Knitting and Zentangle Progress

I am more than a little excited about the eyelet sweater getting to this stage. It may look a little strange but what you are seeing is both front panels now done and joined to the back at the shoulder seams. The seed stitch side of the panels will fold back as I've tried to show. I have to admit that it was a long slog knitting 24 inches of the front panels so a sigh of relief when the second one was ready for the 3 needle cast off that joins front to back. Three more inches knit on the remaining stitches that form a tab that will be sewn around the back of the neckline and joined to the matching tab on the other side; this will turn down and help those front edges of the panels to turn back on themselves. For now, the stitches await on a stitch holder, although I'm not sure why the pattern leaves this step to last. For now, it's on to knitting the sleeves which, because of the drop shoulder requiring a shorter sleeve, may finish fairly quickly (maybe!).

I must admit that after getting the second panel to the joining stage, I took a little break for a few days, then got out the previously joined pieces, laying them out on the coffee table and reviewing in my head how that 3 needle cast off was done. But for 3 days I found I could not face that step of casting off. It's not hard but a bit fiddly and easy to drop stitches, so I kept putting it off, knowing I couldn't do this while watching tv but needing to give it my full attention. On the fourth day, in the morning before I got on with my day, I said enough is enough and picked up my needles. Shortly after I ran across the above internet meme. Oh yes, that describes me especially well, so often the case with things I put off, although this thing was not put off for that long and did take a bit more than 12 minutes. 

I've finished the Be Well Zentangles. I'm happy that early on I decided that whenever color would or could be added, I used the same color of colored pencil. The Zentangle people have really gotten into using colored pastel pencils which are easy to smudge from dark to light like a graphite pencil but I've nothing like that among my many art supplies. I'm just fine with how my use of color worked.

Sad to say, these last two struck me as anti-climactic. I guess I was really getting into the over and under complicated looking designs, feeling like we were building from simple to more complicated with each day and these are not exactly that. I do have one extra panel which I've not decided how to use. I actually did not do the "Dream" one correctly, was hurrying along and drew lines into that bottom area with the dots before realizing they were starting another starfish-like thing in there, doing a "save" with the additions of the big blacked out dots. I could give that one another go or make up one of my own. We shall see. If you would like to see the list of all of the themes and quotations, you can find them here.

Pillows. Zentangles & a Quick Booklet

I was doing a scan of things stacked along one side of the garage and spotted this bag with the lace ruffle sticking out the top. What's in there? I move to this location in 2012, leaving some boxes unpacked in this area along with some other things I ran out of steam to deal with. I more or less know what's in them all and why I've not done anything about them in all this time but this bag did puzzle me, even when I realized there were pillows in there.

No immediate recognition nor memory of why they would have been relegated here and together. And then I remembered. I made these to use on a rocking chair I've always had in my bedroom. One for the seat, one for the back. The one for the seat which has hand quilting is the same block as in this exchange block quilt made prior to 2000 while I'm pretty sure the one for the back which has no quilting at all was made from leftover half-square triangle blocks or pieces trimmed off in the making of the block for the seat pillow. No wonder I was having a hard time remembering them! That exchange block quilt was always close by, either on a cedar chest in the bedroom or draped over the back of the rocking chair. In the new location, the cedar chest with quilt on top just fit in the new bedroom but there wasn't room for the rocking chair in either my bedroom or any place else - it has languished in the garage because I really don't want to get rid of it, always found it comfortable for knitting and other handwork. I'm forever a "some day maybe" sort of person. And that explains why these pillows had too been relegated to the garage. I think I'm going to have to do something about that.

In the meantime, the current pillow project is a bit stalled. When I went to Walmart to get a pillow form and maybe some buttons, they only had one size of pillow form and it wasn't the size I needed. Well, I've made pillow forms in the past so I guess I can do it again. And while I didn't score on any buttons, at least they had this fiber fill for stuffing a form. 

