June 2005

Little did I know when I chose "creative space" as my topic for last month's newsletter, how soon it would affect my own surroundings and work patterns, and how much it was I who needed to heed my own advice!

I begin with a current photo of my design wall; I finished Linda's quilt, pictured last month, within a couple days of spending Sacred Time (9 to noon every workday) in the studio. I can feel a huge personal transformation underway; when I get up in the morning, I am so excited to know that I'll be in the studio all morning. I have chosen this time of day for studio work, since morning is my best time. There is a magic moment when the caffeine from my first cup of coffee kicks in, and I feel like I can conquer the world…as a result, much has happened on my design wall since I last wrote.

My current design wall is a highly unusual state of affairs in my studios: there are three projects in progress on it at the moment… The quilt in view, adhered to a flannel-backed tablecloth, is one that will be featured in my AnglePlay™ starter kits; it requires only two AnglePlay™ templates (A and B). Behind this quilt is the beginning of the Pieceful Harbor Retreat project quilt for 2006! And at the bottom, the beginnings of my niece Alison Thompson's high school graduation quilt (oops, she graduated a year ago this month).

This new schedule is coming just in the nick of time; in addition to developing the 2006 Pieceful Harbor Retreat quilt, I am creating quilts for my AnglePlay™ starter kits. These kits will feature three and four templates at a time, and present many blocks and quilt designs you can make with just those four templates. These starter kits will be launched at the Quilting in the Garden event in Livermore, CA in late September (see schedule); but you will also be able to purchase them from this website's store.

Wonder of wonders, this month I mastered the rudiments of using the digital camera I've owned for two years! By purposely leaving my snapshot camera at home on a recent trip, and taking only the digital camera and its instruction book, I made time to figure out how to use it. Of course it is very easy to use, and it will revolutionize so much of the way I do my work, and communicate in my business. My web designer Carol Gunby is going to fall off her chair when I email her photos for this newsletter, rather than sending them next day air at the VERY last minute…

The most immediate studio project to be facilitated by this camera technology is the 2006 Pieceful Harbor Retreat quilt. I will email photos of various background block arrangements to my retreat co-hosts Nancy Chong and Janice Baehr, and we will hopefully agree on one via email. I'll piece the top, and in early June (yikes! that's next week!!!) Nancy and I hope to cut the appliqué for my quilt top. What a joy to HAVE to do appliqué this year…

Another very large influence on my life and schedule as a quiltmaker is having started art classes at the local Monart School of the Arts a few weeks ago (see www.Monart.com for a school in your area). I have wanted to try watercolor painting for years: I am finally acting on that desire. The Monart School teaches drawing primarily to children, but there are adult classes as well. Begun by Mona Brookes, the school has a philosophy that there is no "good" or "bad" about what you draw, no "right" or "wrong"; but rather, that everyone can draw, and all drawing breaks down to only five elements of shape. Discovering their ability to draw can lead children (and adults) to unexpected successes and breakthroughs in other parts of their lives.

In the classes, a different medium is featured for each week's project; for example, pencil shading, watercolor, chalk pastel, printmaking, etc. So it is a potpourri of art techniques, delivered in the spirit of "of course you can do this, too—just try it!"

After the very first class, students begin to see more in their world, and they may see it differently than they have in the past. There is a special word that occurs often during every class: "notice". The teacher uses the word "notice" in class one way, but it has become a word that is permeating other areas of my life as well.

When a student wonders what is bothersome about his/her drawing, or how it could be improved, the teacher says "notice…" and points out proportion, value, or balance issues with the student's work. There is no overt praise or critique of anyone's work; the students themselves are the only judges, and they are encouraged to decide how THEY feel about their own work, not use others' reactions as a gauge of their success or failure as an "artist". As the teacher guides the students through the development of a project, the word "notice" occurs often: "NOTICE how long this line is in relation to another one"; "NOTICE how this watercolor wash develops".

This word "Notice" has affected me very deeply: I'm finding it useful to "notice" numerous aspects of how I experience life. How would you make the following observations in your own daily life?

Notice – all the sounds that surround you during your day. Music – yours or a neighbor's? Soothing or raucous music? The sounds of nature: dogs and cats, birds; traffic and sirens; people murmuring or talking too loudly. How much of the sound around you can you tune out when you need to focus on a task (creative work or otherwise)?

Notice – how you focus during the day, if you do. Do you work for a time, then purposely take a break? When I'm working to a deadline, I'll often set the oven timer: work (sewing or writing) for 50 minutes, walk around for ten to 15 minutes.

Notice – how you start your day. Do you rush into it? Or do you take some quiet time—to think, to take a walk, to watch the sun rise, to write in a journal? How long has it been since you have walked around your yard and really noticed what all was growing there?

Looking into the heart of a flower in a Seattle streetside mini-garden…

Notice – how you deal with your To Do List; more importantly, the upcoming tasks and obligations which you are putting off because you just don't want to deal with them. Notice how much time and energy you expend dreading them; think how much more energy you'd have for your creative pursuits if you would deal with your To Do list in a timely manner. I am often delightfully surprised how a given dreaded task is much less difficult than I have imagined it to be, since my dread of it grew the longer I put it off!

Notice –how much energy you expend dreading or worrying about too many upcoming obligations at once, without taking even the smallest step toward doing the work to take any of them off your worry list. I recently bought a wonderful greeting card, that says "You can't tell me that worry doesn't do any good…whatever I worry about doesn't happen" (Renee Locks)

Notice—and be grateful—for how many people around you have a sense of humor. How would we survive if such people and their gift of optimism and laughter were not in our lives????

In my Strips that Sizzle and Easy Pieces classes, I do the pressing of the sewn pieces so that the students can focus on sewing. Aloyse Yorko of Naples, Florida found a unique way to announce that she had some strips ready to iron!

Notice – how much time you take each day to "just be"—and to be grateful for your circumstances and your surroundings. I was saddened by a poster I recently saw in an airport; it was an ad for some new cell phone technology, and written next to the image of a young businessman-on-the-go were the words "Don't just stand there." The implication was "get something done EVERY SINGLE MINUTE"—"work, work, WORK!!" I am a product of an era of parenting in which we children were taught to be industrious—to have something to SHOW for our time. Now I realize that taking time to pause, to take a deep breath, and to "just be" is as essential for mental and emotional well-being as is being industrious and hard working, setting and accomplishing goals.

Another saying that inspires me to notice the way I am living my life, day to day and week to week:

"The way we spend our days, is, of course, the way we spend our lives." (Annie Dillard)