Various and Sundry (aka Clean Up Time)

I realized this morning that I had about twelve browser tabs open, many with sites that I wanted to share. This is a post that is all about cleaning up my desktop.

Jen made a comment on my blog that got me to thinking about a problem I was struggling with. Her profile led me to her blog, A Quilting Jewel, which I mentioned in a previous blog post. Jen quilts with her aunt and she is very prolific. I like the way she shows her work in process.

Notebookism is a blog about notebooks and journals. I write every day and go through several journals a year with just writing and a couple of others with notes and drawings for quilts. I was led to this site somehow after looking at the Myndology website. They have some interesting finds in the journal department and they don’t seem to post much.

Michael Nobbs, a Welsh artist, started following my Twitter stream. I always wonder why people follow my Twitter stream because I don’t say very much on it. I certainly don’t say anything very relevant. Perhaps that is the whole point? Anyway, I went and looked at his stream and found some interesting sketches that he is doing and others to which he links, like Seattle Sketcher, which I mentioned he other day. As a result I decided to follow his Twitter stream as well. I think the Creative Mom podcast, as well as my thoughts on a Daily Art Practice, are turning my mind towards sketching. Don’t worry! I am not abandoning quiltmaking. Quite the contrary; I think that viewing sketching sites can inform my quiltmaking. When he received the notice that I was following him, he sent me a message thanking me and a link to his website. On the main page he has a drawing of a teapot, which immediately attracted my attention. There is also a link to his blog.

Matt Sparrow has some interesting quilts and information about thread listed on his blog. I like the batik star he posted. He said the pattern is called Enchanted Star. It looks like an Ohio Star with some 4 patches thrown in.

The Fresh and Modern Quilt Pool at Flickr is really inspiring. Not only are many of the quilts interesting, but the photography is inspired as well. I found this pool by working my through the Denyse Schmidt pool, also on Flickr. Some of the quilts are in both pools. There are lots of simple patterns and the use of fabric is really good. I particularly like the way people have used the large scale prints. One nice thing about Flickr is you can blog straight from the image (if you have set that up) and it makes a very nice layout on your blog. You can see an example in the New Star Block from Flickr post.

As I may have mentioned, the Creative Mom podcast has a bunch of associated sites including the CMP Circle Flickr Pool where members and listeners post their various projects.

Finally, Deirdre pointed me to the Quilt Show blog. I am a little annoyed at the Quilt Show,because of the way it has changed Alex Anderson’s podcast. I liked the way she interviewed people in the past. Now she just goes on and on about the Quilt Show. I am sure it is a great, but I don’t watch it, because I don’t have time and I don’t want to pay for something I don’t have time to take advantage of. I know things change. Blah. Blah. Blah. Anyway, the blog, even though it has a lot of ads, has a lot of nice quilts pictured. There are a variety of different topics also: block of the month, process of fabric design, guests on the show, etc. It’s worth a look.

Enjoy this surf around the web.

The Saddest Day of the Year


I have always felt that February 1 is one of the saddest days of the year. It is not because of the loss of a family member or big disaster or even a personal disappointment. The reason is that January is over.

Yes, January is smack in the middle of winter. Yes, January is often bitterly cold, rain soaked and covered in ice. Still, I love January. Not only is my birthday in January (how could I not like that??), but January holds lots of hope and promise for the coming year.

Then we get to February. February is still cold, bitterly cold and, hopefully, rain soaked, but the bloom is off the rose a bit in terms of the New Year. People have stopped going to the gym, started eating cookies and aren’t calling their mothers every week as they resolved.

So, what to do? I am posting a pic that I hope is inspirational to you. I saw those chairs on the retreat and just had to photograph them. After I cropped them, I wondered if I should use them as a banner. They have nothing to do with quiltmaking,but are very cheerful.

I am also making some changes to the blog, which I will describe in another Housekeeping post. Mainly, I am going to try to get back to posting more relevant quilt information more often.

Word of the Day Housekeeping

No, the Word of the Day is not Housekeeping. 😉

I decided to contemplate a Word of the Day back in October 2008 when I was starting to hear rumblings about New Year’s Resolutions. Actually, I had wanted to work through 365 Tao since last year or the year before as a personal exercise. As January 1 approached I thought it would be great to weave the words into quiltmaking and share them with you.

Sadly, it hasn’t been great. I thought I would easily be able to digest it for myself and then post it here for you, but the posting of the word felt like a chore and taken some of the joy out of writing to you, so….

I won’t be posting the Word of the Day anymore on a regular basis. It has also taken over the blog a bit and taken me away from what I want to talk about, which is quiltmaking.

I will post a Word of the Day when a particularly relevant one comes along. As usual, your comments are welcome.

Journals for Today

I am now following an artist called Michael Nobbs on Twitter (he followed me first!). On his site, he has an ad for journals called Myndology. I liked hte colors so I clicked on the ad and then watched the video. These journals are so cool, because you can rearrange the pages and add pages from different sized journals. Not only that, but the colors are tempting I have the feeling that I have to try one! Just call me magpie!

clipped from www.myndology.com
journal
note
  blog it