Q2 '20 Finished things (9 or more)

My time to work on things has been curtailed a bit by pandemic and other activities. For awhile, I was doing my own housecleaning and yard work; thankfully I've surrendered that back to the experts. Still, I'm cooking a lot more often, and more project menus, and I've been working out a lot more because it helps me sleep at night. DH has also involved me in a few house projects, and I've spent a lot of time in the Guild library, and in fostering Guild social activities. So I expected to see a list with very little "finished" things on it and was super surprised to see that I've actually done a lot!

Wonderful handmade cotton fabric!

• I aspired to do a shadow weave fabric of my own design for the study group, and in fact spent some time researching shadow weave and came up with a couple of fun designs... but then decided to reverse engineer a pattern from a shirt one of my guild mates was wearing as an exercise to see if I could do it.  I wove this is mostly 20/2 cotton and one mystery yarn. It's approximately 14 inches wide and very very long and it's destined to become a shirt or vest!

It's almost
opalescent
in real life

• I finished spinning 250 grams of silk I dyed more than 10 years ago. It's not particularly even and is under plied in some areas... But I had fun and have a great feeling of accomplishment. 

• I wanted to finish the Festivus quilt but didn't realize exactly how much work it would be! I did finish quilting all 12 of the blocks (well, mostly, I'll go back and add a little more to two of them), and I'm about half way around the border. My biggest impediments to finishing are Owl and Ziggy who think it's a great frame for laying on my lap.

Hand dyed, hand decorated and
hand sewn mask now in the
collection of a master gardener.

• I wanted to do some other sewing thing. Does 38+ cloth masks count? I made 18 for the niece in ABQ to give to those who need them, 5 for DH and I, and the rest to friends and family. I must confess, I really like some of my masks.

• I completed a muslin for the Shirt Number One in size large (pattern loaned by a friend)... It'll need some dye on it... but the sewing is done. I'm unlikely to make another one of these; it's too boxy; but it probably would have been better in a softer fabric.

This fabric doesn't exist
anywhere else!

• I deep cleaned the studio and found a shirt I started while still at Canada College... The choice: find a place for it to live or finish it. So I finished it. The fabric was printed to my spec by Spoonflower, and I tailored the pattern to fit. The broadcloth is a bit stiff but causes the shirt to stand away from my body resulting in a cool, comfortable top.

• I started knitting the Double Your Pleasure cowl; I'm just started and already will have to unknit some of it. But I'm liking the pattern so far. Pictures will appear in later posts.

• An ikat project is dyed and about to go on the loom.

• I finished a black and white scarf in crackle. I learned a lot about crackle but not sure if I want to do more. I had some issues with the beat and the sett as well, so not proud of this scarf. 

How can I not have a colorized version?

• I carved a frog stamp, water colored and stamped post cards, then released them into the world. So far I've gotten lots of positive feedback!

• And I can take "make peanut brittle" off of my bucket list. I crumbled up most of it and added it to peanut butter ice cream; that was a little too sweet, but the peanut brittle was glorious.

• I made a small piece of garden art and it failed. But as a recent guild speaker commented, if you're not failing 50% of the time, you're not trying!

I got no traction on these list items...

• The eye mosaic; and there's another partial piece down there...
• The woven jacket with knitted sleeves.

I'm unsure how to count what I've done this quarter... Do 38 masks count as 38 or as 1? Do 17 postcards count as more than one? I'll take one for each of these, knowing that a lot more were made...

What's up for Q3? I'll put the last quarters leftovers on this quarters list:

• Complete one of the started 3D mosaic project.
• Finish the woven jacket with knitted sleeves.
• Would it be too much to finish the border of the Festivus quilt?
• Dye the Number One shirt.
• Trial another shirt pattern (Patternworks Akita).
• Carve another stamp for August.
• Weave the two ikat scarves.
• Spin the wool for the scarf I'm making with Carol.
• Design and begin work on a table for the grill area. It would be nice to use it this season.
• Weave a sample for a coverlet.
• Make masks for family in Utah.
• I'd like to explore doing Zentangles on fabric, and also making fabric wrapped rope baskets...

No Haiku for the weaving

dark of night filled with

tiny tree frog croaking for
his lost tree frog love

I started carving this linoleum block at Esalen  back in March from the same photo as the frog mosaic; I  finished it recently and did a test print and adjustments today. I'm planning on printing a group of postcards, probably black ink on green watercolor? We'll see.

No haiku for the
weaving yet the shuttle throws
my hand right then left

The one memorable dish from the pandemic

I made this tofu with a spicy peanut/lime sauce on Sunday. Really easy and extremely tasty. DH declared this will be the dish he remembers of all the food I've cooked during the pandemic, I suspect because the flavors are so unusual.  It was so good, I'd make the marinade just to turn it into salad dressing...

I've started on Rick Bayless' Everyday Mexican in a big way today. I've got a pot of beans in the slow cooker, and I just made the Roasted Fresh Chile Salsa to go on the Grilled Chicken with Tangy Yucatecan Spices tonight. This is not a salsa to casually consume with chips... a substitution for this, if you don't have the chiles, is Tabasco's Jalapeno hot sauce. I licked the spoon after stirring it and had a bit of a jalapeno vacation; that's when what you're eating is so spicy everything leaves your mind except the spice.

Fiber wise:

Failed test piece

• I continue to work on the quilt... It's coming aong. I think I am done with 1/3 of 3/4 of the border. I'll need to figure out how to quilt the top border...  
• I have a new project on the loom; a black and white crackle scarf. I know better but I didn't include any length for sampling, and it's taken me the expected 5 inches to get the beat right. So I'm going to cut out the unevenly beat bits and start over. 
• I've started winding/tieing a warp for 2 random ikat scarfs. I'll find some white fabric and tie some shibori to throw in the pot for a matching mask.

On the mosaic front, I tried to create a piece for the garden. It's on pvc pipe, about a foot tall. I used silicone adhesive to glue the glass to the pipe... it was a little fussy working with dipping each piece in the silicone, so I decided to smooth it on the whole pipe, then lay the pieces on. Easy, right? I smugly left the studio and went to find out how long I needed to let it sit before grouting. The answer is that grout doesn't stick to silicone. I tried to scrape it out but then decided to relegate this to the "test piece" catagory and start over with a different strategy.