Learn Along With Me!

I have emerged from my thoughts. My camera works. I got a new box of goodies from my mother. I am ready!

First, I have to publicly commit to the fact that I've joined in the Great UFO Clean-out Challenge. Nothing like making New Year's Resolutions early! Each week, I'll take a pic and show progress the following week. I think we're doing it as a WISP Wednesday (Works In Slow Progress!), so that's the program I'm following, too. Stay tuned, and be motivated (isn't that a bit scary??!!!)

Second, something I've been wanting to achieve with this blog is finally ready to begin. Sort of. Oh, but as an aside, I can't remember where I got the design there (obviously somewhere on line) so do NOT use it for anything but personal use. Please.

Ok, back to it. . . As you see in my descriptive sentence above my profile, my quote is "Decorations and details are what makes it all worthwhile!" So on the one hand, I want to take a design, such as shown above. And I want to show how I try to alter the same design, say, four different ways, each time presenting something entirely different but at the same time not deviating from the basic drawing. This is been done somewhat similarly by others, but I want to try to take it a step further if I can. And, of course, links to other work will be appearing here periodically.

On the other hand, we all know how easily we are *ahem* able to be distracted. And like any other person-involved-in-textile/fiber-pursuits, it is OF COURSE always a good thing! Thus, just because I say I'm going to play with design altering, doesn't mean other things aren't going to be thrown in, or deviated towards, or downright fascinated with. Gosh, that almost sounds like a disclaimer, doesn't it!!

A lot of us have many and varied interests in the field of "needlework", and others like to look and collect. So with that in mind, something I'd like eventually to institute is a listing of sites with free patterns of any sort on the web. Others do that, too, it's nothing new, and mine probably will not be comprehensive per se. But I'd like to try. And I guarantee you won't be bored! But please be patient...I'm still learning the blog techie stuff, too!

Now, Sharon B. is highlighting the aspect of the Personal Stitch Dictionary, and her classes through Joggles are fabulous. Sharon is a superb teacher, and an incredibly knowledgeable woman with a wonderfully explorative mind. If you have not exposed yourself yet to her site (click above on her name), or to her classes, you may be a Truly Deprived Soul. I, on the other hand, do not have enough knowledge of anything (except the feeding schedule of my 100-lb. lap dog!) to teach. I'm in the process of learning, and I invite you to join my journey and learn along with me!

To that end, on another list to which I belong, someone asked a question about an available free Shibori tutorial. I had no idea at the time what Shibori was, so I decided to look it up. Well, I ended up finding four sites with a couple tutorials and some other interesting stuff, which I posted to the list. So tomorrow I'm going to find that list and post it here to start. Not sure how I'm going to organize the posting issue, but stay tuned, learn lots, and have fun with me!