Roads, Trees and Trails

Hi everyone, my mind mapping, map challenge notebook is getting thick. I've had sooo many ideas with this challenge and my fair share of what I think of as failures!

I love the work of @gahoulie on Istagram. She is free spirited and obviously sews like a fiend. And she is known for wearing pinafore everywhere! Go check her out.

Honestly, folks, I am spending a bit of time posting photos as I go and love the 'fast' part of IS. So if you are on Instagram, please pop over to @carlithequilter to see what I'm up to outside of this blog.

So my journey in the Map Challenge has been up and down and now its going green again. As you can see I have too much brand new fabric

OK, now that is better! Sunny day apposed to cloudy days above.

After much deliberation and discussion with my hubby who is a Certified Arborist for Oakstead.ca who loves this idea of trees as a mapping challenge in textile. We began to think in terms of seasonal changes which doesn't really change on a map, but in the physical landscape, seasons change everything.

On another note, the late wedding presents have finally  been done and delivered. Thanks Mom for taking them with you when you visited!

So onto my seasonal color fabric pick for next time!

Happy Quilting!

AHIQ Improvisational Maps Challenge-Mind Maps

About 25 years ago, our family ran a retail shop. A young lady came into the shop asking if we'd support a local chamber of commerce map of special shops and sites in our town. I looked at her example and was struck with the beauty of that map. She was the artist who had made the example and her hand drawings were all over that lovely map. Little circles popped out of the green landscapes of rivers and lakes like faeries springing to life.

This was the root of my idea for my quilt as presented in the AHIQ Improvisational Challenge.

And as I progressed with ideas on paper, I began to remember all the times in the education system I had helped children learn how to organize themselves with Mind Maps. They can be simple or quite complex. When I took my training to become an adult instructor, we used mind maps quite a bit to help the students learn how to organize themselves to take their skills farther to sharing their experise with adult students.

I found this map below at a site called Mind Maps for Essay Writing.

From this example you can see how to start a concept map yourself.

Basically, using mind maps was developed in 1970's by a professor named Joseph D. Novak. Please read more on the topic here. These concept maps may lead you to all sorts of wonderful places as they do me whenever a large project has to happen, I lay it out like this with as many idea bubbles as is necessary.

So this is the place I am starting from, combined with lots of color and fresh ideas for my memory maps around how trees have held me close.

Large mind quilts comes to my mind here.

I constructed and machine quilted the Town of Smithers 1913-2013 Quilt that was donated to the Town of Smithers in our Centennial year. This quilt was made from a drawing of this type of layout using a mind mapping concept. The final placement would vary from where you start of course.

Risks are taken when a challenge comes your way. A path not well trodden can lead to a beautiful waterfall or cliff edge, so go slowly is my motto!

I will begin more ideas on my mind map in coming days. I'm exxcited to play with a challenge again. I have lot of ideas and techniques to use on this challenge.

Best,

Caroline from Good Earth Quilting