Making and Travelling

Studio Sundays are still in the mix, but we've also been busy enjoying summer. I started working on a new crochet blanket and I also figured out how to make our laminating machine work. No revolutionary projects from that yet, but I laminated an alphabet card, our "Boots" sign, and a pretend ID card to go in a play wallet.


Confetti Squares
There has also been some more summer holiday travel. We visited Germany for the first time and had lots of fun exploring Bonn and Cologne for a few days.


Along the waterfront in Cologne
Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Egg dyeing

Science!
A while ago, I experimented with dyeing eggs with natural dyes. I tried it at Easter with the brown eggs we had on hand, but it's much more fun with white eggs. These are my results ...


Eggs after initial dye
I used turmeric, purple cabbage with and without vinegar, and strained puree of greens. The vinegar mix resulted in the darker blue, but as you'll see below, it isn't very durable... it rubs off quite easily.


Eggs after rubbing and wash
I thought they were quite pretty, but I decided to experiment with some double-dyeing, so back into the jars they went.


Eggs after second dyeing
These were over-dyed with purple cabbage, nothing, purple cabbage, and turmeric. I re-dyed the non-vinegar egg to see how much darker it would get and left the rubbed vinegar egg as it was for comparison. You can see from the stripe that it did get noticeably darker, but nothing like the original vinegar egg. I prefer the more permanent dye and leaving it longer to get a darker result.

My favourite is absolutely the turmeric and purple cabbage egg. I love the speckled green with yellow stripe.


Striped double-dyed egg

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Finishing is Fun!

Fabric bunting
Today's Studio Sunday was deeply satisfying because I finished 3 things. Two of them had been in progress for awhile and one was completely new. I am especially pleased with the fabric bunting. Our living room is much more cheerful now.


Fabric bunting
I also made a bird garland out of an IKEA placemat for the Wee Lass's room. She was very excited when she saw it, exclaiming "Dida!" (her word for birds). I think it might be cuter if I hung them off of a twig instead of yarn, but this was what I had on hand. I might try some jute twine instead to see if that is nicer, while still being less fiddly than figuring out how to hang twigs securely from plaster walls.


Bird garland
And the item I made from scratch was an apron, also for the Wee Lass, out of an IKEA tea towel. We used it almost immediately as she helped make dinner (her job was helping rinse spinach and transferring it from the colander to the pot). Of course, at 16 months old, it's all still a game to her, and she was keen to then transfer the spinach back into the colander!


Wee Apron

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Sea Monster Portraiture

Sea Monster Portraits
Studio Sundays have been skipped lately due to a holiday to Canada. Before going, I made a bunch more sea monsters to give as presents. I've now made 8 in total and they have happily gone off to nibble on assorted babies around the world (several are in Canada, but there's also some in Amsterdam, New Zealand, and the U.K.). This past weekend I worked on my bunting again and finished all the flags, so when I get a smidge more sewing time, I hope to assemble it and have a ta-dah!

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Sea Monster Assembly Line

This weekend's Studio Sunday has been an assembly line of sea monsters.


Sea Monsters in progress
I have had a couple "you should sell those" comments but I get bored way too fast to make the same thing over and over. The fun for me is in making new things and figuring out ways to make something better. After that, it becomes mindless rather than creative. Four or five is about the maximum number of editions I seem to have fun making. Once these guys have eyes and mouths, I'll have made 8 in total and I think I'm stopping there. That said, I'm going to have a lot of fun sending these monsters off to their new homes.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Zippered pouch in progress

Owl zippered pouch
The results of today's time in my studio are a few more flags for my bunting and most of a zippered pouch. Also I did some boring repairs on pyjamas. This was my first go at a zippered pouch and my first go with the zipper foot on this sewing machine. It was much less of an ordeal than I'd been expecting. Why do all us amateur sewists have such an irrational fear of the zipper? I've only used them a couple times, but both instances have been pretty easy in the end.

I am following this advice for making a zip pouch with neat corners, so I still have some hand sewing to finish it off. This zipper end finishing bit is rather more fiddly than fun. I am tempted to make one the quickie way (just sewing all the way around in one go) and see how it turns out for comparison. If I do, I'll post side-by-side pics of the two pouches.

Today's other accomplishments include making and eating (with some help) a rhubarb-strawberry-apple cobbler. Yum!

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Studio Sunday

Today was my first "Studio Sunday", also known as "Daddy-Daughter Day". My two sweeties went out to the park and grocery store while I got to have some time on my own to create.


Beginnings of Bunting
I started a project that I've been thinking about since before the Wee Lass was born.... Some pretty bunting. I originally planned to put it in her room, but I think it may end up in the living room. One of the things we couldn't reasonably bring with us overseas was our art, and our plain white walls are looking especially bare since I took down the star garland after New Year's.

I still have several more flags to make before I assemble the bunting. It was a glorious couple hours playing with my fabric. The plan is to have Studio Sunday every other week, and I'm looking forward to that time especially reserved for creative pursuits. Laundry is to be strictly ignored!

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.