More on Sketchbooks

Thank you for all your good wishes. I thought I would have plenty postcards when I said the first 6! I didn't think so many people would comment. Thank you each and every one of you for posting a comment I am delighted.

I couldn't leave anyone out so I will send each of you who has commented a fabric postcard. Please email me your snail mail addy, thank you.

There have been a few questions about how I use my sketchbooks and so I thought I would add some detail to what I said yesterday. Remember this is just my way of working you will, or have, found your own way. There is no right or wrong way of doing this just do what works for you. Sorry if I sound a bit teacherish (is that a word? if not it is now!)

This is a small selection of the sketchbooks I am currently using (I have 10 for the C&G course I just completed one for each module!). I have a collection for each of the courses I have done way back to my C&G Part 1 days with all my samples in ring bound folders with all the relevant notes - it has been a very useful source for my teaching. Little did I know when I was keeping the books that I would be using them to this day. As you see I have different kinds each serve a different purpose. One thing we had to do for C&G in Patchwork & Quilting Part 2 which I have found very useful, and continue to add to, is a small ring bound notebook with small samples of different fabrics and papers etc. I keep notes of what works and what doesn't e.g. transfer paints work well with man made fibres, chiffon burns well with the heat gun! etc etc.


I bought these ones last May when I started the C&G course I have just finished. I bought them from Asda and they are plastic sleeves in a plastic cover. As you can see the sleeves are easily removed they just pull out and slot back in again which means if I work out of sequence - which I sometimes do - I can swap them around and I can add to them although I haven't seen the sleeves sold separately but I have spare folders. They are useful as some of my modules had a few pages of instruction and they can go in a single sleeve.

Here you can see a selection of painted papers and tyvek in the one sleeve. It keeps them nice and flat ready for when I want to use them in a project. You can see I have typed notes as well. It is always wise to take notes as you work. You may think you will remember the paints you used etc but believe me you can easily forget. I usually have a pad and paper next to me while I work and I quickly scribble notes. Once I am finished experimenting I type the notes up and put them in my folder.

I keep project pages together. Here are four pages from an exercise I worked through from Sandra Meech's book. Those of you who have her books will recognise it. I clip these together and they are kept in a folder. Sometimes I work through two or three different colour studies and use just one for a final piece of work.

I bought this sketchbook from the art shop. It has beautiful cartridge paper inside. I have had this one for a couple of years and felt it was too good to use!!!! How many of you have done that? It had a plain black cover and I used one of my sample pieces to cover it. I then started painting a few pages to get me going. It's coming along nicely.

The A3 silver folder you can see in the first photograph is from W H Smiths. I buy from them when they have offers on. These were half price and are wonderful to work with. I just drawn and sketch randomly in these.
I also use them for keeping notes of new to me techniques. The one you see here was work I was doing for the Inchies swap on the Textile Challenge group. I kept a note and samples of the techniques I used.
This is a sample page from the book I covered (sorry it got out of sync). I was just playing with a stamp and brush pens working with line, form and shape - this is work I am doing for the Judging course.

As you can see I keep all sorts of different sketchbooks. I keep another one with details of places I visit and pictures I have taken. I may post some pictures from that later if you are not bored to tears already!