Quilting 2020

I know it's March 2021 but it sure feels like 2020 2.0. Nothing has changed and I really haven't done much in the last couple months. So I decided to write a few different post summarizing more of my 2020 craft activities. 

Quilting 2020:

 

I started 2020 finishing a very large queen size quilt. That of course involved lots of sewing, machine quilting separate sections and solving some construction problems because I made the quilt using the Machine Quilting in Sections method as taught by Marti Michell. She has an excellent Craftsy class on the subject that I referenced multiple times.  It was the only way I could achieve my goal because I don't have a sewing machine that can accommodate the machine quilting of something that large.  It was the end of April before I finished and was thrilled to be done and happy with the results.  But by then I was pretty tired of sewing.  It was the third queen size quilt I made in a row. I'd made two in 2019 before I started this on and I needed a break from sewing.

I moved on to other crafts for several months.  After taking a long break I didn't do any more sewing until the annual Project Linus quilt challenge in October.  That is always a fun easy quilt to make and a fundraising event for Project Linus.  The challenge only last about 8 weeks and you receive complete instructions and access to video tutorials if you need them. My problem is I love finishing the quilt tops but take forever to get around to finishing the quilts. I have several quilt tops sitting in my cabinet now just waiting to become real quilts one day.

After I finished the Project Linus quilt top I was ready to finish a Christmas project I'd planned a couple years ago or so.  I have collected a lot of different winter and Christmas themed fabric and planned to make a table runner for a  coffee table out of some blue and white snowflake fabric prints.

 

 

 

I have a list of planned quilt projects that I already have the fabric for.  It's just a matter of deciding what I feel like working on at any given time. But then there are the unplanned projects usually made from leftover fabric pieces that are the remnants of previous completed projects. They end up becoming any number of things. Having just finished three queen size quilts I have a basket full of extra cut fabric pieces and scraps from both the fronts and backs of the quilts. I experimented with some strip piecing ideas and ended up with enough blocks to make another table runner and I have some random small quilt blocks made from leftover project Linus fabric. They may end up being zipper pouches or place mats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading.

 

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

A Month of Bookbinding

After spending more than a year buried in quilting projects I decided to switch gears and catch up on a pile of unfinished bookbinding projects.

These are pocket size notebooks with hand painted canvas covers and several different types of  papers for pages.

And a few mini notebooks with painted canvas covers.
 

 A pile of mini long stitch leather books.

I spent some time learning how to do a French Link bookbinding stitch in different sizes using some heavy drawing paper.

And made a couple map paper junk books just for the fun of it, also with painted canvas covers.

Finally I had a couple more leather projects that were a little larger to finish and I wanted to do something different for the binding so I tried this neat criss-cross stitch. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, I just had to map it out on paper and in my head before I started.

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

Still blogging, sort of...

Hi,

Just checking in. I post most frequently to Instagram these days. Mainly because it's so easy and I don't like to take the time to say anything.  Mostly because I don't have anything to say or don't want to say anything.  But I'm not quite ready to let this blog die. So I'll just do a quick recap of some of the stuff I'm doing.

I've been doing art, art, and more art. Well, I'm not sure it's "art" so much as just me practicing with paint on paper or canvas. Playing with color combinations. Playing with paint mediums. Playing with techniques. Testing different papers and canvas. Just basically playing and experimenting with whatever I feel like each day.

In between watercolor and acrylic painting projects I've also done some small quilting projects:

And a couple major bookbinding projects:

 An I'm also learning how to do some basic chainmail weaves:

Thanks for reading.

Aileen