Made in 2023 Q1

I got married (twice!) this quarter, so I didn’t have much time for analog making other than 1) designing wedding materials and 2) keeping up my journaling habit. I did get in some small projects here and there!

Journal cover

I sewed a journal cover for my Hobonichi A5 Day-Free! I had intended for this to go inside a plastic cover, but it didn’t quiiiite fit, so I put Velcro dots under the flaps. If I were going to make this again (without the plastic cover), I’d sew the flaps down. I am not quite sure who makes this fabric; it’s a quilting cotton I bought in Tokyo years ago.

I’ve really been enjoying my journal with this nice cover on top. Sometimes if I’m writing on pages near the front of the book, I’ll un-Velcro the cover so that things are a little flatter. I also picked up an elastic band to keep the journal shut.

Bookmarks

For our the U.S. wedding I made fabric bookmarks for the people in my bridal party. They’re a solid forest green quilting cotton, and go along with a hand-selected book for each person.

I used this pattern, but I can never seem to get the fourth edge as crisp as the pattern author.

Seedbed scarf

In December I finished actually knitting the Seedbed Scarf for my now-husband, and it took me until end of March to weave the ends in. 🙈 I feel bad that it’s ready just in time for it to get warmer soon, but at least he’ll be able to wear it for chilly weather in years to come.

The yarn is YOTH’s Father worsted-weight yarn, and it looks like Concord Grape was probably the color I used, though it’s a navy blue. 🤔

Sketchbooking—it’s grrrreat!

Didn’t do much sketchbooking at all the past 3 months, though I did draw little spot illustrations in my daily-ish journal. In the last week of March I was finally able to make it to a monthly craft night I hadn’t been to in the past couple months. At the time I was between fiber crafts, so I decided to just play around with my fancy crayons (Neocolor IIs):

I wanted to draw a vintage teapot and stumbled upon the BEST one: a teapot themed after Tony the Tiger, an American cereal mascot. From there I just filled in a bunch of geometric shapes in a gridded layout. I work right to left in my sketchbook because I’m left-handed and it reduces smudging. Can you believe I have a BFA and no one ever told me that might be a good idea?

In any case, whenever I go to this craft night, I’m always floored by how much more fun it is to make things in the company of others. I generally identify as an introvert, but there’s a social aspect to making that can’t be beat. It also helps my sense of safety in socializing that the craft night I go to still requires proof of COVID vaccination and mask-wearing.

More making stuff in Q2!

Now that all the marrying is done and our main obligations at the moment are to enjoy the life we’ve built together, I’m looking forward to a spring spent making things, tending to our plants, and starting a vegetable garden.