Keep Making Art

The last 6 months have been a time of transition for me in many ways.  For one thing, we shut down our fiber art supplies business to concentrate more on our artwork.  That has been freeing in many ways, but there have been so many changes and details to take care of that suck up time and energy.  In addition, with more time to spend on making art, I sometimes find it hard to decide what to do. Without a deadline for something that has to be finished, I have too much freedom and can't make a decision.  My mantra for these times is "just do something, keep those creative juices flowing."

My latest "just do something" project has been making yardage from my abundant supply of scrap fabric.  This project grew from our planned downsizing of our studio and the need to clean out things we don't need.  I had so many tiny bits of fabric stashed away for 'some day.'  I decided that rather than just sorting through them to decide which individual bits to keep,  I ought to either use them or toss them.

I started with a large pile and first sorted them by color family.  Then I began piecing them together randomly to make larger pieces, working from the center out.  I used the smallest bits in the center and kept adding around the outside till I had no more pieces that were big enough to add.  Then I'd start another so I'd have more than one piece in similar colors.

I've created bunches of these now.  This is just a sample.

When I started, I had no idea what I would do with them.  I just knew that these larger pieces would be more valuable to hang onto than the scraps.  I've found that not only do they feel more valuable, but inspiration for them has come along as I work on them.  More about that next post.