Isn't that gorgeous? Read on for some summertime news from our fellow member and JAM Nysha Nelson. Its some of his Zentangle.

My Zentangle® Experience

I first heard about Zentangle from other quilters who saw me stitching and suggested I might like it. Then, rooting around the internet looking for inspiration for continuous line quilting patterns I saw various things related to Zentangle. I was intrigued.

In the Fall of 2013 I went to Road Island to become a Certified Zentangle Teacher. At the time I thought I was using loads of patterns in quilting and in mixed media work. One thing I learned at my certification was that I had not been doing things in the Zentangle Method.

Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, founders of Zentangle talk about the “method” that is Zentangle. A method of creating pattern that is easy and can be meditative… I am a calm person and thought I ‘got’ that part of the experience. When it was explained however and I experienced it first hand I was blown away. I had to share it! Something that is creative, that anyone can do, that requires almost no tools and takes only a few minutes. PERFECT!

Then I started practicing  Zentangle almost daily. Just fifteen minutes at the beginning of a work day and I found I was able to concentrate longer, was more focused and I was able to do work that was more accurate. Partly because I had left behind things that weren’t work after my fifteen minutes tangling and partly because I was conscious of my breathing.

While the method of Zentangle needs to be tweaked into continuous line quilting it’s spirit is quite simple to add to my quilting practice. I consciously breathe at the beginning of a quilting movement. I focus only on the mark I am currently making, not the last one or the next one — the one I am making now! My work has improved as a result of just fifteen minutes a day.

 

 

Above you see more of Nysha's beautiful work. He is featured in the April/May edition of Quilting Arts Magazine and also has three segments in the current Quilting Arts TV Series 1600. 

 

Let me know what YOU are doing too! We love to read about what folks in the KY-TENN Region are working on and creating!