30 July 2017

A Plethora Of Projects...Most of them completed


Hello Readers!

It's been awhile since I was here last so you know that will mean a boatload of pictures and a lot of me rambling on about them.

I'm just going to jump right in here and get this madness started!
Enjoy!


I got up around 5am on Saturday morning and had this thing made by 7:30 or so. Basket coil style with acrylic nubby yarn over macrame cord. I wish I would have had a light color of that nubby yarn, but I only had burgundy. The black is just regular 4 ply acrylic yarn. This basket is about 12 inches tall, 8 inches across? I'm guessing on the measurements,


Another basket made since I was here last. This one is about 8 inches wide, 5 from front to back and maybe 5 inches tall. Again, I'm making an educated guess. This one is crocheted from tulle netting.

Medium size bag crocheted from three different yarns. It's about 15 inches from the top of the handles to the bottom of the bag, 9 inches wide or so. I am not real crazy about this one. I am glad that fluffy pastel variegated yarn is gone now. this bag is extremely soft to the touch...

Medium sized bag crocheted from tulle netting. This one is about 12 inches from top of handle to bottom of bag, 8 inches wide? I'm itching to drag out the rest of the tulle and make another basket out of this stuff. I have other things to complete before I can do that though.

I finally finished this little cotton thread bag. I started this one back in April when I was last at my son's house. It is 6 inches x 5 inches. The handle is crocheted and sewn to the bag with glass beads accenting the sides. 

Small crocheted wool bag with braided strap. The pink one above has a long handle like this one. 

I made a few bags..... medium granny square bag. each square is 5 inches. This one is crocheted from wool crewel embroidery yarn and the green is 4 ply wool. 

Another granny square bag, medium sized purple and white acrylic yarn. Each square is 5 inches.

This granny square bag is HUGE. It would make an excellent bag to take to the beach cause it will hold a lot of stuff! The squares are 6 inches. Acrylic yarn.

Granny square bag, medium size-squares are 5 inches. Acrylic yarn.

and the last bag in this post.....another granny square bag. This one crocheted from wool 4 ply and wool crewel embroidery yarn. This one has 5 inch squares also.

Crazy Granny Blanket
I showed you all a sneak peek at this blanket the last time I was here. I've since then put a row of double crochet all around the outside edge. I'm rather pleased with the result even though I can see all the booboos and the wonky lines. A good many of these squares are from the 365 Days of Granny Squares Project. The smaller ones are me just winging it, as is the large square at the top. Others are either made up by me, are just simple granny squares or other stitches I already know.

I had about 30 granny squares leftover from the stash of granny squares I began making last November. I will make another granny square blanket when I get enough yarn stock piled so I have a good selection of colors. At the moment, I don't have enough different colors. I do make a granny square every once in awhile and add it to the stash.

I will probably work on the next blanket when it turns cold this winter. I 'sewed' this one together when it was 103 degrees outside. Was a rather warm endeavor so doing it on a cold winter day will be much better!
Stay tuned! There will be another granny square blanket eventually.

I worked on more pages in the Junk Journal...


There is no rhyme or reason to what goes in the junk journal. 


Junk Journals are generally started with nothing but magazine cutouts. Then I draw on top of it, 

glue things on top of things,

doodle with pens, markers, and paint

and the paint pens too.



I'd like to disguise all the faces in the book so you can't tell where they originated.


Most pages still need some work.






there are still a lot of pages that need work in the Junk Journal. These will be sewn into signatures and bound whenever I get done with them. This is an ongoing project. I've been working on it for a few years now.

I taught myself the basics of needle tatting a couple weeks ago. I made a bunch of doodads for FP 21. You'll see its progress in this post.
I have a lot of practice to do with needle tatting before I become anywhere proficient at it! The tatted strings with beads make a good texture for the fish pictures. It's a little of everything....acrylic yarn, cotton string, embroidery thread, ect.

I've also been making paper mache bowls.

There are two bowls in this picture. The large green one is sitting atop a smaller black one. These two are painted with acrylics.

This one still needs a few more layers of paper added. It's kinda flimsy at this point. I use whatever paper is handy. The outside is newsprint and the inside is a layer of painted newsprint. This one is 7 inches across the top.

Two small bowls. The bottom one you all already saw some posts back. It has a sun in the bottom of it. The polka dotted one is green, brushed with gold on the inside. These two are about 4 inches across the top.

