I guess those two words could easily describe the last week before Christmas. Lots of prep and getting cards, presents and food ready for the holiday. Work was a little crazy so I worked two days that I was originally planning on having off. The good news, I got all the stuff done that I needed to, so the rest of my time off is worry free. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends.

Today was spent putting some finishing touches on my quilt for the SAQA Tranquility exhibit. David thought I was nuts to be splashing paint on something that was all quilted and bound. I am starting the first processes on my Turmoil quilt for the sister exhibit. Now the fun part of waiting for the paint to dry. As soon as it dries on Turmoil, I can start my "pre-sewing" like I did on Tranquility before I sandwiched it for the quilting. I am working on quilting designs to convey the turmoil feeling. Both pieces were cut from a design that I had printed in black and white from Spoonflower.
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What are you doing for your "end of the year" activities? Spending with family/friends or trying to get a little art done (or both}?
​Check out the SAQA calendar to see if there are exhibits in your area to see over the holidays.

I have started creating a photo book of some of our fiber art pieces. It is something that I have had on my "to do" list, (I won't tell how many years), but of course it is one of those things where you need some encouragement to get it started. The kick start came in the form of a friend introducing me to someone who asked if I had one. So here I go. I am using Blurb and their BookWright program and will blog about the process and the support programs I use. I did request paper samples and will be determining later whether I will be printing it on a matte or gloss.

This week I have been working on getting the calendars done of our work for gifts. This is my second year doing it and everyone was asking about them that got them as presents last year. I am going to have to plan to do some smaller works during the year so that I have enough for the 2017 calendar.

I am working getting my "Tranquility" piece done so that I can start "Turmoil". I did get the edges finished (I actually put a binding on this piece) so just a sleeve and label to go. I have plans that after I get the companion piece done that I will go back and add some color or embellishment to really tie the together.

I discovered a piece that I did not have up on the website (but had all the photos for) so I also did a little gallery updating. I really enjoyed creating this piece. I went through my fabrics, picked out ones that played well together and just created it on the design wall. This piece was created over several weeks using some of my favorite fabrics from Ghana batiks to Wendy Richardson's over dyed commercial pieces.

What's keeping you creative during this holiday season?