And Phew. Thank you for coming along with me on this journey.

Today's lines needed to be smashing. Needed to impress me. I opened Birder's World magazine and began flipping through the pages. I have not yet read this month's magazine, and as usual there is at least one photo that stops me in my tracks. This month it was a photo by Gerry Sibell (Check out More of Gerry's photos here). So at first, I drew this image into my journal, creating body memory. (I have begun creating a video tut on watercolor painting for The Sketchbook Challenge group using that page so will not discuss or share it here.) But, when I started doing my lines for today, my final, official day of lines, I knew these lines needed to be good.

I drew this freely, no pencil, no tracing, nothing beside my previous trial with body memory. I lurve it. I like the graphic quality of the horizontal lines and the fact that I only completed the head to shoulders.

I did all of this while listening to the Zoos episode of Radiolab. The jaguar portion of the show ended and brought happy tears because that is the way I feel about birds. I won't say more because I think you too should listen to the show. I am pretty sure you can stream it straight from the link in the last sentence.

Has anyone noticed the 'favicon' to the left of the address bar up there?

Boy am I whupped today.

Day 29(!!!), I have never, in the 6 or 7 years that I have been blogging, blogged every-single-day. I know the name of my blog is every-single-day but I named it that because I want to remember to be creative, every-single-day.

I think I will make November my blog every single day month.

In homage to my day yesterday, to the JSG, I made this journal page this morning. Tonight's lines came well after.

I fall in love easily. Today I was in the subway when a family came in. The grand parents and parents were all having a day. The Eldest man among them was dressed so prim and proper that I felt proud and happy for the whole family. So tonight when I started doing my lines, I asked myself, 'How can I honor that memory?' The tree came first, the people next, lines to connect them all flowed after that.

Today was a JSG day, which meant that we gallery hopped all day. It was amazing. I don't remember all we did or saw. But I live in wealth and amazing culture. AND I have a fabulous group of women do enjoy it with.

We went to the Frick to see the Spanish Manner, The Adelson Galleries and I fell for the watercolor paintings by Stephen Scott Young. That man has control of his imagery, color, hand. Amazing. We went to see the Sargent and Impressionism show, and well? Not so much... Then we went to Leo Castelli and saw a show by Jasper Johns? I don't know if I have ever seen his work in person, I love it.

I wish I had the names of these pieces, the gallery walls were not labeled. I tried to look them up briefly and could not locate them easily.

We also went to the Whitney and saw the Edward Hopper show. That was interesting too. What a fun and fabulous day.

Annika made me do it. She has been using brushes in her mark making challenge. And the brush I use to load my ruling pen was just sitting there and I heard a little whisper...

Yesterday morning we went, rented a car and left the city for a short time. The pigeons welcomed the sun as we left.

A flock of birds caught my attention, and serendipitously Dianne commented telling me to read her blog post with a similar theme.

My Man and I went to our favorite local restaurant to celebrate a happiness. I was brave and asked out waitress if I could have one of the bread bags from Grandaisy Bakery.

Bags like this are ubiquitous here, if you are hungry here in New York and are an early riser, you will most likely come across a bag similar to this tucked in a security gate or propped against a restaurant doorway.

Me? I just want the bag for collage use.

There is a newbie in our midst.

Goodness, plain and simple.

No time for posting today. I am off.

I am proud of myself for sticking with this one. I draw the Big Earred Bear now and again. But I work the image and make sure the bear looks like himself, and I have never given him a female friend before. So when I started drawing him, he went wonky and my censors kicked in. And I mastered my self and carried on. It is cute!

Today I made Owls progress, hooray!

And I worked my latest handwork piece. hmm...

Today I have been daydreaming about a bird feeder. I am a backyard birder and am bereft of a feeder.

A stack of Merit Badges placed on an alter my Man built in the apartment.

This little guy flowers often, sturdy, well loved little guy.

Still working the City Tea page. Overall photos soon, I bet. I am a little tired and so will remain quiet today.

Today I made circles without making the known structure of a circle, lines intersect to create circular shapes.

As I was making the lines I was thinking about you and the blog and I felt grateful. Thank you. Thank you for doing the challenge with me. Thank you for reading this blog and special thanks for commenting on this blog. I know there are many blogs out there, I enjoy them too, but I thank you for coming here. I want you to enjoy this as much as I do. It goes both ways.