Speaking of buttons, it was driving me crazy trying to remember where the souvenir wood buttons might have disappeared to so I took another look in the drawer where I knew they should be. And I did find them in there, no longer along the side of the drawer but shimmied in between a stack of fabric. But there aren't enough, I didn't want to try mixing in other buttons and I think I'd rather save these for a cardigan sweater anyway. But it eases my mind to have put my finger on their whereabouts. I've cut the big rectangle of fabric for the pillow and can worry about the buttons later, so why can't I move on to the next step? Relatively easy enough to press in the folds along the sides of the pillow base.  Easy enough to cut a couple of squares of muslin, seam all around leaving an opening and stuff away. Should be easy enough to layer the block for a little quilting before attaching it to the pillow base.  Yet with each of the little road bumps I've encountered, I'm finding it more difficult to get with it to get this pillow made. That's the thing I've found about dealing with my auto-immune syndrome: the fatigue that often accompanies it can make even the smallest routine task feel like an insurmountable mountain. And that's sort of where I'm at right now. I know it will pass, and making this pillow right away is not important. 

Zentangling continues at a leisurely pace as it does NOT feel like an insurmountable mountain but something I can do sitting down and is relaxing as I follow instructions. Closer and closer to finishing the Be Well series.

Here's something I recently ran across that I found quick and easy and required absolutely no tools or supplies except a group of same size envelops. Karen Abend shared this method of making a pocket booklet in one of her e-letters and since I had a stack of these brown envelops sitting on my work table (and wasn't getting much else productive done it seemed), I decided to give it a try. The glue on the flap when moistened is what holds the flap in place when slipped inside the opening of another envelop.

It works remarkably well, and I'm probably going to add four or more envelops to mine. Karen tried different media to sketch on the right hand side envelop and says all worked well. I'm really not one for using pockets in my books and am not sure what I would stick in mine, but this might be fun to take on a trip to hold things like receipts, ticket stubs and other travel ephemeral while making a quick sketch of locations where they were collected. How might you use something like this?

 

 

I'm Back

There's a song that goes "Back to life, back to reality" that I reluctantly sing in my head once my week of seclusion (or any break really from the usual routine) is over. I don't actually totally isolate myself from the world, but I do turn off the phones (alerting people who might worry if I don't pick up or return calls) and don't schedule appointments or meetings during that week. I aim for a week devoid of the usual responsibilities of everyday life and focus on, well, that varies from year to year. I soon slipped into a more relaxed routine that banished guilt that might be asking if I was spending my time as I should. The zentangle Be Well sketchbook sat open in front of the computer screen (of course I spent time on the computer!), inviting me to work in it daily. The rest I took as it came.

I was slightly amused to find some of the Be Well prompts mirroring things I was working on or running across. The tangle at the top right is one that I learned long ago and used as inspiration for a quilting design, which brought back a good memory. Some days I found myself a little unhappy with their interpretation or shading, like the basket weave above. I really want to color the entire square in alternating colors to show the over and under weaving. Once I get through the full 21 days' worth, I may redo some on the backside more to my liking.

This prompt mirrored a meditation/journaling class on growth

What I learned 

I didn't set out to learn anything, but I was struck by how my spirits lifted once the phones were off and I'd cut myself off. I realized just how much subconscious dread I've been carrying around. I've always known about this phone phobia I have which was heightened by years of earning a living answering and making phone calls. But the dread lifting was not just about unwanted phone calls. Good to know and deal with. At the same time, I did end up having to take a phone call for the old fashioned dreaded way of learning about the death of a friend (are you old enough to remember that when the phone rang it was often bad news?). Lesson number two: you can try, but you can't run away from life. On a more positive note, several times I put aside my usual tendency to procrastinate and experienced an almost buoyancy upon completing 3 notes to be slipped in the mail. "DO NOW" reaps great rewards.

What happened to 2024?

