Projects in progress!

As usual, I am working on multiple projects simultaneously and keep switching back and forth.

1) Felt fruit coasters--I originally made a set of 4 of these for Brie's birthday present (an orange, an apple, 2 pears) and they turned out so cute I decided to make some more.

The pieces are all sewn on by hand, not machine. After all the pieces are sewn to the black circle, I attach a backing made of black sticky felt.

2) Wooden boxes covered with book pages. I made some good progress on these last night and also on Friday crafty. These take forever because I do cover every surface of each little drawer.



3) Three more scarves!
I was looking through my (fairly ridiculous) yarn stash and realizing that I'm running low on the chenille I usually use for my warp yarns. This made me start thinking of alternatives, like using two threads together of a skinnier yarn, or trying some slightly thicker yarns I have on hand.  I charted out a few ideas...

Spent a while calculating the number of warp ends needed for each project...

And decided on the warp for my final three designs:

A) Windowpane scarf: I'm using an off-white chenille for most of the warp, alternating every 10 with 4 warp ends of a variegated blue fun fur doubled up.

B) Valentine's scarf: Using Moda-Dea Dream yarn in a hot pink color...it feels similar to a chenille, but with extra fuzziness on top. Weft will be pinks, reds, and maybe a little purple.

C)  Striped variegated scarf: Will be using graduated stripes of in both directions. I'm alternating Lion Brand Suede yarn in "seacrest" (haha), a blue variegated, with "moonshadow," a dark gray variegated.

Here are the warp ends I wound for A and C. So pretty!

And now for something completely different...

Ok, maybe just slightly different. I was thinking of maybe taking a break from weaving for a bit to focus on other projects. I love weaving but feel the urge to do something else.

Top contenders:

1) More text collage
2) New felt projects: flower garland, tags, pansy barrettes, fruit pins, purse
3) Finish random halfway completed projects around house (mending/hemming, old collage repair, ribbon placemats, etc.)
4) Cover wooden boxes. I cut up cheap and/or crappy books for this--generally those poorly abridged versions of classics you find in Michael's or JoAnn's. Here are some that I've completed and love too much to part with:

I use this letterbox to hold my bookmarks at craft fairs.

And here's my personal favorite...

I don't keep anything in this mini dresser but it is pretty darn cute!

Purple scarf photos!

Completed the purple scarf in like record time once I sat down to do it. I'm at least getting faster at the finishing process. Love how it turned out, it's super bright!

One side...

The other side...

Detail...

I'm hoping to get one of my friends to model the last few scarves, as I don't suppose Gleb will fly back from CA to do it. Jyoti agreed to give it a try and she's pretty photogenic, so stay posted for our next Supermodel Photo Shoot soon! 

Some outdoor inspiration

Yesterday I took a long walk around Lake Artemesia, not far from my house. I walked around it 4 times...the first time around without music to just enjoy the sounds of the birds and insects and the lake. It was really peaceful.  I saw a variety of moths, butterflies, geese, swallows, turtles sunning themselves, and of course fellow humans enjoying the outdoors :)

Also wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures from my trip to San Francisco. These first few are from our bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito.

These are from our drive down the coast to Monterey, past Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Weekend notes and Monday weaving

Had a busy weekend! Saturday I went with Jyoti to the Charles Village Festival in Baltimore and then spent the afternoon enjoying the Baltimore Museum of Art. I hadn't been in years and forgot about some of the great stuff in the collection. My favorite?

This beautiful piece, La Vachère, by American Impressionist Theodore Robinson:

It reminded me very much of one of my favorite pieces in the National Gallery of Art, Monet's Bazille and Camille (Study for "Déjeuner sur l'Herbe"):

I love them both! It's like M. Bazille has turned into a cow though, haha. Also enjoyed some marvelous pieces in the contemporary collection by Motherwell, Rothko, Frankenthaler, etc.

Today I'm back to the loom and planning to finish the purple scarf. The first few rows of this one were more annoying than usual...the yarn felt like a different consistency or something, less springy. Here's the first foot or so:

More to come soon...

Monkey collage!

I had a fun crafty afternoon yesterday with a friend...we both made text collages. While she had never really done anything crafty before, she created a lovely palm tree collage which looked like a magazine illustration!

I worked on a monkey collage...I had a ton of ideas for collages but the monkey won (see my sketches here from the flight home).

We had fun cutting up a bunch of magazines :)

Here's the finished monkey. I decided to outline everything with a brush pen to make it stand out more.  I like the way it came out...but the edges are a bit curled up so I'll have to flatten it out in a book or something.

Yay primates!

San Francisco Farmer's Market

I had an amazing weekend visiting friends in the Bay Area and we hit up the farmer's market on Saturday. Love all the colorful fruits & veggies! Definitely inspiring for some future collages...

Flowers..

Quite the selection of mushrooms.

This one is my favorite!

YUCK. A whole store for this?

Chiz smelling the roses.

Pretty fruits (and tasty too, we bought some!)