So Kathleen asked how to upload photos to the Flickr group. First you need to set up and account, then you need to upload photos, then move them into the group page. This help page may help. I am also loving the exchange between all of us on the Flickr Group Page. Yeah!

There are tremors of what I might do next but if you would like me to do something or illuminate some creative approach or other, leave a comment. And remember, comments are answered and responded to in the comments for that day, you guys have even begun talking to each other within the comments and again! That is what I had hoped in making that change.

The pen and I are having our time together. I sat for 51 minutes and drew this today. I am going to sit and continue to draw this image until I feel it is complete. Tomorrow!

How do I know I sat for 51 minutes? Because yesterday I bought an album by Zoe Keating (which I love!), and I listened to the entire album, sitting in my sewing room and looking down the mews across the street.

I did my lines early today. I like that.

I woke up this morning with thoughts of Balthazar's Bakery in my mind... So we went. And then headed over to a coffee shop to eat our takings and in my case, sew.

I have been in an exploratory mode creatively am trying things out. You see some tentative experiments with Eco Dyeing (via India Flint's book) and this piece uses some of my own eucalyptus and acorn dyed pieces. I have long admired Jude Hill's work and I am embracing a technique she uses often, cloth weaving. And then there is Janet Bolton whose Book reminded me of the joy of applique picture building.

So in dabbling and experimenting I have been creatively stretching and looking for ways to make the work uniquely my own. We will see.

Then we took a long walk back to the subway and I snapped a few city life photos for you.

A store selling dried sea cucumbers. It is a wonder to walk through Chinatown with all of its open air markets and the marvelous unknowns.

Can you tell what subway station this is?

Well...

Today I made a stencil for yesterday's Sneak Peek...I used it in tonight's lines. A stencil with a ruling pen on cloth? Oh the synapses are roiling and boiling...

I am playing with Day 2's circle, negative space and the idea of bubbles emerging...

Who knew I would enjoy this just so much. I do hope that you find the video tutorials helpful. Don't hesitate to 'subscribe' to my You Tube Channel, I keep all the videos related to this blog there.

Here is a peek at my latest handwork piece. I am not quite ready to reveal it, but am happy with it's immediate existence. It is crazy sometimes to think of all the stuff I need to have going... I am commited to the 30 Lines 30 Days Challenge, I am still working on this piece. The Journal is a must, almost daily. Then on the long term list is The 20. And well a certain persomn named Cricket has heard my personal challenge to knit myself a sweater in 5 weeks or less (it is chunky yarn). You would think I need some deadlines... Lines? did you say lines?

And sometime this week I will post a photo of the completed Tea Pintail piece...

And Kristin L sent me this ever topical link.

Off to buy the KittyKittens Greenies and food. Gotta go, bye.

Go here and here.

I will answer questions, respond to comments and more, tomorrow.

Today, although I had a full day, I made my lines early. There was a drip of water that somehow got onto the cloth in the upper right of the square, so I outlined it. This made me think of tree bark, so I kept it up. I like getting my lines done early.

These last two days have been a bit different here at Melly's studio nook. I have had two lovely women come to take private lessons. One flew all the way from San Diego and is a groupy of our very own Jane LaFazio.

Gab and her sister Lucy (a fellow New Yorker) came for a two day class on Inspired Journaling every-single-day!

Gabriela is committed to her creative journey and tells me she looks forward to classes with Jane. She also studies art elsewhere and it was fun to see some of the pieces she is working on, and the excitement on her face when she talks about it. The fun part for me is that Gab likes to draw. She has no fear of the pen and paper. That is yum, in my book.

Here Gab works on the exchange and elaboration of collage, she completed and expanded upon what we glued onto the page. Her color mixing skills were spot on.

Lucy seemed ready and available for the whole deal. Lucy is a painter, from the sound of it. The two women had large Moleskine watercolor journals and Lucy was confident filling both sides of the spread (though I did suggest keeping it small and manageable for the day). It was a gas watching the two talk, engage with the process and learn.

Here they show their favorite-ist page of the two days.

I will post my lines later in the day, adding to this post (did you see Post #8?). In the meantime, Arrow dipped into the nip this morning.

These are some quiet, tired lines. I like them. I like the composition, I like the statement. I am glad I did not break my promise to self, these lines almost didn't get done. But I want to do this challenge and how could I feel the success if I bailed?

