End of Summer Update

I know it is quite a leap from the beginning of spring to the end of summer.  Over the course of the last 5 months (and outside of the normal life school/work/household events) I have gone on two family vacations, joined an artist exchange group, and hosted a large multi-family gathering at our home.  Time for projects has been sporadic, and time to spend contemplating projects has been even shorter... hence the large lapse in posting.

Without further delay...

Sewing:

In April I completed a tote bag for my niece with the April birthday.  Unfortunately I failed to photograph it before sending it off.  In July I completed two more totes for my two nieces with August birthdays, and I did remember to grab a photo of those before wrapping them up.  The April tote was the same shape as these, done in a striped fabric with palm trees printed along the stripes.

Having less time where I needed to sit and wait for G, I spent less time working on the bird quilt... however just this past week I finally managed to finish up the last of the cardinals.  My next batch of bird squares shall be a set of three robins.

Photography:

Once again I attended the big annual camera swap in April.  I picked up a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye which is in fantastic shape (center below) and G picked up a Brownie (on the left) and a half-frame 35mm camera (on the right)  I've tested all the cameras... G's Brownie has a slightly sticky shutter, but her 35mm is perfectly functional and quite fun to use.  My Brownie is in great condition (even the handle, which is astonishing considering the age)  The viewer is a little dusty on the inside, but I've resisted the temptation to take it apart and clean it only because I don't want to mess up an otherwise functional camera.  

We took a short family vacation during Spring Break in April, where I took advantage of the wide open PNW shorelines to take some photos with my P.120 panoramic pinhole and my Kodak Six-20.  I also brought along my DSLR, as usual, and this trip became somewhat of an experiment in how to carry my gear during an outing, and how to make the swapping of cameras on the tripod more convenient.  

Unfortunately, the shutter on my P.120 stuck open partway through the trip, so I had to shelve that camera anyway.  The maker fixed it promptly once we arrived home, however I missed some lovely potential landscapes on the Oregon coast.  

P.120 in action

Kodak Six-20

Last Spring, of my fellow pinhole photography friends arranged for a group visit to a salvage yard a bit south of where I live.  Having seen several images of his from his previous trips, I was inspired to pull out my Polaroid Land camera and packs of expired film.  The Polaroid peel-apart film is no longer manufactured, and I'd been holding onto my stock of expired film for years, waiting for just the right subject.  I felt the moss-laden landscape and rusty car bits was a match for outdated film and a camera built in the same era as the cars I was photographing.  The full project plan was to take several Polaroid images of the cars, then take the images home and do emulsion lifts (lifting the image off the original paper and transferring it to a piece of watercolor paper, where I could then stretch and manipulate the image)

Photographing with the Land camera proved to be a challenge, in that I had not anticipated the amount of garbage produced by the film.  My previous experience with the film had been indoors, with a slide printer, and a handy garbage can nearby.  Out in the field it was a different story.  I had slung my DSLR over one shoulder, Polaroid Land camera around my neck next to my light meter, placed my P.120 on the tripod, stuck my Kodak Six-20 in a pocket, and held my Brownie Hawkeye in my hand.  I took my first Polaroid image, counted out the developing time, then peeled it apart... and stood there, wondering where I was supposed to put the sticky paper backing that I'd just peeled off the image.

I ended up folding the papers over and stuffing them into my other pocket, until the pocket became too full... then I'd pause to remove my camera bag and empty my pockets into one of the spaces inside the bag.  So, as a note on future Polaroid outings: bring a bag for the garbage, and a safe flat folder for the images.

The juggling of 5 cameras ended up feeling far too chaotic, especially with one of the cameras being as cumbersome as the Polaroid, but it was a great outing nonetheless, and I was very happy with the results of the Polaroid images.

Back home I pulled out my long-stored gear for doing emulsion lifts.  It only took one sample try to remember the technique and set to work.

Over the past few years I've not done a lot of printing, however joining the APEX artist exchange group has inspired me to do more with my work than just shoot it and store it away.  This is the grouping of images I put together for one of our meetings - examples of the same subject shot with a variety of cameras: Top image - P.120, lower left is Kodak Brownie, lower right is Kodak Six-20, and center is the Polaroid emulsion lift.

