A new challenge coming

Thursday was my first meeting with the ladies of Eclectica as a member.  The group has been invited to exhibit at the Bramble Patch in Weedon Bec.  These are the pieces I have submitted for the exhibition

Walk 1
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Design inspired by Paul Klee’s oil painting ‘Highway and Byways’.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 19.5” (w) x 35.75” (l) 

Walk 2
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabric. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 14.5” (w) x 15.5” (l)

Beyond Square
Purchased text-based hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Bought plain fabric for line inserts and binding Max size: 26” (w) x 25” (l)

The exhibition is from Wednesday April 6th to Wednesday April 20th.

In the meantime, next Tuesday I'm going to launch a creative writing challenge.  I do hope some of you will join in.   It's called: 21 words

The idea is to take one word each day and write one sentence to use the word creatively.  More information next Tuesday.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Another piece finished

I previously showed you the large piece I was making for Text,Texture, Textiles as I was putting it together.

I'm really pleased to show you the finished hanging.

And a close up of the machine stitching

I'm going to have a rest from making textile hangings!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A new piece

Last month I showed you how I had added printed layers to my fabrics for Text Texture Textile.  On Thursday at the session at Littleheath Barn I started a new piece of work using the fabrics.

I started - let's all say it together - by cutting up the fabrics.

Then I started sewing them together - just picking randomly from the pile.

After ironing them I cut them into 6 inch wide strips and 4 inch wide strips.

As each strip grew I pinned them on the wall.

When I got home I pinned them onto the design wall - actually a drop cloth hanging from a wardrobe!

I cut up the larger pieces I had machined together (on the left and right of the above picture) and finished machining all the pieces together.

I'm going to leave it  hanging up for a while so I can think about what I shall do next.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Reviewing my Word of the Year 2020 Journal

Last month Valerie Sjodin published an excellent post with a video on her blog.  Do go to her website to view it.

It got me thinking about 2021 even though it's 2 months away!   Valerie recommended a journal and I immediately bought it.  I know that she will have done her research so why not take advantage of that, saving me the time.  Mind you, I do have lots of time.  But that's not the point. I immediately ordered a Wordsworth & Black Journal with a turquoise cover.  To be honest it may well have been the availability of the turquoise cover that settled the matter.

In my last post I showed you how I have used this year's journal.  I'm not a bullet journal sort of person - it's somehow too rigid for my purposes.  I have begun to feel that even what I have been doing is slightly too rigid - quartering the page and recording what I do.  Most of the recording has been to prove to myself that I have done something each day during this very peculiar year!

As you read this, England is back in lockdown.  Not quite as severe as the one in April & May but not far off.  So plenty of time to consider how to record 2021.  And maybe try out some different page layouts in the rest of my 2020 journal.

Way back in 2011 and 2012 I was following Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Art Every Day and used a Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook to record my days.

Looking back at it now I am amazed I kept up.

I don't think this is what I'm looking for in terms of next year's journal.  It needs to be somewhere inbetween.  Not as free and easy as the AED journal but not as rigid as this year's.  I haven't been able to work out what that looks like yet.

I went through this year's journal and looked at what themed pages I had used and which worked well and which didn't.

Some pages I'm going to ditch like the 2022 calendar at a glance, and the list calendars which showed 6 months at a time.  In this year's journal I had 2020 at a glance and 2021 but hardly ever looked at them.  I think I've become too reliant on my phone.  At the beginning of 2020 I had bought a vertical planner so I could see easily what I was committed to.  I had done the same in 2019 and it was really useful even though it didn't ever make it onto a wall, which had been my intention!

Some of the pages like the gratitude log and descriptions of booked workshops I think I will incorporate into each month rather than have separate pages for them.  Always supposing I get to any workshops!

Looking back at this year's journal I was reminded that it took me the first 12 days of January to decide what I was going to do with my journal and had to play catch up.

So maybe it's just as well that I've already started thinking about next year!

What about you?  Are you going to keep a journal next year?  If so, what format works for you?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A walk along the canal

On Wednesday we went for a walk along the Stratford Canal from Bearley to Stratford upon Avon.  We were supposed to start at Wootton Wawen but we couldn't find a parking place.  I was pleased because it cut a bit off the length of the walk.  It was still 6 miles along the canal and a mile to get to the bus in Stratford and from the bus stop to the where we had left the car.

We had lunch in a pub.  Last one for a month as we're now in lockdown again.  It haad clouded over when we came out.  I took the next two photos into the sun so they are a bit different!

My promised post on reviewing my journal and what to include for 2021 has been postponed until Tuesday.  Walking got in the way of my reviewing!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Almost normal!

We did it!  We went out for a walk along the canal to the pub and had lunch.

I didn't take my camera with me because we've done this walk so often and I have so many photos from the walks.  However we realised we had never walked it in July.  So I used my phone but I'm not totally thrilled with the quality of the photos.

 It's still July but the Hawthorn berries are already reddening ready for Autumn.

It was lovely to get out.  I had been a bit nervous about it.  Not because of the virus but because I haven't been out of the house away from where we live since March 23rd.  We have walked around the area we live but haven't driven away from here.  Well, Roger has, but I haven't.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Journal Update

I have continued to diary things I've done in my Everyday Journal.  I haven't done much about my word {walk} lately.  However I have included Mary's word study in Thessalonians 1 and 2.

I printed out the 31 day plan.  If you've looked at Mary's page, you will see mine looks a bit different.  That's because I like my calendars to start on a Monday not a Sunday.  I think it's a British thing.

I divided each page into 4 and used one rectangle for the diary and one for the word.  I've chosen one part of Mary's study to illustrate the day.

I have drawn out all the pages up to the end in August.  This way it will keep me committed to the study.  I do have a happy knack of giving up half way through!

I didn't get to do the collages every day which I had mentioned in a previous post.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

On my daily walk

During May, Roger and I walked 74 miles in total.  We mostly walked around 2-2.5 miles each day.  The Snapshot Girls theme for May was 'On my daily walk'.

These are the photos I took for the theme.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

31 Days in May

Last week I showed you my April pages in my Word of the Year journal.  This week it's May's turn.

I had enrolled on an Everything Art workshop called Self-love 365 and used it as the impetus to colour one square a day for each day in May.  My word of the year is walk which I wrote in the first square and put the number of miles I walked in May in the last square.

I used the usual calendar I had drawn out for May as a record of what I had done - mostly walking or zooming!

Here are the pages for May

And here's my calendar ready for June.   Lockdown is easing byt still no events!

Have you done anything creative lately?

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice