So Many Charms

It's been awhile.  But I've been busy. Sitting down and writing about what has been keeping me busy seems like one task too many, even if it's something I want to do.

Working backward from today seems easier than starting in March.

So most recently I've been making charms. It all started with one little pack of evil eye glass beads I got for no specific reason at all.  One thing led to another and a few weeks later I have a dozen+ Charms hanging in my house presumably protecting me from every possible 'thing' out there. I've got 9 different color evil eye beads, gemstones for all the Chakras, and various medalions all hanging out together doing whatever they are suppose to do. 

I really just like them because they are fun and easy to make and pretty.

 

That's all for today. More later about fabric designing in June, gardening in May, quilting in April, and bookbinding in March.

Thanks for reading.

AIleen

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

Something about the last five months. Marigold flowers and bees.

 Something? What do I talk about today?  

The Bumblebees in my garden? They love my Mutant Marigolds. I call them mutant because I don't know what else to call them. I love marigolds, they are such an easy flower to grow, produce continuous flowers for months, and importantly are deer resistant. Deer just don't eat them, unlike almost everything else I've tried to plant.  

 This is a little bee video, not sure this will work.

So I planted one of the tall domestic varieties with the big puffy orange blooms one year (don't remember which brand) and collected the seeds. And I planted those seeds the next year and got the same flower, and collected seeds again for the next year. So by the time I planted the 3rd or 4th generation of seeds I expected to get the same thing but they started to change to something different. Eventually after another year or two this is what I have, my Mutant Marigolds that the bees adore. 

 

 

 

This (below) is a sleeping baby bumblebee. The little ones show up later in the summer and sleep on the flowers overnight. I read they get pushed out of their nests when there are too many of them. Sort of sad. Nature is harsh.

But I really don't think these flowers are mutants. They seem to be going back to the wild.  I found a paper that called it  Feralization.  But what do I know? I don't know anything about plant science.  I just grow flowers.  But I don't think they are done "going wild".  They keep getting taller. I've had plants over six feet tall. And this isn't even a great spot for marigolds because it does not get sun all day. What would they become growing out in the middle of a field?

Something else. A lot of other bugs love these flowers. 

Photo bombed by an inchworm.

 

 Something else maybe going wild? Probably not.

This is my catnip.

Thanks for reading.

Aileen

I'm sure there is something else I can post later.

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

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