The Inspiration of Others

Sometimes I need to be reminded that by creating art I belong to a community of makers who do the same. I think it's the isolation; I need to get out and get inspired by others in person when I can, or seek out their creations when I need comfort or a boot in the creative butt.

The county quilt show did that this year, and so does the Orlando Weavers' holiday show when they come to town every December. I've attended it for three years now, and I always score beautiful hand woven art yarn and kitchen towels, but more importantly, I can be around other makers and talk with them. Had a blast at the show this year. :)

I invested in some native made jewelry with pearls for Kat's Christmas gift, but because she's not coming to visit us this year I can't see her opening them. On the upside, it was nice to be able to ship her gift direct to her from an indy jewelry shop in the islands. I got myself a pearl bracelet from 14carrot, my favorite Etsy seller because a) it was beautiful and b) it's a reminder to make the best of the holidays no matter what happens.

Speaking of one of my favorite muses, I also got another trio of 14carrot's quilt tags to help jumpstart the last round of my own this month. I've been feeling so blue I'm a week behind on the project, and seeing her artistry always inspires my own.

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Old Loves & Such

My guy kindly bought me my favorite Chinese take out the other night, and my fortune cookie offered up an interesting story starter: This sounds sweet, right? Only the first thing I thought of was an old love coming back from the dead . . . . must be October. In other lovely news, my favorite hand-dyed thread artist, Lorraine from Colour Complements , is moving her business from Etsy to her own web site. Many of my favorite sellers on Etsy are leaving due to the whole "free shipping" coercion debacle, which has also soured me on the site. To show support I did a little shopping at Lorraine's web site and got in these: I love her threads and trims; you simply can't buy anything like them anywhere. Her work makes my specialty thread box look like a treasure chest: At night I'm spending just as hour working on quilting the scrap project runner, and I'm making slow progress: I'll keep quilting the runner while I try to decide on a design for t...

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Progress

My guy is back home safe, sound and exhausted. I think he just realized he's over seventy now. :) I didn't finish a sewing project while he was gone, but I did make some progress on the beach bag. I've tacked down all the fabric elements on top of the old backing fabric I quilted. Time to break out the embroidery thread box and have some fun.

Valerean

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