My 2015 Ta Da! list

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Woke up in New Zealand to sunshine and roses. Hope you have a 2016 that is full of love and laughter and creative joy. This rose is in my garden - called Double Delight. I wish that for you this year

Before I look towards creativity in 2016, I want to take a moment to celebrate and share my completed projects for 2015 (as suggested by Michelle Ward). I've separated them into paper projects, quilt/fabric creations, and other fun things.

First up was my Paper Stitched Daily Journal which I finished on 2nd January

And then a week later my Full Tilt Boogie Journal was finally full

In February I was back to work at school with a new diary

Work diary 2015

And then I was able to get on with my 2 main art journal projects for the year - Documented Life and Life Book 2015...
I chose a word for my year which was NOURISH - it appeared in a lot of my art over the year.
This was my first page for Documented Life :

Posted January 7th

and here's that journal now completed :

This was my first main lesson for Life Book :

Posted January 11th

and here's what I created from that class through the year (see my previous post)

This next one is a cover created for the notebook I will be using for notes for Life Book 2016. I haven't actually blogged it yet, but since I made it on the last day of 2015 it has to be shared here :-)

My other main focus for this year was to be quilts. I started the year by attending 2 classes with Karen K Stone in the last weekend of Jan/beginning of Feb. I kept my "On A Lark" piece small, and it became the holder for my Life Book lessons above :

Fabric Folder : posted February 20th

In March, my niece turned 21 and gave me a good reason to finish another quilt

Mystery quilt finished for 21st : March

Not a quilt, but made with some of my fabric stash - I was really happy with how this wrap skirt turned out :

Blogged in May

At the end of May, I was really REALLY excited to get a new Janome 8200 QC sewing machine :

"Wild Women don't get the blues" was the other quilt class that I took with Karen K. Stone at the end of January. In June, I started my "Spiked-border-a-day" project in an attempt to make some progress...I now have a finished quilt top ready to quilt over the holidays

Quilt top completed October

I also made time for various other small projects through the year. In March, a friend had her birthday and I turned a wooden word into a piece of wall art.

LOVE : posted March 2015

Then it was winter, and I fancied a knitted headband

 posted June 2015

In June I also had my birthday, and celebrated with a playday with friends. We made collages inspired by the work of Anne Brookes - another tick off my wish list :-)

Blogged HERE

In August I had another friend with a birthday, and I enjoyed creating LOVE (above) so much, she got JOY

Blogged HERE

In September, I was asked if I would like to teach a short (2 hour) art class for our local library's local history week. This was my sample :

Class details HERE.

I've continued to make birthday cards like these :

Blogged my method HERE

And my school librarians received handmade bookmarks from me as a thank you for the year

Blogged my method HERE

Then it was Christmas time :

Batch 1 HERE

Batch 2 HERE

So when compared to my initial plans, not as many quilts made as I had thought I might, but I am so happy with how I've grown with my art journaling and other mixed media projects and it was such a lovely surprise to be asked to teach :-)

Hope you are celebrating your creative achievements  - it's important to recognise what you've learned and how you are moving forward on your creative journey. 

And now's the time to look ahead to 2016 : What choices are you willing to make so you can create art?

Wishing you Creative Joy in 2016