Day Lily by Kerry McFall

Fourth of July weekend means I had time for a quick trip to the library on Friday.  As I walked out the door into the sunshine with my arms piled high, something about the scent of warm books transported me back to being eight years old… Suddenly I  was stepping down out of the bookmobile and into a simple summer day.  Nothing lay before me but the prospect of an armload of art books to read, and maybe a banana popsicle if I was lucky.  Sweet memory. 

The long weekend and nice weather also brought experimenting with ink outlines and working in the garden… Our back “garden” when we moved in to this cottage consisted of two thirsty clumps of day lilies, some feral iris under the hedge, and a whole bunch of what we used to call “Indian Tobacco” when we were kids.  The lilies were a deeper red than most I’ve seen, so I let them stay back against the fence and they are thriving now.  (The iris had to go, it was just too infested with thistles and the tobacco.)  The “flame” pattern in the throat of the lily lends itself nicely to making a ribbon pattern to go along the edge.  I like adding the borders to sketches, they will be fun to transform into greeting cards.