My pansies are doing really well this year, and there is a lighter colored flower on one of them that I've been wanting to sketch for weeks. What better time than now to immerse myself in a little detail sketching? I remembered using the sketchbook kept in the livingroom for this in the past and leafed through it to check. I always date my sketches and could hardly believe there were none after September of 2023. I do remember last year as a difficult one health and energy wise but really, no sketches in this sketchbook last year? I am quite pleased with how the pansy turned out as I worked to capture the creamy slightly green color and those slashes of purple. The camera does not pick that up on the original so you'll have to trust me that I got a perfect match using a surprising number of colored pencils to achieve it.

Thoreau's White Pines

I mentioned earlier about taking a more relaxed guiltless approach throughout my day, and that led me to take my coffee and sit on the steps to the back deck and just stare into the woods. I don't do this as often as I should. I'm usually reading or doing something with my hands when I sit out here or actively inspecting my container garden (and inside I'm constantly taking in information of one kind or another, seldom just aimlessly staring without much thought - such an active mind!). My eyes wandered up to the tree tops where I saw something that I had just read about in an entry in Thoreau's journals. He had climbed to the top of a white pine and discovered what he called "blossoms" - the beginnings of pine cones.

I was stunned. I've lived in this spot for 11 years and never noticed that particular pine tree having pine cones only at the top. I scanned up and down the greenbelt and didn't see another one. I grew up in this area spending so much time in the woods and never noticed a tree like this. I've lived in many states and never noticed a tree with pine cones only at the top like this. I don't know if it's a white pine but it looks like the white pines Thoreau described. So another thing learned I guess. No matter how observant you think you are, you may still need to slow down, let your eye and mind wander and notice what is there. 

Final conclusion 

I enjoyed my week of a variety of this and that, things that had been put on hold now tended to, things intentionally experienced that made me think of my husband (Star Trek movies and lots of motorcycle racing), things planned and unplanned. One of the possible options I'd jotted on a list meant to keep me from wondering how I meant to spend my time was to take another orphan block and turn it into a pillow cover. I pulled out all the fabric I'd been setting aside to make more blocks to go with it thinking there'd be something suitable to set it against (pile on the left) but nothing worked. Of course, I had the perfect fabric in my handdyes stash (under the block). I found the pattern I've used before for making a pillow cover with wider sides that would be closed with buttons (upper left). I should have stopped there and got it made to the point where the buttons go on but instead, I dumped my button jars on the table and rifled through them. Nothing quite right or of the right number. Couldn't find the card of wood buttons with maple leaf design bought as souvenir of our Canada vacation many years ago. Tried Walmart since I had to go there for a pillow form anyway but nothing even close. None at my quilt shop. Searched through more places where I might have stashed odd buttons. May have found something that will work. Anyway, this is my next project! And I still have a few other things on that list that I didn't get to when this is done. I truly never run out of things to work on.

 

That Unwanted Anniversary

F. Allen Barnes 1953 - 2000

As the anniversary of my husband's death loomed, I came to the realization that I have lived without him for as many years as we were married (we'd met and started dating only two years prior). Sigh. The day before he died was the Fourth of July and he was barbecuing up the traditional brats, showing his slight irritation at me and my camera, which of course makes me smile to this day. Traditional brats you may ask? Well yes, as we were living in Wisconsin at the time, and the all American hot dog just wouldn't do. I still fix brats every Fourth, although barbecuing is not my thing. This year I tried the Air Fryer and they turned out great.

Our 25th wedding anniversary was just a week later, and perhaps presciently, we'd done our celebrating early. I quickly chose to use the bracketing of those two events as a chance to go into seclusion, my own private retreat to reflect on our life together and consider how I might honor the support he always gave me by working on a special quilting project. I'm not doing much quilting at the moment but I'm sure he would be happy to see me take on any creative task that I've been neglecting for one reason or another. I started jotting down things I could do during this coming week and it is quite varied, mostly things that on their own would not fill up a week. So maybe a lot will get checked off my long want-to-do list. Or maybe I'll spend more time in quiet contemplation and walks down memory lane. However I end up spending my week of seclusion, I hope to maintain and even strengthen that connection I still have to that man who was the love of my life. 

