Nedra's Childhood -My Childhood Sketchbook

Fond memories of my youth in Louisiana inspired this theme.  Eight years younger than my sister Lydia, I often felt a bit like an only child and spent many hours entertaining myself when friends weren't around.  Given the climate, much of my time was spent outdoors.  Of course there was TV which I enjoyed on a rainy day.   This sketchbook includes many of my favorite toys and activities as a young girl - a bit of a tomboy!!

 I enjoyed seeing the pictures of Andrea's 30 day Sketchbook challenge she shared on Instagram and our blog.  Never considering myself able to draw either, I decided to challenge myself to sketch all of these fond memories.  I used a plain cotton lawn and a micron pen to sketch the images.  A combination of micron pens and inktense pencils were used to add color and detail.  All of the images were carefully cut out and then fused to another background piece of cotton lawn.   I was too scared to sketch all of the items onto one piece of fabric as I was soooo afraid one bad drawing could ruin the whole piece and I would have to start anew.  This process worked well and I continued to add to my sketchbook page.  When I was satisfied with the collection of images, I started to add descriptive words and other details to fill in the page.   Next,  I cut the fabric to look like a page from a sketchbook and fused it onto the black fabric.  

I then did some machine quilting to accentuate the open book page.  The dates of '55 to '67 include the 10 years of my young life.  Nedra's Childhood Sketchbook is quilted in the black background but is hard to see.  

This was a fun piece to work on and brought back many wonderful memories!!  Here is a picture of one of them that I included.  My tricycle with a personalized vanity license plate which I adored!!!!!