F as in . . .

Flowers.  Flower Doodles.  Lovely, deeply textured flowers and foliage were the inspiration for this experimental Doodle Cloth:

I was trying out different threads and yarns to get different effects as I stitched, and the effects were so richly textured that I sort of forgot to go back to my original idea and just played with the threads and stitches for a couple of days (my idea of heaven!).

A silk flower:  A chrysanthemum:

Foliage.  The piece following is done entirely in straight stitch, in Walsh wool.  Blending the larger areas, like the pink wall and the table top, was so absorbing that I sat working on this for hours at a time, going through piles of wool to get the right color to transition from one place to another.  The work is so densely stitched that it lies high above the surface of the linen ground.

The pot of flowers is part of a series of blue vases I did to expiate my guilt over breaking a blue vase of my mother's.  There are more than two dozen works on this subject (over a period of about 15 years; who could withstand Mother Guilt?).  What an interesting single-theme exhibition they would make!

Fantasy Flowers.  This collection of flowers is the charming outcome of a Freestyle Round Robin Project in 2008 where the participants each chose a subject, prepared guidelines for one another to follow, and each month we received a different box with notes about the piece we were to create.  My subject was the Fantasy Flowers  From A Far Planet.  I asked that the Freestylers simply let their imaginations run wild and create outlandish flowers.  I also asked if they would write a small guide to the flowers on a 3" x 5" card.  These are the truly outlandish and utterly fabulous fantasy flowers I received from my friends:

Above, by Sandra Beck.  Below, by Anne Stevenson (and I'm sorry about the color, Anne, but the dark would not adjust without changing the other color).

By Peggy Huffine (the color is not completely true, but lightening it allowed the little seed pods in the background to show up better):

And by Cynthia Patrick:

An odd thing happened in the uploading process.  Jill's flower contained an image of Elvis Presley, and the server would not allow it to be posted.  Up until this moment, I sorta liked the guy.  Sorry, Jill.  I'll work on this and try to find out more . . .