Be Creative

Have you ever tried to fit a three day weekend into a day and a half? Trust me, it doesn’t work.
Our fearless leader Myfanwy Hart from Chittle Chattle and Creating something every day 2014
finally shared out TWENTY ONE prompts to direct our efforts.

The first prompt was as follows:
Well, it’s the start of the weekend – the beginning of the day for some of you and the end for others. Let’s start by doing something unexpected.

Find a window that over looks your garden – or a space within your house that you know well. As much as possible just switch off distractions. Look at your surroundings long and hard. Don’t just use your sight but also listen and hear the sounds that you might otherwise ignore. If this is something you do regularly do it again – today you are going to use this experience so drink it all in. You are allowed to enjoy it with a tea/coffee/whatever if you need to save time or just want to. Let this become part of the experience. Stay as focussed as possible for 10-15 minutes.

We’ll take it further later.

That didn’t sound too difficult did it! I took my morning coffee out the back garden to make a start.
Then the barrage started!
I seem to remember Myfanwy saying she wanted us to react rather than deeply plan…. something like one quarter hour to work the prompt??

When I made the commitment for the weekend, I knew that on Saturday I would accomplish nothing because I was on an eleven hour bus trip to O’Reilly’s
More about that “later”.

I wrongly thought that the time difference might work in my favour, but when I arced up the computer this morning, and saw how many “prompts” that Myfanwy had added, I knew I would be playing catch-up for the longest time!
It’s 20.42 Brisbane time and my brain feels like it’s been in a full on blender all day.
So far I have completed/attempted nine prompts…………I THINK!
I have tried drawing a self portrait with my left hand (I am predominantly right handed, but still “do” some things better with my left than my right.
Selfie left hand

Apart from that I have “made” a small booklet from an A4 page: to note down “thoughts on sitting in my garden and enjoying the moment”

I found five pieces of fabric (three inch square) then cut ONE square into equal pieces and stitch those pieces to the remaining three inch squares using back stitch, stem , chain or…..

Cut a piece of card 6 by 4 inches, and on one side mark “POSTCARD” at the top, and mark a line down the middle.
Later I collaged paper to the opposite side (FRONT) of Postcard “to be”
I have NEVER enjoyed working with paper and glue! And today’s attempts have not changed my preference:
GIVE ME FABRIC and STITCHING EVERY TIME

Japanese papers bought Tokyo 2008

So! That was my effort for Sunday. I went to bed feeling like I had been through a round or three in a washing machine, and awoke this morning to read the prompts I had missed yesterday, and found that the paper post cards wouldn’t “work”
I had been in a fabric type mode rather than thinking of WRITING on the front of the card. So back to the drawing board—-for something more simplistic.
The discarded cards I can possibly use for the other Postcard swap.
At the moment I have no photos of today’s attempts, but what I did was use a cobalt blue acrylic paint over a daisy stencil. Writing will need wait until tomorrow when I decide on type of pen/ink colour to use.

It’s been an interesting and stimulating time. Yes I have been outside my comfort zone…….give me fabric, needle and thread any day.

I will complete the various exercises, hopefully during the week. I do not like walking away from an incomplete project, but my CQ Needlecase is demanding attention.

Japanese papers bought Tokyo 2008
Japanese papers bought Tokyo 2008