gift wrap

 I just love the look of a gift wrapped in pattern paper....

It also seems to lend a vintage touch to a hand sewn gift.

Here's the sign I mentioned working on previously. 

 

It's painted primarily with Golden brand Fluid

Acrylics, which were a nice consistency for 

the flowing lines and small brushwork.  

This brush, which I bought on clearance several years

ago, came in very handy. The store display had it labeled

as a sign painting brush, and it turns out to be just that!

The brush is cut at an angle, so it holds an adequate amount

of paint while coming to a precise and swirlable point.

baby plants

Some of our veggie garden is planted from seed 

and the rest from seedlings. Aren't they cute?!

end of february in my corner

 

Since we're well into seventy degree weather around here, we 

decided to go ahead and start our spring veggie garden.

We've had various garden-related ideas for this plot of land over

the past decade, but this is the first time we've actually done more

than the initial turnover. It's been a fun way to work with the kids

and hang out with our community house as a whole.

As you can also see, I met my camera's aperture

setting last week, and we're slowly becoming acquainted. 

sign painting preparations

 Over 6 months ago, I bartered design services with 

a friend. My end of the deal was to paint a lettered 

sign. Since I have been frozen solid when it comes 

to painting, I spent the past six months procrastinating

on this project. Today, however, I pulled out my acrylic

paints and went to town, combining colors for a series of 

test swatches. The lettering style is borrowed from 

Donley & Singh's book called Hand Lettering.

I think it will make for a very festive name plaque!

lilly plant at crave coffee

glass bottle

watercolor and ink, 2" x 1.5"

Hi, there!

I pulled out my watercolors recently

and have started playing with paint again.

It feels really good.

So I guess we'll get some sketches going 

on this sketchblog! Here's a glass lemonade

bottle from Sunflower Market that we've been

using to keep chilled water on hand.

reversible aprons

 This here is a mother/daughter set of reversible aprons I sewed up 

for my sister-in-law & niece's birthdays, which are this week. 

I used this tutorial from Michael Miller Fabrics and put 

pockets on each side, without the recommended contrasting edge.

The aprons came together easily and turned out just as I had hoped. 

Thanks, Joanna Armour, for a great little tutorial!

finished product

And voila! Here it is.

 As you can see, this is the birdy bag I attempted to 

make a year ago for the owner of Merdeka studios. 

However, at that time I used a freezer paper stencil,

and the birdy (which happens to be the Merdeka logo)

came out all blotchy.  This time around, I printed out

the image on paper, covered the back with graphite, 

traced it onto the bag and painted it in by hand.

While this bag was inspired by Handmade Mommy,

I wound up using the drawstring bag tutorial at

QuiltingBees.org, because I preferred the lining technique.

So there you have it. One drawstring bag a year in the making.

How's that for tenacity?

drawstring bag preview

This here is just a little peek at a drawstring bag

I made yesterday. It's a gift for a friend, and I have

yet to give it -- so the rest of the photo shoot will

come soon. Until then, have a happy weekend!