I started editing the photos for this post in February, but I’m not getting around to writing it until March—all part of the endless game of “catch up” that I always seem to be playing! (Especially where this blog is concerned… But better late than never.)
I won’t be writing about things in chronological order. There are a lot of non-craft-related photos this time, so I thought I’d put them here at the beginning.
Getting Out on the Trails
Some of us spent about an hour last weekend clearing parts of the trails in the woods on the family property. Dad used a chainsaw and the tactor to move a pine tree that fell during one of the hurricanes. (Sally? I’m not sure which one!) Mom, Victor, Donald, and I helped trim down and move smaller trees and brush while Dad pushed through some thicker overgrown areas. There’s more to do, but it’s already a big improvement, considering we didn’t spend that long working. (No photos of the trails at home, today.)
Then another day last week, Donald and I went to the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail in Orange Beach. It had been years since I’d been there, and I think it’s much busier now than it ever used to be. Lots of bikes (particularly electric bicycles). It’s still a nice system of trails, though.
We only stopped a few times to take photos, but I still managed to snap too many.
Campfire Without the Camping
Yesterday was Mom’s birthday, and we went over in the evening to have a little fire, roast hot dogs, and visit a while. (Some weren’t able to come due to a cold/allergies, unfortunately. Maybe there will be a chance to do it again soon.) It’s been a while since we had a campfire, and much longer since I’ve had one with my family. It’s such a nice, comfortable way to spend an evening. There’s something special and particularly cozy about a campfire under the stars. (It’s even better when you get to go home and sleep in your own comfortable bed instead of roughing it in a tent!)
New Desk
I might not normally write much about a new piece of furniture (unless it was a treadle sewing machine cabinet), but this is different—because it’s a new desk that Donald designed and built for me!
It’s coming together piece by piece—first the L-shaped base of the desk, then the main hutch, and there are plans to eventually add a smaller hutch to the other side. I also need a foot rest on each side, but for now I’m just using up-turned boxes as temporary solutions.
I took a bunch of photos, but when I got around to editing them, I realized that the lighting wasn’t great. I think the issue is that the LED lamps are so bright that everything else looks dark by comparison. I guess these photos will have to do, though, because I’m not chomping at the bit to take more!
I love having all the drawers, cubbies, and cabinets for storage—and the built-in strip lighting under the hutch—and the built-in power strip (including USB chargers)! Oh, and the magnet board behind my laptop is a useful touch, too!
Donald did such a great job on all of it. I know I’m very lucky to have someone who is not only so handy at building things, but who is also willing to put in the time and effort to make something so nice for me, and I’m really enjoying the new desk. It has so much more surface area than my old corner computer desk did, not to mention all the extra storage built into this one. I’ve been moving a lot of “stuff” from my old painting spot in the craft room, deciding the best place for everything. There’s still some organization and decorating to do, but it’s getting there!
As you can see, I keep the laptop and “work station” stuff on the left, and to the right is a place for all my art supplies. Well, most of them. There are still some things in the craft room, which I’m using mostly for quilt-making, now. It’s also where I’m storing any lesser-used art and craft supplies or tools—and anything larger that doesn’t fit here at the desk. I’m planning to keep gel printing things (gel plates, stencils, acrylic paint, paper, old books/ephemera) in there. Making gel prints can be messy and easily takes over a lot of surface area, so doing that either at the craft/sewing room table or in the kitchen makes more sense than moving the watercolor and other mixed media stuff to make way for gel printing. (Again, very lucky to have so much room for my hobbies!)
Quilting the "Make It Pink! Make It Blue!" Quilt
Part of the reason I was motivated to get the “Use It Up” quilt off the frame (see last entry) was that I wanted to finish a quilt for a young family member’s birthday. One of my cousins has a daughter who was turning two in February, and I had a quilt top in pink and blue/aqua strings that I thought would be nice for her—but I needed to get it quilted, first.
I went back and forth over whether it might be easier to just do straight-line quilting on the Juki, but I knew that the real answer was to face the Q’nique quilting machine. (And applying the binding on the Juki has confirmed for me that quilting a large quilt with a walking foot is probably not for me. I’m not good at wrestling large bundles of fabric around a sewing machine!)
Anyway, I did manage to get it quilted in time for the party. I chose to keep it simple with meandering stitching, which works fine, though my scale didn’t stay completely consistent throughout the quilt and is looser toward the end. I doubt it will be noticeable to non-quilters, though.
I took a bunch of photos, most of which have a yellowish cast that my quick editing didn’t completely correct, but they’re better than nothing!
This is the first time in way, way too long that the quilt frame has sat empty. (I’m sure it’s a big no-no to leave a partially quilted quilt on the frame for as long as the “Use It Up” quilt was left in place. Oh well! Fortunately, there are no quilt police around here to issue a citation.)
Now it’s ready for the next project, but there are just so many, I’m not sure where I’ll start. Probably another crumb quilt, because I don’t feel as worried about ruining those.
In the meantime, I’ve trimmed down the “Use It Up” quilt and prepared a binding. It’s just a matter of sewing it on!
Am I Potty for Potted Plants?
I’m definitely in a potted plants doodling/painting mode lately. Just can’t seem to get them out of my system… They’re too much fun—and too easy—to doodle!
I did this page while trying out a new pen and ink. I had my birthday in February and received a Sailor Fude de Mannen 55° pen, which was the perfect opportunity to try out some Diamine Forever Ink in “Smoky Mauve”. I’m really enjoying both.
Next, I tinted it softly with watercolor. I tried to intentionally paint outside the lines in spots, but I’m not sure if I did enough of that to make it look intentional…
Either way, it was fun.
Next, I decided to do something similar, but minus the cats, to go on the front of a birthday card for Mom:
Because I liked how they looked in the previous doodle, I tinted this one in similar colors.
And finally, I decided to go in the other direction—painting first, doodling after.
I had a ceramic palette with a daub of Mars Black (PBk11) dried on it, so I thought I’d try using it as the “mother color” for a palette, mixing a little of it into each color for this page. I made a few shades of brown, a pink, a purple, and couple of greens. The results are slightly darker, moodier colors than what I used for the previous two potted plant pictures.
(This particular version of PBk11 isn’t quite as granulating as some are, though. It’s a cheaper brand. I might try this type of thing again with “the good stuff”, sometime, to see if it behaves differently.)
In the end, I decided that I liked it just the way it was, so I left off the ink entirely, but I still have paint on that palette, so maybe I’ll try it again and add ink to that. Or maybe I’ll start with ink again and use these colors (or something similar) to color it in.
Whatever direction it goes, I don’t think the joy of painting plants in pots has faded, yet.
