New Journals

I have been working SO hard to get ahead on the items for my Etsy shop that I haven’t had time to do any “fun” artsy stuff for myself. I think tomorrow is the day I’ll “play”--oh, who am I kidding, it’s all play :-).
Here are a few of the journals I’ve created to put in the shop:

 


 
 


The last one is actually a sketchbook that my son and I collaborated on. I created the spray-painted background, and my son “graffiti-ed” the fabric.
Ok, back to work!

We Have a Winner

Ok, folks. I "drew" for the winner of The Quilt Show membership by randomly generating this number:

Then I counted down the comments until I got to #7, and Delores, you are the winner!!! Hurray Delores! I didn't see your email address on your blog, but if you'll send it to me at textiletraveler at gmail dot com I'll send you the gift certificate number for The Quilt Show membership. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine!

Oh, and here's a little sketch I did this week:

Now it's back to work for me!

Where Did The Week Go?

Wow. It has been a BUSY week, and one that has flown by much too quickly.

Only one sketch to show you, from Wednesday. Yesterday I was busy working on a wall quilt (finally! More about that below) and on my Silly Sketch for Carla Sonheim's "Silly the Third" sketch class (which I'll post at a later date).

On Wednesday, I decided that I would sketch my beloved pooch, Maxine (based on the Sketchbook Challenge prompt, "Highly Prized"). She doesn't usually look this angry, but she occasionally gets quite miffed, so it's a fair representation of her, I think:

My other project this week has been a Fast Friday Fabric Challenge piece. This month's challenge was all about "color fields," which was both fascinating and frustrating. Here's the piece I came up with:

I call this "Border Crossings." Take a look at the FFFC blog for more information about this piece or about color fields, or to see other challenge pieces.

I hope you'll take a minute to leave a comment, and I hope you had a great week!

Today's Sketch

Strawberries in winter, fresh from the Farmer's Market (one of the good things about living in Texas). I wish you could smell them!

New Year, New Resolve

Out with the old, right? I'm not sure what there is to "out," but I have some new resolutions for this year. My "word" for this year is HABIT. I want to make a habit of

1. creating art every day (I'm following the sketchbook challenge);
2. keeping a design book (I have one all ready to go!);
3. setting long-term goals and short-term tasks that will move me toward those goals;
4. keeping up with my blog, both so that I can stay in touch with my virtual communities and record my progress;
5. cleaning up after myself (I'm starting with a clean and organized studio: Yippee!).

I think that's enough to focus on at any one time, don't you? Last year I didn't make any New Year's resolutions, falling in with the "I don't believe in resolutions" crowd. And guess what? I spent an entire year unfocused, unproductive, and artistically flailing around. I substituted buying supplies for doing work. I became isolated. So I knew I had to do something differently this year.

You'll notice my list is not detailed. Typically, I write myself a letter every year on my birthday (Feb.) about what I want to accomplish, where I want to go, how I might get there (did I even write one to myself last year? I won't know until my birthday, when I open that special journal and remind myself about what I hoped--or neglected to hope--would happen in the coming year). I'll save the details for that letter, though I'll probably be pondering them in the back of my mind between now and then.

I see the list I've included here as a kind of touchstone that I can return to when I'm not sure what to do next.

Today's work is a sketch I did this morning; it's not good, but that's ok. I've resolved to do quick, daily (sometimes watercolored) sketches to start my day off right, and to focus on getting the work done, not getting it done perfectly or beating myself up because these are not great:

So what about you? Are you making resolutions this year? Setting goals? Making lists of things you want to do? Or are you ok winging it?