A day of quilts and journals

Well I dusted off the old Bernina sewing machine today and met up with some of the Lovelies from work for a sewing day. As I was going through my stash of fabric I found some pieced blocks that I made .......about 10 years ago.......... I thought it was probably about time I finished this quilt. So with the help of my friend Karen's moggy I finally put it together.........now I will probably wait another 10 years to quilt it! sigh........yet another UFO!

I came home feeling especially creative so I attacked my art journal with gusto!  Here are the resulting pages.

My creative corner

I have set myself up a 'creative corner' in our house so that I can leave all my art stuff set up and it is ready when I get the urge to get all creative!

Previously it was my Roddy's corner, where he would sit and contemplate lots of things. He made the ultimate sacrifice and gave up his corner so I could have this quiet little space, where I can potter, paint, and play. I love it.....thank you Roddy, much appreciated. xx

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts

Another result of my spring clean up is that I hauled out all my old patchwork quilts that I made years ago....and of course all the UFO's (unfinished objects) that have been stored away for finishing.........one day.

Those Lovelies at work have decided to have a sewing day this week, so I am spending the day going through my fabric stash, dusting off the old Bernina and sharpening the rotary cutter.....oh no..has the quilting bug hit again???

Agatha

It is a beautiful spring day here in the Blue Mountains and  I guess I have been hit with a bit of 'spring cleaning' fever and have spent the day cleaning out my office-come-studio room (that's code for junk room!).

As I was sorting through the debris I found a folder full of sketches that I had done years ago. It was when I was going through my portrait phase and I did this sketch in graphite of Agatha Christie. I thought it was worth sharing as I remember it took me weeks to do it!

Let me know what you think.

Decisions, decisions

Lots of decisions going on at the moment - will I? won't I?, could I? would I?, can I? can't I, you get the gist! So what does one do when faced with lots of decisions? - you get out your art journal of course! I started fiddling with my journal the other night and came across this quote that just seemed to resonate at the moment. I think there will be a lot more thinking before any final decisions are made over the next few weeks.

Spring has Sprung!

We decided to take a walk to the bottom of Martin's Lookout in the Blue Mountains on the weekend, the weather was great and it was a clear morning. I decided to pack in my sketch pad, best make use of the time down there, the longer I spent sketching, the longer rest I could get!

It is quite a steep walk down, but of course doesn't seem as steep as the walk back up the hill. Here are some pics from our walk.

It really is good to get outside this time of year, spring has definitely sprung up the mountains and I took some snaps of our neighbours trees - beautiful, more fodder for sketching.

One for the girls!

I am working my way through the 21 secrets art journaling workshops and today I completed Jane Davenport's workshop....She is such an inspiration! Here is my journal page after taking Jane's course on drawing faces as part of the 21 secrets workshops.

This journal page is dedicated to the girlies at work who have been helping me out lately as I continue to work towards finding the balance and working through some stress. Thanks Chicks!!

Time to Zen out!

I needed to take some time for some stress relief today so my friend Karen and I decided to take in the sunshine and headed for the roof of our building to do some Zentangles. I am always amazed at the effect this has on the monkey chatter going on in my head! I find it an easy way to meditate. I think the concentration and the slow, precise movement of your pen on the paper, and the concentrated focus, helps to centre and calm the mind. I think I need to add doing Zentangles to my regular daily routine!

Daily sketching - Gumboots

Day 2 - well so far do good in trying to sketch daily. Here is a sketch I did of some old gumboots. I did this sketch from a photo - but I think it might be easier to sketch from real life - except my gumboots have purple owls on them and I think it would have been a bit trickier!

Daily Sketching

In my attempt at trying to be creative each day, here is a sketch I did from a photograph I took a little while ago of a peaceful place down the south coast of NSW. Its not one of my better sketches, but I did enjoy doing it and I need to remember its the journey of being creative that I need to pursue, not the end result! 

Keeping Fit?....I'm exhausted!

One of the other things I really like to do......sorry.......try and do is keep fit. So today was a beautiful spring morning, I decided to go for a run, (20 mins) which I did, then feeling extremely virtuous, I thought I would walk to the train station to catch a train to work (a 40 minute walk), then of course, the walk home from the station after work (another 40 minute walk)............I am exhausted!

I think I may have done my week's lot of exercise in one day! The problem is, that now I have done all this exercise, little rewards come sneaking into my head, like....."I can probably have a couple of glasses of red tonight", or, "maybe I can have dessert, seeing I did so well today."

I think I need to readjust my thinking a little, or else I just might cancel out all my good work........maybe just a small glass of red!

Pages from my Journey....I mean Journal!

Well here we go with a few journal pages I created recently. Journalling has become my saviour and a bit of an addiction lately. I have just joined up with 21 secrets workshops and am working my way through to help with the inspiration and creative ideas. Hope you enjoy these, I certainly enjoyed creating them.

Here we go!

This is the first post of my new blog. A blog I've thought about, and thought about, and thought about.......enough thinking! What is the blog about?....let's just see how it develops. 

There is always lots of things going on, and lots of things I love doing, surely there is something I can share that you will find interesting too! Check back often and join me in this discovery!