Q3 '24 finished list (7/19)

Motif from a 4000 year old Iranian pot

Let's face it, I'm not going to finish anything else before EOQ tomorrow...  This quarter I finished:

• Red fabric and a shirt from it just in time to wear to Sweden (counting as two items)
• A swedish rag rug while in Sweden
• 2 runners, one of which now lives in France. I'm keeping the on with too many mistakes :) It doesn't look much different from the sample on the loom I showed in an earlier post.
  
• Cowl using planned pooling, which looks like flowers on a brown background.  I don't have photos yet. 

  Crappy watercolor but fun cards?

  
  
• I carved a stamp depicting Zig, and made a small run of cards, Zig, the dancers, and my frog. And I took an old watercolor drawing and chopped it up into a few cards as well... Now I have a dozen cards plus 4 or 5 postcards.

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September's cookbook challenge was Plenty: I made the Veggie pie, which was pretty much a quiche with roasted tomatoes, onions, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and feta. I'd make that again. 

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I think I said this a few posts ago, but I need to shift some of my attention from making things to working out; I've lost a level of fitness and frankly it's now or never. I need to revisit my time and priorities... But I'll still be working on things. 

I'd like to spend more time printing... so I'll be looking at a periodic goal to carve a new stamp or learn a new technique.

I'd like to work through some of the stuff that's on Craftsy.

I'd like to set a periodic goal to work though that list of unfinished projects I came up with last March.

SOOOOO.... having said all of that, this is what's on my list for Q4. Note that having said I'd devote more time to it, the list has gotten longer than any other quarter.

Finishing: 

• Those two darn towels I just can't seem to finish.

Printing:

• I need a Christmas card, and have no ideas.
• I'd like to carve a block depicting G&M's Zig.

Knitting:

• I frogged and restarted the Modular Color Vest. It should go fast, it's thick yarn; I'm about 1/4 done with it now.
• The Day Dream sweater (Frogging, need to start over), or another sweater.

Spinning:

• The Diver's Cove roving is singles, needs to be plied.
• I have a bobbin of merino/tencel singles that need to be plied.

Weaving:

• A basket? I have the materials
• I've loosely promised some vegetable towels by April or so. It would be nice to make one or more veggie bags to go with it.
• I have double weave pillows designed and colors picked out... I need 2 for me and two for K.
• An Ikat (DH is working on a warp shifter for me)
• Placemats for the lodge using rag rug techniques.
• The poppy table, so I can start the table by the pool. I came back from France with some ideas.

Sewing:

• The tote bag from the embroidered piece I made a few years ago.
• Finish a started quilt
• Work more with the embroidery class I started.

I'm including the UFO LIST from March just to keep me honest... And yes! It's getting shorter.

Knitting: 

• Anna Zilboorg Sweater- I need to fish it out and make a plan 
• A Capella- frog and return the yarn to the yarn pool 
• Sunset and Sand- needs a decision frog or finish! 
• The jacket with the embroidery that needs rework. If I recall correctly there's an issue with the collar, and the sleeves, and I'm not sure what else...

Weaving:

• This is super easy, since it's either on the loom or not...  and there are projects on both looms. 
• However, there are two hand towels that need hemming. 
• I do have four ikat warps (one I dyed, two from Indonesia, and one from a friend) that need weaving. 

Quilting (Can the list really still be this long?):

• Fan blocks: I've been dithering about what to do with them for 20 years or so.
• The first Judy Niemeyer quilt (straighter pieces): I may need to figure out setting strips but otherwise I think I photoed a layout and I should be ready to finish the top.
• The second Judy Niemeyer class (curved pieces): I stopped while piecing the top together but I did photo the layout; so I need to remember what I was doing and do it.
• Judy Niemeyer place mat kit: it's in the bookshelf, waiting to be made.
• Chili pepper quilt: Ick
• Around the Twist quilt: It's done except I think a couple of the corners need sewing? This'll probably go to donation
• One or two Hawaiians (small) that need quilting
• A cute but fussy quilt that I started in pinks and blues but I'm not sure I'm precise enough to finish

Sewing:

• I have all the pieces ready for a big grocery bag, just do it

Spinning:

• Honestly I have no idea.

Mosaic:

• A table: Unsure of how I want the background to be
• A stepping stone: there's an area I made that needs rework.

Clearly I'm not counting raw materials (quilting fabric, knitting yarn, weaving yarn, tiles, sewing fabric). Let's not go there.

Some cards...

I took a class on my birthday from Molly Hashimoto, a print artist who's work I admire greatly... The class was relief printing (lino block) combined with water color. My goal was to create something quickly and get feedback before I went on vacation!

Photo, drawing, 
drawing transferred to block

I settled on a photo of the Ziggle... Carved in the rubbery Speedball speedycut block.  I don't happen to like this material; I feel like I don't have much control, and in fact struggled to get the lines around the eyes correct (I finally fixed them with a Sharpie). I also gouged out too deep of a line on one of the whiskers. After some reflection, and thinking about how Molly carved in her demo, I think my issue is that I'm going too deep. 

Colorized. Molly suggested I tint the mouth pink
and add some shading with blue (bottom right);
I don't have the water color skills for the shading

Here it is colorized; I fixed a section of the nose and drew in the right pupil by Sharpie. It's printed on watercolor paper or postcard (whatever I had) with a water soluble oil based ink, then watercolored with leftovers from my water color class. The eye color is pretty close to Zig's and I prefer the bluer green in the background. It definately captures his character, and I feel it's got a rough feeling of the old Kabuki posters... The one on the left is affixed to a card. I'm ridiculously pleased with these. 

I also printed up a few more frogs, and some of the dancers I'd copied from a 4,000 year old (chalcolithic) vase from Iran... Looking forward to carving some more!

Things that work:

• Putting a border around the print frames it and prevents some of the carving chatter marks. Breaking the border with an element of the picture can be effective.
• Carving deep on the speedy cuts doesn't work, but carving shallow might be fun to experiment with. I have colored ink; Molly uses almost exclusively black.
• Need to wait for the ink to dry to water color; 2 days seems good (depending on weather).
• A drying rack is a good idea.
• I ripped the paper which give fun edges, but I didn't rip all sides; maybe rethink this, or use the paper cutter for straighter sides. It might have been easier to use paper that was larger than I needed, I cut them pretty close.

And a quick note... the Cowl is done, the runners are done. No photos of them yet.