A seven year quilt

I did it!  On this President's Day, I finally finished this crazy quilt.  I sewed up the edges on the binding, laid it out over my bed, and stared at it in something like amazement.  My husband smiled over the quilt and said, "too bad it doesn't have a story," and I said, "but it does!"  In fact, this quilt was subject of my first blog entry...a year and a half ago.  Started during a major snowstorm that shut down all of Maryland precisely seven years ago, it felt timely to finish it while Maryland dug itself out again.  I feel far away from Maryland up here in the north, and needed a way to feel connected again, while also re-examining the separation. 

This quilt really represents our journey from Maryland to Massachusetts, the beginning of a large endeavor set aside until I could figure out my new life here.  Just finding a way to focus on an art activity, much less find space to do work, took effort.  Tackling the quilting took a herculean feat of strength, similar to the intensity of figuring out a big city, going to school, finding a job, being away from home.  After all that work, today I concentrated on the detailing, the binding, the edging, the clean up:  and that is representative of where we are now.  Similarly, today I registered for my licensure test, the culmination of three years of graduate school and two years before that, two internships, over 60 credits, one and half years of work and almost 2,000 hours with clients.  I'm coming to the end of a long cycle.  This quilt says that we live here now, the ending of this seven year journey.  And the truth is, I am still homesick, and I am glad to be coming to the end of all this work.  This has been a tough seven years.  But I did it, and its beautiful.

25 Things: Winter

I'm still wrapping up my Fall 25 scrapbook, and one of my last tasks is to complete my Winter 25 book. Finally finished it tonight! I just need to print some more photos from Shutterfly, and my Fall 25 will be done.

The Winter 25 is the same format as the Fall 25, with the title printed on a transparency and layered over scrapbook paper attached to a index card divider. I picked pages of blues, a smidge of red, green and gold, with some snowflake-like graphics.

I've since realized that the to-do list is a work in progress, so this will change over the next few months, which is totally okay with me. As long as I'm doing and making, I'm good.

Dogbot: One done!

This is the first one in the book. Fairly easy, but finiky, with lots of pieces. Any hints on how to tuck in all the little pieces and get them to stay?

To finish the other two, I need random bits like sequins and certain size beads. And springs and screws. Hmm, we'll see if they ever get done...

Amigurumi

I've recently become re-interested in crocheting. Last year, I got pretty good at knitting, finishing a pair of mittens and finally becoming thwarted by socks. Many years before that, I had spent lunch breaks crocheting a massive blanket and several hats. A woman at work taught me how to crochet a circle, and has opened up this whole new world of crochet projects, particularly amigurumi, the art of crocheting or knitting little creatures. I picked up this awesome book called Crobots, and over Thanksgiving, rocked out some of these creatures. To be stuffed and accessorized asap.

This is a knit project started maybe two years ago. When finished, it will be an awesome pillow with arms, legs, eyes and a warm smile. Intended for my brother. Thought that by posting it here, I would be shamed into finishing it.










And two books that are kicking my ass. I'm determined to learn how to crochet smooth, flat hexagons and join them together into a blanket or even a scarf. I've been practicing at night and then throwing the little circles across the room in frustration. And that is the socks book that made me put down knitting. But I'll be back.





I'm looking forward to a snowy winter. Plus, just got a huge bin of yarn from my mother-in-law. Now let's see if I can finish a project.

CA: Scrapbook Update

My California scrapbook has been another ongoing project that has been really enjoyable to stick with. One weekend, I got inspired and stamped and painted the front page for the scrapbook plus the daily front pages (not pictured). I used a gold paint tinted black and then wrote the location in script, using a sharpie marker. Just having fun laying out pages, trying to tell a story, and pointedly ignoring the critical voice that says "why are you doing this? why are there so many pages? what if you aren't scrapbooking like you're supposed to?" Who cares? It feels good to do after a long day at work, and that's all that matters. Images below.

25 Things: An Update

The 25 Things To Do scrapbook has ended up being one of the best creative ideas I've been able to pursue. Not only has it actually worked in keeping my mood up, we've been able to do some really cool things over the past several months! I've been taking lots of pictures, collecting random stuff, and having fun scrapbooking it all together. It keeps me actively creating, its easy to do, there is always something to work on.

