Little Bites of Creativity

I could go on about how busy life has been for me in the last few weeks, but hey, we ALL lead busy lives and busy-ness is overrated!

So instead, I thought I'd write about how I've been trying to squeeze in my quilting and art in little bits and pieces around the big chunks of 'life'.  I miss quilting and creating when I don't make time for it - I get a little grumpy - so I've had to think up ways to be creative in small bites.  And these small bites make a big difference to my mood.

So what have I found?

Handwork, in this case, embroidery on hand-dyed batting squares.  I can pick up my little embroidery kit and take a fair few stitches in 10 minutes.  I set myself a theme of circles so I don't have to think about what to stitch, I can just start.

Working in my sketchbook.  Particularly sketching on pages that are already prepared.  Or I can put together a collage of leftover practice mono prints on paper.  Me and my gluestick can make a beautiful composition in about five minutes flat!

Looking around at the world.  I can feel frustrated or I can let my imagination run wild while I'm busy painting white walls in my boat.  I can look at the ship's wheel and imagine how it would look on a quilt, superimposed over an image of the porthole.  And I can take photos of inspiring objects - whether it be for shape, pattern or colour - in about 30 seconds.

When I have a little more time, say 15 minutes, I can doodle free-motion quilting designs.  I often draw out the block I want to design a motif for and then I can draw over it in pencil until I find the right one.  I could do this on the computer too in a photo or drawing program, but pencil and paper are quicker and more portable round the house.

Then if I leave my quilt spread out under the sewing machine, I can sit down and quilt one block in about 10 minutes.  And those 10 minutes add up - all 28 of my 16 patches on my big blue and white quilt are now quilted.  It's time to move onto the 18 bordered square blocks.

How do you fit creativity into your life?

Progress!

So two weeks ago, my new house looked like this.

We employed a builder pretty cheaply who was desperate for work (thank you recession). And it seems he's been working his butt off, because yesterday we went out to the land (our name for our little piece of paradise, I'll have to think up something fancy like 'skylark ridge'!) and this is what I found:

Yes, we have a floor and a couple of bedrooms for the kids all framed up. Wow! It is actually going to happen. It is kinda scary when I look around the house that I am in and contemplate packing it all up. So I'm hooking into the FLYlady's theory on decluttering and her other theory on 15 minutes at a time.

FLYlady is a bit over the top for some people, but I've found she has got some good ideas and my house and life are definitely more organised since finding her! The 15 minute thing is just that you can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes. It keeps you focused and stops you whining. I use it all the time when I don't feel motivated, or have lots to do and don't know where to start, or even just to make sure I don't spend too much time on the net! I just set my kitchen timer (or the one on my computer) for 15 minutes and get stuck in. If I have lots of tasks and want to procrastinate by quilting, I quilt for 15 minutes, work for 15, quilt for 15, work for 15.......get the picture?