There are only two things that made me join and stay on Facebook: #1 is that as a member of a few fantastic groups I met some amazing people ♥ and #2 that I couldn’t find a viable alternative.
#2 has changed, and I’m moving.
Although I will still check in on Facebook for a little while, I’ll be more active on MeWe.
I’d love to see you there!
Click the links to see my profile or to join the Creative Roundabout group.
A couple of old T-shirts with a partial design sketched with chalk – basted and ready to be stitched.
What do you think I’m working on?
What technique am I using, and what might the central motif be? 🙂
Long time, no post…so maybe a quick update is appropriate. 😉
After having explored the world of colouring page design for almost two years, I realized last summer that it’s not as fulfilling as I had expected. I’ve always liked to create with many different materials, and my addiction especially to textiles, paper and mixed media is known, but I had very little time for them. And I also missed teaching.
The past few months I spent testing and preparing a new direction:
World of Magnifica (where I used to promote my colouring designs) will become an arts & crafts & creativity site where I will promote my own courses in combination with tutorials and curated content. That will give me plenty of opportunity to get my itchy fingers stitching and crafting again…not that I need an “excuse” for that, but I think this added purpose will help me to give it enough space in my life.
Do you perhaps remember this one-by-one design? It’s the only “larger” piece I did last year…finished in February: 15 x 15 one-inch squares, some of them halved as triangles, and done as EPP. Although it’s all stitched together now, it’s still pretty much the same – still pinned to that fabric covered sheet of polystyrene because it looks so good on the wall that I can’t get myself to turn it into the pillowcase it was meant to be. 😀 Other than that, I experimented a little bit here and a little bit there, but without really knowing where I wanted to go with it.
And now I do:
Here on Quilting Oneness I want to focus on textile topics and blogging especially for crafters. I’ve collected so much information and so many great resources that I’ve never posted about that I believe I can come up with a post a week. These curated posts will be rather short, but at the moment that’s the only way I can keep them consistent. – Is it just me who believed that a blog post has to be looong in order to be valuable???
My new site CourseShaper specialises on “all about course creation“. I started teaching adults in 1989, but when I looked into creating online courses a couple of years ago I was totally overwhelmed. There was so much more to it than when teaching locally, and a lot I had yet to learn: making videos, getting and staying organised with files and folders in many places (not just on my computer), promoting courses, launching, finding new ways of communicating with students and engaging them online,…
Although now there’s quite a lot of helpful information about how to create and market courses, there a still gaps, especially when it comes to practicalities, efficiency and making things simple. My goal with CourseShaper is to eventually offer all that I wish I’d had when I started out and which since then I’ve created (and am still creating) for myself.
One of the first of those “tools” was a process for coming up with images for blog posts, social media and Pinterest. For a long time I had a total block (still unexplainable to me, considering that I’d been teaching design!) when it came to creating them. If I really wanted to blog more, and professionally, then I needed to find a quick and easy way for coming up with good quality images.
I did – completely without using complex programs like Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator – and I also found a way of teaching it to others – you, if you like. 🙂
So you may take the title of this post literally: New year, new course!
Today, I’m happy and excited to present to you my very first CourseShaper course (via CourseCraft):
Valentine’s Day Image Design for Non-DesignersFor non-designers, creating eye-catching images for their blog or social media can seem to be a daunting, time-consuming task.
If personal style is important to you, you might consider outsourcing image creation to a professional…but wouldn’t it be much more fun (and save you a lot of money) if you could do it yourself? Not just once or twice, but as often as you like?
Convince yourself that creating your own, one-of-a-kind images is far easier & quicker than you might think!
As you’ll see on the course page, the description and the Table of Contents are very detailed, so I don’t want to explain here. You’ll also find there many examples of quick designs that I made using the exact process that I’m teaching.
The course launches next Thursday 17th January 2018. Until then it’s in pre-launch mode – with 50% discount! Here’s the link: https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9Tm4
If you have any questions regarding this course, please post them in the comments!
And if you’ve also decided on a new course this year – I mean for yourself and your life – I’d love to hear about it!
Wishing you a happy, creative and abundant 2018!
Maria xx
During December 2016, which was a particularly topsy-turvy month for me with stressful events, delays and other surprises like health warnings, I learned something that was very important: The world does not end just because I can’t do or finish in time what I had planned to.
This time round I paid attention, learned my lesson, and have since been able to maintain a steady, sustainable pace…
No multitasking but a relaxed focus on what I’m doing at the moment.
Simplifying decisions rather than trying to do everything at once.
Scheduling ahead, but without using this plan for putting pressure on myself.
Taking time-outs whenever necessary.
Practicing intuition by feeling inside what’s best right now instead of looking at the clock.
Going with the flow and not rushing after it or resisting it.
