“The routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightining bolt of inspiration, maybe more. And this routine is available to everyone. … Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That’s it in a nutshell.” –Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit p. 10

WOW! When I picked this book up at the bookstore, I intended only to see if I wanted to order this book up via inter-library loan to read. Less than five minutes later, I knew I’d be buying it on that visit. I hesitate to tell you how many pages (most of them, by a long shot) have highlighter on them…..

The book is Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit,: Learn it and Use it for Life; click this link to see it on amazon. For those who don’t know her, Twyla Tharp is one of North America’s (and world’s) preeminent choreographers. She has created dances with the Joffrey, NYCity Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, London’s Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre (ABT)–talk about a Pantheon of modern ballet! She worked on Amadeus, won two Emmy’s for a TV program called Baryshnikov by Tharp… the list goes on and on, and includes an on-Broadway musical she developed to the music of Billy Joel. Wow…

Her book is riveting for me, not least because it echoes so much of what I believe about creativity. My bottom line is that ANYone can be and IS creative. Anyone can make art…and good art at that. You just have to devote the time it takes to learn the skills, then develop them.

I was going to do an all-in-one review here, but as I took notes of my highlightings last night, I realized I’m going to do a short review here, then periodically post quotes of things I find wonderful…..

The book covers how Twyla Tharp works, from walking into an empty dance studio (the equivalent would be a blank page for a writer or an empty design wall for textile artists), to rituals of preparation, your innate design sense, using your memories, organizing your ideas and inspirations, learning the necessary skills, learning how to encourage the muse to visit (she calls it scratching for ideas), recognizing an idea when you see it, fleshing out the idea into a piece, refining your skills, differentiating between being stuck in a rut and zoning in a good groove, learning from your failures.

She also includes exercises at the end of each chapter to help spur you on, exercises that she uses to get her doing during dry spells (and yes, we all have them).

I know I’ll be coming back to this book time and again…there are many words of wisdom here. I’ll leave with with what may be my favorite quote from the entire book (and which I think I posted on the blog a while back, or was it on an e-list?), and promise to post more good quotes every so often:

p. 173:

“Without passion, all the skill in the world won’t lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.”

Some of you may know that I work with Janome-America. They have graciously lent me a Janome 6600 (and before it, a 6500) sewing machine. In return, I have done a pattern for them and let them use my Bijagos Warrior in their ads (thank you Janome!!!!)–does it get any better? A loaner machine AND published! Thank you!

Now it is time to do another pattern, and with luck my Totebag with Mix-n-Match Pockets will be in an upcoming issue of the Janome International Digest (available from Janome-America and most Janome dealers—I’ll let you know what happens when it happens).

In the pattern, you get to make a totebag with NO exposed raw edges…everything beautifully finished inside and out, AND you get to pick a selection of pockets that suits your needs, from flat ones with pen slots to sunglasses to a water bottle (or folding umbrella) holster. But, the pattern got really long, so I did not include my “invisible pocket” that goes on the outside…. I’m going to offer this lesson to Janome as a web extra, but thought I’d share it here first just for you!

As you can see from the photo here,

it appears there is no pocket at all on the outside of the bag…but there is! See:

To make this pocket, you’ll need a totebag body that has a seam near the top, OR you could make a slash/buttonhole pocket like on a tailored jacket. It’s a lot easier with a seam! To try my way, follow these steps:

Cut a long skinny rectangle to make your pocket. Six inches wide is enough to slide your hand in nicely but not droop or sag. Length is personal preference; I like mine fairly deep so stuff doesn’t fall out (ahem!), so I cut my fabric 6 x 19 inches.

Fold cloth in half, right sides together.

Beginning 1/4″ BELOW the open end, stitch 1/4″ seams down the sides.

Iron seams as stitched to “set the seam.” Then iron one of the top edge seam allowances down. Then pin that folded edge down to keep it out of the way for stitching.

Turn the pocket over and pin to the seam two inches or so down from the top edge of your totebag.

When flipped up and over, there will be an opening at the top (it’s a good idea to place pins parallel to the edge, flip and double-check…sometimes it is easy to get this part backwards!).

