The Dodge Honeybee comes up again..
Back in March, I posted about the camper we had when I was a kid. I remade the illustration into a little wall quilt as a Father's Day gift for my dad.
detail..
I forgot to measure but I think it's probably 14-16" on the long side. Lots of fusing, which I've only used a little bit before. Mostly fabrics and thread, some ink and a little bit of colored pencil. I managed to do this entire thing without making any major mistakes that had to be fixed! No melted tulle, no mis-fused bits. I'm so happy! Of course the back is a complete wreck but I'm not fussy about what sits against the wall. (The camper itself was drawn mostly from memory - I'm sure there are some pictures at my parents' house, but I didn't have any here, and googling only turned up two image results for the exterior, neither of which showed the front end.)
smoke monsters: sewing edition, #1
6x6", cotton thread/fabric/batting, and ink. The freemotion stitching is pretty stiff, but it should get better if I keep doing them
yet another Newsom bit
I was on the train back home from Philly, thinking about a big black spider hanging over a door, and sketched up an idea. It got a little serious later when I drew it on a watercolor block and broke out the ever so foul liquid frisket. This is still in progress - I'm going over everything with the Microns right now, and it's taking foreverrrrrr. The smoke monsters are showing up everywhere.
The spider is knitting.
I don't know how I feel about this overall, but I can't stop working on it so we'll see what happens.
GADGETS
Soooo my six-year-old PowerBook had a bad bit of hard drive failure in the middle of May. I wasn't super distraught, as it was no longer my primary computer, but I do enjoy couch internet quite a bit and was looking to replace it. I was also looking to replace the six-year-old click wheel iPod I'd gotten at the same time as the Powerbook.
This ended with me buying an iPad to replace both. Whoops. All the cases I've found are sold out, prototypes, or things I don't really like. Sewing machine to the rescue: I threw together a simple soft sleeve in a couple of hours, just to keep it from getting damaged in my bag until something better (with a stand!!) comes along.
This metric system fabric is my greatest thrift score of all time.
Fleecy fabric inside to prevent scratching.
tiny squares
The Micron 005 is my favorite pen in the whole world. Black is my most used, but I have all the colors. They go great with everything.
watercolor and ink
Joanna Newsom, “Sawdust & Diamonds”
I was busily pulling muted fabrics from my stash, ironing, and cutting them, listening to my randomized iTunes library. But there was a lightning bolt and I had to put it on paper, no matter what, so I shut off the iron and pulled out my watercolors.
I've always had the tendency toward subject focus - even when I was a little kid with a coloring book, I always colored in the animal and neglected the background. Quick sketches are still usually like this. Pay no attention to the curtain at all, let alone the man behind it.
The smoke monster had us trapped on the island
Toward the end of our honeymoon, the volcano at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland was spewing out its ash cloud that closed up European airports. The UK airports were closed on the 15th, and we were supposed to leave on the 17th. We were stuck. We stayed in Edinburgh for several more days, where Bill worked remotely from the hotel while I wandered the city and drew some more.
Eventually the airports were reopening, and we managed, at about 10pm on the 21st, to switch to a flight out of Heathrow at 6pm on the 22nd. That was a very long day of train rides and plane rides and car rides but after 24 hours of awakeness, Linus was able to lick Bill's beard and everything was right in the world.