I taught private lessons today. I love teaching. I teach tomorrow too.

So now I have a glass of wine, a warm, relaxed, nip free cat in my lap and a slow, rejuvenating evening in front of me.

Today will have two posts, line first.

This mornings lines are inspired by the end papers I glued into my next journal, photos soon, as it is drying.

I have been checking out your lines and samples, and am happy I finally figured out the Flickr group thing. Please join and show us your lines.

On to your questions and thoughts about the Ruling Pen.

Kristen (who has some great [Houston] commentary on her blog) emailed me with this statement:

I'm using Golden Liquid Acrylic and thinning it a bit with water. I do this in a little tray each day when I'm ready for the exercise and so each day it takes a while to get the fluidity just right -- more often than not, I leave it too thick and so you can see that my lines are a little "crumbly" looking and sit a bit too much on top of the fabric. Too much water and it blobs and bleeds too much. I suspect the answer is to take teh time to mix up a larger batch that is "just right" and store it in a bottle so I don't have to reinvent the wheel each day...

My response to this was:

I mix as I go. The paint should look smooth, have a consistency of heavy cream and should just about to drip off the brush when you hold it above your palette. The consistency is the hardest part of using this pen. But really, once you get it, it will be a cinch. Perhaps spending a bit of time in front of the pen and just playing with paint consistency is in order. When you put the paint in the pen, it should not appear to drip out of the 'beak', it should stay snug weather or not you use the dial to open or close the 'beak'. The paint will appear to stretch but will stay put. Nor should you have to open the 'beak' wide in compensation for the thickness of the paint, that just means the paint is too thick.

Cheryl is using thickened dye on soda soaked cloth. My first suggestion to you Cheryl, iron the cloth quickly and with assurance. Learn to do this when working with thickened dye, it is essential.

All of the above suggestions having to do with paint apply to dye. The consistency remains the same no matter the medium.

Using the ruling pen with ink is problematic for a few reasons. The first and major question would be, why do it?

We have such a plethora of pens that work on cloth, that using a ruling pen with ink on cloth is redundant.

Liquid ink is made to be used on paper which has sizing and finishes specifically formulated to hold and maintain the fluidity of ink, cloth does not have these same treatments and has the woven texture to boot.

Learn the needs of the Ruling Pen, this exercise is perfect for it-at the end of the 30 day period, you will be able to use a ruling pen on cloth, will be able to write and draw on cloth with fine lines. Dye and paint alike can be used to make lines on cloth. Using dye or paint in the ruling pen is about consistency. Once you 'get it', you won't think twice about it. Allow yourself the time.

Today I made my lines while listening to Land of Sea. It was enjoyable. I didn't have a plan but then contrast piped its little head up. So perhaps this is a wind blown tree, a long crazy road in the night time. No idea. But it is fun, I like it.

If you are using a ruling pen and have questions about its use, today is your day to comment and ask questions. Tomorrow I will answer all in a post (perhaps with video).

Meet the Happy Monster, Mister FrauBrow. Made by Nina Perez. He has been settling in quit nicely since I nabbed him at Quilt Fest! You might need a Happy Monster as a Holiday Gift! eMail her!

There is a fine tradition of drawing Mister FrauBrow, I will have to upload some photos, But in the meantime, I bought a Pilot v5 and v7 yesterday, on the advice of Marcus McAllister, and I am in need to trying them out. So, I am drawing Things on my Desk. Small Things, or Things Made Small.

Now, I am off to clean up after myself. Today is a JSG day....

I leave you drenched in moss and ivy

and invite you to join the Flickr Group.

I have been checking out what you guys have been up to, Cheryl acquired some cash and used it well. Ruth has been checking out a bunch of marking tools, Deborah wasn't joking when she emailed me to say she would be using post it notes and a sharpie! And we will see if Kristen continues using a ruling pen at all.

And I have been thinking about line quite a bit. Yesterday I woke up thinking a trip to an art store was in order. I was thinking I needed a pen that would write over paint, both acrylic and gouache, a pen that made fine lines, a pen that I could love! Then I woke up. I looked through my pencil box and found a radiograph in perfect working order.

