my time to bat I chopped it like an ax  but from top to bottom.   Can you imagine that?   Well one time I actually hit it and stood there and watched it, all the girls yelled RUN !!!! Oh I was just watching to see what the ball was doing.   I really giggle when I think of that story.    I guess the Brooklyn Dodgers were a team then.   They are now the Los Angeles Dodgers.   OK, now how in the world did I stray to that.?    I guess one of my bunny trails as Grandson says.

I have been busy with  painting and sketching.  The sketching is with charcoal and I love doing the paintings with Charcoal.   Here is one that I recently finished and she just spoke to me with her gentleness.   I have some commissions to do and the  pressure is on.  I just want to get them Annette perfect.

I remember last post I shared the sketch of "The Guardian"   He is safe and sound at his new home in Oklahoma.   I thought I would share sort of stages.  I have to make myself remember to take pics of them in stages.   

The sketch and the almost rendering of him   The colors are now as vivid here as he is in person and comparing you can see some differences. 

Here he is finished and the pic is a tad short and cuts some antler off but gives you an idea of the finished product.  The owner of "The Guardian" is very proud of him and Fed Ex did an excellent job of packing him and getting him to Oklahoma.   He didn't eat much corn in transit either.  I told the girl packing him if it took to long they might have to feed him corn, she stopped and looked at me.  It took a second and she just laughed.  

I have been working on some fabric books of Crazy Quilt blocks.  I never know what to do with the finished blocks but books seem to fit the ticket.   i thought I would create one large book but one set of 6 blocks were with one Round Robin group and smaller than I work with.   The other set is my normal 8 inch size blocks.   So I will have two books.

  

Here is one example of what the opposite pages from the blocks looked like and the unfinished blocks waiting their turn to be sewn together.  Now in this "giant "of a house we are currently in, if I want to paint and sew there just isn't enough room so I just did the book by hand.  So excuse the crookedness of the the stiches.   . 

I am doing the books Coptic style so they will kind of sort of lay flat.   These signatures ( pages) look like a wild woman stitched them in,   oh it was me that did that isn't it?  Oh well that tells ya something. 

This is the smaller size pages,  and are so fun to look at and touch.  That is one good thing about the books, it makes it easy to look and touch. 

 One set of the facing page and the finished page.  Now after they were joined together the pages needed more fluff.  That was all there was to it, so I gathered my left over "blue water organza" and  tacked it between the pages. Then they weren't so naked.

One set of the larger pages.   So they are to this point.  Now you are asking where is the outside covers Annette?  Well I don't know and don't have a clue what to do with them at this writing.   I had a precious seahorse all beaded and nearly finished to use but it is hiding in seahorse haven.   So I guess I will create some special piece for the cover of each book.  I guess something for you to see later.  Right?  I still am working on the Alice in Wonderland book.  I know it will be a chunky book and all the pages sort of the same size.   No telling what Alice and the gang will do while I work on them.   

There you go, getting to share on what is happening in my world.  Just kind of busy and being a bum all at the same time. 

                                               Thanks for looking in and later. 

XOXO                

Annette