Lunacy ????

I don't 'do' New Year resolutions, but I have decided to set myself some targets for 2008. One is to move myself on, in creative terms, at something more than the snail's pace that I usually manage. With this in mind, though by no means the only weapon in the armoury, I have signed up for Sharon Boggon's Take it Forward challenge which "aims to apply textile technique skills to design". Sharon is an embroiderer, I have watched her TAST challenge and been impressed with her commitment to this challenge which has required her to post a new stitch, with variations, every week throughout 2007. The TIF challenge is monthly which might seem leisurely to Sharon but will keep me on my toes!

What I'm looking for is a way to capture where I am now, so that I can try to measure what happens in 2008. Any suggestions with this would be very welcome!

Lots of sewing but no photos!

Having hurt a rib coughing (pathetic I know!) I've found a perfect excuse for being on holiday but not doing the usual thing of feeling guilty about sitting sewing. I've not been able to manage the biggish piece I'm working on so I've spent the last couple of days going through magazines copying features of quilts that I like, which is why there are no photos. I've made half a dozen 8" squares based on these quilts and learned lots, largely by seeing them in their 'before and after' quilting states. In most cases the construction techniques have been fairly obvious but one I copied has narrow wavy strips between larger pieces of fabric and I'm sure there must be an easier method than the one I used. But it did teach me just how much fabric can be 'moved' with a water spray and a hot iron .

YouTube

I belong to a union that wants to ban YouTube because of incidents of bullying. No-one can condone this kind of behaviour but I do think that it is naive to imagine that a ban is the answer, our only weapon is education. Our children have grown up in a digital age and if one door is closed they will open another.

The other side of this coin is that whilst YouTube has developed a reputation for carrying undesirable material it is also a wonderful resource for education: