Santa forgot his hat

I’ve started to put Christmas away and it seems Santa forgot something.  I thought it would be a good daily painting.

In addition to painting, I stitched.  I’m learning to do pojagi stitching which I’ve talked about before.  Today I finished my first square.  It’s a lot of scrap fabric which meant I got a lot of practice doing the seam.  Things I’ve learned along the way:

1.  My old trusty Singer is in need of a good cleaning.

2.  I really do need to learn to cut straight in order to do a good pojagi seam. 

3.  Life would be easier with a stitch in the ditch foot so I ordered one for my Viking.  So far haven’t found one that will fit the old Singer.

I do like the quilt look and the fact that it’s a single layer (both sides are finished) so it has many uses.  Originally I said I thought it was like the French seam my mother used; however, the more I look at it I think it’s more like a flat felled seam.  I’m going to have to look that up and compare.  Meanwhile, if the snow clears up I’m off to the fabric store with my machine.

Day 7 of the Dailies and I really do need to be doing this

This is a small one, about 4x4”.  It tells me a whole lot but mainly that I have neglected my painting and drawing.  Stitching has gotten in the way along with a few other things.  I’m not about to quit stitching but I do need to budget my time better, stop wasting it. 

Like last year, instead of a New Year’s Resolution I decided on a word to carry through the year.  It was release and I did release a lot of junk, not enough but a start.  This year my word is focus.  I need to focus on one thing at a time and on budgeting that time.  We’ll see how I do…. Here’s the daily and a link to the Leslie’s challenge so you can see what others are doing.

The Daily and Some Stitching

My Tuesday morning painting group painted at the library today.  Well, two of us townies were there, the rest live out in the country and snow kept them home.

We hadn’t been out painting since a couple weeks before Christmas so it felt good to be back at it.  I wasn’t particularly pleased with what I did but then I often feel that way until I look again a couple days later.  Anyway, here is my daily for today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once back home I was in stitching mode.  I’m working on a small table runner…. this is in process, lots more work to be done on it but it’s coming….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m also trying something called Pojagi. In Korean culture, wrappings, called pojagi, were made in bursts of colorful patchwork or imaginative embroidery.  They use it for gift wrapping and for other utilitarian wrappings.  I like the idea of using something that can be reused so I did a little research.  It seems the pojagi seam is very much like the French seam my mother did on fabrics that tended to fray too much.  So, I decided to try it.  This is a start, the close up is the wrong side.  Stitching isn’t straight but that has more to do with my inability to cut straight.  I need to start using the rotary cutter more.

Day 4 of the Dailies

These first ones are warm-ups, I’m not loosened up and it shows; however, there will be improvement, there always is. 

Here’s day 4, three bottles from my collection of blue bottles.  This is a 7x5 inch watercolor.

Dailies, a start

I’m participating in a challenge, A Painting A Day For Thirty Days over on  Leslie Saeta’s blog.   However, due to a cold, I haven’t posted every day there.  I have done two of the three days, cheated a little and did two yesterday.  And I still have to do todays but it will be later in the day.  Here are the three done so far….

Day 1, candy

Days 2 and 3 both done on day 3

Kayaks from a photo posted as part of the wetcanvas weekend drawing event

and an abstract from another photo, same drawing event. 

I have several things on my plate today but I will get another small painting done so I can post it on Leslie’s blog.

Getting Ready for Christmas

It’s time to get ready for my favorite season.  Yesterday the tree went up and our grandson helped me decorate.  He didn’t want to put the angels on, “angels are for girls,” so I did those.  Our decorations have changed the last few years.  In the past we’ve had two trees, one tall skinny one in the living room, a fake tree that held all white lights and my angel collection and one live tree in the family room that held colored lights, all of Marshall’s Santa ornaments and an assortment of other special homemade and gift ornaments.

Now it’s one tree, the tall skinny tree in the den, all white lights and an assortment of angels, a few Santa ornaments (most of Marshall’s have gone to his house) and other special homemade and gift ornaments.  Each ornament brings back a memory of Christmases past and special friends.  Next I’ll bring out the other decorations for the table, the mantle and the living room.

Oh and we have one small tree that once lived in our kitchen and held kitchen tools as ornaments.  During the Christmas season it now lives on our stairway landing serving as a nightlight. It becomes a single angle, the top is a needlepoint piece I did years ago when I still did that type of thing.

One Christmas custom that hasn’t changed, I do a painting or drawing that becomes our Christmas card.  The last several years it has been a winter scene.  Here are two of them.

This year I’ve been stitching and thought I might not get a card done but this sketch I discovered in one of my sketchbooks and I think it may get done in time, if not for Christmas at least a New Years card.  The sketch is from a photo shared by a wetcanvas friend for one of the weekend drawing events.  I started it in November but didn’t get back to it until this weekend and then I found a challenge on the wetcanvas site and it fit what I was writing about this week.  Here’s a link to the challenge

I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas Season, it’s a beautiful time of the year and a good time to say thank  you for all of the blessings in my life, including all of you who read my blog.

sketching and stitching

I never know where my muse may take me.  I certainly never expected to be making stuffed birds but

The owl came first inspired by one of my Chi O sisters posting one on her Facebook page, thank you Ronda.  This isn’t what she posted but hers got me thinking and the next thing I knew I had four birds done.  The other two are small and sit in a nest which is yet to be made.  I learned a bunch making these and will do another owl with ears the right size and in the right place.  In the meantime I’ve got some new doll ideas swimming around in my head so who knows where my muse is going to take me next.  In the meantime….

I’m still sketching in my sketchbook.  These two are from one of the wetcanvas weekend drawing events last month.  This past weekend I did one that didn’t come out at all like I planned.  I was doing some experimenting and learned what didn’t work so it was worth doing anyway.  This is it…

This is the weekend and I’ve got another wetcanvas image in mind to do before I get back to stitching.