Creative Prompt #44: Winter

It has been very cold here in the West. Not cold like Minnesota or upstate New York, but a little on the dry and bitter side for us. This inspired me to get started on Winer even though we are still officially in Autumn. Enjoy!

There is more information on the Creative Prompt Page.

Winter Wonderland.

Snow

Ice skating

Winter Solstice

Skiing (Schifahren)

Cross Country Skiing

Winter Olympics

S.A.D.

Winter definition: Meteorological winter is the season having the shortest days and the lowest average temperatures, which have the coldest weather. (from Wikipedia)

Snow boots, mittens, hats, parkas, snow shoes, long underwear, Smartwool socks

Ice scrapers

Isicles

ice storm

Weather safety and awareness

Winter poems

Winter in the Country by Claude McKay
Sweet life! how lovely to be here
And feel the soft sea-laden breeze
Strike my flushed face, the spruce’s fair
Free limbs to see, the lesser trees’

Bare hands to touch, the sparrow’s cheep
To heed, and watch his nimble flight
Above the short brown grass asleep.
Love glorious in his friendly might,

Music that every heart could bless,
And thoughts of life serene, divine,
Beyond my power to express,
Crowd round this lifted heart of mine!

But oh! to leave this paradise
For the city’s dirty basement room,
Where, beauty hidden from the eyes,
A table, bed, bureau, and broom

In corner set, two crippled chairs
All covered up with dust and grim
With hideousness and scars of years,
And gaslight burning weird and dim,

Will welcome me . . . And yet, and yet
This very wind, the winter birds
The glory of the soft sunset,
Come there to me in words.

A Winter Eden by Robert Frost
A winter garden in an alder swamp,
Where conies now come out to sun and romp,
As near a paradise as it can be
And not melt snow or start a dormant tree.

It lifts existence on a plane of snow
One level higher than the earth below,
One level nearer heaven overhead,
And last year’s berries shining scarlet red.

It lifts a gaunt luxuriating beast
Where he can stretch and hold his highest feat
On some wild apple tree’s young tender bark,
What well may prove the year’s high girdle mark.

So near to paradise all pairing ends:
Here loveless birds now flock as winter friends,
Content with bud-inspecting. They presume
To say which buds are leaf and which are bloom.

A feather-hammer gives a double knock.
This Eden day is done at two o’clock.
An hour of winter day might seem too short
To make it worth life’s while to wake and sport.

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.

Creative Prompt #43: Gratitude

There is more information on the Creative Prompt Page.

Gratitude: thankfulness, or appreciation is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. (from Wikipedia)

Thank you!

Alfred Painter: Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.

Thanksgiving.

I am grateful.

Attitude of gratitude.

Counting your blessings.

Gratitude: a way of life by Louise L. Hay

Write your thank you notes.

Attitudes of Gratitude: how to give and receive joy everyday of your life by M. J. Ryan

Operation Gratitude

Albert Schweitzer: At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. / Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

Frederic Brussat wrote on Twitter (11/15/2009) “Thanks-Giving #15: In gratitude for the good service of a grocery store or gas station, tell others about it so the business can grow”

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.

Creative Prompt #42: Knot

Bowline

Celtic Knot

Slip knot

Granny knot

Square knot

Turk’s head

Knot tying

Macrame’

Windsor knot – tie your tie

Gallery of Knots

Untangle the knots

There is more information on the recently updated Creative Prompt Page.

NASDAQ:KNOT

Diamond Knot Brewing Company

My stomach is in knots.

1 knot = 0.514444444 m / s – definition from Wikipedia: The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, which is equal to exactly 1.852 km/h and approximately 1.151 mph.

Tying the knot

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.

Catch Up Thursday

It turns out that Sunday’s Catch Up post wasn’t enough. I have more photos to show you and stuff to tell you. I may have to start doubling up on posts each day!

I showed you TFQ’s Fresh Modern (or sherbet) hexagon project in a previous post.

TFQ's 1930s Hexagons
TFQ's 1930s Hexagons

Above is a piece of one she is actively working on. She is making a bedcover. The hexagons are about 1.5″ and she is doing the whole piece by hand, which I think is the only sensible way to make this pattern.

Coffee Art, Seattle
Coffee Art, Seattle

I love coffee art. I don’t usually buy mochas, but got one last week when I was waiting for TFQ in a cafe. I had about an hour to wait, so I bought a large coffee and got out my drawing materials. Isn’t this coffee flower inspirational? It has some of the same elements as Paula Nadelstern’s Kaleidoscopes.

Creative Prompt Project

Lisa has joined the Flicker Group. Take a look at her work at:

http://www.lisalizalou.com
http://lisalizalou.blogspot.com

Doing Some Good

While not a knitting blog, it is important for me to collect and report on opportunities for doing good. I was reading the recent Lands’ End catalog. An ad for Kate Jacobs’ Knit the Season book caught my eye. On the same page, Lands’End offered a pattern for a hat to knit for charity and give a FeelGood web address for the campaign.

