Tangled Thursday: String #058

When Marie issued this week's challenge - to draw a Zentangle using string #058 from tanglepatterns.com - I was unsure.  My Zentangles rarely follow the "rules" and using a "pre-fab" string was new to me.  But I had a blast!  Who knew there were so many ways to interpret a few lines and curves?

My first design sticks to most of the Zentangle guidelines and uses some new-to-me patterns, so I labeled them in case you want to find them.  

My second version widens the lines of the string to make each section separate.  It reminds me of a broken plate - the pieces fit together but don't quite make a whole plate again.

Number 3 goes back to the first week of Tangled Thursday when I used a "tiled" background.  Time to try it again.

A variety of curly-ques gives a totally different look.

And finally - my favorite.  Can you see the original string?   Actually, I used four strings - one in each quadrant of the square - each rotated 90 degrees.

If you'll pardon my minimal "Paint" skills, this is the basic outline of the four connected strings.

Thanks, Marie, for a fun and challenging theme!  And speaking of themes, it's my turn to choose the challenge for next week.  In honor of the Winter Olympics beginning February 7, Zentangle the Olympic rings.

As always, the interpretation is up to you --  color, no color, interlocking, overlapping, realistic or abstract... just have fun.

Tangled Thursday is hosted by Heather @ Books and Quilts.  Visit Heather to see what people are "tangling" or to link up.

Needlework Tuesday

You can't tell by looking, but I really did accomplish quite a bit this week. 

• Last week I mentioned the 200 mini-quilts I need to get made by May.  Several people asked for a reminder of where this project is going.  The mini quilts are for a friend who needs 2500 of them by May for a national church conference she is attending. They are just a 4-patch sewn to a backing square (no batting) and turned right-side-out. A small wooden cross is tucked inside and the opening hand stitched closed.   She parcelled them out in batches of 200 to friends and family who sew.   Chain piecing whenever I have a few spare minutes is making measurable progress.  I'll just keep plodding along on them.

• For a break, I made a prayer flag to represent our prayers for my father-in-law, who was recently diagnosed with cancer.  If you're not familiar with prayer flags, read this post for my interpretation.

• With the remnants of fabrics I used to make Christmas gifts, plus some fat quarters I received for Christmas, I have reached the goal of . . . [drum roll, please] . . . four hundred different fabrics - necessary to make my "book quilt", based on this quilt from The Last Piece.  I had to special order the fabric I wanted  - cream with faint swirls - to create the negative space above the books, but it has arrived and will be in my hand Wednesday, so I have no excuse not to get started . . . except those 200 mini-quilts.

• And finally, from the Not-So-Successful Department - jumbo-size spool knitting.  Last week I discovered and enjoyed spool knitting, but I'm still unsure what to do with the pencil-size knitted tube.  In a stroke of brilliance, I decided to try the same process using a hexagonal loom from some past project.  It's fun - but the result is just a larger knitted tube with no obvious use.  I suppose if you went on long enough, you could use the tube for a scarf, but I went through half a ball of yarn just getting this far.  I decided the end didn't justify the use of time and supplies, so I ripped it out and saved the yard for another day.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather @ Books and Quilts.  Visit Heather to see what everyone is stitching this week.

Tangled Thursday: Paisley

This week's Tangled Thursday challenge was "paisley".  Simple - paisley is evidently my favorite shape because it sneaks it's way into nearly everything I draw.  But it turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected to dedicate an entire tangle to paisley.

I know I'm dating myself again - as I did in the daisy challenge - but paisley immediately brings thoughts of the 1960's , hippies and psychodelic:

Drawn with Neon Sharpies on 5x7 heavy sketch paper

My second thought was water drops:

It's a very simple tangle - only uses four patterns - but I like it for it's simplicity. This was also drawn with Sharpies on 5x7 heavy sketch paper.