For me, the difference between line and drawing is a pretty fine distinction. Or can be. But making lines is alot less intimidating for so many of us. I was reading Vivian Swifts blog again and she wrote about the difference between drawing what you see and drawing what you feel. And earlier this week Diana Trout challenged me to make a Messy and Intuitive journal page (I will upload images and talk about this on Thursday). But this brings me to thoughts on fear, line and drawing.

I can't say why we fear drawing, I suppose it has to do with judgement and self criticism. The ugly voices in our heads that niggle and complain that the thing doesn't look real, doesn't look right, is off kilter. But then we are drawn to wonky takes on familiar subjects, all at the same time.

Diana challenged me to create a Messy page, with Words. Two fear filled things... I like pretty journal pages and I like to cover up words. I can talk like nobody's business, but writing words on pages, engaging with my world and taking notes about it? To go back and read later? Um, no. Fear. But there is no real reason for that. I will not be pouring my dark inner secrets onto any visual journal page. Notes to self, small illustrations are OK. It is time to put that fear aside, I keep a separate book for when I need to write the dark stuff out. So this fear is not conducive, it is actually counter productive.

As for my need, propensity to creating Pretty journal pages? That is my thing. Giving myself permission to cover over pages that I don't like is, well, permissive. Something that was not allowed me in college and that affords me some freedom now.

So give yourself permission. Make marks, draw wonky, cover crap up. But allow yourself the process. Enable yourself to learn. Give the ruling pen a further few days. Buy a pen than works better for you, whatever it takes. But repetition is key to creating habits. Drawing, or fluidity in mark making is a good artistic habit to foster.

And hey! Did you see that I figured out how to do hierarchal commenting? Now we can talk to each other in visual harmony. Off to get a Flickr account so we can all upload photos of our trials.

Did you notice that yesterday's post was numbered improperly? I did and I changed it late in the day. Posting every day is a challenge!

Today's lines became true doodles. Not too much of one, then some of another.

Last night I watched The Point!, an animated film/musical from my childhood. The film itself is crudely drawn in the late 60's early 70's style. There were so many lines and shadings that I thought it a good idea to suggest you too watch the film, even if just for the lines! The Point! was and is a formative cultural element of my personality!

This morning's lines took on a story like mannerism. Yesterday's lines seemed like a tree, spoke to the tops of buildings, reminding me of something as yet unknown. Today I decided to stick with the idea and see what happens.

Yesterday My Man and I visited some trees, unearthed wonders, breathed deeply and were able to open some personal gateways. All good things.

This squaw berry plant just popped out at me, all green and red-like. I love reading about the natural world, the world of plants, calyx, stamens, drupe. Old world words. Have you heard about this site?

Then I started collecting lines for you.

And here is a short tirade: You People who say, 'I can't draw'? Yawn. How many kinds of lines are there? 2, yup! Two. Straight and squiggly (when I taught kids to draw this was our mantra). The cello teacher leans into the young boys ear and says, 'so you tried to play the tune three times, and you aren't perfect?' Does learning to draw not take practice, like driving a car? Drawing like driving, is not innate (thank you Danny- that last is his analogy).

Drawing is making lines, lots of lines, looking and seeing. You must start somewhere.

Do you see the start of my evil plan? The hatching of a quest...

Haha!

And then a few weeks ago Vivian Swift did a tutorial. And I bit, although city life is not conducive to many brightly colored leaves and, well, I got a late start (excuses). So a trip to visit trees yielded a few good specimens-not to mention Oak Balls I mean Galls. And if you don't already own it, buy yourself a copy of Vivian's book, When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put.I LOVE it, and she is writing another! Yummmmmmm.

I know I sprang this on all of you, to be honest, I didn't think anyone would accept the challenge! He!

For those of you asking if you can use a fountain pen? I briefly tried. I think you probably can do this and if you do, I commend and applaud you. I also encourage you to make a video on your findings or do a blog post, I will happily link to your blog and embed your video.

My findings in brief: You see that nib to the left of the pile of nibs in the above photo? I could not get that one to work with acrylic paint. The fine tipped nib, like the one you see in my nib handle, works fairly well. It is scratchy, working with it slowly might work for you. I made lines going with the warp and weft and on the bias. I have seen someone use Liquitex Acrylic Ink on cloth, but... think she was using a brush... it is vague.

I still like the ruling pen line better. They cost about 8 to 10 bucks, and well? I can honestly trouble shoot it.

