A new year calls for a new pattern. And a mockup. To be fair, I actually did make sea salt chocolate chip cookies last weekend, but they didn’t last long enough for a photoshoot…
A mossy pattern and a fairy maid. The above-average-temperatures have me prematurely thinking spring. And while that’s a ways off yet, the longer days and the brighter mornings are very much welcome.
Assorted Things:
I just finished watching the first season of Astrid et Raphaëlle and it’s absolutely charming (streaming stateside on Amazon and airing on PBS affiliates).
If you’re local to seacoast New Hampshire, Two Bees Café is splendid. I popped in for a carrot cake and a coffee this week. Days later, I’m still obsessing over the wallpaper.
Wildcat, a new Flannery O’Connor biopic is in the works.
This London-loving sweater pattern went straight into my Ravelry queue.
Rosa Rugosa
A new pattern I’ve been working on, inspired by beach roses. At my first job out of school, I used to park in the free spots and walk the half mile to the office. Summer mornings, a stretch of the road would be lined with beach roses. If it was low tide, this helped improve the walk exponentially (the smell of the tide going out on a hot day isn’t for the faint of heart).
I worked in a windowless office and usually spent summers bundled up in sweaters, fighting a losing battle against the air-conditioning. But those roses always signified summer, even if indoors it felt like January.
And maybe that’s why I have a soft spot for Rosa Rugosa, even now.
Marchness
March, in a nutshell:
I sewed the Tova dress from Wiksten, using a print from my Cozy Up fabric line. This was my third time sewing this dress - it’s a great everyday garment and a thorough, well-written pattern. The shawl is this free pattern on Ravelry.com and the book matched it all (and let’s be honest, is hiding a less-than-stellar bang trim).
I gave up donuts for Lent (womp, womp). But, St. Joseph’s Day was Saturday, which meant a break for zeppole, so off to Enzo Benzo donuts. If you’re in southern Maine or seacoast New Hampshire, run, don’t walk in the direction of these delights.
This Flannery O’Connor documentary is stupendous - I saw it last year and just noticed it’s popped up for viewing on Amazon. This one’s worth it alone for the illustrated A Good Man is Hard to Find segment.
I’m going full-tilt on sketches for a new installment in the Anne of Green Gables series and finishing endpapers for Mouseboat at the moment. And I’m giving myself a deadline of June to hammer out a picture book dummy outline. Send coffee. And donuts, but after Easter.
Things Being Painted
A new pattern I’ve been working on, inspired by traditional Polish paper cutting, Wycinanki.
And some news about a new picture book (scroll way, way down for the announcement). I’m painting the cover for this one at the moment, the last bit of art I have left to do. Larissa Theule’s manuscript moved me to tears on the very first read through and it feels bittersweet to be finishing this book, a story that I have loved so much.
Verity Jane
Something I’ve been working on for the latest Spoonflower design challenge. I’ve needed a bit of a kick in the pants to get back into pattern making and these prompts help nicely.
Twenty Twenty Two
New Year, new pattern. And once I finished this, I couldn’t resist doing a mockup. All of the pattern elements are parts of this clipart collection.
So 2021. Was. A. Year:
I finished final artwork for Anne’s Tragical Tea Party, had a few weeks off during the summer to spend with family, then jumped into final art for a 2023 picture book that I’m just about ready to turn in. I did some editorial work, designed neckties, got back into block printing and did a handful of virtual events. I dragged out the manuscript that’s sat on my laptop for eons and slowly started adding pages throughout the year (bargaining with myself that I could go out for coffee weekly, but only if I’d write). And Itzhak being selected as a Schneider Family Book Award honor book was a delight.
I wasn’t particularly adventurous when it came to books, music or movies, rather wanting to just curl up under the comfort of something familiar. I rewatched The Detectorists, which left me listening to large quantities of Johnny Flynn. New episodes of Death in Ice Valley were very much enjoyed. And I time travelled to the 90’s and returned to reading John Bellairs and C.S Lewis.
But enough about 2021. 2022?
I’m turning in the aforementioned 2023 book, then have a bit of space before starting sketches for another installment in the Anne of Green Gables series. I have a goal of expanding prints in my shop, provided that I can strike a balance with work. I’m planning to create an online sketchbook workshop. And I’ve started working through Stephen Bauman’s drawing lessons on Patreon.
I’m already daydreaming about my vegetable garden, I’ve got loads of books on my to read list and just bought the yarn to knit Caitlin Hunter’s Ghost Horses sweater. And maybe, just maybe, if the year ahead cooperates, I’d like to host an honest to goodness in person party. The further along in life I get, the more I realize that while I can “plan” the year ahead, it will invariably take whatever meandering, unexpected paths it wants to. But I love the line from Douglas Adams’s Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul where detective Dirk Gently remarks, “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
I should probably tattoo that on my arm.
Happy New Year!