MillerQuilts.com - The Online Home of Margaret J. Miller

Just returned from the AQS Show in Knoxville, TN; where it was hot and humid! But the layout was such that the quilts were easy to see, and of course there were many delightful vendors!
Was delighted to have a chance to visit the Knoxville Museum of Art, which had an exhibit of photos by three photographers of southern culture in the 30′s. What a surprise that one of them was the famous author Eudora Welty! Never knew she was a photographer in addition to being a well-known and well-loved writer. Apparently she used her brownie box camera to help her focus on the people and places, events and non-events around her, which of course made her books that much richer.
Am leaving for a vacation for a week–no laptop, no work, for the first time in my life! Am not going far; plan to mosey along the Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington, using a wonderful book “Off the Beaten Path” (by Todd Litman & Suzanne Kort; 4th edition, 2001)
When I get back, I’ll figure out how to upload photos onto this blog!

. . . splashing blindly into the blogosphere, looking forward to yet one more way to stay in communication with students, customers, shop owners, and “new best friends” along the way!  I welcome your comments on topics brought up in this blog–and look forward to sharing a bit about making a living as a quiltmaker/teacher/designer in the 21st century, about finding balance in one’s life, about sharing good books I’ve read or heard about, and about the glories of living in the northwest!  (there will probably be more to write about in the latter category during the Spring and Summer months here; I’ll try to find the silver lining when the rains and darkness start again in the fall and winter!

Quilting in the Garden Photos

My living room, two days before leaving for California; it was quite a job labeling all these quilts, labeling the black leaf bags each of them went into, and expelling the air from the bag so we could get as many quilts as we could into each suitcase!

Ruth Harris Photography

Then once we got to Livermore, we unpacked the suitcases and put the quilts in stacks according to categories like Sampler Quilts, Easy Pieces, Strips that Sizzle, etc., checking off three different lists as we went along! Cyndee then made the decision of which quilts would hang on which line in which part of the nursery; each line had to have a balance of large and small quilts, for weight limitations.

Janet M. Freiland Photograph

Such a typical picture of me: taking the last few stitches at the very last minute!!!

Janet M. Freiland Photography

It took two and a half hours to unpack the 9 suitcases of quilts; but this sunset was our reward as we left Alden Lane…

“The MillerQuilts Team” in their red MillerQuilts, Inc. “uniform” shirts; L-R, Bernie Frieland, Me, Martha Alexander, my sister Janet Freiland.

Early Saturday morning, part of the lineup of helpers, ready to pin quilts to lines, and hold them so they don’t touch the ground. Two different teams fanned out over the nursery, and got 135 quilts hung in record time…

Jacquie Williams-Courtright Photography

Early Saturday morning, during the hanging of the quilts; Me with camera in hand, with Alex Anderson, the spirit behind this show. Thank you, Alex, for the opportunity to experience this event…and for your friendship and support over the years…

Jacquie Williams-Courtright Photography

MillerQuilts “headquarters” under the huge heritage oak tree in the center of Alden Lane Nursery. The nursery is laid out like a labyrinth, and this tree is at the heart of it…

The walking tours were fun for me not only remembering stories associated with each quilt; but each quilt brought back memories of things happening in my life at the time I was making it. So this weekend was an amazing sentimental journey for me…

Jacquie Williams-Courtright Photography

David A. Miller Photography

After so many months of working toward the Quilting in the Garden event, it is now hard to get my feet back on the ground! The weekend of Sept. 24-25, I was the invited artist at this annual event, held at the magnificent Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, CA. This event was begun by Alex Anderson (of HGTV’s “Simply Quilts” fame) several years ago, when she suggested to Jacquie Williams-Courtright (owner of Alden Lane) that her nursery, a four-acre property dotted with magnificent heritage oak trees, would be a perfect place for a quilt show! And so a most successful annual endeavor was born: only this year, it was a two-day rather than a one-day event.

The quilts are clothespinned to lines strung among the oak trees; a hearty band of volunteers from three local quilt guilds show up early each morning to hang the quilts, then reappear late in the day to take them down. Thanks to many people all over the country who sent quilts I had made for them to this show, there were 135 of my quilts hanging in those trees—representing about 25 years of quiltmaking!

