On the Art Quilts FB page recently, a quilter asked: “Who on this list uses a sketch book? I’ve been told I should, but can’t get started …” or something to that effect. I’ve written a little before on how I approach this https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=3963 and https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=3030

In responding to that writer, I realised my sketchbook, see above, is a real book in which I do make pencil diagrams and notes of ideas. But it’s only one tool in my box, so to speak, partly because I only have one handbag this A4 book fits into, so it’s not always with me. Today’s photo shows the latest pages in my book with thoughts over several days about making eyes in various ways for a recently completed project. I don’t often include a graphic pictorial element in my designs, but the notion of ‘Eye’ might appear more often in my work, who knows?

Though I love pencil and paper (lists, diagrams) I do rely quite a bit on my smart phone. The camera is quite good, and there’s the memo function for any note I need to make. If we’re out for the day, I usually have my little point-n-shoot camera which always takes great photos. It’s smaller than my phone, so is ultra convenient too. So, really I could say my notebook, visual diary or sketchbook plus items transferable from my phone add up to a multi-media group, in which each medium has a role. I could perhaps add the sample bag into which I toss samples I’ve made once they’re assessed: I never throw them away, just put them out of sight and sometimes dig into them for a look at something I know is there.

The one exception to that comment is a little 5cm /2″ square piece of brown leather suede, heat bonded onto unbleached calico/muslin, with centre square cut out and little holes cut out of one edge of each piece. I keep it in full plain sight on my design wall, because I totally love it, and for years now haven’t been able to decide where to go with this idea. Maybe something sheer … my regular readers know I keep this idea in plain sight too, without ever seriously settling on what to do with it 🙂

That might be an idea for this year’s SAQA auction quilt, which I normally turn to making early in the new year.