You can teach an old dog new tricks

I have 2 boys, ages 13 and 11 and they both like to play video games, surprising I know.  Well back in the day I did too! My favorite was a toss up between Centipede and Q*Bert... oh then there was Frogger and Jungle Hunt, oh the memories!  So I guess it will come as no surprise that I’m a casual gamer today. My boys and I have a lot of fun playing Roblox together and we’ve been playing Minecraft for about 7-8 years now.  Yes they were very young when they started playing video games.

I’m sure you’re wondering what video games has to do with crafting. Well, I have found a few apps that let me transform on pictures into watercolors or Monet-type paintings. And while this is fun, I want to be more creative. Enter the world of drawing apps! I NEVER thought I’d find this art form satisfying but guess what? I do!  My favorite one is called Sketchbook although I’ve downloaded Procreate because everyone says that’s the best one to get.  I can see why everyone says it’s good but it doesn’t have the one feature that I like about Sketchbook: the division aspect. Let me show you:
I start out like this:

It’s like a pie that has been divided into 10 sections.  I add color to one section and it mirrors it in the other 9 sections.  Then I use the smudge tool to start blending the colors and eventually I end up with something like this:

Then I add my curly-q’s in there and polish up the lines and end up with this:

Here is another one, start to finish:

 And I post one last one:

During this quarantine I haven’t stopped creating but quite the opposite, I’m teaching this old dog new tricks!

I have put a few of these designs on Spoonflower, the app that lets you create custom fabric, but I haven’t gotten the alignment right yet.

Since March 13,2020

March 13, 2020  Friday.  This is the day the world stopped, school had been cancelled for the next two weeks because of the corona virus (Covid-19) and no one knew what this meant.  No one knew what to do with themselves. I had just finished up my first week at my new job - a nanny for a 16 month old little boy.  At the end of this two week period the governor announced that the school systems in Virginia would be closed through the end of the academic school year (but they would still continue to do school work via the computer).  WHAT?!
 
My quilt guild meeting was supposed to be held Saturday, March 14,  where we were to enter our guild challenge quilt that I had been working on since November.  Actually I had finished mine in December but I was so excited to show everyone what I had done... and to post pictures here!

It has been 3 1/2 weeks now and I know this will go down in history AND I know I should be writing about it but I am still dumbfounded by it all.  For introverts like me I LOVE this time, I don't have to interact with people and I can sew all day.  But then I watch the news and it scares me, no it terrifies me! I worry about my parents in WI and really wished they didn't live that far away.  But I check on my mom daily to make sure they are wearing masks when going out... not that they should be going out except for groceries and medicines.

And if anyone is reading this years later, YES we had to wear masks in public.  There are a lot of tutorials on how to make masks with household items but when you are a quilter like me you have fabric for the entire world!  But it takes time.

My sister-in-law asked me if I could make a total of 19 for her and family and friends.  I was hesitant at first only because I had never made one and it made it seem that more real. But I did and I'm glad I did.  I dropped them in the mail yesterday and felt good that I had given 5 people a little hope for not contracting this disease.

Stay safe and stay at home everyone.  What they keep saying on the news is that we need to "flatten the curve."