A word about Sharpies.  I have purchased a variety of types of pens including some comparatively expensive architect pens, but I always return to the good old fine-line sharpie.  I like the width of line, I like the way it flows, and I like the way the ink reacts on paper.  I buy them by the dozens at Dollar General.  I still break out the high-dollar pens for detailed work, but most of the time it's a Sharpie.  I'm a simple girl!

Tangled Thursday is hosted by Heather @ Books & Quilts.  Visit Heather to see how everyone interpreted "paisley" - and join in if you like.

Needlework Tuesday

It's been a busy crafting week at Green Acres.  After an hour-and-a-half of cleaning and sorting to get Christmas fabrics put away and supplies stored where I could find them again, my "studio" (as I call my corner of the basement) still looks disheveled, but I'll work on new shelving and storage later. 

Right now there are projects that HAVE to be done.  Like finishing 200 mini quilts.  I have over 150 cut out, and about 50 of those have tops assembled, but still a long way to go.

There are also projects that I WANT to do.  I have been itching to get back into sewing garments, something I haven't really done for since high school home-ec. class.  I recently saw a request posted on Facebook by Dave's cousin, asking for donations of "frilly" dresses to be sent with a missionary to Uganda.  When I asked for details of "frilly", she said that all donations were accepted and needed, but the young girls really like receiving dresses with ruffles and frills.  I can't resist the chance to make adorable pink dresses.  So I purchased a pattern labeled "Easy to Sew" and a variety of girly fabrics/trims.  I have one dress started, but the verdict is still out.  I'll let you know next week. 

And for a craft I could do while watching Denver win the AFC Championship (Go Broncos!),I discovered spool knitting. (Great tutorial from CraftyPod)  I didn't have a wooden spool, so Dave created a couple by drilling a hole through a piece of dowel.  It's a fun craft, but I'm not sure about the usefulness of a pencil-sized knitted tube.   A Barbie scarf?   I found ideas for making coasters and stuffed animals and jewelry.   Anyone have experience with spool-knitting or ideas for projects?

Just out of curiosity, I dug through my cedar chest and found a plastic loom that I used for making placemats many years ago and I'm trying the spool-knitting technique on it.   It would at least make a human-size scarf.  Results in a future Needlework Tuesday post.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather at Books & Quilts.  Visit Heather to see what everyone is stitching this week.

Changing Focus . . .

I resolved several years ago that the only resolution I would ever make is to not make resolutions.  I've stuck with it so far!  But this year I got enthused by reading my sister, Teri's blog.  Teri set "focuses" for the new year - not resolutions which are all-or-nothing, but areas where she wants to focus her attention and make changes.

I got so enthused, in fact, that I started to write my own list of "focuses" for 2014 - but as I wrote, I noticed that, unlike Teri, my focuses were turning into specific goals  - lose 30 pounds, finish my "book" quilt, make five dresses for missionary clothes drive - which are awfully close to resolutions. 

While I pondered that, I visited one of my favorite blogs - Lit and Laundry - which led me to this article, which advocates focusing on "systems" rather than goals. 

What's the difference between goals and systems?

• If you're a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.

• If you're a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.

• If you're a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month

If I put the emphasis on the goal, two things happen.  First, I judge myself in finite terms, based on the number of goals reached, and consider myself a failure if I don't reach the goal.   

When you're working toward a goal, you are essentially saying, "I'm not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach my goal."  The problem with this mindset is that you're teaching yourself to always put happiness and success off until the next milestone is achieved. 

The second downfall to focusing on the goal is that when I reach it, I quit.  If my goal is to lose thirty pounds rather than to change my attitude toward food and how I eat, when I reach that goal, it's easy to check it off the list and move on - then let the weight come back. 

When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time.

In other words, focus on the journey and you will arrive at the destination.  Instead of vowing to lose weight, I focus on eating healthy and being more active, and the pounds come off.  Instead of vowing to finish X number of sewing projects, I take time to be creative every day and projects are completed. And I enjoy myself more and chastise myself less

So, I resolve to make 2014 the year that I quit worrying about reaching goals and focus on the journey - and enjoy every day.