So although there are still three projects which I had thought I’d finish in December, I’m fine with “missing out”. They are still there, and I’ve actually started thinking that the time just wasn’t right for them.
But there’s one project which I didn’t give much thought – you know that sort of thing, at the back of one’s mind yet without perceived importance – and it kept nudging me.
In October last year I went along with the Inktober challenge, and ended up outlining graph paper all month. 😉
Because I design colouring pages, I coloured some of my Inktober drawings to see what they might look like.
The obvious next step was a textile interpretation of one of the designs. As I didn’t think of turning it into patchwork at the time of colouring, I couldn’t match the colours with the fabrics I had, but I got close enough and do like the result.
I haven’t done English Paper Piecing for a loooong time, and was looking for a mindfully-mindless hand-stitching project anyway, so I started cutting 1″ x 1″ paper templates (some of them halved as triangles) and the fabric middle of November. By Christmas I had all the pieces tacked and pinned onto a polystyrene board.
And now I’m piecing all the 1 by 1 squares together, one by one, 225 of them (not counting the triangles).
When that’s done, I’ll decide on whether I want to add some shadow with a bit of embroidery to recreate the effect I achieved in the drawing, or quilt it, or just turn it into a pillow case or wall hanging.
If anyone is interested in my Inktober designs – for colouring in but of course also for turning into a textile project (cross stitch, patchwork/quilting) – please tell me so in the comments, including what you’d like them for. I have 31 patterns, and most of them are suitable for “conversion”.
By the way, my printable Fill-me-in Patchwork Calendar 2017 (see also the previous post) is available only for two more days, until 31st January. Then I’ll take the calendar down, the JPG Colouring Images collections (Blocks or Quilts) however will remain available. Please note: The calendar as well as the colouring images are intended for colouring or testing out colour combinations for cross stitch, patchwork or quilting projects. They are hand-drawn and therefore not mathematically exact, nor are any instructions included.
(Reposted from World of Magnifica)
No time for sewing? How about some colouring or tangles! 
Or are you still looking for a special – and very different – Christmas gift?
Until midnight GMT 11th December 2016, World of Magnifica celebrates the Launch of the
Here a quick run-through:
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This bi-weekly Calendar with 26 pages for colouring, doodles or tangles is available with black lines for more contrast (and black tangles), or gentle grey lines which after colouring look like hidden seams.
But because not everyone wants a calendar, I’ve added as an alternative a couple of packages with JPGs for printing out and digital colouring, either the 13 Blocks or the 13 Quilts.
The Fill-Me-In Patchwork Calendar and the JPGs are available on the World of Magnifica page on Payhip.
Note: The designs are fairly simple, based mostly on suquares, rectangles and triangles. Intermdiate quilters will recognize most of them and be able to turn them into a quilt. But both the Calender and the JPGs are hand-drawn designs for colouring and tangles, not patterns, and do not include any instructions!
Contests, discounts, freebies and giveaways and more fun and games!
Come join us on Facebook in the CTTC – The Colouring, Textiles & Tangles Connection,
or the special Launch Party Event organised by The Coloring Co-op (private group – in order to access this Party you must join the group first)!
Everybody who joins gets a Welcome gift plus the Unexpected Treasure for colouring in – and that’s only two of the freebies you’ll find!
This Unexpected Treasure colouring page is only available for free and for a limited time! 🙂
If you can’t or don’t want to join the groups: You can get the Calendar and the JPGs – and other colouring pages and cards – on the World of Magnifica page on Payhip.
And until 31st December 2016, I’ll give you a 20% discount for sharing on Facebook or Twitter!
Enjoy!
Maria ♥
The background (excerpt):
The Skin We Are In exhibit was born out of the absolute incredulous frustration at the AQS Quilt show people pulling not one but two works by the Art Quilter Kathy Nida due to a single complaint of one show guest who “thought they saw” a penis on one of the quilts that were part of the SAQA exhibit within the the AQS traveling quilt show. Get the full story here, right from the quilter herself! There was no Penis.
When and what (excerpt):
Starting January the second (2nd) BadAss Quilters Society will open to submissions from quilt artists world wide whose work deals with the raw human form. Yes, that means if your work leads you to doing the naked human body in quilted form this is the show for you. Currently this show will be curated as an standing online exhibit with the hopes of getting it picked up into an actual traveling quilt show ( how cool would that be?)
For details read the full article on the BadAss Quilters Society blog.
And here once more the link to the story behind I Was Not Wearing a Life Jacket, the “offensive” work by Kathy Nida, which had been touring with the People and Portraits exhibit since October 2013 before being pulled from the AOS Quilt Show.
Even if you’re not interested in participating in the exhibition, Kathy Nida’s articles give wonderful insights into her creative process and techniques, with many images from her sketchbook and her quilts, and detailed how-to’s.
Please share to spread the word!!!
Quilting Oneness 