Show and Tell

I was uploading some photos from the camera and realized that there are a few things I've done over the past few months that I haven't shared here. And since I'm a little bit proud of my efforts, you'll all just have to put up with my little show and tell exercise here.

First up is the portrait I did of my sister Julia and her dog Pirate. This was done for a Prismacolor drawing class I took last fall from Rice University's Glasscock School of Continuing Education. It's been decades literally since I drew like this. As in since I graduated from UT. So, I wasn't sure if I could draw anymore. I am extremely grateful to Kathryn Klauber, the instructor, for showing me that I could indeed still draw. And I intend to keep on drawing.

Next is the baby blanket I wove for my first grandchild, Luci. Luci arrived on April 5 and I will be talking about her a bit more in future posts (consider this your official warning that I will be gushing about her).  This blanket was my first project on my restored loom and I loved making it.

Finally, we've been working quite a bit on our yard, planting lots and lots of flowers. Among which are these lovely little geraniums which are creating a very nice ombre effect when they are in bloom.

 

Aren't they pretty?

In between these projects, I also taught my daughter-in-law to sew and helped her make items for Luci's nursery, completely redid my daughter Sara's room, which involved a lot of paint and some sewing, and did a few other things.

Currently I'm winding a warp that I hope will result in three shawls, the beginning of my inventory for an Etsy shop! I'll post photos of that project in process on the loom once I get that far.

Progress Report

The good news is that the major construction work on the studio is done. The last building project was a stand for my table loom. I had been keeping this loom on my childrens' old play table. It was a less than satisfactory solution, but I just couldn't figure out what I wanted for a stand. I'm glad I waited until we did the studio, because once I got the closet done, I decided I needed a simple stand that would be on castors and enable me to store this loom in the closet. So, I built it one night about a week or so ago. I used the same type of wood and construction techniques as we used on the worktable. I still need to sand and paint it, then we can put the castors on and it will be done.

Here's the loom on the stand in position in the closet. I like that I'll be able to put a storage container under the loom and still roll it out easily when I want to work on it. This shot also shows the pegboard wall we put in the closet to hide the box for the built-in shelving.

This is the finished worktable and the metal draftsman's chair I bought in Warrenton. I do plan on making a cushion for the stool.

The worktable from the shelving side. These are going to come in very handy for in-progress projects.

The chair and table were the idea of my neighbor Sally, who came over to check out progress on the room one night and said, "You know what you need in here? A comfy chair that someone could sit in to knit while other people are working." I found the little table first when I was at Warrenton, and couldn't resist it. After all, the knitter in question will need somewhere to put her wine glass. And it will also do double duty as a night stand when we have to use the room as a guest room. The chair was also bought at Warrenton. I saw it on my first trip, but didn't even ask how much it was. Then I couldn't get it out of my mind. So, a week later, when I was on my way back from Austin with my daughter, we stopped and went looking for the booth where I had seen 'the chair.' Luckily it was stil there and I was able to make a great deal for it. It's extremely comfortable and I love it. The picture above the shelves was another Warrenton purchase.

Another view of the chair and table. The items leaning against the wall are parts from the floor loom, which will go in that space.

I have a lot of small jobs left to do in the studio, plus I haven't even started on restoring the floor loom yet, but we've been taking advantage of some nice weather to take care of another project I dreamed up outside. For many years now, we've had a large assortment of plants in pots lining the iron fence between the house and garage. But while this did occasionally look nice, most of the time that area was a mess and a pain to clean up thanks to the two large oak trees in our back yard. And since this area get some of the best light in our yard, we need it for some of the plants we like to grow. Like tomatoes and peppers. But we've had less than stellar success growing them in pots. So, we decided to build two large planters on either side of the gate.

These are the planters after we finished construction. We used 6"x2"x8' or 10' cedar boards. It was a little tricky to make them fit as we had to build trapezoidal shapes to fit snugly into the two spaces. The finished units are each 18" deep. We stacked the layers on top of each other and fastened them together with metal strips inside the units. We then lined them with weed cloth and filled them with a mixture of old leaves (they'll compost in the units), top soil and garden soil. Then today, we planted them.

Here are the finished units. I love the way they look and the extra space I have for plants. I have a mixture of vegetables, herbs, and flowers in them. We still need to finish installing an irrigation system which will work on a battery-operated timer. Hopefully we'll be able to get that done tomorrow.

Not bad for a week's work. The rest of the backyard will take a little longer. We lost quite a lot to the cold weather we had this year. I'm currently trying to figure out what I want to go along the house where we had some huge hibiscus bushes. I can't say that I will miss the hibiscus as they had gotten out of control. But I am not looking forward to digging their remains up. Whatever goes in that bed will definitely be smaller. For now though, it's time for bed. There's still a lot of things left to be done this weekend.