Incidentally... throughout the last spring and summer I had something of a battle with my local film developer.  My color film from the P.120 was coming back from the lab with the first image being burned due to the way they were loading it into their machines.  After several conversations, attempts on my part to push the film frames forward (which resulted in, to my great disappointment, several overlapped images) and many additional test rolls (accompanied by "promises" that the film would be loaded the way I'd requested) I sadly had to completely give up on the company.  It was a difficult decision, because I always enjoyed long conversations with all of the other employees in the place, but the one guy that works in the lab stubbornly refused to load my film from the tail end of the roll, and I just don't want to lose any more of my work.

The Junk yard outing showcased the importance of scaling back my gear for each outing to a practical amount.  Of course I'll always take my DSLR, but when it comes to film cameras I really needed to have a better system for camera swapping, and also it was necessary to scale back on the number of cameras on any given outing.  Because the plain truth is, once a camera is set on my tripod, I'm reluctant to take the time to swap it out, even when I'm out shooting on my own and don't feel the pressure of fellow travelers waiting on me.

I'd considered sewing a side pouch to clip onto the belt of my camera case, as a quick "side pocket" for swapping, however when digging through my gear closet I came out with this old little green camera bag, which had originally been designed to fit our first digital point-and-shoot.

The P.120 fit perfectly!

On to our big family vacation: Hawaii!  We spent two weeks in the islands, staying on both Maui and Kauai.  After much deliberation I had determined that I should leave the Kodak Brownie at home, and just bring the DSLR, P.120 (for the anticipated amazing volcanic landscapes) and the Six-20 (intended to be the images for my 2019 calendar)

I learned that I am wise to always bring my DSLR, as some of the amazing landscapes we visited were far too windy to set up any kind of tripod.  

On the cliff at 10,000 feet, trying to stay upright for the photo.

Although I had a good camera swapping option with my side pouch, I did run into a bit of a struggle with the Kodak Six-20.  The shutter stuck when I used the shutter release cable, so just a few days into the trip I had to change my strategy with shooting and hold the trigger manually.  The camera still worked, but this did make it more difficult to work with, and my patience with it waned as I stood in 95 degree weather, dripping sweat, trying to hold still while holding the shutter open.  

Meanwhile, given the subjects I'd be photographing, I opted for Velvia slide film for my P.120, which was developed by a lab in Seattle and (as they load the film correctly) I had zero burned images.  Upon arriving home from the trip and retrieving all my developed film, I found myself to be far happier with my P.120 images than those of the Six-20.  The film advance on the Six-20 is also rather difficult to manage when my arthritis is acting up, so I'm now leaning towards shelving the Six-20.  The good news is, this opens the door to popping my Brownie into my camera bag, and also leaves the P.120 to be the only camera I'd need to have on the tripod (unless I want to put the DSLR up for a panoramic digital shot)

As this post has gone on quite a bit more than I anticipated, I'll save my 2019 Calendar debate and photography site updates for another time.

Drawing:

I was given a lovely brush pen as part of a Christmas gift last year, then a local art studio held a class on travel sketching.  Inspired by both, I decided to try my hand at quick sketching with the brush pen.  The original idea had been to sketch while my camera is taking long exposures, therefore doing sketches that can be completed within about a minute, however I enjoyed it so much I began carrying the book around with me and sketching during all my travels.  Here are a couple of examples.

Also on the drawing front, I've picked back up my Zentangle gear.  The inspiration came from a combination of the quick travel sketches, my mention of Zentangle at the APEX meetings, and also the lack of photography outings during the summer (which was mostly due to the horrible smokey conditions we had throughout the wildfire season of August)  As I haven't managed time to print more photography to share, I thought I'd pull together some examples of Zentangle art to share at my next APEX meeting.

Summer's End

We really crammed a lot into the summer, ending with a long weekend visit hosting two families (total of 10 people in our house at once!)  It was a spectacularly lovely visit filled with games and food and family and fun.  Now as we settle into our new autumn schedule, I am wrapping up the summer adventures as I lay out my project plans for autumn and winter, with the hopes to be back here with updates a little more regularly.

Springing forward

The last 6 weeks have been filled with projects, let's get right to it!

