A Friendship Group Tradition

Friendship Groups.

a very special kind of quilting group

I am a member of this friendship group

ATeam

In December, we put on our 'Festive Attire'

We have a candlelight dinner by the roaring fire

And we take time away from quilting to remember

how thankful we are for each other.

It's time for our annual Holiday Party

5:30 champagne

7pm candlelight dinner

Please RSVP by leaving a comment below

(include which side dish you would like to bring)

I wish you could all join us, but as you can see...

there's just enough room

for

the

ATEAM

For the rest of the year, we meet monthly to have a restaurant dinner, and dessert at the host's home.

We share projects, techniques, fabrics, magazines, books, stories...

We share our lives.

Some of our members have been quilting together since their kids were born.

For those of you not close enough to a Quilt Guild meeting,

why not gather 11 other quilters

and create your own  friendship group?

I promise you, ten years from now, you'll be thanking me

for suggesting the idea.

Start your own traditions.

BeginAgain

Natalie

JUDY 2008

JUDY 2009

JUDY always requests a drumstick...

California Spring

It really is spring in California.

Buddy and I took our first camp trip this weekend, and if you follow beyondthereef on facebook as a fan, you'll realize it was his very first camp trip.

When you live "in the city", getting out into the hills is a real treat.  

For just a few hours of driving, you are rewarded with a whole new set of flowers, scrub, birds, and people.  It's really a treat.  I would suggest being a tourist in your own state, if you have a chance.

For Buddy, it meant a tent, eating in the tent, watching prairie dogs and birds and squirrels and all sorts of things he could never ever catch.

For me, it is a whole new file of flowers and blooms to applique.

And while they may not be tropical, or Hawaiian, the shapes and the structure will lend themselves beautifully to that Hawaiian fabric.

Finally.

I thot you'd like to see some of Buddy's camping pics.

And last but not least, I hope you can see it...

Buddy and a Prairie Dog

(I think.  Or maybe a really small gopher?  Look just 'lower of center' and above the clump of dirt to the right of Buddy's right elbow)

Good dog, Buddy.

BeginAgain.

2010

Looking in; Looking out (a new perspective)

...did you notice? it's starting to 'spring'...We all spend so much time looking in.
Wondering. Thinking. Figuring.
Hoping.

We all spend so much time trying to better ourselves.
Trying to figure it all out and get it right.

Be right.
Be better.

Looking inward.
Looking in.
Looking.
In my living room, I have four lounge chairs around a large round low table.
All around the table - looking in.

The other day, it was so nice out,
and I noticed the sun was streaming through the wall of windows in the living room...
I grabbed the chair closest to the window wall and I turned the whole dang thing around.
There it was - - one chair out of the whole group - - facing out...looking out.
I sat down, put my feet up on the windowsill, and drank in the view.
...a whole new view.
...a whole new perspective.
...not from looking in, but by looking OUT.

I say we all start the next day by NOT looking inward, by NOT concentrating on ourselves.
But by looking out.
If you're working on a project right now, turn it upside down.
If you're on the road, take a highway that will get you there but that isn't your regular path.
(Jill - "always go a different way")
If you're always in the garden, come into the house.
If you're always in the house, go for a walk.
If you always applique, rotary cut a bunch of squares and spend an afternoon piecing a quilt top for charity.
If you have been spending all of your time and energy on yourself, or trying to discover something about yourself, stop.
Turn your chair around.



thanks for thinking of
b e y o n d t h e r e e f

natalie.

sparkle & shine
2009

www.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

There's always a START - beyond the reef beach blog

24.March.2007

There's always a START.  

A start of a movie, a start of a meal, a start of a quilt.  And so it is with this - the start of the beyond the reef beach blog.  

As we continue to grow and create, I hope you will put us on your list of favorites.  We will be featuring great creative links. Great creative tips from our team and from our quilting friends.  And of course, there will be great wisdom from Moondoggie, if any of you will remember, from my classes or trunk shows.

So for now, just remember, applique is nothing more than a blind hem stitch, and quilting is nothing more than a running stitch.  So - just START!!!

Aloha from the beach - Natalie