What a soul-stirring experience—to see so much of one’s work displayed so magnificently! The color of the quilts was reflected in the colors of the plants and flowers and wonderful displays in the nursery—it was like walking in a color wonderland, in perfect fall weather, with pumpkins and cornstalks adding just the right seasonal touch…

A big part of the reason that this event was so successful was the Alden Lane management and staff: Jacquie, the nursery owner, Cyndee Carvalho, with whom we had been working for months, and Gerard, her “right hand person”, who had a lot of “line duty” during this event. The staff couldn’t do enough to help us, and they all made us feel so special, and so happy with the show we brought with us.

Accompanied by my neighbor Martha Alexander, I drove from Seattle to Livermore in a rented cargo van, laden with well over 1000 pounds of books and templates and nine soft-sided suitcases full of quilts. My sister Janet and her husband Bernie Freiland flew in from Maryland to help; the “MillerQuilts team” was completed with dear friends Connie Tiegel, Carol Gunby, and Debbie Mancuso. Six busloads of quilters arrived the first day—so the MillerQuilts booth was a busy place! Twice a day I led walking tours of the quilts in the nursery, telling stories about some of the quilts that were hung—each tour was slightly different, as different quilts reminded me of a story from long ago.

There were many highlights of this experience—but imagine how my heart overflowed when my son David surprised me on Sunday afternoon by arriving from New York City to surprise me, in time to take in my last walking tour of the weekend! My heart had been full all weekend with the joy and wonder of this event, and grateful for the many friends who had helped me get this show to come to fruition. But when David walked up to my stand under the sheltering oak tree, there were hardly words to express the explosion of gratitude and joy I felt, inside and out!

Perhaps the best way to share this experience with you, Dear Reader, would be to share the following captioned photos: they certainly bring back magnificent memories…If you ever have a chance to attend this event, always held at the end of September, don’t miss it…this event, and all that led up to it, was perhaps the biggest highlight of my career so far, and one I won’t forget for a very long time. Thank you, Alex; thank you Jacquie and Cyndee and Gerard—what special people you are! Thank you! Thank you!

• Quilting in the Garden Pictures
• More Quilting in the Garden pictures (David A. Miller Photography)

How ironic that I should choose a topic of STOPPING, RESTING, and LETTING GO as my focus for this month’s newsletter! Those are the exact opposite “action words” for what is currently happening at MillerQuilts, Inc. But perhaps it is the Stopping, Resting, and Letting Go that has enabled me to keep up my energy for a most productive period and two huge events!

The first is Quilting in the Garden at the Alden Lane Nursery, in Livermore, CA, Sept. 24-25. I invite you to join me there to see over 130 of my quilts on display throughout the nursery, and help celebrate the official launch of the AnglePlay™ Template starter sets and patterns, and my new book, AnglePlay™ Blocks. Quilts from all six of my books have been called in to display, and there are many brand new AnglePlay ones; so this will be a large and unique collection of “Miller-made” quilts.

A new AnglePlay™ quilt called “Northwest Flyway.” Pattern for this quilt is in Template Set Two, “Angles Up!”

The pattern for this AnglePlay™ quilt, “Caribbean Garden,” is in Template Set Two, “Angles Up!”. Both of these quilts were made using templates from AnglePlay™ Template Sets One (“Angles Aweigh!”)and Two.

Quilters come from all over the state, and even from across the country to attend this weekend event—a unique quilting adventure, to be sure! I will be doing a special lecture on Friday night, Sept. 23, and Alex Anderson will do a trunk show of her work on Saturday night. There will be periodic guided tours of the quilts throughout the 4-acre nursery, so I can share some of their stories.

Go to www.aldenlane.com for more specific information. If you are coming from out of town, there are hotels who give a “quilting discount”. Come see us in our new red MillerQuilts, Inc. shirts, which invite you to “Ask me about AnglePlay™ Templates” when we turn around!!