Quotes & A Podcast

Here are a couple of tangles I liked from last week. I always enjoy the over and under designs that look woven and/or 3-dimentional. These have nothing to do with the quotation below but it is a sentiment I often shared with my quilting students because I had experienced it myself:

“If I had one thing to say to artists, it would be to be patient. And to be ignorant of what you think you know. If you don’t get the answer that you were expecting, maybe that’s a good thing. Knowing what you’re doing is overrated.” Pope.L.  

You may or may not have some extra time over the holiday weekend, but in case you do, here is a podcast talking about AI and art as well as other things about making art, some of which I had not considered before, all of which I agree with: https://hebfdn.org/echoes/the-echoes-podcast-austin-kleon/

There's also a transcript if you'd rather read the back and forth between the hosts and the guest. Here are a few excerpts:

Austin Kleon: "When we think about art, I mean, lot of people think about art as the finished work. It’s the thing up on the wall. That is the product. But then there’s the process of art. There’s everything that goes into the artist’s life."  As my zentangle says - it's the journey and I've always (mostly) enjoyed it. 

Austin Kleon: "These are people who really believe in the product of art, and they don’t understand the process of art. I mean, the entire world right now is run by people who don’t know anything about art. Pretty much every tech person has no idea what really goes into it. I don’t think there’s an art lover in the batch, really. They’re certainly not interested in terms of, well, won’t necessarily go there, but I think that’s what people really miss the point with AI work is that there’s no gift there. . . There’s no struggle. There’s no limitations, there’s no, it’s just, it’s all about product. Give me this thing."

Austin Kleon: "It’s like, oh, tension bad. Like, oh, man. I don’t wanna be tense. Like, oh, you gotta, like, loosen up. But I find that tension is this very important thing for creative work, is that in the way I describe it to people is like a guitar string. . . Guitar string is slung between two opposites, two poles. And if you don’t ratchet up the tension on a guitar string, if you would loosen the tension totally, it just buzzes and there’s no music, just makes noise. If you ratchet it too tight, it snaps. And so it is with our spirit. Our spirit needs just the right tension." Honestly, I so tire of other creatives telling me to loosen up. Nice to hear someone say tension is important, but I also take note of the broken string when tension is too high.

Austin Kleon:". . .one of the things I hate about this culture is that the minute you show any proficiency for anything, well, you know, oh, this fried chicken. Oh, you can fry chicken. You know what? What comes next? You could have a food trailer." Camille Hall-Ortega: "You could have it. Yeah. You should sell." Austin Kleon: "It’s the first thing we say. It’s the major compliment we give to talk about. You should take that thing that you love to do that I’m loving right now. You should ruin it by making it your job. That’s exactly what you should do. Right? And so make money. You know?"

Austin Kleon: "Yeah. I mean, that’s one of the first things I tell people is like, if you have turned your hobby into your job, which a lot of the people that I’ve talked to have, guess what? You gotta get a new hobby. And a lot of artists, you know, that some whatever they’re doing that they were loving, you know, and when you turn it into your job, you need something else that’s outside of the market. You need something that’s pure gift." Been there, done that, learned my lesson . . .

And the following quotation describes another thing I've experienced over and over, getting downright testy at times. How about you? 

"Artists are people who are driven to make creative work. And when they don’t make it, their quality of life suffers. They suffer." 

Sure hope you aren't suffering, but having a great holiday weekend, and perhaps getting a little creative work in as well.

 

 

 

Be Well Tangling

That accordion sketchbook is working well for my zentangling, small enough to sit on my desk as a reminder to pause for a minute each day. My favorite so far is the one above,which just happens to be from the prompt "pause". Below are two more favorites from this week's Be Well tangling. 

I really liked this additional quotation for the prompt of "share". I believe in every word of it and it is a driving factor in my continuing to blog. 

