Window Spread

It's hard to shake off the feeling that I'm not working hard enough on my quilts at the moment. First there was my mother's visit during which not even a needle was threaded and then we finally got the sunny weather we had been longing for all summer. I really can't resist making the most of this, and I open up my studio doors and go and sit outside. Yes, I try and continue to pretend I'm working but in reality I simply sit and stare! And walk the dogs from time to time. Glance at a book or two. Feed the chickens. I'm too nervous about bird droppings, dead insects and earth mysteriously attaching itself to do any serious quilting outdoors but I do try and work in my ever growing collection of what are normally referred to as sketchbooks, only in my case they are more like gluebooks, depositories of photographs, vintage images and quotations I came across and want to remember.

Journal is probably a better word although I always keep in the back of my mind that people might be looking at these which prevents me from trusting them with my deepest and at times darkest thoughts. I might be writing a blog but that does not mean I'm sharing everything with you and believe me, you don't want to read about those thoughts. In fact, I myself don't want to remember them most of the time.

Which brings me to The Sketchbook Project and what I have been doing in my sketchbook. Here it's a given that the sketchbook will be seen by many people and that determines what I want and don't want to put in it. This spread was fuelled by my love of windows or to be more precise, openings that enable you to to look in or out, thus framing the view.

The windows, or rather openings, in this spread are to be found in Hermitage Castle taken during our visit there last week and were combined with a quotation on a card bought at Dawyck Botanical Garden, also last week: "You are the window through which you see the world" (George Bernard Shaw). The other pictures have been taken at various times and places and I realized when I started to look just how many window pictures I have. Subconsciously I have a window obsession!

My theme for the sketchbook is: I'm a scavenger, and in this spread there is a lot of scavenged material, starting with the quotation and the pictures of Hermitage Castle. The gold swirly background came from the wrapping of one of my birthday presents (from Caryl) and the pink flowers are from the transparent foil around my bouquet (from Lenna). I've also added a postage stamp and the green leaves come from a rub-off sheet.