Project Life: 13 wk 29

With life so busy for me lately, sadly the SEWN projects had to be put on hold for a while which made me sad. But, godwilling, things are getting back to normal and I'm catching up on the documents of previous weeks. It's harder to do when they aren't as fresh in your mind but I still manage to keep my photos sorted by date and my calendar and Day One fill in the blanks.

But you know what??? That week 30 layout is actually Week 29, or is it....

I sew, I sew

I am making slow progress with my SEWN class but that's ok with me. What is not ok, is how the cut paper and sewing bits has taken over too much space in my house. Today and/or tomorrow is the time to get more bits sewn and then get the sewing machine out of the dining room.  My dh has not complained as we have all of our meals in the kitchen but with our open plan, that dining room is always visible.

Sewing upstairs means putting the sewing machine on my computer table or...setting up a card table. I have filled this room with so many things it cannot take too much more without my falling over myself.  But enough about my challenges... because we haven't even discussed the time it takes for painted and gessoed papers to dry!! They take so much space! Finito.

Here is what I have done...

Now I just have to get some more bits sewn and then put them away for a bit. I need a week of TIDY and maybe get back to the digital for a bit. Then it will be time to make a mess again. Is that your process at all? or do you happily live in the artistic clutter?

AAM Monday Pages from SEWN Book

This may only be of interest to those who are interested in how a very unskilled beginner makes an successful attempt at making a handmade book. Successful in that I DID it.  For a first attempt, I will easily live with the quality. I have a lot to learn but it was fun in the doing.

 We start with the inside cover and move on to the various pages. Some are my patterns, some are digital layouts that were duplicates and I tore, painted or played with in various ways.  Maps, graph paper...it's all usable.

This is the center point where the binding shows. I didn't have any of the normal binding thread so I used double strands of waxed dental floss. This was actually cinnamon flavored (!) and very old but...it worked. Never stop for lack of the 'right' tool. Improvise!

Finally a larger view of the photo of me on the cover. Taken ...uh...about 68 years ago. I have a lot more hair these days and wear considerably more clothes.  That waxed dental floss was a royal pain to sew with here as well as trying to stab the thick paper but once again, it got done.

SEWN - Barefoot Style

Yes, that first SEWN book is done, done always being a relative term when any kind of art is involved. But yesterday I rescued my sewing machine from the sewing machine hospital and set to work a-sewing. btw, they did a wonderful job of cleaning out the solidified oil gunk and getting my machine back to health. Aren't we blessed to still have a functioning sewing machine store?

Once I jogged my ol' brain into recalling how to actually thread the machine and get down to business, it was a lot of whirring and humming. My stitches look like a maniac was doing them and I did have a hard time controlling the foot pedal as it wanted to run away on our hardwood floors. Finally, it became barefoot sewing which is fine in the summer. No more escaping foot pedals!

This is how their stitching looked... (The paper towel and newspaper under the machine is just in case the new oil leaked at all. It didn't though.)

 I had no illusions as to my skill but I plugged along, sewing all those various shapes.

Eh voila!  She is sewn!

Next came the binding of the signatures for the inside. Oh that was another challenge! Mary Ann Moss refers to guerrilla sewing. I aspire to that peak! Mine got done but with a lot of 'use what you got' style.   More to come later.

Five on Friday: July 12, 2013

A very rainy morning, the kind where it would be so nice to just stay in bed and sleep and listen to that rain. But it was not to be...aerobics, a chair yoga and later a drive down to Southern MD for a retreat. I'm looking forward to it but suddenly a lot of stuff is going on in my life and it isn't the quiet summer I'd imagined.  But we mush on!

1. I have been keeping a mental list of some of the unusual jobs I've heard lately. Jobs I just never fathomed.... nuclear reactor sales.  Concrete sales - I knew that but strictly sidewalk installers...hmm, that was a new one. Data artist. I love the description of that one, and only wish I were younger and qualified! Do you have any unusual jobs to add to my list?

