Getting Back on the Horse or the Arch. . .

Well after a long hiatus from creative sewing, I manage to finally, start sewing again.  It was nothing major that stopped my creative process, but after my computer was finally up and running, Christmas happened.  Then we were solidly into the "dark" months of winter here in NW Pennsylvania.  Its never been my most creative time, but this year I was hit with a perimenopausal funk of exhaustion.  I was too tired to get anything done besides teaching at school and keeping the house running.  Still with the help of some  progesterone cream - which worked miracles btw - I'm back to my ole self!

With that said, I've  put aside Tessa's cows which still remain undone, and started back on the arches series.  I have Quilting on the Lake looming in a week, so I thought it might be time to actually start a whole new piece to get my creative juices flowing.  It was hard - very hard - but finally it seems that things are going smoothly again.

So this week I've managed to pick an inspirational photo from my huge file of them and to trace out the lines that the most important to me.  Sometimes this step needs some major editing work, but I really like the flow of the lines in this photo and thought I would use it just as.

Once that was done, I took out the handy set of gray scale color pencils I have and made a value drawing of the photo.  I find value drawings a super help and it really keeps me on track as I go through the process.  With the value drawing in place, I started to look at color palettes.  Since I feel so out of the whole creative process, I took out my art, quilt, and fiber art books and picked a piece that the colors really struck me.  Now I just applied that palette to my own piece - "easy-breezy".  Sometimes I go through such design and color angst that it really can stifle the whole process.  This way, I could jump right into the fabric stage of it!!
Well getting into the creative process is not like writing a bike but a little conditioning I'm sure I'll be back at it.