Scrapbooking:  

No photos to share, but great leaps have been made!  Blurb put out a great coupon which was incentive for me to finish up the 2012 album and send 2011 and 2012 off to be printed.  Down in the art room I completed the 2004 ephemera album and began to organize the items for 2005, which lead to G's school photos, which lead me to begin her school days album.  After much deliberation I decided that the School Days Album will be limited to a 2 page layout for each year of school, all with the same grey parchment looking background paper for consistency.  I'll be working on this album alongside the ephemera albums in order to stay as efficient as possible.  I also completed gluing photos and filling out birthday information in G's "First Five Years" baby book, so I no longer need to worry about the loose photos and birthday party notes dropping from it's pages.  

Working on the school album alongside the ephemera can be a little confusing at times, as the school year spans September to June, and the ephemera albums are calendar years, however keeping the school album limited to two pages helps narrow down my options.  Each double page layout will have her school and class photo, plus a note or photo on the activities she participated in during that school year.  The more in-depth details (programs from school performances, award ribbons, etc...) will be in the larger ephemera albums.  

Sewing:

I made a tote bag for my niece (a hairdresser) and birthday card.  It ended up going out late due to a delay in the printed fabric - the image for my original fabric of choice wasn't uploaded properly by the artist, so I had to cancel that order and pick something new, which added another couple of weeks to the delivery.  

My Bird Quilt continues... two of five cardinal squares are complete. 

Photography:

I missed the pinhole group outing due to a schedule change on my end, but I did have a nice outing with G over the course of that weekend.  We headed down to Seattle Center, where G played with her Diana/Lomo instant camera combination.  I brought out my Graflex and P.120 pinhole cameras, as well as finishing off a roll that had been residing in my Holga.

G creating an optical illusion with a toy car in front of the International Fountain.

From my P.120 camera, objects appear smaller than reality.

From my Holga - I experimented with a roll of Lomo 100 purple film.  It treats warm spots as purple, and cool blues as greens, so shooting underexposed in the winter made for some green streaks in the cooler parts of the frame.  This would be a fun film to play with in the summer time.

Also in photography news... I've decided to shelve the heafty Graflex camera for a bit, and instead concentrate on shooting panoramic pinhole with my P.120, and get my 6x9 negatives from the Six-20 camera. I also want to continue to explore forest and interesting tree patterns with my DSLR, and there just isn't room in my pack to carry All The Gear, hence my decision to set aside Clunky for a time.  I'm considering 2019 calendar themes in the back of my mind as I explore these cameras.

January - the dark winter reorg

As the days begin to lengthen, and Christmas winds down to the final gift-giving stages (one last gift to deliver this Sunday!) I turn back to the chaos of the disheveled post-holiday art room and my own personal projects.

Scrapbooking:
The ephemera album is stagnant at the tail end of 2004, where I left it last fall.  I've had a couple of sewing projects to conclude before clearing the table for more paper and glue fun... however I have started following a scrapbook-centric Instagram account which is providing good inspiration.  For digital albums... I finalized the 2011 album with a still image pulled from the video of my jump from the bamboo bridge into the ocean in Jamaica.  I used some layers in photoshop to show the progress of my jump.

After one more proof-read of the text, 2011 will be ready to print.  The photos for 2012 have been sorted, edited, and I've arranged them up through about August of that year.  My photos for 2017 have been fully backed up twice, including all cell phone photos.

The jumping of timelines makes it difficult to keep track of where I am within each project... also it is startling to look at photos where G is shorter than I am, then photos where she is clearly taller, and yet they all feel like they were just taken last month.  I'm taking copious notes each time I work on a digital album, and post-it notes abound in the ephemera album. 

Bird Quilt:
Thanks to a couple of long wait times at dentist offices last month, I made great headway and completed my bobwhites for the state bird quilt:

11 birds down thus far.  Craft club meetings have picked up again, which should provide me with some good time to get through the next batch of birds... cardinals!

Photography:
I had a successful outing with the pinhole group, shooting two rolls on my new P.120 camera.  I also worked with Clunky and my Holga, though I did not finish off those rolls, so they stand at the ready for my next outing.  This outing also reintroduced me to the lovely tones of Kodak Portra film, which I'd loaded due to the expected low light conditions

The other images from the outing can be viewed in this flickr album.
I should be clear to make it to the February outing as well.

In other photography news, I was given the link to a photographer who is putting together an art show in the UK for Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.  The criteria were simple... pinhole photos taken within a 10 mile radius of your house.  I was given the green light to use photos taken within 10 miles of a second home as well as a primary residence, so I picked 5 of my favorites (2 of Kauai, 3 around my primary residence) and have turned them in with fingers crossed.

Rapidfire 6 Week Update

I've had this needling feeling in the back of my mind reminding me that I was behind on blogging, but I didn't realize it has been over a month.  I wondered how I could have possibly fallen that far behind, then I scanned back through my photos for my recap and realize I truly have been quite busy, and I've accomplished quite a lot over the last 6 or so weeks.  So here is a rapid fire update:

Cherry Creek Falls - pinhole shot

In early June, D and I participated in a couple of weekly step challenges, so we opted for hikes instead of trips to the gym.  One hike brought us to Cherry Creek Falls, where we paused for about an hour so that I could grab some pinhole shots of the falls.  My original goal for this year had been to collect enough color images to do my 2018 calendar in pinhole shots, however as the summer is now halfway through, I have my doubts that I'll have 12 good images to use for this year, so I'm contemplating another theme for 2018, and perhaps 2019 will be pinhole.  It all depends on what kind of outings I can get in before October.

LOTR and embroidery

I've been taking advantage of the longer days to be outside in the yard for as long as I can, which leaves me less time for evening crafting before I'm too wiped and need to go to sleep.  When I do sneak in an evening or two, I have fun with it.

ALL THE POTS.

Around the end of June we finally finished planting all the plants.  For now.

Lake Union Panoramic Pinhole

I made it to the June meetup with my pinhole photography group, which took place around Lake Union in Seattle.  It turned out to be the hottest day we've had this year (and is still the record thus far for the summer) and I found that my whole "I don't feel like shooting much in 95 degree heat" feeling is as strong in the states as it is in Jamaica, so I didn't shoot the volume that I thought I might, but I'm pleased with the images I did grab.  I finished up the roll from my panoramic pinhole camera, and my fisheye plastic camera (which had 9 year old film in it!) and ran my first roll of E6 through my Graflex pinhole.  With the help of a new app I found that calculates reciprocity failure I managed to get my first roll of E6 exposed correctly!

THE FOUNTAINS ARE DONE!

4 YEARS, so many changes, so many new ideas, so many "oh, look what the fountain store has in stock now!" moments.... I have a difficult time finding the words to describe how elated I am that they are DONE.

Embroidery on the deck

In honor of my mom's birthday, I parked myself out on the deck to work on my bird quilt (from the pattern I inherited from her mom, using the thread I inherited from my mom)  It was a lovely evening.

Photo Editing - this is from Kauai in January 2017

Due to having to drive G around to various things this summer, I've had some "sit in the coffee shop with your laptop" time, which I've been using to catch up on photo editing.  I'm nearly through with our winter trip to Kauai, which will almost bring me up to speed with all my DSLR because I've hardly shot anything this year outside of birds in my yard.

The garden is coming along nicely

Most of the vegetable starts that I bought from the local super-fancy-expensive nursery either wilted away or have simply been stunted.  The big plants you see are all from other plant stores... so next year I won't bother with the super-fancy place at all.  

A view from the back side of the garden

It might be difficult to see, but I have three laser-cut hummingbird sculptures on the wall of my garden... I bought these in the summer of 2012 and have been waiting to find the right home for them ever since.  The pots in this shot are home to three of my tomato plants that I started from seeds and thought would not survive, but these guys just didn't give up... so here they are, caught up to my other starts in height and starting to show signs of bearing fruit.  

Plant markers

I had the idea for these plant markers back in May, and didn't finish them until last week.  Unfortunately the hot glue didn't hold on the markers that were hit directly by the sprinklers, so perhaps next year I'll figure out something that lasts longer.

In scrapbooking, I just have one or two photos to add to my 2011 digital album, and my 2012 photos are nearly all edited.  I just got back to the 2004 ephemera album last night, where I'm working my way through a set of vacation photos from late October of that year.

These are the highlights of how I've spent my crafting time over the last month and a half, in between end-of-school-year events, hosting out-of-town family over holidays, and helping to teach G to drive. I've also enjoyed some much needed meditative down-time in my yard, fitting in yoga in the mornings and lots of sipping coffee while bird watching.  Sometimes I get more than birds in the yard... like this morning's visitor...

Most mornings I sit on my porch with my coffee in one hand, and my camera with the big zoom lens in the other.  As a result, most of my photo shooting this summer has just been of wildlife in my own back yard.  With the combination of busy week-day schedules and a great desire to just... *be*... in the yard, we've had relatively few excursions outside of this immediate view this summer.  On the one hand that means I probably will not fulfill my goal of having a large enough variety of pinhole photos to create a calendar this year, but on the other hand I'm hoping this means I might catch up on editing and posting to flickr, and if I don't collect enough images by the fall then I'll be well armed to come up with a different theme using my digital shots this time around.

Project Updates in Gardening, Stitching, Scrapbooking

My blogging has waned as the weather turned for the better this spring.  The sunshine and promise of warmer temperatures has been inspiring me to keep my desk time to a minimum so that I can maximize time outside to wrap up the largest parts of our now 4 year long yard renovation.  I'm happy to report that I met my goal of getting my properly built vegetable garden area in place as of Mother's Day Weekend.  

I had a tomato garden last year, which sort of tapered off from the boardwalk/patio path down to the yard below.  D finished building up a retaining wall for me on the far side of the garden earlier in the spring, so that by May 13th I was able to amend the soil and put my vegetable plants in the ground.

Tomato, cucumber, snap peas, eggplant, jalapeno, strawberries, and several squash is how we started.

Over the last couple weeks, while the plants stretched their roots in their new home, I worked on tidying up the final details of the surrounding area while also completing some larger projects involving the water feature and planting several pots around the yard.

My original intention had been to put at least some of my herbs into the garden space, however we overbought veggie starts, and I'm also not sure of which end of the garden I want to put perennials, so for now the perennials will stay in pots around the yard.

Herbs and strawberries on the left form an arch around the sprinkler control boxes, which covers the boxes but leaves easy access.  This weekend I'll be adding the drip lines to the pots.  The garden box against the brick wall houses our lettuce and fennel... I've been calling this the salad bar.  I might consider moving the strawberries into this box if we decide to put the lettuce in the big garden next year.

About 3 weeks of growth in the garden, the strawberry pot is protected from birds with a pop-up bird net, the tomato, cucumber, and snap peas have supports to grow, and my decorative rock and lavender is in place along the wall.

All this extra time in the garden has left my hands tired by the end of the day, so my embroidery has slowed.  I have completed two of my 4 Eastern Bluebird blocks, and am close to finishing block#3.  

As the yard work turns from projects to maintenance, I should have more time in the evenings to get in some stitching.

In the world of scrapbooking... my project room has been overlayed with short projects and supplies which need to be straightened and put away before I can get back to progressing on my ephemera albums. My digital scrapbook for 2011 is nearly complete (I need only to pull one still photo from a video clip and then spell-check the whole album and it will be done)  I've begun collecting and organizing the digital photos for the 2012 album.  The process is a little slower for this year because I  began shooting more film in 2012, and including photos from those cameras involves a bit of digging through and organizing old scans.  My current plan is to proceed with the standard annual albums until I am "caught up", then go back and do the vacation albums.  I should have more consistent blocks of time this summer to work on them, as I plan to find a cozy coffee shop where I can plug away at it while G is in her driving school.

Project Updates in Stitching and Art

As of mid-April I finished all the goldfinch squares for my massive bird quilt:

I started on the Eastern Bluebirds, and thanks to my neighborhood monthly craft night I finished one and am on to bluebird #2.  

Quick medical inset: Picking up embroidery again seemed to inflame the base thumb joint of my left hand, which prompted a few doctor visits.  The end result: I'm not giving up my hobbies, I have guards to wear and a cream to use when my joints get cranky, and I have adjustments to make in my art hobbies so that I can keep making art.  I'll probably mention "cranky joints" now and again, this is what is references.

