Something Sew Fine: Uh Oh - Catching Up!

.If you read through my earlier posts you will quickly discover I am not very good at keeping to a schedule on my blog! There are so many aspects of living the Creative Life That I am easily sidetracked. Oh well - I will try to catch up here and then on to some new and exciting things in my next post.

Most of this past year has been taken up with researching and writing my novel - After The Storm. This is a story of a courageous 19th century quilter who faces and overcomes many challenges in her life.  I have really enjoyed every aspect of working on this book until the last part where I have been  bogged done in the editing and finishing details.  Being a complete newbie at writing a novel I had no idea what to expect, but finishing and letting go of my manuscript has proven SO much harder than I anticipated! I flip flop back and forth between thinking it is a really interesting, well written story AND thinking it is a piece of you know what. By holding onto my manuscript and not allowing it to continue through the publication process, I guess I am holding off on the inevitable - finding out how my book is actually received once published and distributed.

Luckily I have discovered that almost every new author (and even some that are well established), feel exactly as I do before their books reach the public. Only those who are so self-confident as to to verge on arrogance do not shake in their shoes before their book is published. Knowing that makes me feel much better!

At any rate, I have been consumed for much of the year finishing writing and editing my novel. (How do you know when you have really finished writing?? Ideas keep coming, I add a new story-line or more details...) I do hope I can send it off to the publisher for the final steps soon.  Will keep you posted.

I am about to embark on a new project - actually two:  I am planning a companion book to my novel  which will include quilt projects and complete instructions related to the novel.  I am being deliberately vague, since this is still in the early stages of development. Related to this - I volunteered to be in charge of Block of the Month for my guild for 2015-2016 and I am opening up this same BOM to my Face Book friends.  It should be a lot of fun - Stay tuned for more details, coming SOON!

As if all of this was not enough, my DH and I are in the midst of planning a major renovation of our house (tearing down and moving walls, a totally new bathroom and upstairs laundry)  One result will be a much larger studio for me!  Hooray!

I am busting with creative energy - just have to learn to channel it better.

Have a lovely fall.  I will post again SOON.  I promise!.

Collecting Images on Pinterest

One of the things I have enjoyed most this past year is visiting Pinterest and collecting images of many kinds.  I also post images to share with others.  I have almost 2500 pins now and it is a fabulous collection of everything that interests me, inspires me, makes me feel good or just provides eye candy!  What is not to like about that?

My own quilts are posted of course, along with quilts that other people have made from my designs.  I also have lots of pins of quilts that other people  have made which I think are wonderful.  I have inspirations for updating my  home, garden and studio when I get the funds to do so, lots of images of fabulous places in the world I will most likely never visit, not to mention great recipes and food ideas!   I have also been collecting photos of antique quilts and 19th century clothing as research for my book.  And of course I have photos of my canine best friends and other animals who give and receive love as if they were human (oh, go ahead and laugh!  I am such a softy).

I guess my point is that inspiration and creative energy can be developed almost anywhere and it helps (at least for me) to have concrete reminders of what some of those inspirations are.  Please visit me at::
hyyp//www.pinterest.com/caryflanagan/ to see what I have collected and posted.

Where has the Past Year Gone??

Golly - I am so embarrassed!  I knew it had been a long time since I last posted in my blog, but I recently discovered it has actually been almost a YEAR!!  So I have set a goal (I am not into resolutions - just too hard to keep) to post at least once a month to talk about my new designs and my creative process.

So here goes on January 2nd in a new year.

This past year was kind of strange for me.  I had a number of "dry spells" in which I felt blocked or stuck.  I know it happens to everybody sometimes but I felt like it was happening to me a lot, and it was discouraging at times.  I have learned, however, that at such times it helps to walk  away from whatever is immobilizing me and set off in a different direction for a while.  It usually works pretty well.  Here are some of the things I accomplished since I last wrote in between my dry spells.

During the waning months of last winter, I was going great guns on a quilt for my great nephew and was having a really good time working on it.  He had explicitly asked me for very bright colors - "bright red, bright orange, bright yellow and some blue", he announced when he was nine.  So I had  been collecting the brightest and most fun of all those colors and started working on the quilt while it was bitter cold and snowy outside.  His quilt kept me toasty warm with all that brightness!  When I presented the quilt to him last summer when he came with his family to our summer place in the White Mountains, he loved it!  That was the best part for me, though, to be honest, I really hated to give it up.  I just LOVED that quilt!  (See photo below.)

A few months ago, I began working on a novel that I have been thinking about off and on for years.  It is about a young woman growing up in rural NH in the 19th century.  She becomes an accomplished quilter and tells the story of her life to one of her grand daughters.  I have been interested for years in my own family's history and this story contains many elements from my own and my family's stories of the past.  I have been having fun researching life in the late 1800's in the small town near where my family has been summering since way before I was born.

