...chasing chickens. (aka how to be sure you're on track)

Chickens.

Hey, I'm from the City.  Well, okay, I have had my tomboy moments, but no, I was NOT raised on a farm in the midwest.  Deer hunting (whether you're pro or con hunting) was an event, not a way of life.  Eggs?  They come from Trader Joe's.  Milk?  Don't even drink it, yet alone need to get it every morning fresh from the animal.  Would I like to?  Sure, but I'm fairly lactose intolerant.  The eggs, however, I think I could get into...

Enter the Chickens.

Remember the last blog?  The Central Coast Ranch?  Enter the Chickens.  Capitalized.  Yep.  CHICKENS.  Even in a different type face!!! (font for you correct types...)

So my only job before leaving the Ranch was to feed and water the chickens.  Simple.  Two scoops of some lovely colored yellow/gold/white mix stuff sprinkled artfully on the ground of the coop (walk in size), fill the water container with the hose on the side of the office/shop, and put it in the coop.  No problem.  

Until you realize that CHICKENS have their very own agenda.  No really.  They do.  Forget that Bird Brain statement.  They know EXACTLY what they want out of life, and they know how to GET IT. Enter the City Girl. The first picture on this blog - the one of the two black birds - well, one made a run for it the moment I opened the door to the coop to get the water into the space.  JAIL BREAK!!!!  I could hear him yell, as he bolted past me.

Oh NO.  How will I ever tell my friend I lost one of this chickens.  (it's probably a rooster, but what do I know)

So the chase begins.  Through the barn, down to the lake, towards the garden, back down the drive, back through the barn.  Wait.  He stops at the coop door.  Okay, I think.  Good.  I walk towards him.  Let me get the door for you.  Hah.  What am I thinking.  Back through the barn, down the drive, up to the lake, stops at the door for a moment, then back up the drive to the garden, down the grade, up the grade, well, you get the picture.  

So I take a calculated risk.  Besides, I can NEVER call my friend and tell him I lost one of his chickens.  At this point I'm ready to try anything.  I open the coop door just a crack, hoping the other chickens won't notice. Hoping they don't have the same creative streak as this guy does.  And we begin the chase again.  But this time, when he stops at the door, it's open just a bit and he pushes through.  A HAH!!!

So, once again, you ask.  What does this have to do with quilting?  At this point you're asking what does this have to do with LIFE?!?!???

Well, here are some answers for you.  

1.  Water is heavy.  So don't fill your watering device to the top - it's hard to carry all of that stuff.  And then if you want to open a door, do something simple, you're bogged down with this full water container.  Leave a little room for air.  For breath.

2.  Don't run around chasing chickens.  Enough said - running around like a chicken with their head cut off.  You know the saying.  We all know the saying, and we all do it.

3.  Don't try to think like a chicken.  Do your own thinking.  Enough said.

4.  Try something unusual - take a risk.  Open that door.  Count on the good people in your lives.  Don't focus on the one bad 'chicken'  in your life.  (one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch)

5.  Believe in the good of your friends.  Look at the donut not the donut hole, as my friend has recently said to me.  Weeks later, I told my friend about 'loosing his chicken'.  It didn't even phase him.  "Yea, that happens sometimes."  I was sooooooo worried about what would happen if I ever had to admit to him that I lost one of those chickens...

Lessons from the Ranch.  

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

PS - between chasing chickens and wrapping presents, I have had some time to post some new patterns on the website - I hope you'll take another look around the site!!  We're going to try to add a few specialty fabrics - tropicals, Alexander Henry's...just a few...and if there's something special you are looking for, please email us!!

natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com

Color and Texture - Inspiration Comes to us in Many Forms

I took some time off last week, to drive up the coast of California - to an area they call the 'Central Coast'.

It's Nipomo, Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande, San Louis Obispo, Morro Bay, Cayucos - that area.

The Seven Sisters area.  I guess I should be able to name all seven, right?

First, let me tell you, there is a great quilt show in the area.  In 2009, it will be in it's second year.

It's a combined guild show, which I think is a great idea.  Seven Sisters, seven towns, seven quilt guilds,

one great show. 

It's at the Madonna Inn.  For more information, go to our website

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

Back to my drive.

I had the pleasure of visiting a friend on his Ranch.

It is alive with color and texture and living things.

And projects.

He is really busy with projects, so it was a pleasure to take a moment and just sit on the front porch, plop down in the rockers, and have a glass of water between projects...to take the time to catch up and reconnect.

I highly recommend it.  Go out of your way for someone.  Take the time to reach out and discover someone already in your life.  We all go rushing quickly along on our own highways, on our own paths.  We should remember it is every friend along the way that has helped pave that way for us.

And we should reconnect.

After a few moments, a few quality topics of discussion under our belt, my friend was off again with another project, giving me the gift of the Ranch...

to wander, play with the dog, visit with the goats, and talk to the cows.

And discover the garden.

It wasn't long before I was pulling weeds and digging in the dirt and feeding the goats the grasses and sprouts I had just pulled from the earth.  Picking fallen apples under the trees meant the goats would have a treat.  Nothing was wasted.  Just like quilters and their little scraps of fabrics - making up the patchwork of a quilt, the Ranch creates a patchwork of life sustaining...growing...creating...

With quilting, so often, we focus on the quilt pattern we are making, or the fabric we want to use.  We worry about the thread and get involved in the tools of the trade.  We read up on quilting patterns, and check on the latest information on getting perfectly square corners on our binding.  We are a focused bunch, working in little teeny less than 1/8" bites of stitches for applique, and oh so much math for our pieced quilts.

We want to be sure we meet the criteria for the quilt's submission into a show,

or the requirements for the challenge, too.

And we usually have some sort of deadline for our quilts.

We're always going along at a fast clip along that highway, that path.

I stayed the night on the ranch, in a loft above my friend's office.

Mind you, his office is a space filled with tractors, tools, metal things, and lots and lots of parts and pieces and lots and lots of ideas about what to do with them all.

The next morning, I truly had the Ranch to myself - I am a very early riser.  So I started taking pictures.

(after I fed and watered the chickens - that's a blog in itself...I lost a chicken!!!!! 

Wait, it does have a happy ending - look for the upcoming blog entitled "Chasing Chickens")

When I returned home to Southern California, I took a look at the pictures I had taken.

Color.  Texture.  Contrast and Comparison.

All perfectly composed by just the nature of the Ranch itself.

Life itself.

I am here today to tell you to stop, breathe, and look.

Take a moment to see the texture, the detail, the stitch, the little pieces that make up the whole.

How many times are you ever going to hear me tell you to NOT see the big picture?

Well, the next few blogs are going to reflect the detail, the texture, the color, the fabric that our lives are made of.

So while you're on your journey, while you're on your highway, and especially this holiday season, 

take time to look at the detail. 

 Even your breath.  

See the colors and textures and layers of your life and rejoice in that.

be.do.create

2008

thanks for thinking of 

beyond the reef

natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.blogspot.com