Monthly art practice--2009 Square in a Square Project

One of the annual goals I identified was to commit to a regular creative 'art' practice for the year. One of the surprise discoveries I experienced after I began blogging was the 'world' of creative people out there. Many blogs I've visited or routinely follow portray and share the journey of a daily, weekly or monthly creative endeavor. Approaches can include photography, painting, journaling, collages, etc. Two of my favorites this last year were Elin Waterston with her daily block print and Natalya Aikens with her weekly journal collages. There are many, many more out there and some web sites to help spur you on--like Illustration Friday (providing you with a concept or idea to be portrayed weekly).

I've spent some time exploring, thinking, planning for a 'challenge practice' for myself for this year and in the end, I think I will go my own way, rather than be involved in a group process.

My small quilting group spent a fair amount of 2008 working through the Art Quilt Workbook (by Davila & Waterston). My group had difficulty committing to the process due to time and also a varied level of comfort/discomfort with the process. I really enjoyed the projects we completed--and really liked the book. (The authors have now released a second volume that I've not yet seen, Art Quilts at Play--should be fun to explore as well.)

So to fulfill my 2009 goal I'm going to continue with the format, approach to the 'small quilts' done for the Art Quilt Workbook series:
Size: 9" x 12"
Overall theme: continue on with my Square-in-a-Square theme started in 2008
Time frame: each project to be completed no later than last day of each month
Other 'rules':
identify topic or technique for each of the 12 projects with the goal of getting out of my comfort zone (working on that now),
use up materials, scraps, leftovers for all as much as possible, and
have fun!
I've become preoccupied with the square-in-a-square idea over the last year--I 'see' the concept everywhere now & have collected a lot of media/fabric as well as inspirational pictures, etc.
Guess I better get going--only 28 days left for project #1!