Design Group - Into the Room Excercise

My weekly design group had their first meeting of 2010 on Tuesday.

This group is an important place for each of us, and possibly for very different reasons. My schedule is usually so busy that I use this special weekly opportunity to fill a two-fold need. First off is just time to play, and as an artist nothing usually makes me happier than to jump in, get my hands dirty and try something new. The second reason I love these sessions as they are, in most cases, totally different than what I am personally doing in my own studio. That being said, the group can always be convince to have a play day that may help you get that something special done.

The one thing that we had discovered early on is that we all enjoyed and needed a little exercise to help break away from 'what been going on' and really be 'in the room'. I highly recommend this to anyone who just needs to get things going...

We start with a basket filled with paper slips that each of has contributed.

STEP #1 On these we have written a word or phrase. One person picks on... the timer is set for 5 minutes... and we're off:

STEP #2 Off in this case means that we have to come up with our own thing relating to the topic, select and cut felt pieces to represent our idea.

When the buzzer rings we then glue all our pieces in place.

Sometimes we chat about these, but more often than not, we just enjoy the process.

We do 3 or 4 of these before heading into the project for the day, and sometimes what came up in our quickie exercises may find it's way into the project itself.

Today we used three slips.
The words were:
sky's the limit; five; departing

The wall shown here shows all of little works.

We finished up the 'into the room' time with a pencil & paper redo of one of the words (artist's choice). I chose five, and the last picture here is my quickie sketch of five...

Then it was onto the project...

Surrise Inspiration

Thanks to Val for sending me photos of the sun rising from her back porch. It re-inspired my own morning walks... this morning saw a rosy-winter morning that quickly turned ORANGE, with a capital O. Great start to the day. Hope you enjoy Val's photos.

Inspiring Winter Walk

Below is a slideshow of the walk, in my neighborhood... Signal Hill, CA
It's always amazing how each time there is something else found while taking in the views, and not just the ones framed by the hilltop sculpture found there.

I'd love to see pictures or hear about your own favorite place - close to home.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Inspiration - Close to Home

At the start of the new year I always look back over what has been and begin to sort things out. It may have been places visited, conversations, photos seen or taken, words from some highly respected person from the past, or the wisdom passed on anonymously. From the sorting I find all sorts of inspiring 'stuff'. I also love to hear where people turn to for inspiration, and not just for their art... but for life.

As part of this years sorting I began thinking about all the places that the many people I have been chatting with, live. While on Twitter just last week I met someone from another Signal Hill... one on the other side of the continent. I'm sure there are tons of them out there, but it was full to Google map that other Signal Hill to see a bit of the lay of that other place.

With this in the back of my mind I went looking a bit closer at my own hill. When I look for inspiration close to home I walk to the top of the hill. It has a park there with views that go on forever. I'm going to share my SH over the next few days, but I'd love to hear about that close to home place where you go to renew your batteries, maybe gain perspective and be open... INSPIRING?

New Year - New Decade Greetings

Happy 2010!
Boy this year is already gearing up to be pretty exciting, and I'm really grateful to be living during times where I am able to share my personal artistic journey with through these fun, on-line tools.

Blogs, Facebook Fan pages, Twitter have opened up the lines of communications where we get to chat back & forth easily with so many new & old friends.
Even my faithful website this year gets additional help from my new Etsy Store. Most importantly I'm looking forward to hearing from many of you as you share your journey as well. Click-and join in the fun!

Had to RE:Share the amazing quote from ~Lao Tzu that I found last year. It continues to say it all for me:

"Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream."

So, as we go forward on this adventure together I wish for you an abundance of optimism and solutions to water and nuture your dreams.
Happy Stitchin'
~Rose

New Year - New Quilt

This is a lovely day -- New Year's Eve 2009 and I'm off to deliver the last quilt of the year.
The piece here was created as part of a special invitational traveling exhibit art quilt artists. The Noble Seasons: Summer exhibit will first be seen over the weekend of January 14 at Road to California....

but, more importantly it is completed and I am ready to celebrate the arrival of 2010. Here's a picture of the final piece.

Happy New Year Everyone!
~Rose

Birch Tree Art Quilt in Progress

Good morning all-
As the days move quickly towards the new year I am carving away minutes and hours to work on my last quilt art piece of the year. In my earlier post I showed the birch tree fabric being painted. Here I have taken a photo of the basic elements in place... and over the next two days I'll be embellishing the quilt. Delivery of the piece is to take place on New Year's Eve, so look for the final version very soon.

Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season as much as I am. Family, friends, fun times and A QUILT to finish!

~Rose