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Inktober 2021: Second Half
I didn’t end up doing as many prompts as I would have liked to. As time went on, I had ideas that I wasn’t quite able to figure out in my head yet. For example Day 21: OMEN. I sketched out the general image in pencil, but couldn’t quite figure out how to make it work. I didn’t have the image in my head at all; just the idea (more on that later). I set it aside. It was a piece i was going to draw, but it had to wait until I was ready to ink it in or I’m just wasting paper. There were several prompts I still…
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Same Old Same Old
These are interesting times. I don’t really like to discuss my personal life online AT ALL. Here will be no exception. Need to know basis. I’m secretive to a fault. Except for some things. I’ve been sharing my creative process with you for years. No trade secrets jealously guarded, because why bother? The internet allows you to look up just about anything; no mysteries there. I always like to show my work, because one thing that drives me absolutely crazy is when people say: “Oh, you’re so talented.” Like the hours upon hours I spend honing my craft of perfect stitches, and tiny lines, shaving off bits of curves to…
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Up in the Air
January. There is something discomforting about the up-in-the-air-ness of January. I could say that this January is different due to decisions I made official in December, but that would be a lie. The fact of the matter is that January is a lot of pressure. We are expected to make promises to ourselves and the rest of the world about the year. Diet and exercise, creative projects, maps, lists. Dreams, pipe dreams, peer pressure and unrealistic expectations. All the swirling things that this arbitrary new beginning brings. I’m not much for new year’s resolutions. I don’t even count January first as my new year. But it involves a brand new…
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Last Bird
Here it is: the last bird drawing on the last page of my 2013 calendar. I have to admit that most of December with its holiday deadlines has made this project extra challenging to draw and post to instagram every day. And I also have to admit that I am looking forward to not having to post a drawing every single day. This project has been super fun, and has led to some very interesting projects, and I am sure that I will be doing a lot of interesting things in the future because of this too. I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do, which…
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Cold Hummingbirds and Procrastination
With only a few days left before my biggest show of the year, I woke up and looked out my kitchen window to see my hummingbird feeder was frozen solid. And just as I thought to myself, “oh well, I rarely get a visitor” a hummingbird arrives. OH NO! Never mind the giant pile of things that are still not done, this problem needed to be addressed immediately. Of course I had to drop everything, and thaw out the feeder. I also determined that the feeder needed some insulation to slow down the freezing, so of course I had to mine my yarn stash for some yarn to knit a…
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Drawing, 365 Daily Projects, Forming Habits and A Question
Many people make New Year’s resolutions, or from this day forward lifestyle changes that have varying degrees of success. If you follow me anywhere, you know I’ve been drawing birds. Almost every day this year, one on every page of my calendar. And here I am in the last quarter of the year. Very soon, I will have to purchase a 2014 datebook. Now I won’t lie, it is incredibly satisfying to see a drawing on every page of this book. The idea of not drawing something everyday is kind of sad and weird. I may continue. Not sure if I will continue with the singular purpose of songbirds, but…
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Waiting Impatiently For Missing Pieces
I have a confession to make: I’m not working on anything. No sewing or knitting projects. I’m not reading any novels. I haven’t even sewn a single heart on my quilt this week. Or sewn a single stitch at all. It isn’t for a lack of things to work on or a lack of desire for a project. I have been obsessively browsing through Ravelry, and I have been sleeping with Quilting Happiness. I have a teetering stack of vague projects and quilting cottons waiting to be cut into; if only I knew what I was cutting out. In a different time, I would be suffering from the anxiety of…
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Crossover: Tying Drawing and Embroidery Together
This is a work in progress, and it is taking a long time. But one’s life work hopefully does take a long time. I have told you quite a bit about my Calendar Project, and I have a lot to say about craft when it comes to me attempting to translate what is in my head into a tangible thing. This began in music school with hours of practice to be able to produce the sound I wanted on demand. Same with fashion: from idea, to 2-d to 3-d with movement, flattering to the particular figure, and drawing the eye in a line away from and to.. So what does…
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Sometimes You F*ck Up
sometimes you are drawing along, and the drawing is nearly perfect and then you f*ck it up. there is a pause and moment of did i really do that? and it is in ink, and there is no going back. so if you are like me, you cannot crumple up and toss out what was a perfectly good drawing that you spent over two hours on. how to fix it? it isn’t something that can be inked over, so you just have to embrace it, and let the weird ideas just leak out of your head.. and then start over on a new one. in all i drew this poor…
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A Cat Sized Quilt – Adventures in English Paper Piecing
Spring this year was a little rough for us at the House of Piper Ewan. My company’s namesake, and furry partner in crime turned seventeen at the end of April. She had been feeling under the weather, so for her birthday, she got to go to the vet. Not the best birthday present, I know, but since we celebrate birthdays not only for the accomplishment of years, we also wish for many returns of the day in the future. Suffice it to say her diagnosis and treatment are working and she is almost her old grumpy self, but the May and June were difficult months indeed. One thing for those…
