Today I thought I would share with you how my ideas and the items I make are born.  Everything, EVERYTHING!, starts with a doodle.  I am a queen doodler, and if you ask my students, in so many of my classes I tell them to doodle, doodle, doodle!  It is the best exercise for the creative mind.

These doodles above are from one of my many sketchbooks, and they were done years ago. Would you believe they served as inspiration for the staircase that leads to the classroom?

I’ve had this bench hanging around for 12+ years.  My husband built it and it had been painted many different colors, many different times.  My dogs even had a go at chewing on it once!  It needed a makeover, and now I wish I had taken a before photo, so it hit me one day to paint it to match the staircase and use it in the classroom!

Now I can’t get the design out of my head, and I want to build on it.  Last week I was working on mono printing some hand-made fabrics for possible classes in 2017, and while I was printing I wondered if I could use the same printing technique on wood.  So I gave it a shot on some small scrap boards for signs, and it worked!

On the sign boards I printed the background and then added some of the doodles from the bench and the staircase! Voila! A new idea was born.

As you may have noticed, on the staircase and the bench, I added an inspirational saying, so the signs needed to follow suit.

My next step is to print the doodles, rather than paint them, for use on fabrics.  Maybe a new quilt design, a glass piece, a piece of pottery????  Where will this design go next?  Knowing my creative brain it will be all of the above!

Peace, love and creativity!

Island Christmas Block of the Month Online (and in person) class is going great!  I just wanted to remind you that thru the month of September you can purchase the class for $60.  On October 1st the class will be listed in my Etsy store for $95.

There is so much more to this class than just the Christmas quilt!  There are lots and lots of bonus projects.  Soon to come are some bonus videos talking about my design process.

The mixed media piece, pictured above, is going to be the topic of one of the bonus videos.  I am not asking you to paint, nor am I going to give you a painting lesson.  Join us and see what was born from this piece, and how it came to be.

Show time is just around the corner! Mark your calendars for some fun holiday shows….

“Island Christmas” Block of the Month is my very first online (or in person) class!  It is a quilting class and you will need basic quilting skills, like cutting fabric, using fusible web, and sewing around appliques.

There are six lessons and each lesson has a bonus project.  You can make the quilt or just do the bonus projects with the patterns.

The introductory price for the class is $60, for all the patterns and access to the video lessons.  On October 1st, when I list it in my Etsy store, the price will be increasing to $95.  The increased price is still a steal for 12 patterns and 7 different projects.  I am keeping the price low since this is my first online class, and I am sure there are lots of things I am missing.  If you are participating in the class I welcome your feedback so I can improve on this for future online classes.

The “Island Christmas” quilt, pictured above, and all of the projects in this class are done with my hand dyed and batiked fabrics.  If you are in Abaco, come and join us for a fabric dyeing class!  If you are not local and would like to purchase a kit of hand dyes for the projects please contact me.

Peace, love and creativity!

In case you haven’t heard yet, I am challenging myself to make 44 earrings in 44 days.  It is in celebration of my 44th birthday in July.  After the 44 days is up, July 14th, I will raffle off several pairs of the earrings.  To enter the raffle you have to go over to my Facebook page and like, comment and/or share the earring pictures.  You can have up to three chances a day if you do all three on each picture.

Below are some of the earrings from the last week.

This challenge is giving me the chance to try some new ideas that have been brewing in my creative brain, as well as figure out some new designs that I had not even thought of before.

Hope you join in on the fun!

In case you missed my post last week, I am challenging myself to make 44 earrings in 44 days for my birthday!  When the 44 days are up, after July 14th, I will raffle off several pairs of the earrings.  In order to be included in the raffle you need to go over to my Facebook page, which you can access from the tab on the right, and like, share, or comment on the earring pictures.

Here are the earrings I have posted so far…..

Every like, comment, or share gives you an extra chance.  Pair 7/44 will be up later today!

July is my birthday month, and in celebration of this I am making 44 earrings in 44 days!  After July 14th, when the 44 days are up, I will be drawing names to win several pairs of my earrings.  To be included in the drawing you need to head over to my Facebook page, and over the next 44 days, like, comment and share the various pictures of earrings that I will be posting.  Every like, share or comment counts as  your name going in the bucket, for every day you do that.  So your name can get put in up to three times a day!

Above are earring pair 1 of 44!

Not all earrings will be fish, or glass, for that matter.  I want to use this time to get creative, try some new designs and get some ideas out of my head.  If I have a busy day, like a day I am teaching, then the next day I will post 2 pairs.  Hope you all join in the fun!