I had hoped to make great headway on this project during the textile retreat that had been scheduled for last weekend just outside of Portland.  Unfortunately, the retreat had to be cancelled due to lack of participation, however they hope to try again next year with better advertising.  Since I already had other visits and travel plans lined up, I packed up my gear (3 bags of project-related items, one small duffel with a change of clothes) and hit the road anyway.

First stop was to visit with a camera builder in Portland for a tour of his woodshop and a peek at the prototype of what will eventually be my birthday present.

After a stop in the city for lunch, my next adventure brought me to my friend, and fellow textile-retreat-refund-receiver, H's house, for a little bit of art supply shopping and wonderful personal art retreat time.

Lately she has been making some lovely art using block carvings.  I happened to have lino blocks in the garage (which have been lying around since 1999) so I brought them down with me and came up with this zentangle carving.

As I carved the negative space in the upper left corner, I realized my hands would be unusable if I continued in that endeavor, and so I switched to carving the positive space for the other 3/4 of the block.  I think it has an emerging quality...

After our carving and printmaking session, we stopped at another art store where H showed me the "soft blocks" she prefers to carve (which feel more like a semi-soft cheese).  The blocks were on sale, and I received a refund from the textile retreat, so I bought a stack.

Because I need another hobby, right?

(FWIW, I already have the carving tools and a brayer, so I really didn't buy an entirely *new* hobby, this is a resupply of materials that I can work with more easily)

A busy and scrambled week

No photos to share this week, unfortunately... I hope to get back on track with that by next week.

My schedule was scrambled up a bit, with meetings/school functions/games to attend every night this week, and a black cloud of deadline looming over my work desk during the day.  This cut into my project time at home, but I did make a couple of advancements.

I completed the landscape photography in Lightroom course that I've been watching in bits and pieces online.  I have many new notes in my notebook related to editing photos, and also shooting suggestions for complicated scenes in the field, and I look forward to applying my new knowledge.  I've backed up my most recent DSLR shots, and once I do the same for the other two cameras then I'll be in a position to begin editing my last trip to Kauai.

I'm also keeping track of the tulip bloom up in Skagit Valley (they have a handy website with regular updates!) The tulip festival has been on my photography bucket list for a while, so my fingers are crossed that I'll make it up to the valley this Spring.

During my "sit and wait for someone" time this week, I continued work on the embroidery project.  I'm now on the 4th and final American Goldfinch square, I'll take good photos once they are all complete and ironed.  I bought new embroidery hoops which do a much better job of holding the fabric firm than the old wooden hoops do.

I found some plastic containers that are just the right size to slide into the cube organizers in the art room, so I bought two packs and they are currently sitting on the floor waiting for me to have the time to reorganize my embellishments.  In the short term, this will delay my scrapbooking progress, but in the long run it'll make the rest of the ephemera albums go quickly.

Embroidery, sewing, and schedules

I signed up to attend an online photography seminar on Friday morning, which prevented me from my regular blog update.  It turned out to be more informative than I thought it would be, but I couldn't spend the entire day sitting at my desk for the live broadcast so I ended up buying the download so that I can watch it on my own schedule in bits and pieces.  So the study of photography continues, though my editing progress is still on hold.  Within this seminar, Art Wolfe talked about how he sometimes develops books over the course of years, gathering a large body of work and then finding a common thread throughout his work to turn into a book (as opposed to going out into the field specifically with one subject in mind until a book is done.)  This sounds like the "photograph everything and put it together later" philosophy that keeps me going out in the field with ALL the lenses so that I can take advantage of ALL the opportunities.  I realize this is the approach I take with my calendars, and that if I go back through my history of images I can apply that same approach to putting more books together in the future.  This would also give me the opportunity to re-edit past images using the new tools I have at my disposal without necessarily feeling the need to re-edit ALL the images from the past (just the ones I intend to print).

Once again this week, the photos I have to share are poor quality snaps from my phone.

We experienced one of those "emergency" sewing projects earlier this month when the original puppet created for G's school play turned out to be far too small.  G and her friend had hand-sewn the original, and were under a tight deadline to come up with a replacement, so I volunteered to take their pattern and sew it on my machine at home.  It took me less than an hour, and saved them several hours.  The puppet was top-heavy, so after the next rehearsal I helped to reinforce the head/front arms with a combination of a wire hanger and pipe cleaners (one tends to get inventive with little time and zero budget), G put it on a platform that matched the stage floor, and through the magic of theater lighting, made the puppet "crawl" on stage without revealing that it was basically on a giant spatula.

