Thank Goodness for Sketchbooks

You know the saying, 'When it rains, it pours"?
Well, this week I received two requests to participate with quilts in some fun projects. Naturally, they both had very short deadlines... so I had to think about whether I could meet the deadlines, or decline.

As luck would have it, I knew that I had a good start on a design for each sitting, waiting for me in my sketchbook. I was able to use  a couple of the 5 minute - word sketches from the 30-day challenge last year.

So, taking these two sketches -- and turn them quickly into designs, and say yes to those deadlines.

The word for day here was 'summer', but the flowers I chose to quickly sketch that day worked nicely into a quilt design that will show up soon on a very special project.

 And for the second project I used the sketch below.
The word for this day was 'bridges'...
and since the theme of my drawing was the bridge going over the river between Paducah and IL it was the perfect start for a 'River-themed' quilt.

The design I came up with is below, and I am pulling fabric for it today... but, I am happy that I have a bunch of possibilities to kick start designing.

I'm looking forward to digging through those silk bins.

This is one of the flying geese bridges that are close by and inspired the original 5 minute sketches. This single one crosses the Tennessee River and there is a double on that crosses the Ohio.

Happy Stitchin!

Home, home, home

Hi All,
I've been home from Tucson for a couple of weeks now -- and one would think that being home was to be laid back and lazy time. (wishful thinking on my part, really)

Since my return I have been working on one largish task and two high on the list 'things to do'. The largish task has been the reworking of my website rosehughes.com.   Since my plan this year is to stop with traveling too far afield for teaching there needed to be a major overhaul. I believe my part now is done, and it is now my webmaster's turn.

The first of the high on the list 'things to do' was to get ready and actually film my episode of PBS Expressions. The filming took place on Friday and it was a blast, the photos here find me first in the green room, then caught mid-sentance during the interview. I look forward to sharing the particulars on when it will air with you all, but for now I am happy to have this behind me...

...so jump in the 'things to do' number 2.
Number 2 is working on my latest on-line workshop. To kick this year off I chose to work on taking another of my favorites & my students favorites real world workshops into cyberspace. The workshop is Color Journaling, and I have a whole week of days this week to continue with preparing and recording some of the fun activities that will be part of this class.

Today it has been snowing... lightly all day...
The perfect day for some more color fun.

Stay tuned.
~Stitch on