 “One of the greatest rewards of making art is our ability to share it. Even if there is no audience to receive it, we build the muscle of making something and putting it out into the world. Finishing our work is a good habit to develop. It boosts confidence. Despite our insecurities, the more times we can bring ourselves to release our work, the less weight insecurity has.” -Rick Rubin ​

Zentangle Break

3" x 3" accordion sketchbook

Back in May, the Zentangle people offered a 21 day "Be Well" series which I was interested in but didn't want to do at the time. I just recently took a look at the video from day one and saw that all the tangling would be done inside a leaf-like shape set on the diagonal. I've been doing a lot of my Zentangling in one of my commercial sketchbooks but didn't think it would work well for this. I also didn't want to use up the individual tiles I have on hand. I got to thinking that placing those leaf shapes in an accordion style book might be just the ticket and I thought I had something I could trace around to make those shapes uniform. Yeah, I'm a LOT about uniformity.

So I took a break from my house cleaning for company to make a simple and quick accordion book. Well, nothing I make is quick but at least it would be simple. I took a look at a couple of videos in my Handmade Book Club to refresh my memory about folding and joining strips together, and I was off. Quick calculations showed that cutting an 18 x 24 inch piece of mixed media paper would give me strips that would fold into 8 panels, and three strips joined would give me the number of panels I would need and a few extras. With the video instructions in mind, I just folded that big sheet in half, then folded the sides to the middle and used a blunt knife to tear along the fold lines. I'd only need three of the four strips.

As I started folding the strips, I momentarily puzzled over the fact that the panels were turning out to be rectangles instead of squares, the planned dimensions for my book being 3" x 3". Oh yeah, dividing the width of the big sheet of paper into fourths yielded strips 4-1/2 inches wide. Oops . . . I quickly trimmed off the excess 1-1/2 inches and continued folding. More scraps for another project. Does this sound like quilting yet? ;-)  The two small rectangles will be used to join the three strips. The bone folder run over the folds makes them crisp.

To make sure I joined the strips correctly - valleys and mountains in proper order - I paper clipped where I'd be adding the joining strips on the back. The rectangles are folded lengthwise and that fold positioned flush with the end of the adjoining strips. My bookclub directions showed this done using PVA glue but I wasn't keen to deal with the messiness of glue and was happy when I remembered that I had Scor-Tape on hand in a half inch width which was just what I needed. Accordion booklet almost done. 

I wanted to attach some kind of cover on the first and last panels for stability but didn't need anything particular thick or heavy. I decided to look through my various papers, settling on this mulberry paper one. Does the design remind you as it does me of trees? Again, I didn't want to fool with glue so cut 3 x 3 inch squares of Scor-Tape from a 6 inch square sheet. Scor-Tape is sort of a one and done tape meaning you have essentially one shot at getting your item positioned correctly before the adhesive makes it impossible to remove. Fortunately, the mulberry paper lined up without a hitch and along with the Scor-Tape, stiffens up the mixed media paper just enough to work as "covers". The bone folder comes in handy to burnish for a good adhering.

Now to draw the diagonal leaf shapes on the panels. There's the thing I thought would work well to draw around, some kind of end plug from packaging that begged me not to throw it away. Hopefully you can see now why I thought an accordion book would work well.

I penned the title on the first panel (and as an after thought added my initials chop after I'd taken the picture). Each day has a theme to meditate on (day one is Embrace not Erase) and a related quotation so I am adding those in the negative space around the leaf shape. To be honest, I wasn't too excited about this first zentangle and less excited with the way mine came out but at least I've started!

When filled, it can be displayed open to show off the undulating zentangle designs.

I like this small 3 x 3 inch little book but accordions can be awkward to work in. I need to find a bit of decorative elastic I think to wrap vertically around it to hold this closed when I'm not working in it and to hold together the springy pages not in use when I'm trying to zentangle on a panel - it's already proven to be an issue. And wouldn't you know it, no sooner did I finish this up and readied myself to complete the remainder of the cleaning and straightening than I got word that my company has had to postpone their arrival. So a relaxing weekend I wasn't counting on in a mostly clean and picked up house!