Preparing for this and Houston Quilt Market and Festival the end of October has meant a year that has been busier than usual. So it is a blessing that this is the year that I’ve chosen to work toward more balance in my life, and have glimpsed the virtues of STOPPING, RESTING, LETTING GO.

The pattern of most of my life has been going at a frantic pace, trying to do everything, working until my energy is spent. My brother Jim observed years ago that I had only two speeds in my life: Overdrive and Dead Stop. That thought gave me pause, but didn’t lead me to mend my ways.

Another reminder came when I attended a wonderful week long workshop a few years ago called “Healing Stitches: How your Art Influences your Life” (see www.haven.ca for a host of wonderful seminars on making the most of this life you’ve been given). In that workshop we worked on a quilt project during the week, but we were not allowed to work frantically and stay up til the wee hours pushing ourselves. We were allowed to work on it only a couple hours each afternoon—and it was refreshing how I looked forward to that time, savored the time I had to work on the project, but didn’t worry about how much progress I did or didn’t make on a given day. Pacing myself—having to stop instead of working to the burnout place—what a concept…

My quiltmaking and creative work has always been intertwined with my life. Up to now, my business has been run out of my home, and my creative work and personal life unfolds there too. But as my business grows, moving it out of my house is becoming imperative.

As I find more ways to savor my life’s journey through journaling, reading, and associating with other women who value deepening their spiritual understandings on the way to becoming their authentic selves, I sense a growing need to make my home a haven, a place of peace, rather than a place where there is an unending list of tasks to accomplish, deadlines to meet. I am getting better at the “Stopping” part; starting my day with quiet time and journaling, stopping at the end of the day to sit on the deck outside my bedroom to savor the sunset. Not listening to music, not reading, just sitting, letting my thoughts wander.

I have practiced the Letting Go of taking some time completely off, with surprising results. I find I need to commit to this time by putting it on the calendar well in advance—and then stick to my commitment. The temptation is great as the break time draws closer—I think about how much “work” I could accomplish with that day or two. But I am always glad I carry through my plan—because I always feel a release as I embark on the break time, and I often accomplish much more once I resume my work routine again. It took some practice to make myself NOT think about work or deadlines or worries about any number of possible future events.

Sometimes a “stopping” time is merely taking a different road to your destination. En route from Guymon, OK to Liberal, KS on a recent teaching trip, my hostess drove me by acres of sunflower fields. What a joy to photograph them! What an adventure, being the single “Northwest flower” among the blossoms…and the bees…

While on these break times, I’ve become conscious of what it means to Rest; to sleep at night, to just sit quietly during the day. Not reading or stitching or “doing”. Just recently, after a particularly stressful week, I was sitting in a “sky chair” (an enfolding, comforting, swinging canvas chair) on my friend’s deck on a Saturday afternoon. And I realized that, for the first time in my life, I was resting on purpose: and I was okay with that! I wasn’t resting because I was sick and trying to recuperate; I wasn’t resting to catch up on my sleep, or to generate a false burst of energy for more frantic tasks. I was resting, purposely, to gather my strength for the week ahead—and that was good.

I’ve noticed also that I’m more willing to Let Go; let go of those last few tasks on my to do list that was too long to begin with; let go of carrying around too many future deadlines and commitments all at once, all the time.

I’m trying to let go of worry more quickly than I have in the past. My current strategy is to not allow myself to dwell in worry; if there isn’t something I can do about the problem that very minute, I’m don’t allow that thought to stay in my mind. (This is especially helpful in the middle of the night!)

And so, the cycle continues: much to accomplish and rigorous work ahead over the next few weeks, but also a kind of peace of mind from stopping, resting, and letting go once in a while…

My travels this month put me in touch with a circle of knitters, and a viewing of the national competition known as Quilt National in Athens, Ohio. Such a combination of events led me to muse on the connections we have with at least one other group of hand craftsmen, and how our feelings about competition sometimes affect strongly our progress in our chosen craft.

