Day 356 - 9 Days to Go

There are nine days left in Heather's 11 Minutes for 2011 Challenge.  Nine days of celebrating the joys of fiber related craft and skills.  Have I found it difficult? No, not really I was already pretty firmly addicted to the stuff.  My major challenge has always been documenting it.  I still need to get better about taking pictures of the process rather than just the product.  And I think that's more of an issue of me forcing myself to find some way to make the photos interesting.

Has my writing improved?  You'll have to tell me.  I know that technically I'm a fairly decent writer.  I can actually spell and generally punctuate a sentence correctly.  That doesn't mean that I'm necessarily interesting.  I'm a long time member of the short and sweet club, so I find it somewhat difficult to write volumes on a topic.  I don't talk that way but writing, oh yeah. 

Did I make my 11 today.  Oh yes.  I worked on the sweater yoke at lunch.  And have spent the evening MK a sleeve for the kimono and have started the cast on of it's mate.  Do I think I'll get the Christmas knitting finished in time?  I think it will be tight.  Mittens yes.  Sweater maybe.  Kimono, not assembled before Sunday but probably knit.  3 pieces done, 3 to go.  This employment thing this year has really thrown off my holiday rhythm.  Think about it, I basically have had December pretty wide open for the last several years.  This is a good thing, but I need to adapt.

I hope that your holiday prep is going well.

Comments on the blog.

Day 294 - Practice Makes Better

Over the years friends have asked me why my pictures of things seemed so much better than theirs.  I think that part of it is simply practice.  The more you do something the better you'll get.  Note: Digital makes this MUCH easier and cheaper too. The other thing is that I'm willing to keep at it until I get images that I like.  Take this series from this afternoon.

 This is a ginko tree in my parents front yard.  That's my car parked behind it.  The amazing color is what caught my eye.  But the background is cluttered.  There's my car.  The walnut tree and house across the street in the background.  The only thing this really shows is color.

 Now I've started closing in on the texture and color of the leaves.  But they are a bit back lit, so you don't see the colors as well.

 Now I'm starting to frame the shot to pull your eye through it.  The diagonal lines of the branches pull your eye around the photo.  What background you can see through the leaves is more diffused.

 Still back lit, and playing trying to unclutter the background.  The trunk doesn't do anything for this shot.

Still back lit, but all about the texture of the leaves.

 Trunk provides more visual appeal, but the background is distracting again.

 This tine I thought the contrast in colors of the leave and the grass with the diagonal of the trunk giving movement to the shot would be an improvement. Still back lit.

 This is more tightly framed.  Still has the trunk and it's shadow pulling your eye through the picture.  Still back lit.

 Pure color and texture, but the back lighting has it all in shadow.

 Texture, contrasting shadows and lines.  A bit of clutter in the lower left, but cropping it would also remove the lines.

 Good detail of the leaves.  Color is truer in with the sun behind my shoulder.  Tree trunk on the left is distracting and should be cropped in the final image.

 More tightly focused.

 Trunk and leaves no longer back lit.  A bit too close, not enough foreground for my taste, but the texture of the bark is now highlighted.

Better color with the sun behind me.  Using the trunk's shadow to create movement.









Are these perfect?  No, but they aren't bad, especially since I did them with a little point and shoot.  Like many skills they get better with practice. 

Work continues on my mystery project.  Shaping started last night and ripped out this evening because it wasn't right.  Made it a bit longer and started shaping again.  Much better this time.

One of those hard practice makes perfect things.

Sewing

Last weekend I finished a cushion for a bench seat for someone. In late June I had delivered three pillows for this same bench, while I went on to finish the cushion. I sent an invoice for everything with the cushion. Tuesday the client called, supposedly to question the bill, but it quickly became an attack on everything that I had made. It was ugly, it was too thin, the plaids didn't match, made her cry. Never-mind that she selected the fabric and neglected to provide enough to properly cut the cording or do any elaborate matching. The top and bottom had centered plaids, and the cording and sides were cut so that they were each one color and the strips were sew to carefully match the plaid within the cording or sides. There was insufficient fabric to match the sides to the top and bottom panels. And the thickness was exactly what we had originally discussed.

And oh by the way "I didn't receive any pillows." I pointed out that they had been delivered separately several months ago. I was told that I had never sent them. I followed up and my sister had put them in the car herself so the client was mistaken. Not that I wanted to call the woman a liar but the reality is that she called at least once a week until the pillows were completed. I didn't hear anything and concluded that she was happy with them. I didn't hear anything again for weeks until she called about the cushion. Then she called weekly about the cushion, no mention was made of the pillows. She ended the call saying that she would pay me what she owed me but that she was unhappy. (And to date I haven't seen a check.)

Unfortunately I am forced to conclude that this person wants something for nothing and was looking for any excuse to get out of paying the bill. Fortunately I don't sew to earn my living. Nor am I ever likely to do something like this for non-family ever again.

On a happier note, today was sunny and clear and after a week of wet and well below normal temps it was really nice. Blue skies, warm sun and I took advantage of it to clean out the tree beds and plant blue and yellow pansies. They look so cheery.