PARIS IS COLOR (2 of 2) aka:how do you give your "YOU"?

Paris.

Color.

Color.

This is Paris color. 

I received a paper bag of these macaroons

as a gift.

So lovely, I couldn't eat them.

So I grabbed the branches I had collected 

in the streets

and made my own still life with food.

Okay, then I ate a few.

Okay, then I ate all of them.

Eventually.

And this is how my friend gave their "YOU"

to me.

Here is more color.

Each night would  be another walk through another neighborhood.

To a grocer.

When was the last time your grocer looked like this?

This is how the grocer, that I may never see again,

gave his "YOU" to me.

Peugeot Concept Car.

In the showroom. On a street.

One of my favorites.

A flower shop.

Paris really is color.  Bright, subtle, tonality.

And while this bright palette, or the shop display above is more the color intensity in which I work,

I think it's good to work out of your own palette every once in a while.

Stop thinking only in terms of yourself.

Give your "YOU".

Thanks for thinking of

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

sparkles and shine

2009

natalie.

paris.

really.

ps - if you want a touch of France, visit vintageweave.com - they ship worldwide

PARIS IS BLACK AND WHITE (1 OF 2) aka: where do you get your "YOU"?

beyond the reef.

Paris.

Come on.

No.  Really.  

Even better - for a long weekend - or a short week.  

Pick one.

But I did.  Yep.  

One day after road to california - one of our largest quilt shows.

Yep.  I really did.

But WHY, you must be asking yourself.

Because.  Really.  Because.

I am a designer.  I am an artist.  

Isn't that enough reason to spend days upon days walking the

 streets of Paris, visiting Museums, buildings, taking photographs, soaking up displays, design, history, architecture, LIFE?!???

Where do we get our inspiration?  I don't mean our inspiration for just one project.  

I don't mean the one thing we're working on at the time.  I don't mean for the job at hand.  

When I say 'Where do we get our inspiration,' I mean our INSPIRATION.  

The thing that makes us.  

You know.  Who you are.  Your GUT.  Your YOU.

What makes us who we are?  What fills the jar called Natalie? (or Bob or Susan - insert your own name...please) 

Okay, let me try it a different way.  

When you're in the middle of a project, you think, you sketch, you go to color.  Okay?  So far so good.  But WHERE do you go for that?  "My brain, Natalie.  Don't be silly."  Okay.  But what fills your brain?   We are made up of all the events of our lives.  We store all of our visual stimulus.  Our cells absorb our environment.

So I want to go to places that I can absorb.

Light.  Texture.  Pattern.  Sound.

(is sound black & white or color)

And I want to be with people that are worth absorbing.

Their Light. 

Their Pattern.

That have Texture.

So that when I am ready to call upon my brain,

my jar filled with the sights and sounds and imprints on my life,

I will have much to draw from.

So, yea.

Paris.

With my jar FILLED.

(next blog - Paris is Color)

I dare you.

Go someplace 

"out of your box"

and 

"fill your jar"...

ROAD TO CALIFORNIA is HERE

Well, ROAD TO CALIFORNIA is here!  Actually, it is day TWO of the show, and day THREE, I believe, for people taking classes.  But it is in full swing.  We knew it was really here when we walked to Rosa's for dinner - a tradition - and saw those blinking road signs directing people to alternate parking lots around the town.  Yep.  

ROAD TO CALIFORNIA is here.

And you know what else is here?  Our FRIENDS!!!! The people we greet each year with smiles and hugs and 'happy'.  I ran into the Quilt in a Day 'booth guy'.  You all know him as Eleanor Burns' son.  He greeted me with a nice hello, and then came up with open arms, saying, "That's right, you're the hugger, aren't you," and gave me a big bear hug. That's what this weekend is all about, don't you think?

Sure we have new designs for beyond the reef.  Sure we have all new fabrics.  Sure Rose Hughes (wow) will be our stunt quilter for the next two days, but it's the people.  It's the love.  It's the connection to others.  It's the spreading love.  (last blog - life is the act of loving)

This pic - this face - is new to our booth.  Come by and say hello to Vicki...the cash register can get the best of her, so come by and give her some LOVE!!

Speaking of love, here's a friend that came by to show us what she did with some of our Alexander Henry CANVAS.  We still have a little bit of this print left in the booth.  Yep,  they're printing on CANVAS.  And what a lovely job she did.  I don't know if you can see this in the pic, but she put crystals all over these flowers.  BEAUTIFUL JOB!!  And we're so glad she came by to show us her work.  

Here's another project...for more info on this one, go to the comments on the last blog.  These flying geese were set into our white on white cotton fabric and will be the baby quilt for her nephew and niece. Can you tell how happy Denise from Pasadena is about having to make this quilt?  So, Denise came back to us for the border, binding, backing....we can't wait to post the picture of the final quilt she is making for "Rojo" the redhead - - she's due on St. Patrick's day.  Daddy swears he saw red hair in the ultrasound...

Won't you come visit us this weekend?  Ontario Convention Center, Ontario, California.  

Sparkle and Shine.

2009

Natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

LIFE is the act of Loving; so how can you not?

"My lifetime listens to yours"

How many of you talk to yourself, either out loud or just to yourself when you sew?  Or when you're working on something - creating something, building something, working on something...even washing the car?  

Admit it, you do it.  You play things over and over and over and over and over again in your head.  If only I had said this, if only I had thought of that.  If only it would have gone like this, if only I could have seen that.  Ooh, this is it; that sounds good; yea, yea, that's what I really thought - really meant.  Or meant to DO.

I was DOing just that tonite as I was sewing.  I just finished a Wedding Quilt and I was thinking about those two - - I emailed them so very excited that I had finished, as I put it, 'Phase I' of their 'lap art'.  And so tonite, while sewing something else (Road to California is just next week...look for new quilts, new quilts!!), I was thinking about them.  I was thinking how long it takes to make something, work on something, even wash the car.  How much life it takes.  And I thot - Life is the act of Loving.  Just that.  Just life itself.  Just living.

That's why I wanted to give them a quilt.  I realized.  Talking to myself as I was sewing.  Because some times, loving is just merely living. 

 Nothing more - absolutely NOTHING more than that.  And what a better world it all would be if we could just do nothing more than that.  By our very being, by our very nature, by every act in our day, by LIVING, we were LOVING?  Sewing is loving.  Cooking is loving.  Remember that challenge I gave you a few blogs ago - just randomly SMILING at strangers that you look at - and seeing them SMILING back - is loving. Just by the very act of liViNg lOVe,  it IS love.  And after a while, you don't even have to try.  It just IS.  Like making a quilt.  It just IS LOVE.  And for a wedding gift, for two persons starting a new life committed to each other - declaring their desire to stand by each other's side no matter what they're talking to themselves about - isn't the act of sewing a quilt, quilting a quilt, binding a quilt, giving a quilt - isn't it just LiFe as the aCt of lOVing?!??  So that's why I made that quilt, I said to myself.  Not because it was a cool wedding present, but because I wanted to give them love.  I wanted to symbolize their love.  

I wanted to live it to them. 

BOY, DOES THIS SOUND RIDICULOUS, YOU MIGHT BE SAYING RIGHT NOW.  RATHER CIRCULAR IN NATURE. GO WITH IT; READ IT, TAKE IT IN, DON'T TRY TO PICK IT APART PIECE BY PIECE; JUST LIVE IT. 

So I have yet another challenge for all of you.  

While you are practicing your quilting, your applique, or whatever it is that you do while you're talking to yourself, think about a way that you can live life as love.  Simply live.  Live love.  Live someone.  Pass on some LIVE.  Say "Hello, God LIVES you," as the (new) saying goes.

And by all means, keep quilting your love...and maybe it will catch on...

Natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

...I hope you like the sunrise pic...I have been catching a lot of green orbs lately...

...next post...Road to California, Ontario California...