Busy just before it gets busier

We’re at an awkward place. Right before all the excitement, just before the big rush of important tasks…the place where you can see the work that needs to be done but can’t do very much of it just yet. The nerve-wracking time. I’ve been coping by tackling a whole lot of creative work. Some of it are projects that I have planned for Germany, so they help me feel like I’m contributing to the forward motion. Others take care of prior commitments. Still others are just plain impulsive.

There is the project that really needed doing before we left:

Inspired by the OAmyOAmy pen pouches, I realized I was annoyed by always having to think about what supplies to take and then scrounging them up as I head out the door each time.  And I really, really want to make my life, particularly my artistic life, as easy as possible in Europe.  So I sewed up a lined bag, using a great tutorial on sewing zippered bags from twelve22.   I didn’t add the nifty elastic that Amy does, and I didn’t make it quite tall enough to fit my brush tube (oops), but it is still great.  I had no plan for the embellishments, and so the flower stem is leaning and the French knots on top are a bit pointless, and yet, it is mine and I made it.  That means a lot.

It fits a surprising amount: my Winsor & Newton Travel set, my pencil, eraser, marker, stencils, glue stick, empty slide mount (for composing pictures), a few blank ATCs, an empty film canister (for tiny watercolour needs…works really well).  There’s still room, hopefully enough for my watercolour pencils if I feel like taking them.  What I still need to find is a larger container for water for plein air painting.  But for now I’ll keep on using whatever plastic container is on hand.

This was my first time trying a zipper, and I made some mistakes.  I still have a mini-skirt I want to sew for wearing in Germany, and this was supposed to be a bit of a zipper trial. Trial was right. I think I need to read more in my machine’s manual (to be sure I had the right foot) and online for zipper tips.

Impulsive project:

Turning Tias’ drawing into a shirt using freezer paper stencils.  I said these were addictive, didn’t I? It was important to me that I choose one of his to do first, since Sandra gets so much validation for her artwork. I don’t know if he’s noticed that aspect of it, but it’s about the cumulative weight of the messages we send, right? As for me, I absolutely adore walking around with this shirt on…it’s energy and wackiness make me happy.  Roar. Rar.  Grrr.

Clearing up prior commitments:

ATCs for the Project Spectrum swap at Swap-bot. These are my first non-paper ATCs, and I had a moment of panic when I contemplated finishing them. I hadn’t left much room around them on the cloth and I worried that I wasn’t going to have enough to make sewing on a backing possible. I squeaked through, and am a wiser woman now.

I also completed some knitting.  I know, I know.  I’ll blog those tomorrow and go work to furiously pricing items for the garage sale.  Big projects still to do before we leave: garage sale, family reunion, sew skirt, run 10k race.  Then there’s all that packing and cleaning stuff…Like I said, I’d better go work. Less than 3 weeks.