Though I have departed from many needlework techniques I once did avidly (needlepoint, thread count cross stitch, garment making), I still love to knit, and do it from time to time as the urge happens. There is a deep contentment in the rhythmical, repetitive motion of knitting, it is the same peace we feel when hand quilting or hand stitching. It is every bit as comforting as rocking a baby, giving a friend a long hug during times of trouble, or swinging in a park swing or a front porch rocker. Like quilting, knitting is considered a “humble craft”—yet it is powerful. Just as quilters have many charitable projects that affect many people’s lives, knitters make chemo caps and prayer shawls and baby blankets for children or young mothers in need. Knitters, like quilters, gather to share much more than tips and techniques; they share compassion and understanding for one another, comfort in distressing times, and hope for the future when the world feels like a crazy place.

The knitter who crossed my path this trip was my “classroom angel” Dawn Thierry in Cookeville, Tennessee. She wore a different beautiful shawl or sweater every day to class, and even took me to have lunch with her small group who meet to knit one morning a week at a local café, and then eat lunch together there. What a joy to go and sit among her knitting friends, and feel right at home, as we quilters do when we gather! Familiar was the sharing of tips and techniques, news of other knitters and new products and new shops opening or closing, etc. etc. etc. We stopped by a new knit shop en route back to class, and helped the shop owner and a customer figure out a brand new stitch from a new knitting magazine…It all felt so familiar…and the connection I felt instantly among these women who otherwise were perfect strangers, felt equally as good.

My next teaching stop was the NQA Show in Columbus Ohio; how thrilled I was to be able to take a bus trip to visit Quilt National at The Dairy Barn in Athens the day before my teaching began! I haven’t visited this impressive exhibit since the late 1980s, and I was eager to see this year’s collection of cutting edge quilts. Since I was last there, The Dairy Barn has been expanded to include a gift shop, and classrooms and offices upstairs; but the chance to view what is purported to be the finest contemporary work in the country is still the heart of this experience for me.

The Dairy Barn, Athens Ohio. Location of the annual Quilt National juried and judged quilt exhibition, as well as other annual art exhibits. A picturesque location in southeastern Ohio to experience the glorious color and technique of contemporary quilts.

As I walked around the show of contemporary quilted works, having just come from the good feelings generated by connecting with the Cookeville knitters, and the camaraderie of the bus trip with quilters to Athens, I was reminded of one of the curious repercussions of growing in one’s art and craft. There is considerable irony in that we quilters often bond with each other on so many levels; we freely share tips and techniques, patterns and ideas, and help in time of trouble. And yet, the prospect of sharing our work in public exhibitions, and the competition of judged shows, can make some of us shake in our shoes. How easily we can be overwhelmed by other quilters’ work, especially in huge shows like the AQS Show in Paducah, Kentucky or Houston’s Quilt Festival. How quickly we can feel overshadowed by someone else’s expertise, craftsmanship, or use of color. Each quilt seems more magnificent than the last, with such unbelievable craftsmanship or use of color that you wonder if you will ever grow to that level, considering whatever quilts you are making at the time. It is so easy to come dazed and then discouraged, especially if you are a fairly new quiltmaker.

A few years ago I solved this dilemma for myself; instead feeling badly about how my skills stacked up against those of the quiltmakers in the show, I decided to salute that quiltmaker—and this dissipated any negative feelings of discouragement that otherwise arose in such circumstances. Instead of feeling envious of her skill, I felt grateful for the opportunity to view something of such great beauty and/or technical expertise; grateful for the joy of seeing the colors or the pattern or the new twist on some aspect of our long quilting tradition.

Now, attending such shows sends me home with fresh verve to make discoveries in my own studio. Though I still occasionally succumb to feelings of inferiority in the face of someone else’s artistic output, talent, business acumen or computer savvy, I’m getting better at focusing on making the best of the talents I have, on pursuing the goals I’ve set for myself, and on attaining more balance in my life in the process.

Below, a glimpse at what has come off the design wall or back from the quilter this month! Til next month, Keep Stitching, and Enjoy the Summer!