2. We have a slow but steady crop of the giant cherry tomatoes. Now if we can balance the good summer rain with hot sunny days, it will be fun to have those little gems to snack on.

3. I am finding that paper and paint and glue and scissors create a much bigger mess than digital work. Well, duh...but I'd forgotten how much I dislike the mess. My paper cover for my pattern book is glued but not sewn. Look at these cuties.

4. I cleaned my sewing machine and have my manual. Now all I need is ...thread, needles, a few more bobbins, and the patience to thread follow the instructions on how to thread that machine, ditto on make the bobbins, and then...pray that the needles don't start breaking as I sew the cover for my SEWN journal. Mary Ann I'm starting to doubt....

5. Yesterday, I asked himself to go to the Amish market for meats and cheese and anything else he'd like while I'm away this weekend. What did I do yesterday?? Mostly start the key-wording of my zillion .png files in my new Lightroom 5 catalog. I love that this version of LR 'sees' .pngs.  It's well worth all the doing but it is eye crossing. What did he get extra? Some pulled pork sandwiches sold by some cut little Amish girls.  :)  I added hot spiced vinegar to mine since I like mine North Carolina style.

Wordy Wednesday: July 10, 2013

In my SEWN class, our first lesson playdate involved making patterns. Just play, says Mary Ann, and she's right...there are no rules for play. But I have to trick my mind to get to that place. It's not by accident that my last job involved legislation not loops of knitting or crochet.

 

 

Made on my iPad

When I went back to college to finish my B.A. I had to take a basic art class. One of the things we were to do was make a full BIG page of doodles. Our teacher said, just do your ordinary doodles. Gulp. I finally said, I don't doodle. I've never doodled. Even when in grade or high school, I only made lists of words. I'd layout the alphabet and think of a category and make a list.  I never doodled.

She said....Oh ...we do have a problem here.  She looked as worried as I felt

I ended up making a paper with what I would now call zentangles, and got an A in the course. I still don't doodle. AT All.

Can Spray Paint Be Far Behind???

Well, I'm having my summer fun just painting away with as little thought as I can manage. I wish I had table sized papers but I do want to use the things I have and not buy what I really don't need. I know I have some rolls of white paper so once I clear off more of the table (this means just shifting the stuff around or 'moving dust' as my dh calls it), I can put some BIG pieces of paper out and see what happens.

Right now I am really enjoying playing with my acrylics. Some of my SEWN classmates/teacher refer to these craft paints as  Under $2 paints. I believe almost all of mine were 4 for a $1 or at least 3 for a $1.  Give me a sale like that and I can go wild with a fiver!

I do want to try out my spray paints. That will take some brain time to remember what colors I can layer without getting a page of mud. Perhaps a bit of restraint will fit in to this bit of foolery. Anyhow, there was a new batch of papers. Crayons were fun but the colors were rather subdued. Still fun to do.

Then came the acrylics again. Here's the whole kit and caboodle.

And here they are individually. Let me tell you those fully painted pages are pretty solid. Some of them are plain untextured card stock, stuff that I got by the ream.The squares are just old office bond with the letterhead cut off.  When someone's no longer in office which happened  'a few times' at one of my jobs in politics, the letterhead etc is trash for the shredder. I scrounged it first! Not to write on but for this kind of thing.

There you have it. I'd never fool anyone that I went to MICA but I paid my money for summer camp, and I'm having a blast. In this camp, I can drink all the iced tea I want, sleep in a comfy bed with air/conditioning and this camp is mosquito free too! Doesn't that sound like Adult Camp???

Messing About

While waiting for my paint and thread class to start - Mary Ann Moss's SEWN, I decided to try out a technique I had see with either paper or various painted circular pieces of paper painted, cut and assembled. Mine is digital of course with supplies from Katie Pertiet and Anna Aspnes.