Week 1

I'm posting my Progress Notes and pictures for Week 1 of "28 Weeks of Creativity 2012."  It was a good week creativity-wise.  I met my goal for the week, which was 6 Dutch Embroidery birthday cards.  That was pushing it however, as the stars take me about an hour to do and the comets 2 hours, plus time picking out the DMC embroidery floss colors and background cardstock.  I need to either better estimate the time involved or not put a number on the craft (or writing or art) projects.  Should I post more often or just once a week when I take pictures?  If you have an opinion, let me know.  :)

6/18/12

I really have missed doing Dutch Embroidery.  That's why I picked this to do first.  I'm going to make 6 birthday cards.  These are not my patterns.  They are from 2 discs of patterns given to me by a friend of a friend.  I have no problem using other people's patterns in my crafty/arty stuff.  It's what you do with an idea that counts, color choices, etc.

I'm doing the Star and Comet design cards based on friends and family's favorite colors.  I know, I could go with an over-arching color scheme, but I think I'll just go with favorites and colors that appeal to me.  I lost my pinking shears that I do edges with, so I have just straight-ish edges cut with scissors.

6/19/12

I decided on variegated thread and solid backgrounds for this week's projects.  Some of the birthday cards are for specific people, some aren't, just depends.

6/20/12

I started out with a white background then did a gold star on a dark blue background.  Whatever looks good!  Fun!

I was looking at cross-stitch patterns for future projects and realized that most of the patterns are very time-consuming.  My new criteria is, can I do it in a week?  Not much fits that criteria especially at the skill level I'm at with counted cross-stitch.

6/21/12

There is a prejudice for complicated time-consuming art.  The gesture, the art that takes little time isn't as valued.  At the same time people who aren't artistic may  not appreciate your time-consuming art.  It will be interesting to see what I can come up with in a week's time.  :)

6/23/12

Extras:

I did 3 drawings tonight.  The idea was from "Art Lab for Kids" by Susan Schwake.  It's not about being an artist (or a writer) or whatever.  This is just about expanding my skills and enjoying myself.  I had a hard time sticking to just contour lines.  I wanted to add detail!  This was from Lab 1-Contour Drawings:

I've also been doing some learning how to draw stuff at:  http://www.drawspace.com/  I'll post pics of those in the Extras as well.  I'll also post progress on my longer projects here (like the U2 jacket).

6/24/12

I made my 6the card today, finishing at my friend's house.  These are the ladies I embroider with.  I gave Mary the card as a housewarming gift.  It has orange variegated floss on yellow cardstock, comet design, the best of the lot.  Too bad I didn't have my camera with me!

Space and Beyond

I'm choosing my own adventure, right here on the Stitching the Wheel blog.  While officially called "28 Weeks of Creativity 2012", the theme for this challenge is Space and Beyond.  The time frame is from June 18th to December 30th, 2012.  I'm going to make one craft/art/writing project a week based on this theme.  It could be one thing or a few of something or many things.  We'll just have to see!

I chose Space and Beyond as the theme to remind myself to look up and out.  I tend to pay more attention to my little world than the big wide world out there, much less the Universe. I will be sharing Process Notes on what I make each week.  This is just for fun and to focus on a theme, which I don't usually do.  Standard Cop-out:  If I can't keep up with this challenge, my blog will go back to the usual programming.  :)

U2 Jacket ~ Map of Ireland (WIP)

Stamp, Throw, Plan and other Verbs

I picked up my U2-themed embroidered jacket again.  I'm embroidering a map of Ireland on the back.  I know, crazy!  It's a jean jacket with orange, white and green embroidery floss.

I've been reading about the 365 days of creating projects, where you pick a theme and do one thing or parts of a bigger project every day for a year.  I have lots of crafty/arty supplies and I don't want to die with them going unused.  Not that I'm going to die soon!  Everything's cool...  I've been thinking that so many of my projects, like crochet and embroidery ones, take so long.  It's not like you can't tell I've put the time in.  I'm wondering what would happen if I finished one project a week.  I wouldn't be creating on it every day necessarily, but I would have more finishes.

I know, I have too much going on already.  But crafting is very relaxing for me, and some of them could be short writing projects.  (Mars has been in Virgo for 7 months, I'm so ready for Mars to go into Libra, you don't even know)  So I would take pictures and write progress notes and post them on CoachCreativeSpace (30 Days of Creating: http://coachcreativespace.ning.com/group/thirtydaysofcreating and here.  So, I'm thinking, projects I can do in a week, or a day if I'm cheating!

I even have a theme for the next 28 weeks:  Space and Beyond

So am I completely nuts?


Here's a picture of the stamps I made with a Speed-ball kit, then a picture of a throw I finally finished, and a close-up of my crocheting technique (granny square) not in that order: