Deadlines and the Creative Process

There are days...

There are days when the creative process and the light and the timing all come together.

There are days when the bobbin stays full until you are done with a seam.

There are days when all the pieces are cut and trimmed the right dimension.

And on those days...

deadlines and the creative process come together.

It's tough, tho, isn't it, to work creatively towards a deadline.

Not a self imposed deadline.  Hey.  I've heard you have up to one year after a birth or marriage to present your gift, so let's not talk about those deadlines.  

But I mean the kind of deadline like

DO IT NOW

deadlines

I once heard a motivational speaker ask the question,

"what could you get done in a day if, at the end of the day, if you finished everything,

you could go on a one month vacation to (fill in your own best idea here)?"

Could you get it all done?

Could you work more efficiently?

I have a 7 month old Guide Dog Puppy coming tonite to stay for four days.

And I'm working feverishly trying to finish the samples and the patterns and the handouts and the buying

for the

International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA

My Creative Process is on high alert.

My deadline is now.

My time is now.

When is your time?

When will you get creative?

When will the light be just right, the bobbin full, the fabric selected, the time to do what you want available to you?

I gotta say - there is no time like now.

Because it's all we got.

As Rumi says,

"Don't be like the vessel full of water whose rim is dry"

Enjoy the day!

sparkle+shine

2009

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

Love is easier than cooking rice...

Love is easier than cooking rice???

WHAT is she talking about?!???

I posted this blog mid July and deleted that post.  Now I'm writing it again.  Re-writing.  Re-thinking.  Re-vising.  As some people wish I would do with my rice cooking, I'm sure.

I had a friend of mine read my last (and now forever deleted) blog.  She came to dinner during the Long Beach Quilt Festival (Quilts, Inc.).  She came with a gift.  She came with a rice cooker. 

Hmmmmmmm.

Because, you see, the last blog was about being able to ma a whole quilt full of 54 piece quilt blocks but not being able to consistently make good rice.  Certainly there's a life lesson in here somewhere, right?  A quilting lesson?  Slow and steady - easy does it - practice makes perfect - something, right?

I always cook a little extra...there always seems to be left overs...for a friend of mine - I told him the other day, "You're always so honest about my cooking - nat, you burned the rice/nat, the rice is perfect/nat, not enough water in the rice."  That's why I love him.  He keeps eating my rice.

And that's why I love all fo the friends that come to my table - they're honest about my cooking.  AND my quilts.  We had a full house the other nite during the Summer INternational Quilt Festival in Long Beach.  Harlan from Harlan's Glass Beads joined us too. www.harlanbeads.com I cooked a double batch of rice.  Not just a little rice, but a whole double batch of undercooked rice.  And at the last minute, the woman who gave me the rice cooker poured more water in the pot.  Sticky rice we then had.  Can you imagine sticky brown rice?!???

And like my friend that is so honest about my cooking, the rest of my friends did the same as he would have.  What unconditional acceptance.  What unconditional love.  That I would cook for them, and that they would love me regardless of my rice.

On the other hand, I do have to give myself credit and say my 80 year old neighbors (and my rice buddy) have told me I have a new 'best of' when it comes to cooking - well, baking.  My muffins.  "COCONUT LOVE"  is what they are now called.  

So.  If you can't make a good dinner, make a great breakfast!!!

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

Little Wonders aka Long Beach Quilt Festival Classs

There are little wonders all around us.

But we are so sucked into all of the 'noise' around us, we don't seem to look up to experience them.  Or if we have somewhere in our lives experienced them, we can't recall them.  We can't bring them back into the forefront of our  memories to savor them over and over again.

I drove today from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Denver, Colorado.  There is a point in that drive, as you crest the summit of Raton Pass - if you look to the left - you are greeted by two large snow capped peaks rising above the golden plains.  And to the left of those, a large range of mountains creates a horizontal slash across the skies.  The skies dotted with bright white clouds on a clear blue sky.  Not your average Los Angeles CA view.  But for the life of me, I could not get a good picture of it all.  Camera phone.  Digital camera.  Nope.  No pic.  So I said, "I'll just have to carry it with me in my memory."  No hard drive but my own brain.  Now there's a thought.

So I have been on a quest to create these 'little wonders' - these moments that we can only capture in our hearts - with fabric and thread.

Reach into your memory and find a time, a place, a feeling that has touched you.  And capture it with your own creative talents.  And if you're having a hard time doing that, please join me for a class in this technique - coming to you soon at Luella's Quilt Basket, In Stitches, or another quilt shop or quilt show venue coming to a town near you.

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.blogspot.com