Perfection...or not...Acceptance...YES!!

The only perfection we have in life is the imperfection and beauty of Nature that we are gifted with daily.   Recently, a quilting friend and I were gifted with a weekend stay in Villas,NJ.  We were spending our days at a Quilt/Fiber show at Cold Spring Village.  After a full day of fascinating conversations with most interesting people - adults and children alike - we were relaxing with our Key West Tacos and watching a Hallmark movie.  I looked at the clock, looked outside and realized that we knew how the movie would progress and end - so predictable - but would never be in this space and time again with a beautiful evening to watch the sunset on the Delaware Bay!  Hey, want to come?  And my mid 70s friend had her shoes on and tied before I finished my question!  Off we went.  We found a path to to the beach amidst all of the big private houses with their private walkways.  This view is what greeted me as I walked the path tothe beach.  I could have stopped there and headed home but I just knew there were more gifts over the ridge and down the steps!  Onward!!

Careless abandon!!  These flip flops said just that to me!  The sun was shining on them and agreeing with me.  I sat on the step and watched the families come down to the beach and immediately kick off the shoes.  That's more of the perfection of imperfection.  They wanted to romp in the sand and feel it between their toes and they had to be barefooted!  Just did!!  I love what these shoes represent to me - the life lesson they shared.  Just do it - don't think about it - just do it.  Kick off your shoes and go for it!  The sand, the water and the freedom were so there for the taking!!  WOW and if we had sat and finished watching the Hallmark movie, we would have missed out on so many of the synchronicities of life's learninig laboratory!  As an aside, we watched another one when we got back after dark - yep, we could have written the script for that one as well!!

Nature, beauty, sunset and now a QUILT?!?  It's connected folks and that the beauty of life - everything is so connected - you just have to have a mind like mine that creates those scenarios all the time.  A few years ago, I found these hearts and flowers patterns on the Internet (always a great source of inspiration) and decided to just stitch/embroider them.  There were 12 - monumental task to be sure, but in the spirit of life and Lao Tzu, I decided to take the first step and JUST DO IT!  Wow - I finished them and had them at a quilt meeting.  "Friends, what should I  do with these?"  Oh crazy quilt to be sure, Martie was their response. Then I asked the group to share pieces of red materials for me to use and they did!  With the combination of my stash and theirs, forward momentum continued.  Then I finished that part of the twelve squares.  Again, back to the friends - what to do - and since we were meeting at Quilted Treasures in Atco, NJ, Lynn just happened to have the perfect fabric to pull it all together! 

   Why am I sharing all of this?  Well it is about ACCEPTANCE!   I do some crazy quilting because I like to stitch.  This past weekend at the quilt show, I received so many compliments and affirmations for my work that it totally gave me pause and filled me with lots of amazement ...and gratitude.  I reflected on some of the work I have done over the years and realized that I have my style and I do nice work!  Why does that surprise me?  Well...it's about acceptance - self acceptance huh?  The realization that I take wonderful pictures and love my photography and now the knowing that I have some really great and creative quilt work as well - all hand stitched.  One ending to the story, although the chains of connections could well be never ending.  My friend Pat was working on a red,black and white quilt as she lay in the hospital last Fall.  I loved her and her work.  We did a tribute to her and her work at the quilt show.  As we set out the quilts - finished and unfinished, we realized that her last pieces were both finished and unfinished.  The unfinished squares - can you believe there are TWELVE of them - just the same amount as my red work squares and the same size too ?~?  Now, they will be the back side of my quilt and my memory/connection to a dear friend.  Isn't life amazing in its perfection/imperfection and our acceptance of it all??

Completion...Satisfaction and Crazy Quilt Projects!!

This weekend is the Quilts in the Village show coordinated by Garden Patch Quilters at Wheaton Arts in Milville.  Our group, South Jersey Crazy Quilters (see more quilts on our facebook page   SouthJersey Crazy Quilts) had a double booth display at the show and it is the best ever!  We spent hours and hours on Friday between drama and display to get it right!!   I am so excited because the photographer from the Vineland News Journey was there to showcase the quilts and quilters and two very special photos were in his gallery on line...my favorite - me and my crazy quilt drum!!  You know we make sonotube drums, but I decided to do a crazy quilt one for the show!  It looks and sounds great (though the more traditional folks thought is was a hat box?!?!??!)   Then as I looked at the pictures, I saw the other  one of the crazy quilt vests that Martha Gullo and I had made and the woman in the picture is pointing to mine!!  What a proud moment!!  Always a grand time to be out among people, schmooze and learn and do new things!!

Meet Filaree - My Guardian Angel

One day I was driving down the road and I heard a voice in the car???in my head???where???  It said to me, "Filaree!"  I asked what that was all about and I heard, "I am your Guardian Angel!"Now what in the world was going on.  Being a trusting, intuitive person, I said, OK.  Nice to meet you.  What do you have to say? She said that she was here for me to guide me how to be light and joyful and playful.  OK...not my usual conversations, but I do say all the time that we need to pay attention to the synchronicities!?!  Later that day I was reading a book about flower essences - I have studied what they are about and how they can help us in our growth.  Well, again, NOT by chance, there on the page was a flower essence called FILAREE!  When I read the description, I knew that there was a message for me: "For those who are too involved in the miinutiae of life, who worry excessively about mundane events, unable to keep things in a broader perspective.  It helps to contain such wastage of energy, so that there is plenty in reserve for more productive activities and fulfillment of one's higher potential."  As I have been
reflecting on changes and life, reading about Happiness and thinking about what is to come next, I have to share one more message that I read the other day from The London Times(10/05).  "If people describe themselves as happy, then they are happy."  BUT what struck me is this..."Sometimes happiness is a judgment that life is satisfying and does not imply to an emotional state."  So reflect on this...IF we can believe that life is satisfying, and pay attention with gratitude, to all of the little ways that this is happening all of the time, they why shouldn't we be happy??  I look at the sun making the shadows dance of the snow - now isn't that happiness?  Sometimes we TRY TOO HARD to find the elusive happiness and just plain forget that it is here!!  Don't I often say that we need to BE STILL and just see what is all around us.  Oh, by the way, the picture?  It is my Guardian Angel, filaree (and yes, that is my face) that I made for our Crazy Quilt Guardian Angel challenge.  She's light and joyful!!  So if she is me...then I too must be light and joyful!!