I joined Amazon Associates to see how it goes. If you don’t have another way of searching Amazon, please use the search box in the sidebar. I will also be adding some specific search boxes for books that I review.

In a recent comment, Quilt Rat asked how I pick the prompts for the Creative Prompt Project. In part it all started with Amy at the Creative Mom Podcast, because I heard one word, thought about her thematic prompt and started on this project. The project has evolved very differently than the project in my mind.

Around the same time, I had been thinking about Illustrated Journals and that influenced my decisions about the CPP as well. You can read a little about my thoughts at the time in my February 20, 2009 post.

Another piece of the puzzle was a little book that DeWayne gave me as a Christmas gift. DeWayne is a former co-worker who is an unbelievably creative person. Every year at Christmas DeWayne gave everyone on the management team a little gift and one year it was a little blank book called Jeu de Cahier.

Jeu de Cahier, Front Cover

I am very particular, and a bit of a connoisseur/snob, about my notebooks and journals. This one didn’t fit, so I threw it into a drawer. When I started the CPP, I came across this notebook again and decided that it would work for keeping track of my ideas for prompts. I have a big list in the front with all of the prompts and then I organized them by first letter of the alphabet, so I can keep better track of the ones I use.

Prompts, August 2009

As I wander through my life, I note down words that might make good prompts in the future.

Finally, I am getting to Quilt Rat’s question. Choosing a prompt depends on my mood.  I leaf through the book and see what words jump out at me or strike my fancy. I, sometimes, try and choose prompts that fit in with a theme or something that is happening in the world. I don’t worry about that too much, however, because I don’t really think it matters for the CPP purposes.

I try to prepare the prompts so that they post on the Friday and are consistent in terms of numbering and order. If I can think of a theme that fits, then I add that as well. Sometimes I change a prompt just before it is going o post and that can get me into trouble. Remember the double prompt Friday – June 5?

For those of you without a place to post,  and for those of you want to see all the creative prompt responses together, I have created a Flickr Group for this project. You need to join. You can do so at http://www.flickr.com/groups/aqcpp. Hope this is helpful.

Please continue to to post the deep link or URL to the comments section of the prompt. Thanks.

Just a quick note to let you know that I am still working on fixing the blog. There is something wrong with the theme (Cutline, in case anyone is interested). It was behaving badly, so Deirdre changed it to this theme, which I know is not ideal in a number of ways. Yesterday we worked on rebuilding the right sidebar. I also looked at a bunch of possible other (free) themes as well as testing the old theme over and over to see if it was behaving itself.

In any case, we are working on it and will hopefully get back to normal soon. Thanks for your patience.

Can you tell I am just desperate to catch up on everything? All of my posts lately are entitled “Various and Sundry.” I hope it gives you an idea from the title what kind of post it will be.

1. I am doing a project (another one? you say) called 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. You can find it and play along at ProBlogger. I am already 3 days behind, so we’ll see how it goes. When I first saw the ad for this project, I was arrogant enough to think I didn’t need such a thing. Immediately after that thought, I signed up, because thinking I couldn’t improve Artquiltmaker blog is a sure sign I need help. If I can make a few improvements, I’ll be happy. If I learn, I’ll be happier.
2. Reviews and comments about Handmade Nation are all over the blogosphere. I would like to see it as it sounds interesting. I haven’t, however,  seen it playing anywhere nearby. I’ll keep looking.
3. Be*Mused had a lovely array of colors up on her blog the other day. She and I are thinking along the same color lines. Here color palette is the look I am going for with the fabrics that I bought at Always Quilting. I want to add something a bit dark just to take the edge off the bubblegum-i-ness. Not sure what, but I’ll have to look around.
4. I started listening to another episode of the CraftSanity podcast today. It turned out to be a joint podcast with Jennifer and Sister Diane of Craftypod. Essentially the two podcasters interviewed each other to give tips and pointers on starting your own podcast. Listen to CraftSanity podcast #14 and Craftypod podcast #24 to hear the different takes on the same discussion/interview. I love this kind of collaboration facilitated by the web.
5. I am cutting 6.5″ squares of blue fabric (like the Thoughts on Dots project) for a project and I have lost about 3/4s of the ones I have cut so far somewhere in my workroom. They will turn up, but it made me realize that I need to have some way of organizing projects that are in the germination stage. There are a number of projects for which I need to gather fabrics while I prepare to sew. I want a system where I can put fabrics and supplies in one place until I am ready for them to be front and center. I am envisioning a system like Jan at Be*Mused put up. She used IKEA’s Expedit shelves. I am not sure these shelves would work for me. I also need a bed in my workroom for guests, so I think my ideal would be the IKEA Billy system with a bed somehow integrated into it. In the meantime, I may just get some POTs and use those.
6. Linda Hughes of  From A Vineyard Garden blog has posted a list, paraphrased from the New Creative Artist book by Nita Leland about creativity. It is a good and interesting list and that book might be worth checking out.
7. Finally, Retro Mama made a pattern f or fabric eggs and put it up on her blog. I love these eggs and want to make some to decorate for Easter/the Spring. It won’t work for this Easter, but I could make them for next year. We will see. There are just so many wonderful blogs out there!

Proximidade Award

I was pleased that Artquiltmaker Blog received an award this week from Friend Julie! Hooray. It comes at a fortuitous time, though, because I have been wondering if I should open a Cafe’ Press or Etsy shop and sell cards with my quilts on them! I hope I still qualify.

“This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award.”

Julie searched for more information and so did I, but neither of us found any origins for this award, so it may be some kind of chain letter award. The sentiment is good and it means a lot to me that Julie would choose me to receive one of her awards. She is a discriminating reader. I do try just to post what I enjoy writing about and what I think will interest you, dear readers. I would love prizes, wealth, fame and fortune, but that isn’t why I do this. I do it for fun, writing practice and to chronicle my quilt adventures.

