Learning to crochet

My fourth crocheted item ever, after two washcloths and a bath mitt. I was just trying to make a ball, but the directions didn't seem right and I ended up with a disc. So... jellyfish! I did the tentacles as I went, making them a part of the bottom surface rather than attaching them after. It's made of kitchen cotton, so maybe it will turn out to be a sponge for the bath.

The lives of others

I spent an hour at a huge Goodwill last week mesmerized by the picture frame section. Many of the things for sale are just frames, but plenty still have the original contents. Family photos, posters, art prints, even the occasional numbered print or original piece of art. I saw a couple of very amateur oils, some little limited edition prints of watercolors of vegetables (way too cutesy), and this collage:It totally fills a gaudy silver frame. Somebody's handmade art given to Goodwill and sold for $4 with the frame. Life is strange, isn't it?

Artist Trading Cards

I love the idea of ATCs, and the small format is sort of freeing. Sitting down to draw in a 2.5 x 3.5" area is somehow less intimidating than a whole blank page. I've had lots of ideas for ATC themes. At one point I wanted to do a pen and ink ATC for every book I read for a year. Of course, the flaw in that plan is that there are all sorts of things in my head that I'm really not competent to draw yet. And I read a lot. I'm still considering it; probably a better idea to start and try to keep up with it for a year than to remember what I read in the last year.


I could relax it and use mixed formats. I just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, and that would be a nice abstract card with lots of CAPIT ALIZE DTEXT INGRO UPSOF FIVEL ETTER SXXXX.

I drew this Koi design and copied it to five cards with puff paint, then filled in with alcohol markers. A couple of these are traded away, some I still have.

Mateo's Quilt

Still don't have a card reader for the camera, and I haven't been very crafty in the last few weeks. So another older project...

This is a picture book themed quilt for my cousin Mateo, masterminded by my mother and aunt. We unveiled it at his baby shower. He's a disgustingly cute little boy, as you can see at their family blog.

The Lorax square, the first in the second row, is mine. The truffula trees are fleece applique'd on, and the trunks and the lorax are embroidered. The last square in the second row is an applique job by my mother based on "Everybody Poops." She also did the first square in the third row, based on an obscure and beautifully illustrated picture book, "Grandfather Twilight." It's a gorgeous applique. I'll try to find an individual picture of it, the details are really gorgeous. The middle square in the third row is my grandmother's rendition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The quilt was pieced by my mom and quilted by my aunt. You can't see in the picture, but the border has names of contributors embroidered into it.