It's difficult to stay focused...

I wonder if anyone else ever finds it difficult to stay focused or limit themselves to just one creative outlet? I love quilting but sadly I have a lot of artistic interests that seem to pull me astray from my fabric endeavors.

So here's some examples of  today's distractions.

So my daughter gave me 3 photo canvas's that were sent to her by mistake and I wondered what would happen if I were to gesso them and try to do a 3 panel painting? Saw an idea on Pinterest, doing a little work on them each day in layers. Tomorrow more work on the sky area.

          

Sadly still owe my year and half old grand-daughter her painted chair. Again little by little.

I host my bee next week and decided to present variations for disappearing 9 square blocks
So spent some of my day sewing examples.

Liked the design opportunities with this variation. 

This technique seems to have endless variations, I look forward to exploring it more.

This block used charm squares and 1 1/2 inch strips,so many possibilities.

Simple 9 square block cut twice, rotated then resew.

So many possibilities, hope my bee enjoys our exploration next week. 

 So until next time.... Have a great weekend.

I"m back... lol

So I can't believe it is almost time for the Oct. Bee meeting and just noticing my last post was days before our Sept. Bee meeting.

So let's see, a lot has happened since my last post. I'll share just a few...

 

I finally finished and sent off a baby boy quilt that was a few months late.

I completed my quilt using the blocks my CJ Modern Quilt Guild bee members made me.

Entered it (one of my three entries) in Keystone Quilt Guild bi-annual Quilt Show and took a third place ribbon in the mid size team quilts. 

Managed a quick trip to MI to visit with my baby grandson, who I miss so much I NEED another trip to MI ASAP to get hugs from him again.

The Oct. meeting of (Keystone) bee meets at my house next week so I am working on my topic, disappearing nine or four square blocks.

Also working on completing the present Michael Miller Challenge.

Will try to update soon. 

So until I hope you are enjoy some fall colors.

Wondering how many others might be struggling with their blogs?

Technology has changed so much since I was young. I can remember when I was still teaching how we would joke that our students would have no idea what a typewriter was, an eight track tape or players, black and white TV's etc. etc. etc.
Along with the equipment changes of course came computer programs and then apps came along to complete the computer coding for us. You would think that life would be so easy...... haha.
I can remember creating stacks of lessons on Hyper Studio (another thing of the past teachers used to use)
To make a long story a little shorter, I realize how many changes technology has made in peoples lives. I love technology yet have been finding that if I use all that is available to me I have no time to create or just try to live in the moment.
I am at a turning point: After having a blog for 8 years now I am struggling about whether to try to get my old posting habits back or to just cut it loose.

Hmmmmmmm well it's time for me to get to my monthly Quilting bee, then off to see some of the grandchildren. Once again I am putting my blog on the back burner...... So I bid farewell for now? or?

Have a special day everyone, I intend to!

Ok so it's Tuesday night and I'd better try to post.

So once again you cannot believe how many posts I've written in my thoughts but to be honest I have been trying to stay away from the laptop or Internet so that I would stay with my creativity goals.
So lets see since last Friday I completed a quilt top that has blocks of my own cyanotype designs that I passed to 10 fellow members of my Modern Quilt Guild "bee", I can't wait to have fun quilting it as wild as it is.
To try to show my process I will try to post some photos I took as I was working along.
So the instructions I handed to my bee members were that they were to take the 12 inch cyanotype designs and use the Kaffe Fassett fabric I included in their envelope to create a honky log cabin sort of block ending in 16 1/2 in squares (if I recall my instructions correctly lol after all my month was Feb.) before my surgery and we all know what a wild ride I've had since March.

First there were seven returned blocks.

Once I got all 10 of the blocks returned to me I could begin designing a quilt top.
So here I am tacking the blocks and fabric strips on my design board.

Ok so this became the general design but then to add a border.

I worked in a row to row piecing, adding fabric to the blocks to form the completed  rows, ironing seams as the rows were sewn and compiled of course.

At this point I was getting excited to be almost finished with the quilt top,
loving the bright colorful fabrics.

The quilt top is now sewn together waiting to be loaded on my HQ16 and quilted, sadly my last photos have not shown up on my laptop via "the cloud" yet so I will try to add a photo of the completed quilt top w/ border as soon as I can.

Now onto my next project, there is so much going on at the Munslow house! Enjoy.

As promised here is photo of the completed quilt top next step get it loaded on HQ16 and have some fun.

It's been an interesting year so far, sadly though not for my blog.

I began writing this blog back in 2007, at that time I was a Public Middle School Art Teacher in VA and as Educators we were being introduced to many new processes that involved computers and using the Internet.  I can remember many in-service classes about and using various sites.  Remember "My Space"(lol that is sure an oldie) during that time there was much concern about our students mis-using the Internet and the need for us to understand the dangers the internet might pose for our students. 
There were search sites we were introduced to help us with our daily subject matter. Suddenly there were blogs. ;-)  I quickly began a blog about my student's work, (Sad to say I have no idea web address or the name I gave that blog now so cannot even locate it online lol.  
I bounced between Word Press and Blogspot.com which at that time was not under Google.  So much has changed app;ication wise since I began blogging.
I began this blog in order to join to an online 'Art Quilt' group, to join the group you had to have an active art blog that you posted in at least 4 times a month.
I admit I enjoyed writing or posting in my blog, it has helped me meet people from all over the world via the internet and more importantly it helped me stay on task with my art and quilting objectives.
As one might notice I somehow went astray since last November. I either lost my mojo, interest or possibly my old organization skills.
I sadly got out of the habit of writing about My life? My art work? My quilting? FB and Instagram have become so popular and if you try to be involved with them all it begins to eat up minutes of one's day. Wondering if you agree?
So much has happened during ("MY") thus far 2015, there have been such unexpected happenings in my life that along my way I set aside my habit of posting in my blog. 
I will tell you there have been many posts I've written in my thoughts, yet I never manage to sit down and type these posts out?
Thankfully I noticed a few other art friends I followed online have also slowed on their posting or the usage of their blogs.
I found I also began to acquire so many blogs I enjoyed reading or following that I began to get overwhelmed by how much time I was spending on the computer/Internet and thus not spending time in the studio. I wonder how many others find the Internet, though it can be wonderful, can eat up too many precious minutes of one's day?
Well I am going to try to think today is a new day and can be a new start. I hope to somehow begin to force myself to get back some of my old practices or habits. Blogging is one habit I hope to get back on track.
But until I get this figured out I will leave you with a photo I took this week while having the privilege of visiting Mt.Rainier National Park in the State of Washington. 

America sure is beautiful!