Stitch with 1/4″ seam allowance. You may wish to use very short stitch length at the start and end of the seam.

Clip at a right angle to the stitching to within 2-3 threads of the end of the seam. If desired, reinforce with No-Fray, Fray-Check or some other anti-fray product.

Turn pocket, so that it looks like the picture below. The brown “accent” strip is stitched on the horizontal seam, but has a raw edge on the vertical (which is, of course, a scant 1/4″).

Next, you’ll sew on the top strip of fabric.

To prepare, pin the top edge of the pocket down and out of the way like this:

In this next photo, you can see that I like to put the new strip (which is at the top of the bag) underneath so that I can see what is going on with the pocket.

Hi all! Wanted to share what I’ve been doing this weekend…making totebags for Janome-America!

I’m doing a pattern for them as part of being in their artists’ program (where I get to borrow one of the best machines ever… the Janome 6600—-it is very close to perfect for me!).

These two totebags will be featured (I think) in an upcoming issue of Janome’s in-house magazine, the Janome International Digest. If all goes as planned, the pattern will be included. Of course, the instructions got long (I like to include lots of detail), so will be posting an extended lesson on making the invisible pocket on my blog and, perhaps if Janome wants to do so, as a web-extra (or in the magazine…whatever they desire!).

Yesterday, I went to the local fabric store, Fabric Bonanza in Rockland, and of course they didn’t have what I needed (D rings), because they never do, or if they do have what you need it’s cheap Dritz quality…sigh! Whooda thunk JoAnns Fabrics would look upscale. Anyway, I substituted—overall suspender clips instead of D rings—on the green and pine needles bag and love the look…could get really cute and funky with playful prints or denims. An idea to save and use again! To see them better, try right-clicking on the photo to get a bigger image.

Here’s a picture of the “pick your own” pockets inside, where you can select the type of pockets that meet your needs inside a purse:

If these look vaguely familiar, it is because a while back (April I think–yep, made in April, blogged about it May 1–click on the hotlink to see them), I shared photos of two bags I made for myself and my dear sister-in-law (in tropical colors) and Mom (cranes, in blue and black). They were the “test-run” bags. Janome wanted seasonal look bags for the Fall/Holiday issue, so I made these two in autumn and winter fabrics. Hope you like! When the pattern is published, I’ll let you know.

Regular viewers will notice I have a thing for trees, and woods, and (lately) sci fi books about exploring space and finding other worlds. Last November I blogged about “Circular Paradox,” a quilt inspired by two books about other sentient species in the universe, and particularly a passage in one of the Ender books by Orson Scott Card. This quilt is another in what I think will end up being a series of quilts about orbs in space. I don’t know why, but I LOVE this one, too. (To see more detail, click on the photo, or right-click to open in a new window or tab.)

If the composition looks familiar, a month or two ago someone asked about how I mark quilts, and I ended doing a post on circle templates and marking tools. I grabbed a scrap of navy blue (leftover from the sky in the nativity quilt) and marked some lines. As I looked at it, I decided I liked it enough to leave the chalk marks and make a small quilt out of it! Here’s a close up:

Like the Marshall Point Light piece that I posted a day or two ago, I decided this quiltlet (under 7 inches tall) needed a bit “more.” I wanted the visual field / stretch to go beyond the borders of the quilt, so I used so “solid” batik and a speckled batik (and I wish I had yards of the latter!) stretched onto a frame. This piece is currently on display at the bank and, if it doesn’t sell there, will move to Ducktrap Bay Trading Company (the local gallery) in August.

In reviewing other recent pieces, I remembered that a small gift I made for follow “Frayed Edges” member Kate Cutko is also part of this series.

Hope you like!

I began this piece two years ago, when we still lived on San Juan Island, Washington, by painting the center panel with washes of Setacolor paints. It sat neglected until this summer, when I decided to turn it into this piece. The sun rises on America here in Maine, so I thought I’d do a riff on traditional feathered quilts in the sunrise and add some of the quintessential Maine coastal islands.

This quilt is “Journal” sized, that is, about the size of a piece of copy paper… in this case 10 1/4 by 11 3/4 inches. Available through Ducktrap Bay Trading Company here in Camden.