Holiday Sewing

For the first time in a long time, I am doing some major sewing for Christmas. I will, of course, show you everything, but I may not be able to show you as I make the items. Some of the people on the list read this blog. There will be lots to look at as December progresses, but lots more after the holidays are over.

Creative Prompt Responses

SherriD kindly let me know that some recent photos I had posted were ‘bleary’. Isn’t that a great word? I have reposted various CPP responses:

Glimmer

Feather

Core

Wish

Please go and take another look at them. Thanks for your patience.

Creative Prompt #41: Core

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.

Core strength.

Apple core.

The Earth’s core.

Intel Core 2 Duo.

Andromeda’s core.

Core curriculum.

Getting at the core.

Core compentancies.

Congress of Racial Equality.

Core knowledge.

Core values.

Core data.

There is more information on the recently updated Creative Prompt Page.

Creative Prompt #40: Wish

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.

There is more information on the recently updated Creative Prompt Page.

Make a wish

Make-A-Wish Foundation

A hope or desire for something.

If you rub the lamp, a genie will give you three wishes

WISH – a TV station in Indianapolis

Nine Inch Nails performs Wish

Wish you were here (song by Pink Floyd of the same name)

Wish bone

Wish-bone salad dressing

What is on your wish list?

I wish I had thought of that!

Wish upon a star

Wishing well

Wish you well

Creative Prompt #39: Spirit

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.

There is more information on the recently updated Creative Prompt Page.

The Spirit of St. Louis

She’s got spirit!

A spirited horse.

Spirit Airlines

A supernatural being (ghost)

Holy Spirit

Sprites, elves, fairies and wood spirits

Spirit squad / cheerleaders

Spirit totem

An independent spirit

Spirit Awards

NASA’s Spirit Rover

Creative Prompt #38: Glimmer

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.

There is more information on the recently updated Creative Prompt Page.

Definition: 1 a : to shine faintly or unsteadily b : to give off a subdued unsteady reflection
2 : to appear indistinctly with a faintly luminous quality

A glimmer of hope

LG Glimmer cell phone

The Glimmer Man (1996) – Directed by John Gray. With Steven Seagal, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bob Gunton.

Glimmer, a poem by Carl Sandburg

LET down your braids of hair, lady.
Cross your legs and sit before the looking-glass
And gaze long on lines under your eyes.
Life writes; men dance.
And you know how men pay women.

(odd poem, I know, but I was getting a little hard up for inspiration)

Quilt for a Cause

I heard the most recent CraftSanity podcast, which included an interview with the Directors of Margaret’s Hope Chest, a Grand Rapids Michigan nonprofit that provides quilts to people in need. Their mission is: “Our mission at Margaret’s Hope Chest is to bring hope, comfort, and warmth to persons enduring hopeless situations in the Grand Rapids area through the gift of a beautifully crafted quilt.”

They have committed to providing a quilt for each homeless child in Grand Rapids for Christmas, which will be given along with a toy and a book. The organization that provides support for homeless children already has the toys and books. This means that Margaret’s Hope Chest has committed to providing at least 400 quilts!

They need help. I am providing some free ‘advertising’ for them, because I think their reason for being is really great. You can hear the whole story on the CraftSanity podcast, but the short version is that they created Margaret’s Hope Chest as positive way to deal with the grief over the death their mother / grandmother. She died of wounds inflicted when someone tried to snatch her purse.

The organization needs quilts and tops to arrive by November 15. If you have a quilt or top you are willing to send for a homeless child ages 0-17, or you are willing to make one, please send all donated quilts to:

Margaret’s Hope Chest
630 Griswold SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49507

For further information feel free to call or e-mail:

Carin Vogelzang
(616) 855-2862
margaretshopechest@yahoo.com

One thing they pointed out is they need quilts for male teenagers as well as little girls who love pink. Think of a child for whom you would like to make a quilt and make that quilt.

The quilt can be made from any pattern that involves squares.
I know this organization is probably not in your area, so if you want to do something, but want it to be local, send something to a local charity. They can always use a quilt or a crochet afghan or a knitted scarf.

Thank you!
clipped from craftsanity.com

Quilting for a cause

Calling all quilters! Margaret’s Hope Chest, a Grand Rapids-based quilt charity, needs your help to make 400 quilts to give homeless children living in shelters over the Christmas holiday.
Today my art & craft column is about Carin Vogelzang, and her mother, Carol Peters, the women who turned a family tragedy into an inspiring cause. Carin, of Toronto, and her mother, Carol, of Grand Rapids, co-founded the quilt charity Margaret’s Hope Chest in honor of Peters’ mom, Margaret Herrema, who died after she was critically injured during a purse-snatching in 2005. They have given away 102 quilts since founding the charity in Margaret’s name in 2007. Read the story of how Carin and Carol are giving people hope one quilt at a time.
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