And the designs and crops continue!

I'm still playing with cropping and designing...sometimes with success..sometimes not so much!  Yes, this is an ok drawing/crop but honestly a crop doesn't need to look like 'anything'...does that make sense.

I guess you could say I jumped ahead to the design phase here putting pieces of my painted/stamped papers to create a 8"x10" page in my journal.

This was another deli background that I placed some of the pieces on.  I haven't glued either of these in my journal yet.  Still deciding!

We're now looking at texture pictures and creating stamps from those pictures.  I just happen to find this foam stickie back sheet, which looked to me that it already had a design on it!  So what did I do!  Yep, carved out positive and negative foam stamps! 

And then....I marked the areas I wanted to cut out. 

So now it's back to finding some more texture pictures.  I took some pictures outside while looking at the wood on our deck posts and rocks, which Hilary loves to print with.  Who knows what we'll be doing next! 

Another knit project in the books!

Because I had to purchase more yarn to finish my lace shawl, I couldn't see just letting the yarn sit in a container....so, I found a pattern by Laura Nelkin and decided to knit it using the leftover yarn.

Finally finished....although, I stopped short and didn't add all the rows on the pattern, nor did I add the beads when binding off...I was afraid to run out of yarn (again!).

Piece is blocking/drying.

All blocked!  This was a good practice piece for knitting with beads, which I really haven't done before other than a book mark which was super small!

Some of the bead detail

I look like I'm ready to rob a bank!  But I think this will work well under a jacket or blouse or if I do need a mask to rob a bank!  Who knows!

 And now I'm working on another one, which I'll follow the pattern.   You can see the beads that I'll be adding on this scarf.  Nice to work in a different color of yarn!

A few more croppings

Weather has been beautiful for a Michigan summer...yes, some days are more Florida weather so I stay inside with the AC on.  Other days, we've had the windows open with a wonderful breeze blowing through the house.  Those are my kind of days.  So when AC is on, I'm in my wet room playing with our MIP online lessons.

This was a drawing I did in May.

This is just a small 2"x3" crop that I was going to make into a stamp....still working on that one! 

This was a photo of the bottom of our deck wood.

And my crops from the photo above...again 2"x3".  Nothing fantastic but good practice at cropping. 

This was a deconstructed screen print I did last year.  I really like the design and even the colors in this piece.  Thought it might make a good crop!

Again, nothing really great other than I like the middle and last crop on the right. 

Good for making a stamp....

This was a crop from another small photo I cut from a magazine years ago!  Think the photo is in my journal but you get the idea!

So now to make some stamps from a few of the crops.  I have to go back into that mode of cutting out the foam stamps...a little less work than carving from rubber stamp but who knows what I'll end up doing.  Until then.....


I'm also binding off the 1st Beadkerchief knitted scarf...had to stop and not finish the beaded edges per the pattern because I'm using up the leftover yarn from my lace shawl.  Almost running out again...besides, this was a good practice piece for incorporating beads in a knitted piece. 

A day or two of my life....

This is a post about my/our life...nothing exciting but I do like to have in my blog book.  Enjoy or just close and move on!  Thanks for stopping by!

It was such a nice weekend weatherwise.....and then hubby had the great idea for me to wash our pillows.  Now, this is the man who will buy radio controlled airplanes, golf clubs, etc.  You get the picture...but instead of buying a new $10 pillow (afterall he had coupons for two stores!), he didn't want to spend the $$'s.  So, I put the pillows in our heavy duty, 24 year old, Whirpool washer!  Bob and I went about our day - me working on some drawings and he on his planes.  He came upstairs first and yelled his famous words "Robbie, we've got a problem" (my kids and grandkids know this statement!  Kinda a joke in our family!) 

Anyway, the water overflowed from the washer, which is a top loader.  I had to mush the pillows into the water for it to agitate but I didn't think about it filling up again for a rinse cycle.  UGH....so we had to move the washer out so I could JUMP up on top of the washer and jump behind it!  Now picture this 73 yr old grandma hiking herself up on the washer!  But I did it!  There was a lot of water but I got it all mopped up and we pushed the washer back in place.  I took the pillows and hung them from the drying rack outside.  I should have taken a picture of them drying in sun...thank goodness for a sunny day!  I did toss in the dryer but they were pretty well dried and hubby slept well under his clean, puffy pillow!  Hmmmmmmmmm

Bob had a doctor appt that I schedule for him to check out some digestive issues.  No, he didn't want to go but I'm tired of hearing him complain.  Although, the past few days he's been "good" but that's another story!  So he heads to the doctor's office and when he gets there they tell him he doesn't have an appointment.  He said "WHAT?"  Of course, I'm sure he thought I messed up but they proceeded to tell him they have been using several temps lately and the lady on duty Friday probably didn't input the appointment.   