To make the whole collection a bit more cohesive, each task has a long label with the task number stamped and the task handwritten beside it. Each page has a round label with the date stamped on it. I used silver and black sharpies to write all over everything, and used all the random stuff collected to help dress up the photos. If a task only used the front of a page, I used the back to journal about it. Tags and index cards work wonders for this. And who cares if its cheesy. So no laughing.

25: 8 down, 17 to go

I've been working on my Fall 25, and found that there are some that just aren't going to be possible, or some things that I want to do that I didn't put on the list. Its my list, so I went ahead and made some changes!

The biggest "change" was to include getting cupcakes from my local favorite cupcake place. I had to validate it somehow...

25 Things

I have posted here on my relationship with my nemesis, Winter. I am certain that my mood changes as the light wanes (for information on SAD), and so this year, I am working to prepare myself to do battle against my adversary. This plan includes light therapy, hour walks, and a list of 25 things to accomplish -- dares, a scavenger hunt, and a chance to do, make, think, journal. I made a little book (see my blog roll for many inspirations) and a list of 25 things for both the fall and the winter. I generously asked my husband for input (he will get dragged along on most of these things anyway), and tried to include all the things that we say "oh, why didn't we blankety blank this year?!" And even cooler, I've been telling everyone at work about it, and other people are making their own lists! But my hope is that I will not find myself trapped inside our apartment all winter, wondering what happened to the weekend. I want to make sure I am learning, active, living.

The book is constructed from the dividers that are used to sort index cards. The dividers are covered by cool paper. I printed the title on transparencies, and the list on white card stock. Both were designed in Illustrator. I learned the hard way that the printed transparencies do scratch, and so placed an additional transparency over the cover and the back, to protect the paper.

I cut out several types of paper and cut outs from my magazine stash to fill the book with pages. These pages will hold pictures, random things and info regarding each successful task. Truthfully, I'm not sure what I will need, but I think I made about 25 pages. The whole thing is held together with book rings from Staples. I'm still trying to decide how to sort and label each task once completed, but I'm thinking about these file labels I have, or mailing labels, and of course, my favorite date stamp.

And a sneak preview of the winter one:

CA: Scrapbook Update

Thought I'd share some pictures of the scrapbook so far. The picts aren't the greatest, and I'm trying to cut out pictures of people, but I'm proud of how its going! And I have a new addiction to scrapbook papers...I thought I loved fat quarters but I really love collections of paper. And corner rounders. And tags. And date stamps. Yay!

CA: The Beginnings of a Scrapbook

My husband and I recently took a trip to California to visit my brother and drive up the coast, ending up in San Fransisco (a place I've always wanted to visit) for my 32nd birthday. I've tried blogging the trip and making online photo albums, but didn't have a place for the great ephemera that we collected, like this awesome pamphlet on the left called "Don't Die in the Desert," complete with two exclamation points and a skull to let you know that they mean business. I decided to forgo digital in favor of a scrapbook.

I started by separating my photos and stuff into days, effectively breaking the journey into manageable segments to better tell the story. I then brainstormed (see right) and came up with the idea to create a front page for each day that would have a similar look. Each day page would have a map of the day's travels, a title, something showing mileage, and something showcasing these awesome date stamps I got from Staples. Since all the colors of California are in the greens, blues, creams, yellows and browns family, I decided on a deep, dark brown paper to build the day pages on (see below). I printed out maps from google, pulled out my huge letter stamps, found some packing tags (also from Staples) and practiced stamping some layouts.



In addition, I decided on this gorgeous green scrapbook (I love green) that has a chocolate brown tab, and the inside is the same rich brown that I wanted for the day pages.






Each day ended up with a map, labels and small pictures representative of some of the pictures to come. Plus a fun label with the location, mileage, and date, plus a (I think) clever title.



Some of the tentative layout for the airplane travel days...


Some shots of where the layout is now....



Next step: stamping the title and starting layout.