Eggs

Fineliner ink pen and watercolor on A5 Hahnemuhle Watercolor Book

This morning my brother and I had a conversation about the shelf life of eggs. He asked me what's the shelf life of eggs at room temperature. None of us knew. People who buy eggs in the supermarkets, like me, probably never noticed that eggs are always in the refrigerator, I assume it is considered standard here, but then he reminded me that in the supermarkets in Mexico you can actually find piles of eggs non refrigerated. It was true, I forgot! The thing is that if you goggle the shelf life of eggs, you'll find that the recommendation is, to store eggs at room temperature for a single digit number of days, and over a month if stored refrigerated. I probably ate non refrigerated eggs during my life in Mexico and never had any illness due to bad eggs! Lucky me. Anyway, this is the kind conversations we have sometimes in our family.

As simple as an egg shape is, so the approach to sketch it could be, however, it was very hard to resist the temptation to add more than two strokes of color! 

There, my eggs a la watercolor.

Slow is good.

Pen&Ink and Color pencils on sketch paper 8" x 11"

This is a sketch I did 2 years ago in ink but I colored it today. I noticed my color pencil drawings are becoming very detailed versus the watercolor I've done lately. I think it is the fact that the fine point of the pencil covers less surface area than a watercolor brush stroke. This makes me slow down, it makes me observe often in more detail and think about what areas need adjustments.  Although I have a fair selection of color pencils, I still blend or layer different colors, I still think like watercolor paint. Since I don't need to be in my studio to color drawing, I sit next to my husband in the coach and listen to him or the tv while I color the sketch. I enjoy the slow process, I enjoy it very much.

Pears

Sepia Ink and color pencil on A5 Leuchtturm1917

One of my dear friends sent me a gift by mail on Halloween. It was a beautiful box with pears from Oregon, Harry and David. Beautifully wrapped and packed, we tasted one per day, fully ripe, juicy and sweet. I hope this drawing makes pears look as good as they taste. Anything I want to remember makes it into my sketchbook, specially the gift of friendship. Thanks so much P. 

The tale of a flannel throw blanquet

Pen, ink and watercolor on Handbook 8" x 16"

This is my recent quilt project. A flannel throw blanket for dad fully designed by truely yours. 

I asked him if he would prefer a color and he asked for a beige or brown color. Well I couldn't do that fully, he doesn't know I threw few colors in there yet, ha!

I jumped into the unknown, a bigger quilt project which turned out to be more time consuming than I calculated, but I like challenges and changes that spices my hobbies. The sketch above shows the pile of squares. Cutting takes a looong time! This was the only sketch I did of the project, I did it as a break form all that fabric dizziness.

Next you will see photos.  

For the lack of a big table I worked on the floor. I laid the fabric squares and played with composition considering value as a did in my pillow project.

Here I secured the three layers of the quilt with safety pins.

I drew circles with watercolor pencil. I tasted it before, it washes away. Who knew this drawing tool would be useful for other than drawing on paper!

And then the fun begun, for the first time I tried hand quilting. Only thing is that flannel releases a lot of lint, which I think I was breathing in, ugh!

The back of the quilt isn't perfect, has some wrinkles here and there, well not really, they are all over, but they add the charm of a handmade product.

 It's cozy and warm.

Do you see how the watercolor pencil lines disappeared after the wash?

I was warned this 54" x 72" blanket would shrink 2" or 3". I was advised to wash the fabric first, but I didn't listen. The flannel shrunk 5" and 7" respectively! That's 10%! Funny fact. While making this I complained to my husband numerous times this blanket was too big! It shrunk to the size I liked it best! This mistake worked in my favor but I learned my lesson.

Now that the blanket is washed and smells nicely, I folded and stored it to bring it with me in my next visit to dad. 

Now I need to "unquilt" my head. This project was very satisfactory but I went beyond my limits. I should take a break before I do a new one. Now....back to sketching!