Todays ramblings

I have a deadline at the end of the week for a quilt and last night my 2 boys came down with the flu.  ( I knew I needed to start this quilt earlier!) so today I have spent time juggling mother roles and my art work.

This quilt has been so hard to get together.  As I mentioned in a post on Wednesday 15th June


'I am going through a quilters block at them moment.  I have lots of O.K. ideas but not much that I am wanting to actually make into a art quilt.  The more I draw the more I feel uninspired. Why do I feel like this? '

I have drawn so many versions of this quilt and done so many colour ways that my head was beginning to round and round.  In the end I just decided to start it and see how it turned out.  Even this method has proved challenging.  It still has taken a while to get the top finished.  I have never have had this problem before.  Normally once I get moving on a quilt it just seems to happen and progress organically.   But a miracle occurred today a quilt top has been formed!!! (thank goodness)  I still have a portion to add when I am finished the quilting but the rest is done.  (I'll post some photos later in the week)


Now onto quilting patterns.................where do I start?

Animal portraits

Taking photos of animals can be a very tricky business. Trying to keep them still is just about impossible.  No matter how organised I am I still have problems getting the perfect shot.  I am always reminded of the saying never work with children or animals when I decide to take animal portraits.

I have found some of these ideas helpful while taking animal photos.

1.  Get someone to hold the animal still and then take a close up of them,  like I did with this tiny hedgehog we fostered for a while.

2.  Lie down at the animals level and let them come to see what you are doing

3. Capture them while the laze around in the summer sun

4. Capture a part of them

5.  Take a photo from above while holding some food.  Reward them when you are done.

6.Have someone hold them on a lead and take the photo with the lead out of the shot.

7.  Take a continuous frame of photos and choose the best one you can get.  This picture was of one of our cat as a kitten yawning.

8.  Capture kittens in the odd places they get into and then can't get out of.

Always take time to get the perfect shot.  A professional photographer once told me it takes more than 200 shots to get the perfect photo.  Keep practicing!!

Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

Entry for June 22nd

Pathways: Sharpie zentangle

Entry for June 23rd

Pathways: Music pathway

Entry for June 24th

Pathways: Pathways I have walked on

Entry for June 25th

Pathways: Goldilocks zentangle

Entry for June 26th

Pathways: Poppies exploration for a art quilt

Entry for June 27th

Pathways: The life cycle of the poppy

Entry for Jun 28th

Pathways:  Further exploration of poppy seed heads

Creativeness and family

Last night was our family night.  We have a family night every Monday night.  Nothing is allowed to be scheduled over this night apart from emergencies.  We have done this for the whole 20 years of our marriage.  It is a wonderful way to connect with one another and to make our family a priority.

Last night as a family we learnt how to draw zentangles.  We had a lot of fun and everyone finished one.  These are the finished products

I think they all did a wonderful job!

Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

Entry for June15th

Pathways: Grapefruit tree

Entry for Jun 16th

Pathways: Cabbage tree

Entry for June 17th

Pathways: Our fore fathers made

Entry for June 18th

Pathways: Of family

Entry for June 19th

Pathways: Neural pathways

Entry for June 20th

Pathways: Miners hut collage

Entry for June 21st

Pathways:  The pathways we choose determine our destiny

Photography this week

Pictures of a flash flood taken on Saturday on our sloping backyard.  We had a lot of rain fall in a short space of time.  Or backyard was like this for 3/4 hour.  The kids had a great time in it.

Under the deck

I sent this photo into the National news and they published it in the weather time.  the kids were thrilled to see themselves on TV.

Forward rolls???????? 

Our river

Quilters block

I am going through a quilters block at them moment.  I have lots of O.K. ideas but not much that I am wanting to actually make into a art quilt.  The more I draw the more I feel uninspired. Why DO I feel like this?  I decided to take a good look at myself and see how I could overcome this block. 

1. Maybe it is because I am not being creative enough and actually doing anything......No I am drawing daily,  I have a mdae a few quilting projects over the past couple of weeks. 
2. Not enough motivation............Not this one either I have always felt motivation isn't a word, it is either doing it or not doing it. I am practicing daily and I am doing it so I am motivated.
3. Not having a signature look................It could be a wee bit of this one.  Maybe I need to experiment more and find me more in my work!
4. Having interuptions......I find I work best with no interuptuptions.  This is a hard one for me in a very busy house but I am getting quite a bit of time while the kids are at school so it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
5. Not having direction in my work.  Both in how I do my art and how to market my work..........This could be a bit of it too.  I am afraid to market my art because of rejection, a fear which I need to overcome.  I need to write some new goals in how I do my artwork to see if this will help me focus more.
6. Not having won any awards or recognition in NZ.........This is getting hard for me to keep entering things and getting nothing for my efforts.  I know it should enough to have the reward of making a piece of work but I would love to teach and unless there is some recognition for work no one wants to have you teach them in NZ.  HMMMMM need to think on this one.  I maybe need to evaluate why  I am making art and change my outlook?

Well I will contemplate some of these possibilities to see if they can help me through my block. 

What are some of the blocks you have?  How have you overcome them?  I would love to hear some of your ideas!