Above you see my collection of ruling pens. The top one is a simple Alvin Ruling Pen.

The middle pen is a double! It was given to me by a friend, it doesn't appear to be old. I haven't found a link for it.

And the bottom Ruling Pen is a compass with Ruling Pen attachment. I found a great combo pack on Amazon: Compass W/Ruling Pen.

I will be using all of these. And no rush! I have 42 squares. I could conceivably do 42 lines 42 Days, I have more cloth even! So if you need to place an order? eh. Get to it.

Jeannie sent me this link (watch the video at the end), which lead me to this link. And even if you don't want to make your own 'folded pen', is in interesting thing to think about.

And remember, from now on I will answer comments to the blog within the comments section of the blog and not privately through email. I have been doing this but I just realized last week that you may not know to look there. So if you want to converse or ask questions or comment on other peoples comments, please check back and see what is happening in the comments next time you visit. I will post this reminder till it feels like everyone understands and remembers.

I am getting ready to teach Inspired Journaling, every-single-day! at Art and Soul in Hampton Virgina in less than two week. The interesting thing is that I have not been journaling recently. Over the winter months, I took a Book Binding class and made my first journal. Then the book became precious...too good to be used...

What? Pardon me?

I abhor that sort of behavior! I constantly reinforce that 'supplies are what you make of them...'. It is almost a personal mantra. So I have been getting dirty. And loving it. I have moved right into my first handmade book and created 8 pages in 2 days.

My favorite product of all is the Pentel Pocket Brush Refillable Pen. If I may say so... Do not pass go, just go buy one and purchase too many refills to go with it. It will allow you to make thick and thin lines in a format less akin to a brush, more like, well, a pen! I love this pen.

If you wonder about my gouache palette, go read this post. My new set of paints, the smaller palette in the video, is totally informed by searching and pouring through Roz Stendahl's web site. Who, not suprisingly is talking about paint in her latest post! Roz is also the one who turned me on to the Pentel Pocket brush pen!

I am getting ready to teach Inspired Journaling, every-single-day! at Art and Soul in Hampton Virgina in less than two week. The interesting thing is that I have not been journaling recently. Over the winter months, I took a Book Binding class and made my first journal. Then the book became precious...too good to be used...

What? Pardon me?

I abhor that sort of behavior! I constantly reinforce that 'supplies are what you make of them...'. It is almost a personal mantra. So I have been getting dirty. And loving it. I have moved right into my first handmade book and created 8 pages in 2 days.

My favorite product of all is the Pentel Pocket Brush Refillable Pen. If I may say so... Do not pass go, just go buy one and purchase too many refills to go with it. It will allow you to make thick and thin lines in a format less akin to a brush, more like, well, a pen! I love this pen.

If you wonder about my gouache palette, go read this post. My new set of paints, the smaller palette in the video, is totally informed by searching and pouring through Roz Stendahl's web site. Who, not suprisingly is talking about paint in her latest post! Roz is also the one who turned me on to the Pentel Pocket brush pen!

Hello all. I am excited about my new approach in creating challenges related to my book, Inspired To Quilt. I am not going to talk you through the process, or teach it, rather I will show you how I work and reference the pertinent pages in the book.
I will have a few links to supplies here on the blog and ask you to upload photos of your samples to the Inspired to Quilt FanPage, where we can also start a discussion and talk among ourselves about technique and approach.

Bear with me as I figure out how to use all of the technology effectively. You may like to subscribe to the Inspired To Quilt youtube channel, they will update you each time I upload a video (not too often-you won't be bombarded)

Supplies you might use:
Faux painting rubber comb
Tsukineko Sponge Daubers
Advantus TAPE CLEANING SWABS

Hello all. I am excited about my new approach in creating challenges related to my book, Inspired To Quilt. I am not going to talk you through the process, or teach it, rather I will show you how I work and reference the pertinent pages in the book.
I will have a few links to supplies here on the blog and ask you to upload photos of your samples to the Inspired to Quilt FanPage, where we can also start a discussion and talk among ourselves about technique and approach.

Bear with me as I figure out how to use all of the technology effectively. You may like to subscribe to the Inspired To Quilt youtube channel, they will update you each time I upload a video (not too often-you won't be bombarded)

Supplies you might use:
Faux painting rubber comb
Tsukineko Sponge Daubers
Advantus TAPE CLEANING SWABS