Step 24. Dress it up

The knitted flowers at the Knit, Purl, Sow exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens got me thinking. Instead of dressing up a gift with ribbons, I crocheted garlands of flowers and a couple of curlicues.

Inside the gift was the stitchery piece I made for my sister of one of my mom's favorite sayings.

Project complete.

Step 21. Love is in the air

I've been spending the morning hours this week stitching Valentine hearts.

Embroidery on wool felt.

I was originally inspired by zentangle hearts. I tried making some tentangles of my own to use as a pattern for my stitching, but I'm not zen enough to pull them off. I'm guessing zentangles are supposed to be relaxing and free, but I was stressed out thinking up doodles.

Instead, I free-styled these hearts with the needle in my hand instead of a pencil. I started with a French knot in the middle of the heart and just kept going around in circles until the spaces were filled. The white one went much more quickly than the red one because I copied the first pattern and didn't have to think as I stitched along. That was zen for me.

I got ideas from a heart tattoo I saw online and also from my bedspread. The bedspread was a convenient inspiration as I stitched these mostly in the early morning hours.

Happy Valentines Day.

Step 20. Keep up traditions

I like to make felt creatures for Valentines Day. I usually make my own design, but this year I bought a pattern to download  from craftsy.com, which has some really cute projects.

Wool felt is a forgiving material that doesn't mind a little tugging or stretching, and can be worked and re-worked without showing wear. My cats like to sleep on whatever project I'm making, and I have to guard it or keep the lint roller in constant use. I bought this batch of felt from Magic Cabin.

These little monkeys are surprises for Valentines Day, and I worked on them on the sly this past week.

All done.

Step 18. Back it up

I added a dark background to the design based on the ancient Roman floor mosaic. The color blue was a nice treat to use. I usually draw plants and don't get use to use a blue like this very often. (The lighting in this photo makes the blue coverage look uneven, but it isn't.)  I've had trouble with white flowers on white paper in the past, and using a dark background color solves the problem. Plus, the repetitive and easy task of coloring in the background is calming and meditative.

I definitely want to do some more borders and scrolls. It's been great fun doing this one. 

Step 17. Break it down

Different people do things differently. Go figure.

When I have a project to do or a day to plan, I need to break it down into tiny steps. Other people don't do that - they jump right in and manage to do a bunch of things at once. That's great for them, but it's not how I work best. 

I know it's popular to multi-task and it seems like most people like to work that way, but that style feels like chaos to me. Focusing on one task is much more comfortable for me, and finishing one step motivates me want to keep on moving to the next. 

A border design of an ancient Roman mosaic I saw at the Met inspired me to draw it. I worked at it step-by-step this week, mostly in the early morning (thank you for helping me wake up early, Andy Traub).

Colored pencil on paper, inspired by Roman mosaic at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

I'm not finished yet. The next step I want to do is adding a dark background, which is a new thing for me. I half-expect that I'll ruin the drawing in the process, but that's okay. I'm more interested in trying to add background color than I am in saving this drawing. 

Step 9. Finish

I finished my drawing of nuts. From left to right: walnut, pecan, hazelnut, almond, and that crazy Brazil nut that didn't want to cooperate with being cracked open neatly. But, it worked out. Abrigado!

I've been setting the alarm to wake up an hour early in the morning to have to work on projects. That's how I finished this project, by getting up early and working bit by bit every day with my morning coffee. It was easy to work slowly with this botanical drawing, of course, since the nuts don't wilt or change from day to day.

Step 4.

I started with a small pear late at night.

 

I only had time to draw the pear, but I left space on the page because I wanted, eventually, a still life. 

By the time I got back to this page in my notebook, a few weeks had gone by and the pear had been eaten.

I added a walnut as the next item in the still life, but it didn't work out. The two things are in an awkward relationship sitting on the page like this. They need to be either closer together or further apart to relieve the tension between them, sort of like with some people I know.

The drawing wasn't working out and I wanted to quit. But, maybe sticking around would be worth it, I told myself. If anything, I could certainly use composition practice.

I like how the Brazil nut on the left turned out, but the still life is still looking awkward.

I thought adding a hazelnut away from the group might break up the tension, but it didn't work. The lone nut looks like a lone nut, off on its own. 

It was time to walk away, but I didn't know how to end it, to break off from this group without leaving them hanging in the air. I added a little something on the page for them to sit on, and then I cracked the nuts open and ate them.

Today's song.