I managed to finish a decent amount of embroidery this week, with all the time I spent sitting and waiting for G during her drama and sports events at school.

Though they are the same birds, the patterns are unique in the feet and a little different in the wings.  I haven't looked to see if they are printed differently, or if the patterns just didn't transfer completely, but my philosophy is that each bird within a species is unique anyway, so the goldfinches do not need to match exactly.

In health news - as the weather warms I've been injecting walks on the days where I don't go to the gym.  I have a new pair of trail shoes for hiking, so I've been breaking them in with short (30-40 min) walks through the woods near my house.  Last week I encountered a couple of deer in the forest.

When it is pouring down rain, or trail conditions look too poor, I'm sticking with yoga indoors, which I've increased from just sun salutations to standing strength routines.

The weather was sloppy and wet over the weekend, which kept me indoors and gave me the opportunity to make headway on my ephemera albums.  I felt a great sense of satisfaction to finally pull out stickers that I'd purchased nearly 13 years ago to use for the scrapbook pages of a specific event.  I also discovered that the way I've sorted my embellishments is frustrating - the boxes are all solid and deep, so I end up opening up 7 different kinds of boxes and laying them out on the floor to dig through.  I don't even know all the things I have because most of this stuff came from Mom, and since I didn't choose to buy it I don't have a memory of picking it out.  To that end, I've purchased a bunch of clear containers that should fit inside the cubby system currently in the art room, so that I can re-sort things and label the containers as I did my stamps.  Having wider, shallow boxes should make it easier to paw through all the embellishments, and it will also get rid of a stack of shoe-size boxes that I've had to shove in a corner of the room.

This week has events I need to attend every night, which means my craft time will largely be distributed throughout my "waiting for G" times.  I'm looking forward to less overlapping and a more steady schedule beginning next week.

More sewing and studying

A quick update today... I have felted projects I am working on, however they are gifts so I won't be posting them until after they are completed and received by their recipients (in the off chance they happen past the blog)

My embroidery continues forward with the completion of my mom's towel set. 

My mom's towel is on the left, mine is on the right.

I determined that I don't want my mom's stitching to be monkeyed with, so I plan to frame that towel to hang in my art room.  Therefore, I picked my own color combos for my towel (since I don't have to match the other towel)  Mom didn't do any satin stitching on hers, I stuck somewhat with the instructions in that regard, though I used variegated thread for mine to give it a faded effect in the lettering, flower petals, and lower decorative detail.  This was the first time I ever stitched french knots, that I can remember, and my best example of satin stitching to date.  It was a great warm-up exercise for the bird quilt, and now I can use Mom's thread organizer for the quilt.

Sunday night I had the Oscar's on TV while I transferred the patterns to my fabric squares.

I stitched every time I sat in front of the TV this week and managed to finish one bird and begin a second before I paused.

I want all the states in the background to match, and I didn't want to do them in black and have them stand out too much... so I decided that since I'll be using a green fabric for the sashing, I should do the state outlines and names in a nice mellow green as well.  Then I realized... 50 states is a lot, and I need to make sure I have enough of the exact same green in order to have everything match. My grandma had sent me a huge stash of embroidery thread close to 20 years ago, but the greens in the stash were not quite the color I wanted, so I took my squares to the craft store and picked out the perfect green.  I bought 16 of them, which I hope will be more than enough.

I now understand why my grandma had upwards of 20 skeins of single colors.  She used to embroider quilt tops, and a project that large does require a large supply of a single color if you want to guarantee consistency.  

I've packed my squares in a little luggage organizer to keep them from fraying while they are stacked in my tote, and my big project is now perfectly portable!

In the photography realm, I've been watching a new Creative Live seminar on editing in Lightroom and I am picking up a large number of tips and tricks which will help with my next batch of editing as well as aid me in future shooting techniques.  As always, whenever I learn new skills in LR I'm tempted to go back and re-edit just about everything I've ever posted.  Though on the other hand, the data from my older images will be lower quality anyway, so might as well leave well enough alone.