Two more bowls in the works. The top one is 7 inches across and the bottom one is 8,5 inches across the top. I used a crock cereal bowl lined with tinfoil for the 7 inch bowl. And I used a ceramic mixing bowl lined with plastic wrap for the larger bowl. These need a few more layers before I take them off the molds. Yeah and there's me in the mirror behind the desk. That mirror is there so I can see down the hallway behind me. Not that I can see a whole lot when it is dark outside. The hallway is dark as can be!


I did a little bit of drawing last weekend.
Post card. Markers on drawing paper. the circle the bird is drawn on was a separate piece of paper. I glued it on and then drew the lines with markers. It needs a backing. It too is a tad flimsy for a post card.

Post card
Paint and collage on drawing paper. I free-handed the 
Chinese symbol for elephant. Not real crazy about this one either.

and now to FP 21

12 x 12 inches.  It's coming along. I intend to do some more to it tonight. I have adhered the tatted pieces in place and added some spackling compound to the bottom edge for rocks and painted it all green and blueish. There will be another layer put on the rock shelf and a few fishes here and there before it is done. What color do you all think the fishes should be? I haven't really thought the fishes through yet. 

A close up of the tattings 

A close up of the upper background.
Still much to do with FP21 and only a couple weeks to get it done.

Something that won't be getting done anytime soon are the paper mache birds. I've given them all legs and painted some of them.

A few of them still need wings and legs. I know there nine of them when I began this project weeks ago. I found all but one of them....A cat stole off with a few of them one day and I found them scattered in the kitchen under the table. I've no clue where the other one got off to.
The butterfly in the bowl with the birds WAS on the fridge the day before yesterday. I found it laying on the other side of the kitchen a few hours ago. Another victim to the cat. 

I must put the paper mache--birds and bowls--on hold till after September. None of them are pressing at this time and that's OK. I have tons of other art projects that are pressing and I must get those done before Fair season begins. All of it must be done no later than the end of the second week in August. That ain't very long from now!

So this is the extent of what Donna has been up to since the last post...

All the fur kids are fine!
I gave the turtle away this morning to a 14 year old boy and his mother this morning. I am sure he's in good hands.

Thanks for hanging to the end!
Remember
Be kind to one another!
It matters!
Peace
831

08 July 2017

A Little of this and that and the other.....

Hello Readers!

I'm just gonna dive right in to this and get the show on the road, so to speak. It is 6am Saturday morning. I have been awake since about 11 am yesterday so it's past my bedtime. I mention this because there are bound to be typos and a bit of nonsense probably as well.

I spent yesterday afternoon working on my granny square blanket, which you will see later in this post. But I spent the bulk of the evening and the wee morning hours putting marks on some of the pages of my junk journal.  I've been working on this junk journal for going on three years now. I do believe this is the first sneak peek anyone has seen of it. I worked on 14 different pages during the dark hours but there are six times this many pages in the book. 

I started out with a composition notebook that I glued magazine cut outs into. As time progressed other marks were added. Paint was applied...It is nowhere near done. I'm rather liking it though.


I took the composition notebook apart by cutting the string it was sewn together with and separating the pages from the binding. I then collected them into bundles of seven or eight pages, and will sew the book back together into signatures. It will have a totally new cover when I finish it.

There is no rhyme or reason to what ended up in the book.

Lots to do to these two pages still.

I really like this green spread. That lady needs a beard and mustache. Cause everyone in these pages has a beard and mustache. Why? Cause I can.

I used markers, acrylic paint, shimmery watercolor paint, oil pastels, india ink and a paint pen. There may be other things on there I'm forgetting at the moment. I did mostly painting on it today.

That blond has been transformed into a man with glasses, a very long beard and fancy mustache, wearing a black suit with a white shirt. 

I'm pretty sure if you make the pictures bigger by clicking on them you'll be able to read the text better.

And this concludes the sneak peek at my junk journal progress.

I've done some sewing since the last time I was here.

Little ellie stuffie made from the fabric from a pair of pants. He's about 5 inches long, 4 tall. there abouts. I didn't measure him. He still needs a saddle and some bells.

Morning Coffee.  

The paper mache birds are progressing. I'm not crazy about the color scheme of these critters and I probably will change that up when the painting muse hollers at me again. There are three more of these birds. I found two of the lost birds under the kitchen table. There is still one MIA. I'm sure a cat helped themselves to my birds. 
Stay tuned. The birds will be done soon.

I crocheted this bag early last week. It still needs some handles. 

Another work in progress. A small crocheted bag done in cotton string. This one has been in the works since late April. It will be done eventually as well.

There are a couple other crochet projects in the works that I have yet to take a picture of. There's a few fabric bracelets that need some more sewing and baubles added. A couple more crocheted bags in the works. And we can't forget Fish Picture #21 either. I bought some spackling compound at the lumber yard today so progress will commence on it soon. I've been asking after styrofoam packing for a couple weeks now and I hadn't located any so I bought the spackling compound to move forward on it. It must be done no later than August. 

Thunderstorm brewing at sunset.

Same thunderstorm just after dark. 
I like these two pictures of the thunderstorm.

A shot of the yard, looking off into the wheat field north of the house. I see the marijuana crop is growing nicely. I should more likely refer to the wild cannibas growing in the yard as hemp, as smoking it will get you nothing but a whopper of a headache. 

I made paper mache bowls while the birds were being made as well. 

I used magazine cutouts to embellish the bowl inside and out. The bottom of the bowl is an original doodle by me on text from a magazine. That was done in markers.

A close up of the inside of the bowl.
I painted the bowl inside and out with acrylic paint after the paper mache had dried sufficiently. Then the magazine paper was adhered with gloss medium. I wanted the bowl to be shiny. That may have been a mistake, using the gloss medium. It has been well over a week since this bowl was finished and it is still tacky to the touch. It sat on the front porch for two days in the sunshine and even that did not help dry it. One would think 96 degree weather with sunny skies would have done the job.

I did the same treatment to the outside of the bowl with the magazine paper. The stars were punched out keeping in mind a color scheme as I punched out the stars with a hand held star punch. 

I'm really uncertain as to why the gloss medium did not dry. I use pva glue as an adhesive when making these  bowls. 50/50 water and glue. And some kind of paper to form the bowl. Truth be told, any paper is fair game for paper mache. I like to use different colors or even totally different papers for each layer so I'm sure I've covered the whole of whatever I'm making at the time. I didn't think there would be any trouble between the pva glue and the gloss medium but I may be wrong about that. If the bowls, there are three of them, don't dry soon, I'll have to give them another coat of some other kind of varnish so they aren't sticky.
We shall see what happens.

As I said earlier, I did some sewing since the last time I was here.

Party Ellie made from an old sweater, a red purse and scraps of yarn.


Blue Ellie with her sunflower hat. 
She's made from an old sweater too. Both of them have tails made with the braiding disk.

Sitting in front of my computer watching an 18th Century cooking show on youtube. I didn't know I was interested in 18th Century cooking until I watched the first video. Now I do marathons of this stuff. Quite interesting, actually.

I got a new set of pens from Dollar General a couple weeks ago. I decided to break them in by using only the 8 markers that came in that pack to produce my June envie for EAU over at AFA. Link up in the corner... this is the back side.

this is the front.

I'm still working on the 365 Days of Granny Squares. I'm up to over a hundred of the buggers. I decided to start 'sewing' some of them together. They're not really sewn together. They are crocheted together. It's just easier to say sewn together.

I moved that cat three times and three times he was back again before I could snap a picture. So beings he wasn't cooperating... you all get to look at that sweet boy, Moses along with my colorful blanket that is still in pieces. Three pieces at the moment. In the last two days I've crocheted all of the little squares you see along the edge there and some other filler pieces that I don't see in the picture. They're underneath I guess. Most of the squares are different patterns. All are in different colors. I did resort to the simple granny pattern for a number of the squares, but the majority of them are all different. A few of them are patterns I made up on the fly as I was working on the squares themselves. I started this project back in November, if memory serves me correctly. One that I made up as I went is the large square in the upper right corner. When the blanket is done, I'll make my bed and put the blanket on a flat surface before I take its picture. 

I forgot to take a picture of the basket and the bag I crocheted with tulle netting last week. I'll show those off next time if I remember them when that time comes.

That's all I have for now. 
Thanks for sticking it out to the end.
Remember...
Be kind to one another!
It truly matters!
Peace
831

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