These are the last two of four quilts commissioned by Alex Anderson of Livermore, California and “Simply Quilts” television fame. Each of these quilts contains blocks made by the “stars” appearing on a single season of the Simply Quilts television show. Alex wanted each of the quilts to look very distinct from each other. The first quilt can be seen in the background on current episodes of Simply Quilts. All four will be exhibited at the Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters Oregon this summer.

The directions for this quilt will be found in the first Starter Kit of AnglePlay™ templates. This kit will feature patterns for 20 blocks and three quilts, all of which are made from only four AnglePlay™ templates, A, B, C, and D (all triangles with a 2″ base). Watch this website for more information!

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)

The topic of “sewing rooms” or “studios” or “creative spaces” is one that comes up often among quiltmakers. Since the number and kind of quilts you produce can be directly related to the state of the workspace in which you produce them, this topic is a good place to start.

Stand in the doorway of your sewing space (even if it is looking across your dining room table!), and look at it with fresh eyes. What do you see? Does the space invite you in, or repel you, because of stacks and stacks of projects making you feel you don’t know where to turn next; because to work on a project you have to search for its various pieces?? A quilter’s sewing space is often the only place in the house that she can truly call her own; the quilt in progress in the wall may seem like the only thing in her life that she can truly control, and steer down a positive path. But sometimes this space becomes a place to “stash” treasures: fabric, quilting books and magazines, family or quilt show photos to be organized “later”; too many knickknacks that looked oh, so appealing at the quilt show, but that now visually clutter the space.

How does the space feel? Is it light, airy, colorful, and pristine, or is it cramped, cluttered, dusty, and crammed with multiple unfinished projects? How much clear table space is there, around your sewing machine, or on your cutting table? What project is on your design wall? How long has it been there?

Lest you think of me as someone who doesn’t need to take her own advice, this is a current photo of my design board: it is a quilt I was making for my friend Linda Gunby for Christmas! The last time I touched it was the Christmas holidays! However, my travel schedule is lightening after this coming trip, and I look forward to getting down to business in the studio, as many other deadlines loom!

Where are your tools and supplies? Are they all together (threads, cutting tools, fabrics, designing supplies) in easy reach, or are they scattered in various places throughout the room, with some hidden away in drawers and on dark closet shelves?

What is the view over your sewing machine as you sit and sew? Do you look out over a garden (or at least through a window to the yard), or at a blank wall? Do your eyes easily go from the garden of your stacked fabrics to the garden of your yard? Do you feel expansive when you sit at your sewing machine, or hunched over and cramped because all around you are teetering towers of unfinished projects and fabric waiting to be put on the shelf? Is there a clear pathway from your sewing machine to your design wall to your ironing board?

This is the view out the window just to the left of my cutting table: the heather garden along the front driveway, with bird feeders hanging from the maples in the background. The view out the back windows of the studio is also marvelous, as the previous owners of this house made the entire yard a wonderful perennial garden! (Hooray! No grass to mow! No leaves to rake!!!)

Is there a separate comfortable chair in which you can sit and read, sit and stitch, sit and write in your journal, or just sit? Is there a door you can shut, to be in peace and quiet in your creative space? Do you ever put a vase of fresh flowers in this creative space, just for the joy of the color?

If your answers to the above questions displease you, and the plaque I bought a few years ago “This Mess is a Place” applies to your creative space, what are you going to do about it? What if you took a day, or an evening or two a week, and set about clearing out and organizing your creative space so that it draws you in, and rejuvenates your sense of creativity? And when you begin that work, pretend your space is someone else’s—how would you “fix it” for them? Sometimes detachment from ownership of disorganization helps us see it with fresh eyes, and solutions come more quickly. Fortunately, clearing clutter is like gardening: even a little effort seems to make a big visual difference.

I had a crash course in organizing my sewing space when I had my carpets cleaned a year or so ago. I had to take everything out of my studio except the sewing tables, the cutting table, and of course the bookshelves of fabric. Everything I took out went to the basement. What a revelation! The room became a pristine, manageable, magnetic place to my creative spirit: a place I WANTED to be! So for a few months I did not bring anything into the studio except what I needed for the quilt top being designed and/or sewn, or the project being machine quilted. What a glorious time period that was! If I worked on a short-term project in addition, it was easy to put away what I had used.

