Papa's Garden Pattern Collection

 

...The little princess had never met anyone like Papa before. He told interesting stories as he weeded the corn rows, smiled as he shoveled in the hot sun, and he cracked jokes even when he didn't feel well. Papa knew how to trellis the beans, coax flowers out of dry ground, and hitch horses to a wagon. Time spent in Papa's garden was never enough and it was one of the little princesses favorite places in the whole kingdom...

This collection is very dear to my heart and I cried many tears of both joy and sadness as I drew these patterns in memory of Papa Earl. Earl taught my kids how to plant corn, grow dahlias, and hitch little horses to a wagon. More than just gardening, he taught my kids what it looks like to show kindness and love to others without expecting anything in return. Papa's Garden is a collection of memories from our last summer gardening with him.

The hero print in this collection is a large scale floral featuring dahlias (Earl's favorite flower), zinnias, and cosmos. The blue version was color matched from a photo of Earl's favorite shirts that he wore almost every day.

My favorite print in this collection features old tractors and the life cycle of tomatoes, corn, and sunflowers. In two color versions, this print is ideal for nursery wallpaper or as fabric to back a quilt. This pattern features intentionally imperfect line drawings to bring added whimsy and movement to the pattern.

Including little horses in this collection was an absolute no-brainer. I don't think there are many gardeners who would hitch little horses to a hand made wagon in order to give kids rides...

I love the colors in this scallop print inspired by our views of the sunset while harvesting dahlias. I think it would be fun to make as an embroidered patch for jackets and hats.

The turkeys and wheat patterns are nods to late summer in the garden and the people like Earl who start out as strangers and quickly become like family. Once the bulk of harvest was over, the garden chores decreased and that's when we always heard the best stories. As my little one put it, "When Earl tells his stories, you don't even realize how hard you are working because he makes work fun."

Fat little groundhogs were the arch enemy of our garden growing efforts.  While utterly cute and adorably rolly-polly, they ate more stems in the night than we care to admit.  Sometimes they would occasionally have a "farm-related accident" as Earl liked to tell my children. I imagine that many fellow gardeners (with a sense of humor) would love this pattern.

 

Thank you so much for reading about this collection and supporting my art.  You can SHOP this collection on Spoonflower HERE.

If you liked this collection, you may also like the Southern Porch Pattern Collection.

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