At the beginning of the year, as I thought on some goals for myself, I remembered some different ideas I had the previous year. Craft day with friends for my daughter (or myself). Different things I had bought to try and hadn't yet. And I read this post by Cheryl Arkison about how she was going to stretch her skills with her Morning Makes this year. So I decided to challenge myself to try something different each month, well, because it's fun and apparently I have a stockpile of these projects stashed around my house. Unlike some of the other goals for the year, I have kept this one more improv, rather than a set list to accomplish throughout the year. Now that I have a bit more time at home, I've realized I could blog about those each month too.
In January I tried a Sketchbook Stories online class by Alisa Burke. I'm guessing she had advertised a sale, and it was a class that looked like one that would be perfect for how I like to draw, and would give me ideas on WHAT to draw--the most difficult part of the process sometimes. It also looked like something that could be done in little bits of time throughout a day or week, both the class and the sketches. My daughter also watches her classes with me, and I knew with her recent interest in sketchbook drawing it would be perfect for her too.
My February challenge was to draw one quilt sketch a day. February is our shortest month and it seemed doable. I have done this in the past and loved having that ready set of ideas in my quilt notebook. This was the inspiration I needed to do that again. Some were sketched in the little notebook I keep in my purse while waiting at the school to pick up my daughter, or while sitting in church, and maybe two at a time if I had missed a day. Then all were then copied into my quilt notebook.
In March I moved on to embroidery. Last year I had purchased a kit at Quiltcon and hadn't even started it. I also had been slowly working on another piece, but hoped to finish at least one of these projects. And I did.
I am making progress on the other one too, and enjoy sitting on our back deck in the afternoon on a warm day, doing a little bit at a time.
This month, after I get started on my next quilt, I plan to move on to printmaking. One of our local art studios had more of their printmaking kits ready to sale a week or two ago, just trying to do something to keep making a little bit of money since they cannot do their on site classes right now. I had seen them in the past and decided to just go for it. I have some of these tools already, which will make it easy for me to do this with my kids too.
In January I tried a Sketchbook Stories online class by Alisa Burke. I'm guessing she had advertised a sale, and it was a class that looked like one that would be perfect for how I like to draw, and would give me ideas on WHAT to draw--the most difficult part of the process sometimes. It also looked like something that could be done in little bits of time throughout a day or week, both the class and the sketches. My daughter also watches her classes with me, and I knew with her recent interest in sketchbook drawing it would be perfect for her too.
My February challenge was to draw one quilt sketch a day. February is our shortest month and it seemed doable. I have done this in the past and loved having that ready set of ideas in my quilt notebook. This was the inspiration I needed to do that again. Some were sketched in the little notebook I keep in my purse while waiting at the school to pick up my daughter, or while sitting in church, and maybe two at a time if I had missed a day. Then all were then copied into my quilt notebook.
In March I moved on to embroidery. Last year I had purchased a kit at Quiltcon and hadn't even started it. I also had been slowly working on another piece, but hoped to finish at least one of these projects. And I did.
I am making progress on the other one too, and enjoy sitting on our back deck in the afternoon on a warm day, doing a little bit at a time.
This month, after I get started on my next quilt, I plan to move on to printmaking. One of our local art studios had more of their printmaking kits ready to sale a week or two ago, just trying to do something to keep making a little bit of money since they cannot do their on site classes right now. I had seen them in the past and decided to just go for it. I have some of these tools already, which will make it easy for me to do this with my kids too.
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