Little Wonders aka Long Beach Quilt Festival Classs

There are little wonders all around us.

But we are so sucked into all of the 'noise' around us, we don't seem to look up to experience them.  Or if we have somewhere in our lives experienced them, we can't recall them.  We can't bring them back into the forefront of our  memories to savor them over and over again.

I drove today from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Denver, Colorado.  There is a point in that drive, as you crest the summit of Raton Pass - if you look to the left - you are greeted by two large snow capped peaks rising above the golden plains.  And to the left of those, a large range of mountains creates a horizontal slash across the skies.  The skies dotted with bright white clouds on a clear blue sky.  Not your average Los Angeles CA view.  But for the life of me, I could not get a good picture of it all.  Camera phone.  Digital camera.  Nope.  No pic.  So I said, "I'll just have to carry it with me in my memory."  No hard drive but my own brain.  Now there's a thought.

So I have been on a quest to create these 'little wonders' - these moments that we can only capture in our hearts - with fabric and thread.

Reach into your memory and find a time, a place, a feeling that has touched you.  And capture it with your own creative talents.  And if you're having a hard time doing that, please join me for a class in this technique - coming to you soon at Luella's Quilt Basket, In Stitches, or another quilt shop or quilt show venue coming to a town near you.

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.blogspot.com

Bloom. aka moondoggie and gidget for Robert Kaufman

You  know, I must say.

I have written this article more than once.  I tried to post it last week.  Or was it the week before?

I actually have written it three times before...and the computer, or the universe, ate it.

But I am nothing if not persistent, so I am writing it again.

When a flower is a bud, it does not say, "Nope, no, nosiree.  I'm not going to blossom.  That's it for me.  I'm just going to stay a bud."  It does what it does.  What is intended for it.  It blossoms.  And most times, no matter what type of flower you see unfold, don't you just look at it and say, 'wow'.  Doesn't it just take your breath away to see the rolling hills of California, usually a soft golden brown, or sometimes a rolling green, suddenly erupt intoa field of Lupine purple or the brilliant orange of the California Poppy?

Nope.  No bud ever says, 'no, I won't go'.

And kids.  They don't say no very often.  Climb that tree?  Sure.  Jump off the roof?  Okay, I'll try.  Eat sand?  YUM...Sand.  I asked a friend of mine, "When did we stop eating sand?"  And, being a lifeguard, he replied, "I still do."  I can just see him walking up to some 15 month old kid at the beach, bending down to have a moment with the kid, and being offered a fist full of sand - with that look...you know the look...proud, happy, gleefully delighting in...yum...sand.

Finally, dogs.  I have a friend, hULa.  She wakes slowly.  BUT.  When she wakes, she wakes wagging her tail.  Thump, thump, thump on the floor.  That deliberate, 'yep, I'm awake and life is goooooood!!!'  Come on.  You get it by now, right?

But when do WE bloom?  Or do we say, 'Nope, no, nosiree.  I'm not going to blossom.'  Now, please.  I'm not suggesting anyone jump off of the roof or eat sand.  Legal disclaimer here.  But why not throw some purple into that brown tone on tone quilt?  Why not work in a color palette that's new?  Why not try some raw edge machine secured applique or quilting?  You think you are accomplished.  You know your craft.  But you are just a bud waiting to explode in all of your brilliance.  Sparkling, life.

Wag your hULa tail.  Erupt in your own talent.

Bloom.  Be brilliant.  Be.

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

PS - here's a little create for you - - the gidget kit from the moondoggie and gidget series of quilts designed from the Robert Kaufman Island Sanctuary line of fabrics - - proceeds benefit Labrador Retriever Rescue in California - - in honor of Moondoggie