Happy February!

It's 71 degrees here today and it shouldn't be. It should be between 30-40.  I miss winter. 

But it is still February so instead of painting Christmas trees and snow I painted a bunch of Valentine Hearts.

 

And now It's also 2023 and I haven't posted an update in a long time so this is a quick bullet summary of what I did in 2022, besides grow marigolds.

So what did I do last year?

Some crochet: Another Project Linus Crochet Along blanket.

Some more crochet: This time tiny baby aliens with my own mods. I ended up making 4. They are a lot faster to make than their big brothers.

 

Started a new quilt: I saw these Plaid-ish quilts all over Instagram and loved them. The pattern is free and I have more fabric than any one person ever needs. I did finish piecing the top but I still need to quilt and finish it, hopefully this year.

 

Gardening: Lots of porch gardening, in addition to the feral marigolds.  The Celosia is my new favorite flower. They bloom and they stay 'bloomed' for months! I named this one Groot. It's just too obvious. Right?

Lots of different color Coleus, several Celosia of different types, Red vine, Morning Glories, and a Poinsettia.

Lots of watercolor art: Experimenting with paints, brushes and methods.

 Swatching all the watercolor paints I have.

 

Some bookbinding: Call it an art journal or a junk journal? I'm not sure? But it is just a collection of papers I'm painted.

 

 

But almost every day just filling this giant book with abstract acrylic art.

This is the first 100 pages of that big book of acrylic painting experiments.  There are also videos for the other 200 pages on my YouTube channel.

That's it for today. Not sure when I'll be back.

Thanks for reading.

Aileen

What year is this?

Still here. Still well. Still busy. 

Hello from me and my friends.

Just checking in here. I post photos of stuff I do more frequently on Instagram @aileenbiser

I do some kind of artwork every day, mostly acrylic painting lately. I took a long break from sewing in 2021, mainly because I spent months rearranging, sorting and reorganizing my craft/sewing/art room. I do almost all my hobbies in that room except for crochet or drawing. Crochet is a sit on the couch and watch TV activity and drawing can be done anywhere. 

So I did more crochet in 2021.

Another Project Linus Crochet challenge quilt. Lots of fun new stitches to try out.

And my first attempt at a crochet sweater. This was the practice sweater to test the pattern for fit and shape using an inexpensive acrylic yarn.  I may make it again with a nicer yarn.

And I finally got back to doing some sewing in October and made another Project Linus quilt top. Not sure when I'll finish it.  It's on the To Do list.

 This is the room where it all happens. A place for everything and everything in it's place.

 I do plan to post more often. We'll see how that goes...

Thanks for visiting.

Aileen

Baby Alien Invasion

After I dusted off my crochet hooks earlier in 2020 to participate in a Project Linus crochet challenge I went searching for a Baby Yoda crochet pattern. I'd seen several posts of different versions of the child online and thought why not, I think I'll try that, if I can find a pattern I like.  Once I found a really great pattern at 1upcrochet  I tried my hand at Amigurumi, something I've never done before.

 This little guy and coat was made using the suggested yarn and hook sizes in the pattern.

 

This guy looks sad, something about the way I put on the eyelids on seems to change the facial expression maybe? This little guy was actually the first one I made and even though I used the correct weight yarn he came out bigger than expected so the coat I made didn't fit very well. so I made him his own bigger coat with a fluffy collar.

 

 This little one seems even younger and got a fancier coat.

 

You can see the size differences in this family photo. These were all made with the same weight yarn and hook size per instructions.  and they each seem to have a different personality?

All the children are waiting for the birth of number 4.

Lunch Time!!

And for Christmas they all got new Santa Hats.

 

And number 5 just joined the group in January 2021.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

Thanks for reading.

Aileen

Other stuff I did in 2019 and 2020

I had on my To Do list last year to write a blog post in Sept, then it became Sept + Oct, then it became Sept + Oct + Nov, etc..... So here I am in February 2020 July 2020 to summarize the last 6 11 months.

More art, lots of art, acrylic painting, watercolor experiments, some sketching, and there was sewing, lots of sewing, cutting, piecing, quilting, bookbinding, gardening, crochet, etc. ...

Here are some photos of my projects and much of my artwork is already posted on Instagram.

Christmas Card Art - Dec 21019

Scrap Queen Bed Quilt - July 2019 (just for the practice)

Queen Bed Quilt - November 2019

Project Linus Challenge quilt top - October 2019

Queen Bed Quilt - April 2020

Project Linus Crochet Challenge - May 2020

Coptic bookbinding - old construction paper - May 2020

Painted Canvas booklet - May 2020

Thanks for reading.
Aileen

Summer Summary

Or "How To Be A Lazy Blogger".

So, I have been doing a few things over the last several months. But it's been a mixed bag of projects in different areas of interest.  So, because I haven't blogged about each odd craft thing I've been doing lately I decided to just post snapshots, maybe with a word or two, about each thing I worked on. 

Large Pojagi Cloth Panels.This large window gets direct sunlight several hours in the afternoon until sundown. Even with curtains behind the the pojagi panels there is still plenty of light coming through to play off the colors of the fabrics.

Small Pojagi panel. These were white on white fabrics stained with a diluted wash of acrylic ink which is permanent, still flexible and washable.

 

Mini Cloth Cover notebooks.

Mini (3 1/2" x 5 1/2") travelers style leather cover for Mini Notebooks.

A giant painting that I have been working on for a year and is not done yet! At least giant for me. It's actually only about 3' x 4' and the "canvas" is actually and old plywood crate lid. It's just one big experimental mess of color and texture. Fun.

 A couple little crochet bags from scraps of wool yarn.

 

A zipper pouch for pens and notebooks.

Some small artwork. A butterfly for an ArtSnacks Liquitex Cadmium Free art challenge.

Another butterfly for an ArtSnacks monthly challenge.

Some small painted canvas scraps to use as mini notebook covers.

One of the mini notebooks completed. The other two are ready for pages.

A big messy randomly painted cloth to cut up and use for more notebook covers.

 Still working on these.

And several watercolor "doodles" along the way.

Thanks for reading.
Aileen