#14 and 15 mandalas

At this point I'm at #15 out out 100 mandalas. I'm thinking this is going to be a practice I continue even after the 100 mandalas are complete. I added a rock mandala to my album. I want to do more once I get better rocks. I wish I had a desk to keep it on.

I really want to get zentangle certified.

Amy

More Mandalas

I have shocked myself in the fact that I have been keeping up with the 100 mandala challenge. I am on day 13 and have made a mandala pretty much every day. One of my Facebook friends mentioned how this could be my morning meditation. I am so not a morning person and tend to stay in bed as long as I can, so there is not always time for morning meditations or morning mandalas. I am however, seeing the benefit of getting up a little earlier and having a little more time to myself before the kids get up and I hate to get my morning going. That may be the next change in my mandala practice. I have been doing a sugar detox and have definitely notice I have more energy until recently when I started being lax and adding more sugar or sugar like foods in my diet. I think this is something that may affect my mandala practice by me not having enough energy of motivation to complete them. I am back on the sugar detox as I think this may be how I need to live my life. I am hoping that I will continue to have more energy and become a more morning person when I am sleeping better throughout the night and have more energy through the day. I need to start working on a community mandala and get a rock to create a rock mandala which is the theme of this weeks mandala challenge, as well as finish Halloween costumes for my kids. Here are my latest mandalas as well as the start of my Halloween costumes.

Check out my friend Kathryn at http:/collagediva.typepad.com and try your hand at mandalas, zentangles, or just plain old fun doodling. Amy

7 of 100 mandalas

This is #7 of 100 mandalas. I have been having so much fun creating these. My 5 year old twins have been getting into it too. I added my daughter's mandala so people can see even a little kid can do it. I want to learn more and maybe even add certified zentangle teacher to my name.

Zendala

I'm on number 6 of my 100 mandala challenge.  This week the theme is zendala or a zentangle in a circle. I've always wondered about zentangles and what they were. Now I am learning and I'm loving it. I just bought a couple of books to at to my craft book collection and can't wait to add more zentangle and mandala books. They will hopefully become part of my professional library too. I love creating these mandalas. I feel like and artist, like I can draw. I'm try not to allow my perfectionist issues to make an apperarence as I create my mandalas and my zentangles. I hope you look forward my creations and you check out the links to other mandalas at http:// collagediva@typepad.com.

Enjoy,
Amy

Mandalas

My friend Kathryn Costa at http://www.collagediva.typepad.com is doing a 100 mandala challenge and I'm joining in. I have to say that I am having a blast creating these mandalas. I'm hoping to learn more about them and at some point use them in my social work career. I plan to post them often. As I learn more, I plan to write more about mandalas and their meaning. I am hoping to use my drawings in quilts as time goes on. I am even thinking that I can use crayons on fabric to help create the colors that I drew instead of trying to find the right colors and shading.

Amy

Quilting Thoughts

In my last post I mentioned how I bought some new quilting books. One of the is "Quilting Modern", by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederesen. Prior to this, I never paid much attention to the modern quilting movement. I was a little interested, but really thought I was only interested in the historical quality oh quilts and quilt patterns. After reading just a few pages in this book, I fund myself more and more interested in learning about modern quilting.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still love old, traditional quilt patterns, but I there is something about the large print, colors, geometric shapes, in modern quilting that I absolutely love. I have started to realize that I need to use more black and grey in my quilts. I want to use more color. And, after reading the beginning of this book, I want to be more of a designer than just following traditional quilt patterns.

I am hoping that this book may help me to see myself as more of an artist and less as a home crafter. There is absolutely nothing  wrong with being a crafter, but I want to see myself as an artist too. I'm looking forward to reading more and actually making some modern quilts.

Amy

My Latest Project

I took my kids to Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago. I decided to take a look at the quilting section and bought myself a few new books. One of them was,  "Creative Quilts from Your Crayon Box". I had a blast learning how to use crayons on fabric. The first 3 pictures show a couple of the tutorials that you are supossed to do to learn the techniques.  I then decided to move ahead and make an actual picture quilt. This was so much fun and while I admit to tracing the shapes, all the coloring and shading was all me.  I felt pretty accomplished at the end and can't wait to do more.

Amy