Change in Routine

I'm sure like many of you, I am always trying to find time for my creative outlet. Work, family, life, etc something is always getting in the way of creating.

Last week I read the line about "Squeeze out paint in the morning before your coffee is cold." in the Robert Genn Twice-Weekly Letter about Habits for success.

That line struck a nerve in me because I am a morning person. I'm usually at work between 2 and 3 a.m. and by 8p.m., my body starts to shut down. If I'm able to grab a "power nap", I'll hang out until 10p.m.. The idea intrigued me. Get my creative fix at the start of the day.

I decided to go for it. In an effort to become more productive, I have changed my schedule around so I start my day creating. Let's see how this experiment works for the next 30 days.

In time for spring

Today is the 2nd Sunday in March, and I'm looking at the daffodils blooming on the back deck, while listening to the weatherman tell me to get my shorts and flip flops because it going to be 70 degrees. Last week we had enough snow for the schools to close on Monday- go figure.

While the weather is nice, the boys (my son and grandson) will be working in the front transplanting those daffodils from the pot. The house exterior was painted recently, so I can focus on the lawn and flower beds.

It also means that I need to start transforming a batch of fabric scarves into bowls and plates. I'm still not sure if I am going to do any vending events over the summer, but if I do, I will need inventory. Looking thru the scarves, I already have visions of summer fruits and flowers.

Time to cultivate my garden.

Serendipity

In June, while in the middle of completing another work in progress, the realization hit me that I didn't know how I was going to quilt it. I didn't want to just do a stitch in ditch or the simple meandering. Not to allow this to an obstacle, I placed this problem on a back burner of my brain, as I made progress toward my goal of a completed top.

I am a novice to the world of long arm quilting, and know very little other than I want to get one, someday. A more immediate concern is to get a frame that I can use with my Brother 1500. But as part of my "someday" Long Arm research, I became a member of a Long Arm Yahoo group. Mainly I lurk, with an occasional click to a website to look at photos of newly posted work, or pick up an occasional tip that I can use with my domestic machine. However, as my quilt top problem fermented in my background memory, the was a post about someone named Nichole Webb was doing a workshop in GA.

To make a long story short, I signed up. What a fun day I had! Somehow when reading the class description, the only thing I remember was something about domestic sewing machine, which in my mind qualified me to sign up. I arrived to see a room full of Long Arms AND everyone assigned to a machine. Not a problem except for the fact that if you add up my rental time at a quilt shop (Jan 2005), the test drive at a quilt expo (March 2006), I have maybe 2 ours of sewing time on a long arm. To say I had a case of nerves would be a bit of an understatement.

Nichole is a fantastic teacher, who doesn't allow any one to say "I don't know how," and showed us all her "Beautimous Blocks". I worked through my dual learning curves of how to maneuver the long arm plus how to create feathers. I came home very pleased with myself & my newly acquired skill. The next morning, when I got up, I knew exactly what I was going to work on.



I wanted to make a postcard(s) donation to Fibers For A Cause (FFAC - see link on side for more information. I had two unfinished postcards that I could now finish. I am happy to say that I was able to "scale down" from the 10" blocks that I was doing on Friday to a postcard. I've attached photos of the 99% (I have got to add another bead or two more) finished cards before I send them to FFAC.

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Something Old, Something New

One of the things that appeals to me about quilting is the taking of something old and turning it into something new. I'm currently on a mission to finish the old works in progress to clean/organize my studio.

Some time back I had quilted some fabric to make 18" pillows for a family member. There was two 18" squares left over. One square I turned into a fabric bowl. That left this orphan square that has been bouncing around for the last two years, until two weeks ago.

I'm toying with a"concept" or maybe theme would be a better word to design a line of handbags. Well, one thing lead to another with result being that the 18" square became some small pyramid shaped coin purses. These might make some cute stocking stuffers.

Angel Play is the first step of a new direction that I am exploring. I've used a serger for years for garment sewing. I've been playiing with using it for "creating" yarn from sewing thread. Here I serged a chain made from metallic and rayon emboidery thread. I then crocheted my thread yarn to make my angel. The angel was appliqued to the raw edge appliqued background.

Happy Groundhog Day ?

I had one eye on Good Morning America this morning, while getting dressed & had to smile when the groundhog had his annual dose of 15 minutes of fame. I didn't catch what the prediction was. I live in Atlanta, GA, where there really hadn't had much of a winter, so I 'm not concerned about when the season would end. However, the groundhog was a sign that I need to start working on my spring wearable art stuff.

I learned to crochet while in high school during the 70's, and made my share of long vests, skirts & bags. I traded in the yarn for fabric when I learned to sew over the summer of '74 . I periodically dabbled, (ie a quick scarf or sweater) when my daughter was young until she was 9 or 10. I remember teaching her in either junior high(I think). I never learned to knit - I tried to learn from the same girl friend that taught me to crochet, but somehow I never got it. Now after discovering these wonderful new yarns, the shows on DYI & HGTV, I have picked up a crochet hook again to experiment in freeform. When I learned what freeform crochet was it was a moment of epiphany. I've always been challenged when it comes to following directions, so I know there have been some freeform projects in my past. At the time, there was no name for the process.

I have noticed that a lot of attention has been given to the knitters, while crocheters seem to be treated like the proverbial stepchild. I am willing to try again to learn how to knit, but don't have resources to pay for a class, or video. That's why this magazine called Easy Knit & Crochet Ideas, caught my eye earlier this week. I like what I see in the premiere issue of the Woman's Day publication. (I had a moment of sticker shock about the $4.50 price - I remember when I could a paperback novel for that price.) It has "how to" articles for both knit & crochet, quick one day projects and a bunch of patterns! I would suggest this magazine to anyone who wants to learn or take a refresher! I'm off to Wal-Mart to buy some knitting needles & maybe some yarn for those spring projects.