"Let's Keep Christmas Commercial"

I know Christmas is over and most of you have moved on to other things, but I tend to carry a little bit of Christmas through the year and I really wanted to share a fascinating magazine article that I didn't get around to reading until after the holiday.  I realize it's a long post, but I hope you'll stick with me - I promise there's a point.

Every year right after Halloween the world becomes Christmas-conscious - and people begin deploring.  If only we could have a real Christmas, they say....If only we could retrieve the holy day from the hands of vulgar moneygrubbers, they say.  They say, with earnest horror, that the price tag has become the liturgical symbol of the season.

Sound familiar?  Every year the stores start earlier and the nay-sayers get louder.  And I become more rebellious.  I have Christmas touches in my house year-round and I get frustrated at the people who try to limit me to celebrating one week, or even one month, per year.  Maybe that's why I was so interested in an article called "Let's Keep Christmas Commercial."  What?  Read on:

They say that commercialization has made the buying of Christmas presents a rat race.  God knows most of the gifts we peddle to each other have nothing to do with the infant of Bethlehem...With rare exceptions it is foolishly pompous to get scandalized and accuse manufacturers, advertisers and vendors of desecrating Christmas by trying to sell what you or I may think is silly junk...If you don't like what's being hawked this Christmas you don't have to buy it.  And if you're a sucker, your problem isn't seasonal.

Some people are dismayed...because they honestly fear Christmas is being de-Christianized, made nonsectarian.  They are upset when someone who does not share their faith sets up a tree and exchanges gifts and wishes them "Season's Greetings" instead of naming the holy day.  They resent the spelling "Xmas".  Others fret over the way Santa Clause and snowmen crowd out the shepherds.  Put Christ back into Christmas, these offended people cry.  As far as I know,Christ never left it.  He could never be cut out of Christmas, except in the privacy of individual hearts.

Wow!  That's a new perspective - and I like it.  It's up to me to keep Christ in my Christmas celebration and watching secular movies, decorating cookies or singing "White Christmas" doesn't remove Him.

It's always easier...to insist that the secularizing world prevents you from devotion.  Christmas is meant to be lived in the noisy arena of the shopping day countdown, amid aluminum trees, neckties and counterfeit French perfume.  If all the meditation I get around to is listening to Scrooge and Tiny Tim or begging heaven for patience to applaud a school pageant, I'm a fool to blame anyone but myself.  Census time in Bethlehem was distracting, too.

The author, April Armstrong, challenges every Christian to hold only themselves accountable for how they celebrate Christmas.  But what really struck me about this article, and the reason I wanted to share it with you all, is where I found it.

"Let's Keep Christmas Commercial" was published in the Saturday Evening Post on December 18 . . . 1965.  Yes - forty-nine years ago.  The more things change . . .

I recently acquired a stack of Saturday Evening Post and Life magazines dating from the

1960's and 1970's.  Based on my in-depth research (10 minutes on Ebay) they are worth several hundred dollars, but before I try to make a profit, I plan to read them and share other interesting things I find.  So stay tuned for more "retro" posts.

Tangled Thursday: Here Comes The Sun

Heather @ Books and Quilts, our gracious host for Tangled Thursdays, has been feeling a little chilly.  More than a foot of snow and below 0 (F) temperatures have her longing for sunshine and heat, so her Zentangle challenge for this week was "sun":

Draw a sun and fill it with tangles, or draw tangles in the shape of a sun.  Do what you need to make the sun shine.  Add some sunny colors if you want, but make it hot and sunny.

Since we've had our share of teeth-chattering temperatures lately, I jumped on this challenge with enthusiasm.

I drew standard suns - 

Too blah.
I drew colorful suns - 

Too much!

I drew abstract suns -  

Too wild.

I even drew a beach scene - 

But nothing was giving me that warm, fuzzy feeling.    My favorite of the lot was this one.  

\

I think it strikes the best balance of design and color.  I added some shading to give it a more dimensional look.  I'm not sure it quite overcomes the 17 degree (F) weather this morning, but it's a step in the right direction.