November WIPs: January finished; A mandala takes shape; Open Press Project
Welcome to WIP Roundup! Handicrafts are just as much about the process as the end result. The projects I work on can take anywhere from days to months to years before they are finished. In 2021, I’m writing a monthly series where I take a look at three WIPs or small projects I’ve finished in the past month and give a quick snapshot of how things are going.
This is the first month in quite awhile where I’ve felt like my handmades are starting to spiral out of control. I've started or planned too many new projects without finishing existing ones. Because of this, in the last half of the month, I made a concerted effort to make progress on existing projects. I’ll document some stalwarts — my Danish weather cross stitch and hexie EPP project — and chat about a new project that revisits an old technique.
Dansk Vejr Januar (Haandarbejdets Fremme)
First, I just want to highlight a new hashtag for this project — dansk vejr — since I will be making at least a few more designs from this series. Check out the tag for past progress.
I finally finished January! Pics of the front and back below.
Aren’t the clouds fantastic?! I also love the mountains and reflection in the water.
Hexie EPP becomes a mandala!
I worked my way through the entire Kaffe Fassett charm pack… and I apparently overestimated the number of squares. I ended up with 120 finished hexies, so there much have been only 30.
What to do now?! Set off in search of additional shapes, or course. Hexies make boring designs by themselves. (But I would love to be proved wrong!)
I found a few additional 1” shape templates as part of the Craftsy course English Paper Piecing: Beyond the Basics: a small triangle, 60 degree diamond, and a petal (a hexie with a triangle on one side). Playing with templates is fun! I like this set of shapes so far.
I also have some Kaffe Fassett fabric left over from a failed quilt project which seems like the perfect addition to this quilt. I'm using it to make the petal shapes and have finished 77 so far.
The current plan is to focus on radial symmetry and make a kind of mandala. Since I have a direction for this project, I made a hashtag: epp mandala.
Open Press Project: mini-printing press
And now for something completely different: a mini-printing press!
A friend on Instagram posted about the Open Press Project which has 3D printer plans for a mini-printing press. You can also purchase a press from them, and they currently have a kickstarter/print exchange.
Back in 2017 when I did my first 100 day project, I devoted the latter half to printing... first using simple blocks made out of foam sheets, then carving soft blocks into more recognizable shapes. Only the first quarter of my 100 day project is documented on my blog — The 100 Day Project 2017: Painting Tiny Canvases (Days 1-25). But you can see some of my printings on IG at #allyprint. I'll have to remedy that in the future!
I have a bunch of supplies from that effort that I'd love to use, and using a mini-printing press seems like a great push to get me started.
P has a 3D printer and I got him to print all the pieces... have not put them together yet because they require a little sanding. A project for next month!