I would give the award straight back to Julie. In order to spread the wealth a bit, though, here are the awardees to whom I am passing this award:

1. Kristen from Ardent Peace: I love hearing about her daily goings on illustrated with photos
2. Jan at Be*Mused: Fabulous photos and colors in her quilts
3. Vicki at Field Trips in Fiber: I love the way she scours the web for people’s accomplishments and posts them. I also like the dyed fabrics she shows.
4. Gabi at Seattle Sketcher: He is inspiring me to sketch more.
5. Urban Sketchers: I really enjoy their drawings and am thrilled that they are willing to share. The idea of a joint blog where people post their work in a cooperative manner is so wonderful to me.
6. Quilting Adventures Blog: Yes, this is a shop blog, but one of my favorite shops and I enjoy seeing what is going on at that shop. I also like it that they highlight the work of their customers. Nice work, Joyce and Phoebe!
7. The Creative Mom Podcast & Blog: Amy has slowed down on her posting quite a bit, but she works very hard at putting out a professional product. I enjoy the creative prompts, which inspired me, and the music she finds to compliment the podcast.
8. CraftSanity: It wouldn’t be right to leave out Jennifer Ackerman-Heywood. She does so much work promoting crafts and we all benefit.

Thanks for reading!

If you have found your way here,

WELCOME!!!

We are not quite ready for Prime Time yet, so please see our continuing blog posts at http://artquiltmaker.blogspot.com. We’ll be ready soon.

No, the Word of the Day is not Housekeeping.

I decided to contemplate a Word of the Day back in October 2008 when I was starting to hear rumblings about New Year’s Resolutions. Actually, I had wanted to work through 365 Tao since last year or the year before as a personal exercise. As January 1 approached I thought it would be great to weave the words into quiltmaking and share them with you.

I will post a Word of the Day when a particularly relevant one comes along. As usual, your comments are welcome.

Goodreads has a new feature where they give the HTML for a review you have written. I am trying it out here. I originally wrote a review of Collaborative Quilting for this blog on October 21, 2006. I filled out a review today on Goodreads and thought I would check out the feature to see if I thought it would work for you. If it works, it will make writing reviews of books a lot easier. Note that if you click the “view all my reviews” link, you will get non-quilt related reviews as well.

Collaborative Quilting by Freddy Moran

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
One of the best reasons for buying this book is the huge number of photos. It is amazing how many photos of quilts and blocks the publisher was able to cram into this book for the price. I also like the idea of collaboration between the two artists.

View all my reviews.

It is very hard for me to accomplish anything if I am not organized. The first thing I do on any project is organize the pieces. I get a lot done, I think, because I am organized. It drives a lot of people close to me insane.

The fabric closet in my workroom had dropped off the organization list sometime in the last century. I have been flinging things into it randomly for some time. There was no space for me to get into to do anything. I knew I had to take everything out [EVERYTHING!!] and start over. There was no possible way I could face such an endeavor alone. TFQ mentioned it last year when she was here for PIQF. I t had gotten so bad between times that this rip she convinced me it was time. I also asked her to help me clean it out.

I threw out, recycled, and organized, for Goodwill and Freecycle, a ton of stuff. It felt good. I have been on that binge for awhile in other parts of the house, but this was a major quilt/fabric related effort.

Sadly (or perhaps not), I didn’t take before pictures. I think that is, at least, partially a good thing. I do have the after pictures.

Closet Right Side: Quilts are on pants hangers and hung in the corner. File cabinet was moved closer to the door so I can file paperwork easier. Fabric bins that I use a lot were brought down, so I don’t have to crawl up to get at my fabric quite as much. We didn’t do much with the fabric bins, but have gone through them together in the past. I have also been going through them recently as I work through the bag project. I will go through them again in the future, I am sure.

Closet Left Side: The new drawer thingy is full of dots. Closest to the left side of the photo is a continuing part of the project. I have to get some crates to replace the bankers boxes for ‘current’ fabric. In the middle on that upper shelf is a weird bin (the style of the bin is weird) full of projects in process. They are organized, so I can find them, which is a good thing, because I would like to move through some of the projects that have been lingering. I also went through a lot of of my projects that were going nowhere and got rid of them. No point in keeping something that never even made it to my UFO list. A number of them were block exchanges from the early 1990s. Lots of teal went to people I hope will make great quilts for others.

We really needed one more day to get the project completely finished. We didn’t have it, so TFQ sent me to the Container Store with a list of items to buy. Above are the containers I bought to fill with stuff. The clear plastic garbage can is full of rulers now and I want to get another. After I filled it up, and amazingly all of my rulers fit, I decided that I didn’t like the rulers with instructions and packaging in the same container as the regular rulers. The other frosted garbage can was a ruler possibility, but the shape is wrong. I may actually replace one of my garbage cans around he house with it. I am definitely going to get another one of the clear plastic ones.

PS. I surpassed 450 posts yesterday. Thanks for reading!

You can’t update a quilt website if you haven’t completed anything. I updaed Artquiltmaker today with the information about the hand. Go over to Artquiltmaker.com and take a look. Not being very facile with HTML, I was thrilled that this project did not take me all day. I am off to sew.

If you are publishing comments about other people, you may want to look at the documents EFF has prepared about your rights as a blogger.

I have been working on a lot of quilts and haven’t had the time to update my website’s ‘in progress’ page to show them all. I thought starting a blog, which is linked to my site would be better. This blog is not yet linked, but it will be when I get all the kinks worked out. Thanks for reading.

I live in Northern California and love quiltmaking. I am interested in good design and creativity. I hope to inspire others and create a continuing dialog with this blog. Thanks for reading!