But then I had to make a shipping center in the basement, which required getting rid of some of what was located there. And so I began the process of getting rid of “stuff”, quilting and otherwise, and boxes again appeared around the fringes of the studio. Though the sorting and pitching was slow going at first, I soon felt more and more liberated the more I sent out the door; and I find that the faster I make a decision on a given item, the better. I’m funneling goods to Goodwill and other like organizations, quilting guilds, charity quilt projects, and most recently, to the UW Extension Service Textiles and Clothing Advisors organization. They have a garage sale once a year to raise money for the teaching of sewing in the schools. So at least I get a tax receipt for these goods; the thought of getting them all ready for a garage sale is overwhelming, and not the way I choose to use my time.

Attending workshops is a good way of re-examining the workspace you need or want. This is the view of one of our Pieceful Harbor Retreat classrooms. Each student had a table to herself, with ample design wall space. Tables were arranged in a “U” shape around the room, which helped students get acquainted more quickly.

The refreshing insight of a workshop is having only what you need for the project at hand around your workspace, without the distractions of everything else in your studio at home.

Whereas I once held on tightly to “all things quilty”, I now know that there are very few of these that I will actually use; I am letting go of having to have things, and can let go of them more freely when I picture the joy someone will have, being able to buy such treasures at a garage sale price! I’m letting go of surplus tools, fabric scraps, outdated fabrics, quilting books, unfinished projects, “quilty” wall hangings and knickknacks. It is a good feeling…even though I have a long way to go toward that pristine, uncluttered look in my creative space (without having more hidden in the basement!), the sense of inner peace I feel as I picture it in my future gives me enthusiasm to keep sorting and pitching. There is a saying that by getting rid of clutter, you are opening a space for more good things to come into your life; and reviving my creative spirit every time I step into my studio will definitely be a good thing…

It is interesting to note how themes for the monthly newsletter arise; often a theme emerges if I will only pay attention to what’s going on in my life, just under the surface fracas! It was my trip to the Florida Keys this month that reminded me of how different people’s lives are, just because of the area where they live.

When I first moved to the Northwest from the San Diego area in 1989, I responded very strongly to this part of the country. The only way I can describe this feeling is to say that I was finally “in the place in the Universe where I belong.” I wonder if this strong sensation has to do with the fact that I moved to Woodinville, which is just across the Cascade Mountains from where I was born, in Wenatchee, WA. But since my family moved to the east coast when I was only three, I hardly think I have strong memories of living in this part of the country.

Travel, of course, makes one more aware of how different surroundings affect attitude and demeanor…It is exhilarating to fly from one climate to its opposite in only one day’s time. In Washington, we are still in fleece jackets and coats; in Florida, people are in thin tee shirts, tank tops, and shorts…

Having grown up on the East coast, I am not at ease if my environment is flat, very windy, arid, or dry and hot. There is something comforting about the tall, tall Pacific Northwest evergreens, and something soul-restoring about views of the snow-capped mountains of the Olympic and Cascade ranges. The change of seasons is very important to my sense of balance as well; in the Northwest, we rejoice in every minute of daylight we have. When living in San Diego, I remember missing the change of seasons most of all—sunshine every day was quickly taken for granted. The year seemed to grind on, marked only by the turning of pages of the calendar on the wall. The change of seasons means renewal to me; a chance to make some changes, to start anew; to focus on something that will be a positive direction to my life’s journey.

I was warned to watch for iguanas, scorpions, fire ants, and land crabs in the yard around the charming little cottage where I stayed in Marathon. This little fellow (can you find him?) was part of my tour of the yard, and was at my eye level. I had to open the front door carefully every morning—my hostess Bonnie Carl said that one morning, about five iguanas scattered from off her front porch when she came out to greet the day!

