My new blog

Well I don't know how this is going to work out but in the last two or three years I have gone from someone who did nothing creative outside of my work life except for maybe a bit of knitting or crochet to someone who can't stop creating and finding new skills.  It began with quilting first and this sort of set me going as I then added creative writing and then painting in watercolour and more recently doodling.

To begin with this might be very retrospective as I look back through various projects until gradually I catch up with myself into posting more current work and projects. But first a backward glance at the variety of stuff I am engaged in (when I am not working as a full time Unitarian Minister that is.)

This was my first real quilt which I made for my mum - it took nearly two years from start to finish but it was worth it. Large quilts still take a long time but I only really have one day in the week when I can get down to sewing.  I have joined a quilting group which is a great help. There will be more pics in another blog to catch up on more current quilt projects.

This was an early watercolour (postcard size) - I just love working in watercolour.  I don't go much with drawing first but tend to just paint straight onto the paper.


W-i-n-d   
 

A favourite time

I remember dad.

Is winding wool

             arms extended

             aching as you wind

             swinging round past outstretched hands

Surely. . . 
               here my love for yarn, began

                         in the feeling of the textures

               as you wound.

I remember when
I did the winding too. . . 
               first tight
               then loose. . .
your gently swaying arms allowing me
                to keep a flow
                a rhythm
                in my winding.

Thank you for this memory, dad.
               another time
                I might have chosen
                to write another wind

but today
               it is winding wool. 

                   -o0o-


This was one of my first poems - written from the scribble of a free write (subject w-i-n-d) in one of Judy Campbell's writing retreats. (That lady has a lot to answer for - she is the one who got me quilting too, and now each year I go on a writng retreat and a quilting retreat with Judy.)  Since those early days I have joined a local writing group which meets once a month and I go when I can to open mike nights when I read some of my own work.  I have started to try and write short stories too and maybe I shall post one of those . . .  sometime!!.


Finally my latest craze is doodling.  My friend Lynn Holland introduced me to this and she really has got something to answer for because I really can't stop doing them.  Sometimes called 'Zentangles' or 'zendoodles', either way they are crazy, fun, therapeutic and totally, totally addictive.

          
 Well that's all for now.  I shall have fun posting on here occasionally.


 

Sure