I love the story and the characters I have created, and whether or not the book ever gets published is kind of beside the point right now.  It may take me years to finish, but meanwhile I am enjoying living with my characters and the process of creating their personalities and the events which help to shape them.  The writing part is a bit harder than I thought it would be, but I enjoy that part of the process also.

I did manage to design a new placemat pattern and get it published  in the spring, but I got stuck with most of my other ideas as the year progressed.  November and December were the hardest time for me.  I always get depressed around the holidays since my family is so scattered.  My DH and I decided to give gifts to several important charities this year instead of buying into the commercialism of Christmas and that made both of us feel more of the true meaning of the holidays.

Not too surprisingly, right after Christmas my creative energy came back in full force and I am hard at work designing and making several more quilting projects that should result in at least three new patterns in just a few weeks.

Watch for several photos next time and updates on my new projects.

Have a Happy, Healthy, Creative and Prosperous New Year!

More "Marblehead" fabrics!

I have received another shipment of the beautiful "Marblehead" fabrics (designed by Ro Gregg for fabri-Quilt) - a much appreciated gift with which to make my next pattern - "Here Comes the Sun". Three fabrics are still to come but at least I can get started on the new quilt design. A smaller version (wall hanging) will be made from my stash- I have already picked out the fabrics. I hope to get the lap quilt done in time to send off to spring Market in Cincinnatti Ohio in May and, hopefully, my own quilt guild bi-annual quilt show in March.

Cant wait to show you both versions (Lap and Wall Hanging) in full, after the pattern is published.

News Flash - Zentangles Erase Creative Block!

I discovered Zentangles a few months ago and was immediately intrigued by the possibilities. So for Christmas I asked for (and received) several "how to" books so I could learn the techniques and explore some "tangled" ideas. Above are a couple of my early attempts. I am definitely hooked!

My original thought was to figure out a way to utilize these intriguing designs in my quilting work. But I have since learned an additional, unexpected benefit of this wonderful "doodling" technique.

For several weeks before and after the holidays I felt like I had lost my creative spark. Nothing came to me and I had little or no energy to come up with new ideas. In fact I was feeling a bit burnt out, perhaps because I had been pushing so hard to meet various deadlines before that.

In any case, I started, quite tentatively at first, to try drawing some Zentangles, and to my astonishment, before long I was over run with ideas for new quilt designs and patterns! There is something about the process of stilling one's mind and focusing on drawing the intricate designs that make up a single Zentangle. I don't understand what happened but it was like a dam burst that had been blocking my creative juices from flowing freely. So many ideas kept popping into my conscious thought that I had to start writing them down or sketching them out so as not to lose them!

I will remember, now - whenever I start feeling creatively blocked - I will get quiet and start "tangling"!

Thanks Mark and Maria! Go to their website and blog to learn more. You can also sign up for their monthly newsletter which is a fun and interesting read.

A Belated Update

Gosh - here it is the beginning of February and I have not posted anything about 'what happened next"!

I have had only sketchy information about where my quilts have been and where they are going next. However, I did hear that one of the employees of the quilt shop that displayed my quilts at the Road to California quilt show stated the show was a great success.

Best of all, next in line on my quilts' journey is a trip to Fons and Porter (!!) to be used with other quilts as backdrop in an episode of the 'Quilt It' show! This show will be aired LIVE, Tuesday, April 10, Episode #301, Season 3. I am pretty psyched about that! I will keep you posted as I learn more about the show.

Then on to another quilt shop somewhere for a trunk show, then off to spring Market in Cincinnati, Ohio in April (not yet confirmed).

I am feeling a bit frustrated to have so little control or information about what is happening to my quilts but I guess that is the way it works when you work with a large fabric company. However, it is exciting that my quilts are on this journey and will hopefully benefit both Ro Gregg and me by helping to promote sales of her fabrics and my patterns.

I am just "going with the flow" and enjoying the ride.

Almost There!

At long last, the finish line is in sight! My "Games We Play" quilt in the Calypso fabric by Ro Gregg is complete - just needs a label on the back which will go on later today!

My "Wreath For All Seasons" quilt, made from Ro's gorgeous "Marblehead" fabrics, will be quilted and bound on Wednesday and the label sewn on.

Thursday both quilts will be on their way to CA. They have to be there by the 10th, so it will be close. Wish me luck! They will be shown at the Road To California quilt show in southern CA and in trunk shows featuring Ro's new fabric lines at a couple of quilt shops in the area. It will be a few months before they return home.

Above are a couple of close-up photos of the quilting on the Calypso quilt. My good friend and professional Long Arm Quilter, Nancy Tatro (Finely Done Quilting, Candia, NH), did the fantastic quilting. I specifically chose the dragonfly pattern because it is a playful design and also because the Calypso fabrics are full of dragonflies! SO cute!

Let me know what you think.

"A Wreath For All Seasons" pattern is currently available from www.quiltwoman.com and "Games We Play" will be available in a few weeks.