He then said, "well, I've fasted so can you do my blood work for my physical?"  They told him "no, because your physical isn't until October and your insurance wouldn't cover it unless you were seen".  Oh and they don't do blood draws anymore so he'd have to go to Quest 9 miles away.  Sooooooo could he come in at 3 instead.  Well, we know what hubby told them by that time! 

I called the office and talked to the receptionist and she (and I!) were quite pleasant.  I did ask if she would come and stay at our house tonight because I didn't want to be there when he got home.  She laughed but I was serious!  Actually, Bob handled this pretty good for him....

Next up, Gigi got sick at 11:35 p.m. when we were in bed Monday night!  She jumped off the bed and headed to the door and, thank goodness, ran outside to puke.  She did this twice...poor baby...so I got her some anti nausea meds and some Pepto and back to bed we went.

But I didn't sleep because everytime she moved I thought it was time to go back out!, which she didn't....first thing Tuesday a.m. I called the vet and dropped her off...after $398 spent, she is home and doing well.  She was dehydrated so they had to give her subcutaneous fluids and she's eating her rice and chicken and drinking again.  Poor baby!!   But no pancreatitis or poison type foods in her.  Hmmmmmmmmm




BUT THE BEST PART OF TUESDAY WAS!!!  Drumroll please!!!!!

Oh my gosh!  It feels so good to have my gray hair gone AND to have my pony tail gone!!!!  I haven't been to the hairdresser since March 3rd and ya all know how thick my hair is!  A 73 yr old grandma wearing a ponytail isn't always the best look!!!  But I feel SO good again!!!!!!  Whew!!!!  Now I know I can tackle the rest of the week and if not, at least I'll look better!

Back to the drawing board...kinda

I have to admit that I was struggling with some of our drawing lesson the last week or so in our online MIP class..but we have to move on, don't we, if we're going to learn anything!  Hilary is really good at being aware when her students are struggling or needing encouragement and she did just that this past week.  Actually, we're doing a bit of a recap in next week's lesson(s) as well.

This was a picture I saved from a newspaper clipping several, several years ago!  I had to color it in because it was fading!  I've always liked the design/layout...so I used it to crop two small 2"x3" images.

And my two little crops.....I had more fun coloring them in than I did drawing them!  HA

Based on some of Hilary's input I worked on this piece and enjoyed it!  Who knew!

This page was made up of several cards and pics I found in magazines that I liked.  Gives me lots of choices, right!

From that grouping of pictures, I ended up making a drawing of the elements back in May.   I have decided that I prefer leaves/foliage vs flowers so I'm anticipating my final design for the end of 2020-2021 for Hilary's class will be composed of leaves.

Next up, we were to crop from our picture (and you could do more than one).  I had already done a crop from the drawing above in May, so figured I'd just go with it.

We're to select one that we would like to collage in paper and I thought this would be a good choice and easy.   

And this was my end result using above crop for my inspiration.  I collected some of our previous stamped/dyed papers in colors for my collage and created this piece!  This is small, 5.5" x 8.25" and I put it in my  accordion journal.

I am happy with how my collage came out and it really gave me a boost to get back to looking at my saved pictures or previous collage pieces I've done.   Our next step is to pick a favorite that we want to reproduce in fabric!  Yikes!  I'm going to have to work on doing more cropping and collage work before I get to this step.  We're going to draw onto felt and fill in with cut pieces of fabric(s).  Should be fun but I'm just taking my time working on small collages.  We'll resize those collages to a size we want to work in.  Until then...back to the "drawing board"!

More knitting

We are back working on Hilary's online MIP class and drawing/cropping and I'm trying to get back into tracing!  HA  Until then...I'm knitting at night when watching TV and sometimes during the day when it's pleasant on the deck.  This week it's been too hot except at night so hard to decide what to do, right!  And I'm walking with my neighbor as often as we can after dinner...getting in over 10,000+ steps, which makes me happy!

I'm currently knitting the same pattern with different threads/needles at the same time!  I had to do something with the leftover yarn I had from my lace shawl...so this was a good way to practice a new pattern that adds beads to it.  I'm almost at the point of adding the beads.

 It's hard to see the beads I just laid on top of the knitted portion.  These will be inserted as I knit the next # of rows...

This is yarn I purchased to make the 'real' beadkerchief pattern by Laura Nelkin. 

You can see the beads I'll be adding to this scarf.  These may show up more than the ones on the grey scarf.




This past Tuesday our local yarn shop had a 20% off on yarns so I had to stop by...one sad note is the owner is retiring and will be closing her shop August 1st!  It's been a staple in the town of Grand Blanc for many years and I'm hoping someone else will take it over.  Yarn shops are hard to come by but I imagine with all of the online shops women are using them vs small shops.

Check out this yarn I purchased!  I love it and hope to use it for another lace shawl pattern by Laura.  I won't get to this until after the first of the year, just too many other projects due between now and the holidays.  But I can be patient!  I think!

And check out this nifty little item!  It's a pattern holder for holding your pattern(s) while you're knitting.   I really could have used this when knitting my lace shawl!  I've usually put my pattern  sheet in plastic, which slips off my lap or  when it's on the table it tends to blow away...

Now the pattern sheet will stay in place and the magnetic strip will show where/what row you're on!  How cool is that!

You can open the case landscape or portrait and it also has a zippered area for keeping other items in or add'l pattern sheets.

This is great with the use of a large magnetic strip to hold your pattern and show your place.  How cool is this!  I'm going to get my sister one on Thursday and mail to her.  I'm sure she won't see this post since she's also busy knitting and taking care of a 3 month old puppy!!! 

More drawings...well sorta!

Let's face it...an artist who draws is someone I will never be and that's ok.  I'm fine with tracing and Hilary showed us several ways to do that too!  So hopefully, my future drawings will look more like the 'real' thing! 

Until then...here are some drawings I was playing with - no, obviously they aren't traced!  I only cropped one and I don't have that original picture with it.  At least I have some drawings I can crop and play with. 

I did a crop from a cool circle picture I found from a painting years ago. 

I decided I like leaf drawings/crops and geometric pieces.  At least I'm narrowing down what I like so I may have my theme for our design work later this year!











I did get some more poster board stamped/dyed.  I want to make a book for Amber's 21st BD in August.  I'll put pics from her sonogram to this year pictures on each page!  Hope it works out.  Now to cut into the size I want the book to be!

Painting both sides of the poster board.

Now I'm off to do some tracing!  Feels so good!  HA HA

Art Group Covid-19 Meeting!

Our Aussome Study Art Group last met on March 9th so we were all anxious to get together again, which we did this past Monday!  We normally meet at the local library in one of their meeting rooms but because the library was still closed we met in their parking lot instead!   We kept our distance...for the most part! 

I asked the ladies if I could share some of what they've been working on since our last meeting...it's always an inspiration to get together with 'like minds' isn't it!

This is the binding on a journal Carol is working on.  I really like this binding technique.  Very clean and neat looking isn't it.   I forget who this online class is from but hope she can share again!  We were sitting in lawn chairs so no table to write notes on!  HA

These are some of the tabs on the edge of Carol's journal.  Cool!

This is one of the pages Carol has in this journal. Carol works in journals most often and has done some really interesting pages.  I've shared some previously on my blog.  Very talented lady!

This is a silk resist piece Carol did back in 2004!  She is in the process of having a new home built so is going through some of her work.  She also taught us this silk resist process at our former Complex Cloth Group we belonged to several years ago. 










We all forgot about Carol showing us this technique but I found a picture from that night.  You can see Carol two pics (2nd row right and bottom row 1st pic).  Funny how we all forgot about that night!  But it was back in 2004! 

This is a beautiful quilt top Lois Ann is working on! I don't know the exact measurement but it's LARGE!!  At least 3 feet+ x 5ft+.   It's stunning isn't it!!!  Lois Ann is amazing at her watercolor and drawings.  This quilt is aussome!!!

Look at all the foliage pieces she's added! 

This is a close up of a flower!  Just stunning!

This is a watercolor journal page Marty is working on.  She was participating in an online group which would create a journal page weekly (I think!) by different instructors.  Anyway, this is awesome isn't it!

Another watercolor piece by Marty.  They were drawing a dead sunflower vs a blooming sunflower!  I think it's wonderful!

Marty added this page to her journal from a magazine.  The quote is wonderful.

Marty created this Lord's Prayer for her church.  Check out some of the items she used for the words!  I love the 'AMEN' where she used the 'A' from an Aldi grocery store advertisement!  Clever!

And our Mary is making charity quilts for her church.  I think some of this was made from jelly rolls.  These are quite large quilts and her quilting is really nice!!!

And this is the back of the quilt! 

This is another charity Mary made.

And the back!  Once again so cool!!!

I'm so lucky to surround myself with these talented ladies!!!  

Lois Ann, Mary, Carol, Marty and me!  A little windblown!

And hopefully we'll get to meet inside for our July meeting and then go to lunch!!!  Which is always fun too!