Friday Favourites: Black Books

I cannot live without these two black books. They travel with me (both fit in my purse), they take up precious counter space, they define the days of my life.

Coil Bound Sketchbook 
Over the years I've learned that I am much better if I have only one notebook. At one point I had one for quilt sketches, one for article notes and interviews, one for doodles, and one just for my purse. It became a giant pain in the butt to keep track of their locations at any given time and to search for an idea I had that one time. Now I keep one book only, this one. It holds all my ideas for quilts, articles, books, home renos... All in one place.

Moleskine Weekly Planner
Sure, I've had a smart phone for years. When I worked full-time I lived by my linked phone and Outlook calendar. But to manage the home life, the phone messages, the to-do lists, knowing Hubby's out-of-town schedule, birthdays and more I came to rely more and more on a paper calendar. For the past few years this trusty Moleskine has been the repository of the written details of our lives. I love the weekly planner that has a calendar dates on one side and a blank page for notes facing it. Perfect for capturing everything, including my blog schedule!

Put these two black books together and you have me. I don't keep a journal, but the collection of these two books will tell you more about me than any diary with a key.

Capturing Inspiration

Just because I was on vacation, it doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about quilts. 

Confession: I brought some hand sewing with me, but it never left the bag.

When you are open to it, inspiration is everywhere. Even my daughters were getting in on it. They pointed out textures and colours that would make a good quilt. 

I try to capture all inspiration one way or another when I see something interesting. Sometimes I sketch it out. Just a rough doodle and a few notes. I put date and location on the sketch that act as a trigger for my memory. Quite often I take a picture. It doesn't have to be a perfect picture, if the colour is what matters then who cares if the focus isn't perfect. My cell phone - which does not have a good camera on it - is filled with images that serve as inspiration scrap book.

It is pretty much impossible that I will make all the quilts that these inspiration images conjure, but it is nice to have a bank of concepts. You never know when the right fabric will appear for one idea, or you need a quick quilt and can't decide what to make. Then there are the times where you just HAVE to make something because the inspiration is too strong. I don't know anything about that...

Here are the images from my trip that may or may not get translated into a quilt one day.

Texture, all about texture.

Colour and stripes! Plus that age and fraying.

Light and texture. This is the sun through my hat.

My daughter loved the woven effect of this palm. Me too.

Blue.

Energy and colour contrasts.

This may be the start of a mild pink and white colour obsession.

Shape and line.

Curves. Simplicity.

Ahhh...

There is that expression about not knowing what you've got until it's gone. Turns out I didn't know I needed a vacation until I had one.

Vacation Books (Weekend Reads)

Time for a bit of a vacation. In my perfect world I would stay at home - a clean home - and sew for weeks on end with only myself to feed. This would indeed be a break. But my Hubby wants us, and rightly so, to take a real vacation from our lives. That means no sewing and writing for me and no Blackberry for him.

(Yeah, we'll see how long either of us last.)

So I've collected a few books for some uninterrupted afternoons. Maybe I'll actually finish a novel or two, instead of it taking me 6 months of reading five minutes a day before I fall asleep, book in hand and drool on the corner of my mouth.

If you've got any favourite vacation read suggestions, I'll take them.

In other news, today we tackled the first project in my new basement studio. It isn't quite done yet, but it is clean and is now home to a cutting table and sofa bed. The girls and I made a Christmas present and everything about it was perfect, right down to their erratic hand stitches. Just perfect.

And ready for a vacation.

Happy Holidays to all of you, we'll see you in January!