Three Creative Studios

Today’s post at MQResource is all about  New Year traditions and making resolutions. While the article focuses on popular resolutions. What I want to know is whether you make creative resolutions. Here at TCS, we are starting several new programs for 2010. Will any of them help you with your personal creative goals?

We would like to hear from you. Are you setting any creative goals for 2010? What are they? You can leave a note int he comment or if you make a blog post, add a link to your blog post below.

Sue and I were talking the other day about how we’d like to try to incorporate creating a sketch or doodle each week onto our list of goals for 2010. So we decided that to help motivate us to do that, we’d choose a random word each week to help inspire us to create a small sketch, drawing or even just a doodle. Then we thought, well there’s probably a lot of people out there in blog land who might want to do this along with us, so we’ve come up with the Creative Cue project. Each Sunday throughout 2010 we’ll be posting a new “cue” on the 3Creative Studios blog. You can use the cue to inspire you to create anything you want. Don’t draw or sketch? Well then you can use the cue to inspire a journal page, journal quilt, postcard, or even an ATC. You can even use the cue as a way to sharpen your photography skills and take a photo inspired by the word we post. It’s your cue to use and interpret any way that you want.

There will be a couple of ways to share your results.  When you post a photo of your Creative Cue results on your blog, website, Flickr, etc., you can then come to the specific blog post here and leave a comment which includes a link to your blog or site where we can all come and see what you’ve created.  We will also have a Creative Cue thread in the Three Creative Studios forum.  You will be able to share your Creative Cue results in the appropriate forum thread.

This is a no pressure program – join in any time and use as many of the creative cues that you want.

And of course we had to create a blog badge for this new program.

If you’d like to add this badge to your blog, simply copy this code and insert it in your blog layout:

<a href="http://threecreativestudios.com/blog/2009/12/26/creative-cue/">
<img src="http://threecreativestudios.com/images/creativecue.jpg"></a>

The latest Whistlestop Web Tour is posted at MQResource. This week I shared links to several projects for you to make your own journals and books.

To be honest, I am great at keeping lists and “after the fact” journaling (blogging) but I have never been good at creative journaling. I have a journal that I keep for my dyeing – plans and results and I have numerous journals all over my sewing room with bits of clippings, lame sketches and notes. But I don’t have any discipline around journaling. So I’d like to know how you journal.

Do you keep journals? How do you use journals? What do you keep in them? Do you have a journaling routine? What kinds of journals do you use and why?

Please share, inquiring minds want to know!

We’ve added two new free projects to the Three Creative Studios free project page! You’ll find directions to make this cool gift card sleeve by Terri:

and this gorgeous table runner by Vicki:

And the latest block in the Block of the Month program is now available!

And if you haven’t signed up for the Three Creative Studios Quilt Challenge 2010 program you can get all the details on that on the official Quilt Challenge blog here that we set up just for that program. We’re giving away a very cool prize package from Mistyfuse for the participants who post a photo of their completed quilt for the first challenge which will be announced on 1/1/2010. Find out all the details on that here!

I do a weekly article on the MQResource web site that focuses on things found on the web. Some of the articles are quilt or fiber related but I also find unusual web sites, resources, photos, tutorials…..basically whatever is on my mind at the time. Going forward, as I post the articles to MQR I will also post a link here for you as well.

This week we are going on a Youtube tour of Holiday decorations from around the world. I hope you enjoy it. I’ll post a link here each week as future issues are published.

Over the last year several quilt challenge groups have been organized (I’ve helped organize 3!). We know that there are a lot of you who want to join a group but aren’t sure where to find one or can’t get in to one because they’re all filled. We decided that it would be fun to start a 3 Creative Studios Quilt challenge group that anyone and everyone can join. Here’s all the details:

Starting January 1, 2010 and every two months following we’ll post a new theme word. You’ll have 2 months to create your quilt. By the time we get to January 1, 2011 you’ll have 6 completed theme quilts!

Log into the Three Creative Studios forum. You’ll find a category for Quilt Challenge when you log into the forum. Post a message in the introductions to let Sue know that you want to join the challenge.

Your finished quilt can be any size you want but it must be no smaller than 12″ square. You can use any medium you like but your quilt must consist of 3 layers held together with stitching.

While you work on your challenge quilt you’re free to blog about it on your own blog or talk about it in the forums. Post sneak peeks and give us some insight into your creative process. Post a photo of your finished quilt along with a description in the forums anytime during the week before the new challenge word is posted. We’ll be spotlighting some of the quilts in our newsletters and here on the 3 Creative Studios blog.

Questions?  Just email Sue at sue@threecreativestudios.com

Well there’s only a few more days left to get your November block finished and posted to be eligible for the next prize drawing, which will be held Dec. 16. If you would like to participate, you still have time. Just post a photo of your November block to the Three Creative Studios forum (link at right) by December 15.

Earlier this year we moved our online class forums from a yahoo group setting to a ning group application. We made this change to enable us to support new initiatives such as our block of the month program and to make it easier for us to manage the registration and online class support process. Unfortunately the ning group application is not as user friendly as we would like it to be and is cumbersome and awkward to navigate. So after much research and subsequent testing of several other options we’re happy to announce that we’ve decided to move to an online forum community application that we’re sure you’re going to find a lot easier to use. You’ll find the new Three Creative Studios forum here.

One of the benefits we really like about this new forum application is that you can browse the forum as a guest if you would rather not become a registered user.

Registration is free and easy so if you do register then you’ll have the ability to reply to and create new topics and post photos and questions. For those of you who have previously purchased an online class once you have registered with the new forum please email your forum user name to sue@threecreativestudios.com and let her know which online class forums you need to have access to.

We think that you’ll like this new forum a lot better than the ning group and find it easier to navigate and use!

Welcome to the Three Creative Studios blog!