While my eyes go up to the mountains and the tops of the trees (looking for eagles) here, in Florida my eyes were down—watching for fire ants and iguanas and scorpions and hermit crabs and ibis. The palm trees left ample room for the ocean breezes to blow, but how vulnerable I felt to the vagaries of Mother Nature there. In fact, a storm blew in across the Gulf as we were eating dinner before my evening lecture; the rain came roaring down out of the black, black sky (and of course we had no umbrellas with us); so the “first” in my career this trip is giving my lecture with my hair soaking wet, my clothes very much on the damp side…while driving across the Seven Mile Bridge en route home, the lightning storm across the water was most impressive…

One is constantly reminded of the healthy respect Floridans have for the forces of nature; so many of the houses are cinderblock, with storm screens in place year-round. The majority of buildings are built on cinderblock “stilts”: raised an entire story to accommodate occasional flood waters. I asked everyone I met about their hurricane strategy; so many of them are not afraid of these terrible storms, but choose to “stay put” rather than evacuate even when advised to do so by the authorities. Floridians point out: “where would we go? Into the line of traffic on the one road up the Keys?? Where motel rooms are few and far between until you get “way north??” There is a hardiness in such people; an independence and fortitude learned from Mother Nature herself.

But oh, the beauty of the color around these solid buildings; the hibiscus and oleanders, the bluegreen of shallow ocean water as far as the eye could see…

Floridians have a healthy sense of humor when it comes to their surroundings; my hostess Mary Ann Lindorth in Key Largo has quite a collection of seals. Two of them are at the entrance to her carport, and sport “costumes” for every season…

Since this is Spring Break, and since so many retired people live in the Florida Keys, the illusion is that it truly is a paradise, where nobody needs to move very fast, or work very much. The beaches seemed very well populated with bodies ranging in color from bright red to dark, wrinkly brown; and the bridges linking the Keys were full of people of all ages “wetting a line”…This is so unlike my experiences in big cities, where I often sense that there are too many people in a given space; and all are rushing and crowding and honking horns and talking loudly on cell phones and vying for space and territory.

In the Keys, you feel that you are in a completely unique environment; after all, only one narrow two-lane road links one city to the next. There isn’t a “big box store” on every corner—rather, department store shopping exists only in Key Largo and Key West, both extremes on the Florida Keys. Though there is a wonderful quilt shop called The Seam Shoppe in Key West (go to Tropicalfabricsonline.com), for the most part, quilters depend on their travels to add to their quilting supplies.

Even the earth beneath my feet had a unique feel to it; very different from the soft, damp, fertile ground at home. Since the Florida Keys are, after all, coral reefs, what appear to be soft lawns are misleading. I walked on those reefs with thick-soled shoes, and felt like my feet were getting a massage from the sharp uneven coral formations. Ground cover in yards of private homes was everything from a sturdy variety of rye grass to pea gravel to scattered seashells.

While here winter witnesses us Northwesterners walking around hunched under umbrellas sucking on coffee cups, in Florida it looked like people walked with their bodies in an “open” position, soaking up the sun, like birds spreading their wings to dry them…The skies are ever-changing, as they are in the northwest—but in Florida, you can see so much more of them; it’s as though the clouds have a bigger sheet of paper to make formations on. Seeing so many more stars in the sky at night because there are so many fewer “city lights” below, is as awe-inspiring as seeing the Northern Lights in Alaska or the Northwest Territories.

So are you in the place in the Universe where you belong? What do you savor about the area where you live? If you are unhappy there, what are you doing to alter it? If you are in the city, how fast can you get out of the city into the country? If you live in a dark area (like the Northwest in the deepest winter), what lights have you added? ? What colors have you painted your walls? Conversely, can you cherish how cozy and “safely hidden” you feel when it is rainy and foggy?

Where is the quiet in your environment, where is the music? Where is the greatest concentration of animals in nature? Where in your environment can you hear the sounds of nature more, the sounds of mankind, less??

Who are your neighbors? Do you and they face your surroundings open and curious, or hunched in and private within the walls of your home or the fences around your yard?

How much do you know about the city where you live? Have you visited all its parks, have you walked all its trails? Where is the most beautiful spot to stand in your city, to see a sunset or a sunrise?

Spring is here… go out and explore…look at and feel your environment, with the sensibilities of a visitor from a very different state, a different climate…
and be grateful…