Useful Shit Book

Everyone needs one. Scaps of paper,  leaflets,  ideas, information you want to keep,  plans, projects,  everything goes into this book!

You can colour code it

You can write information

No longer have scraps of paper lying around

Mindmaps, ideas anything that is floating around in your head, gets put in here to free up your mind to get on with things

Design ideas, templates etc

I have found that I no longer have scraps of paper lying around,  I don't throw out or loose information,  and once I get it out of my mind I can focus on other things,  and not worry about forgetting it 

It really has given me space to create,  explore, grow and remember. 

Heading down the right Path

Last year was 'Focus', I focused on downsizing, re-organising and deciding what was important to me as a Creative Person.


This year it has been 'Metanoia' meaning growth and change.


I have been focusing on my 'Dreamin' Of Lace' page on FB and on using what I have made in my Textile Arts, Crazy Quilting, Embellishing etc


I have been asked to make Diary Wraps and Book Wraps to sell, and I have been designing them on paper with sizes etc. I have also been asked to make Boho Bags as well, which I still have to finalise.


Getting final sizes planned for the book/diary wraps, fabric book pages to be used for TAST and other projects of a small size. And I am going to be doing the other projects/fabric books on the same size.
The squares etc will be scrapbook size. This means I can do projects in various sizes, and place them all into 'books', not have them just lying around everywhere. Now I don't have to waste time deciding what size my projects will be, I will work within these sizes.


I have always been frustrated by the fact that I couldn't just decide what size each project would be, and I wasted a lot of time stuffing around. Now I have various sizes that I can work with and just focus on the creative process

As well as organizing my project sizes I have also been taking the time to practice my drawing. I start our by doing doodle type designs on the first page. Just small drawings filling up a page. This gives me a bit of practice before I start on the larger pictures. I find that by doing this warm-up I can more easily draw the larger pictures.

 

 

 A lot of these doodle pages and larger pictures will be used in the future for my embroidery and textile art projects

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Using Washaway In Your Embroidery or Textile Arts

Tacked down with washaway thread on the areas being sewn, so no pinholes are left. Also if you don't want to print in black just edit the design and change the colour. I use to use a yellow carbon copy paper, but it gets rubbed off after awhile. I find this is easier and gives me more details.

Printing on washaway

Although I have posted about this before, I was asked to show how I printed on washaway to use in my work. This is an update of how I use washaway to print out designs. You can either pin the designs down or you can use dissolvable thread to tack them down. I have used this on light fabric and as the design is very light I have - so far - not found the ink to stain when washed after finished.
You may need to do a small test on a spare piece of fabric to check

I use an A4 sized label printer paper. I remove the label and then using a fabric style washaway I press it to the sticky side, smoothing it out 

The printer I use is an inkjet. It MUST have a straight feed.

And I place the designs I want onto the printer

I then place a piece of paper over the top

Place the label fabric side up and print

These can then be cut out and when ready just pin them to your work. I usually have a plastic slipcover in which I put all that I need into for each project

2018 - A Great Start

The first thing I did was set out a list of things I wanted to do. This is NOT a "2018" do it list. It is a "This is the way I want to spend my time" list.


I have had no real focus, just going from one situation to another, and I felt that 2017 was wasted.


This year I am doing a revamp or my blog, I am researching and making a Small 'Homemade' Plan,  for selling packs of laces I make for Crazy Quilting, and offering larger pieces for Fabric books.

I want to have a small sustainable vegetable garden, which I have made a good start with.


But mainly in 2018, I want to spend my time doing things that excite me, get my creative juices flowing, and just living my life the way Creatively.


To start off the year I spent time making pages for my Art Journal and other Journals. Made a big mess and had a wonderful time.

They turned out wonderful and I even had a page I could use as my background for my Blog.

And this is the start of my sustainable garden. I built the benches out of pallets, and all my vegetables, flowers etc are in pots, and are easy for me to use. I plan on making a few raised garden beds near the fence and planting vine vegetables, such as pumpkins, watermelons etc. Then I can just mix flowers amongst them to make it look beautiful, and will bring in the bees etc, which will be practical