Today’s doodle

I haven’t been feeling very well for the past few days – not flu, but rather a nasty cold, I think.  In any event, I haven’t had the stamina or focus for my studio and I’ve been doodling a bit.  These doodles are in the form of Zentangles, though they resemble the One Pen, One Paper exercises I did a while back (see them here and here).  The format is smaller and more manageable and I’m using the principles of balance and composition as well as using creative designs to fill the space.

More snowflakes

The word for today is SNOW!   We had about an inch over night and it delivered a beautiful wonderland.  By the end of the day, most of the snow at lower elevations was gone but we still have about half of what originally fell.  And it’s chilly – only high’s in the 30″s.

My creation today is another snowflake.

So here it is, day 4, and what have I done?  Cleaned the studio up a little, dragged out UFO’s to decide whether I want to finish them at this time, sewed up a quick fabric postcard, crocheted a snowflake… all pretty lame things but I don’t think that’s the point.  The idea is to create, and create I did: a clean space to work, a fabric postcard, a snowflake that still needs stiffening.  Somehow I can’t seem to settle down to paint the feathers I found the other day – that’s what I wish I had done today.  Maybe tomorrow….

The top is all put together.  I laid it on the bed to take the photo, but it still needs batting and a back.  The goal was to get it ready for the long arm and I’m almost there.

Three more long seams to go and the top will be finished.

I took a walk into town this morning and we happened on this wonderful spider in the road.  It was about an inch across and bright orange.

A last little bit of color.

I’m not very consistent as far as getting into my studio every day.  It’s not that I don’t do something creative every day, but it isn’t as deliberate as I would like.    So I took the plunge and signed up for  Art Every Day Month, or AEDM for short.  The idea is to commit to do something creative every day for 30 days and post about it – in my case it will be here, in this space, on my blog.  The rules are pretty loose and I don’t plan on starting and finishing something each day.  But I’ll post whatever I’m working on.

Today I spent some time sewing the blocks together for Ellen’s quilt, a log cabin in the barn raising set.  I have all 8 strips of 10 blocks each sewn and pinned to my design wall.  This photo doesn’t show much but they are ready for putting together tomorrow.  You can see all the blocks laid out here.

As I left the studio at dusk, the moon was rising above the trees.  I went back for my camera to help me remember.

Last week a group of us went to Hartford CT for Stitches East 2009.  For the uninitiated, this is a premier event for fiber people, full of vendors selling yarn and other fibers and all the stuff you need to work with it.  It is a market style show, though they do offer several days of classes, some short workshops and lectures, and a fashion show.

We left early and arrived in plenty of time to find a parking place and buy tickets before the doors opened.  The booths were full of everything you can imagine.  I got permission to take a few photos of  knitting on the big sock.  Go here for more info on this effort at a world record.  It’s going to be BIG when it’s all done.  The big sock people were giving out cute little froggy buttons in exchange for putting in the allotted stitches.  I did my part.

Since I already have way too many knitting projects in the queue, I came home with very little yarn.  Instead I selected some embellishments:  beads, buttons, silk “ribbons” and a little skein of sumptuous silk something from the Habu folks.

On the way home, we took a little detour to visit Lucas’ animals – sheep, llama, and alpaca.  Lucas put out some hay and they all came running.  It was fun to see them up close and to be able to feel their incredible softness.  Cute, aren’t they?