Time for Creativity

I hope this post finds you and your loved ones well? I and my family are all well at this time and doing our part to social distance and be smart about things. Thank goodness the internet let’s us stay connected and less isolated but for the most part my normal day-to-day life hasn’t been impacted much! I rarely went out normally, because I work from my home and am generally too busy, to get away from my desk or sewing machine.

This social slow down has allowed me to do more of what I love to do best—create! I’m hoping it also allows you to find the time to do all those artistic and crafty pursuits you alway wished you could start.

Art Gallery Fabrics Spirited prints by Sharon Holland

Right now you’ll find dozens of fabulous quilt alongs happening on Instagram and what better way to dig into that stash of fabrics than with a fun, virtual sew along with your online friends!

I’ve joined in on the Star Crossing quilt along hosted by Lisa Ruble of Love to Color My World blog and love this quilt design in my Spirited prints for Art Gallery Fabrics.

Here’s (a virtual mock up) what my quilt will look like when finished. This medallion-type quilt design is rewarding to make because you see instant results from piecing and it goes together quickly. The sew along started last Thursday and will run until mid April so it’s not to late to jump in and get started. Find all the details about the pattern and quilt along on Lisa’s week #1 blog post.

If you’re not one for sewing along with others and want to just do your own thing in your own pace, don’t forget about all the FREE and for purchase patterns available on this blog. The shear number of projects from my blog could keep you sewing for a year or more!

Maybe you’d like to use this available time to start some sort of new craft or learn a new skill? I’m currently getting reacquainted with painting and purchased an online course on painting with gouache paint from Lena Rivo called Color Mastery. You can follow my painting journey on my Instagram page @sharonhollanddesigns.

Here’s just a few highlights from my recent landscape paintings. The scenes are from a trip my family made to Arizona last September where we visited Sedona and Flagstaff area. Luckily I took a bunch of photos that I’m now using as reference for these small paintings.

Maybe this is the time to stop saying “I can’t” and start learning how to do! I’m a huge fan of Skillshare and as an ambassador, I can offer you two free months of premium access to any Skillshare class. Yes, that’s anything and everything you’d have the desire to watch or ever wanted to learn more about! Use this affiliate link to start watching and get started doing, today!

What are your goals, dreams, and plans for your new-found time? Let’s make good use of this new type of norm by helping ourselves grow and lending a hand to others.

Keep healthy and safe. Be creative and help others if and when you can. For daily inspiration, join me on Instagram as I keep things inspirational and post about my sewing, painting, and creative endeavors.

Big, social distancing virtual hug to all!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Looking Forward to the New Decade

Resolutions have never worked for me. Instead, passion and goals are a much better motivator and reason for doing.

I don’t know about you but something about a decade change feels like it should be a big year. The last ten years I’ve been an artist, fabric designer, magazine editor, and back again fabric designer/author/quilt pattern designer. I achieved all those goals through continued education and passion. I’ve created an impressive amount of work during the past decade and this blog is visual proof of all that hard work.

Soul Searching

I’ve been struggling with whether or not to host some sort of quilting sew along or follow something I’ve been aching to do for a few years now—reconnect with painting. I know all of you would love a sew along and Maureen Cracknell and I have been kicking the tires on ideas but between our schedules and fabric collections it’s been very hard to nail anything down! The amount of advance work and prep is more than either of us can give right now. That doesn’t mean it’s an absolute “no” it just means I have nothing to announce at this time. Pursuing other aspects of Surface Design and being an artist means I need to put myself into my work 100% and follow my passion. This feels like the year to make that happen.

Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit Brooklyn Museum 2017

What I Need Right Now

One of the presents to myself at the end of last year was to buy the Georgia O’Keeffe Living Modern book from Amazon. I’ll have an affiliate link at the bottom of this blog post.

I was very fortunate to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in 2017. The book and exhibit are more than an exhibit of O’Keeffe’s paintings—it’s about her intentional life style to reflect her art in every aspect of her life. Her clothing, home decor, minimal life style, and everything she touched supported her aesthetics. The exhibit placed her beautifully constructed and designed clothing amongst her paintings and photographic portraits. She was what we would call today a social media/branding genius. From her carefully curated outfits of black and white for studied portraits of her, of her with her art, and at home her Instagram feed (if she had one today) would be so polished and cohesive without even trying. I can only aspire to have such laser focus!

Now, I’m not saying I’m going to go off the deep end and becoming a minimalist or making all my garments but I would like to be more deliberate in my choices and find my painting voice again.

I’ve dabbled in many mediums and currently am in love with gouache because of it’s poster-like qualities and how it was used by textile/surface designers of the past. If you follow my Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns feed you may have seen my series of book covers. This is just something for funnies on the side—my real love is oil painting landscapes.

I love old books and especially the poster-like illustrated ones. The Old Santa Fé Trail is a book I own that’s a first edition, signed by the author in 1897. I saw a later edition online that had a green cover and liked that better than my copy so I took some liberties for decor purposes and went this a more colorful coloration.

I’m currently working toward having some of these book cover art offered as prints whether is will be from my website or from a print on demand service—it’s one of my goals for this year.

I had given my sister an original book cover painting for Christmas and had framed it before sending it off. I envision a reading nook or home library with my framed art and totally need to make a piece for this sunny corner in my office!

Mathew Boudreaux of @misterdomestic on Instagram is hosting an Auction for Australia that began Wednesday January 8 and will run until the following week. I will be adding a select number of prints to the auction so be watching his @mrdauctionhouse handle for my listings.

Continued Learning

The key to achieving goals is to never stop pushing yourself and never stop learning. Every new experience can build off old skills and open your mind to new possibilities—that’s why I love SkillShare.

Whenever I want to learn something or improve upon what I already knew—especially with technology that moves so fast—I can find it on SkillShare. If you’ve debated about trying SkillShare in the past this may be the year, the decade to give it a go! I am a SkillShare Ambassador and with it have the pleasure to give you a referral link for a Premium Free Trial of SkillShare. The Premium Free Trial gets you into every and any SkillShare course you’ve been wanting to see for two free months. You can learn a lot in two months but just think what you could do in a year!?!?

Right before the holidays I had a few extra moments and sat down with my iPad and Dylan Mierzwinski course on Illustration Practice: Lettering & Florals with Adobe Fresco. The wreath illustration above is what I made after watching her course and learned how to use a program I’d not tried before and loved it!

Bonnie Christine Focus to Flourish on SkillShare

My memberships (and your free trial) gives me access to Bonnie Christine’s new Focus to Flourish SkillShare course. Here, Bonnie gives us helpful insight into how to use our time wisely as creatives, create good habits, set goals, and basically go from dreaming to doing. Bonnie has inspired me to do more with my skills and find that balance between work and life. She also has corses on surface pattern design and is a phenomenal teacher.

One of my very favorite fine artists to follow on SkillShare is Robert Joyner. His loose, expressive brush strokes, use of color, and technical skills help me to keep a fresh approach to my work. I’m basically going to go through every one of his course to get my oil painting mojo back!

Looking Forward

I do have a quilt in progress and will release a new pattern the end of this month or early February for sure. It’s called Prairie Flower and was the first quilt I made for my very first ever fabric collection with Paintbrush Studios (Fabri-Quilt). It seems fitting that this quilt started the last decade and brings in this new decade with a fresh remake.

Also, I’m working on a new fabric collection for fall of 2020 for Art Gallery Fabrics and over the next couple of month I’ll get that wrapped up. It’s very hard to work on that stuff behind the scenes and not be able to share for another half a year. Such is the life of a designer—I’m not complaining!

Wishing you all the best in 2020!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.