be.do.create

you know that has been the 

tag line

for beyond the reef

for as long as I can remember

be.do.create

so when I saw this

on a blog that I follow 

I just had to share

no, not sponsored.

but thoroughly enjoyed.

create daily from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.

hope you enjoy it too

maybe even enjoy it enough to sign up

or not

but.

remember.

today is a day to

be.do.create

tomorrow is a day to post a book giveaway

HappiestDays.

HappiestHolidays.

natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

A new day...a new opportunity!

Some days are just perfect days.  They start fresh, and new, and filled with anticipation.

In California, we don't really get 'weather' or seasons.  Well, we do have seasons here on the coast - drippy mornings, garden spider, beach chairs and tents, back to school - they are all seasons at the beach.

So, when yesterday, there were unstable clouds in the sky and the air was heavy with humidity, with a promise of a steamy day ahead, well, hULa and I got a frisbee and headed out.  The water was warm and there were people swimming the shoreline instead of running the shoreline.  And the clouds - there was rain coming from the clouds!  Summer showers!

What a treat.  The sage and the onions, the zucchini and the mint - - were all singing summer's praise.

It was a new day with plenty of opportunity. 

 

With the light as brilliant and as clear as it was, my mind got to work too.

I wanted to make a new quilt.  And, forgive me, not a beyond the reef quilt, but just a quilt for no reason.

So when opportunity calls, knocks or just blows in like an unexpected storm,

take advantage of the fresh look at things.

And.

Create.

sparkle+shine

2009

natalie.

(04.august.2009)

creativity is messy

Someone recently asked me how I create.

I am a quilter, and  I had fabric spread across the worktable.

How do I create.

Hmmm.

So I responded quickly - looking down at the fabrics we had chosen - two different themes of fabrics,

"It's messy," I replied.

And then, before I sat to compose this entry, I realized, 

ART IS MESSY.

All art is messy.  Painting.  Ceramics.  Sculpture.  Collage.  Performance Art.

As designers (of anything, I believe) we need a lot, we have to pull a lot, we have unlimited choices of whatever it is we're doing - working in.  And we want to see it all, consider it all, try it all, and throw half of it out (or maybe more than half some days).

And in return, life is messy.  Our friendships are messy.  There are so many choices out there.  Who do we invite in?  What do we keep, what do we set free, or set aside for another part of our life?  How do we create a life? Life IS a blank canvas.  I think, if you have been reading along, you will know, I do morning sunrise prayers and evening meditations.  Every morning I ask, I plead, I call upon the Great (for me, God, for you, your choice), "Show me what it is that you would have me do today."  A blank canvas.  Every day.  Or as my yoga instructor says, "Begin again".  Except he might say it three or four or eight times in an hour and a half class.  BEGIN AGAIN.  Create again.  Messy.  And maybe, in life, we're really looking for someone that we can 'be messy' with. A safe place.  Like Creating.  Art.  (oh, yea, where were we....)

And so in this very short blog about, probably, you will say, not so much about quilting (however, I would say, read it again...) quilting is messy.  art is messy.  creating is messy.  life is messy.

How fine to be creative.  Messy is good.

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

"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi

"Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin readying.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep."  - Rumi

Okay, the cat is out of the bag.  I am a student.  Of many things.

I am a student of yoga.  I am a student of life.  I am a student of people.

I am a student of dating and appraising quilts, too.  By the way.

So in my yoga class this last Sunday morning, this poem was read - well, just this part of the poem...it goes on.  I found it of interest that when we are 'so into our head' that instead of going into our head again, that we are to use the OTHER side of our brain.  Reach for something CREATIVE not CEREBRAL.  

Good thinking!  

Fabric!

Quilting!

Art!

Music!

Yeah!!!

I like this.  A lot.  And the part about not going back to sleep to.  The door is OPEN.

How many times do we get to a part of a quilt, project, time in our life, whatever, and we want to 'go back to sleep' about it?  Oh, I know for a fACt.  When I'm trying to finish something, and I run out of bobbin, that's where I want to go.  Or I sew the last square together and the bottom fabric has shifted and now it's not square, or well, you get the point.  I want to 'go back to sleep'.  I don't want to sit and figure it out or get up and go for a walk and come back and finish it correctly - fresh.  I just want to 'go back to sleep' forgetting that the door is open still.

So, while today's blog is a small one, it is packed full of good idea.

When you wake up 'empty and frightened', don't get sucked into your head - reach for something creative.  And when you want to get into your head, just don't.  Don't over think it.  As a song writer said, "Darlin' do not fear what you don't understand."  

And when we choose to do something, let it be what we love.

Finally, listen to the secrets whispered only to you.  

And ask for what you really want.

Go through that open door.

Don't go back to sleep.

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

"Don't grieve. Anything you loose..."

"Don't grieve.

Anything you loose

comes round in another form."

Rumi

It is a difficult task to Trust in the Universe.  God.  Faith.  Whatever you like.

It is a difficult task.

Some people do it with more ease than others.  Me, I practice.

Take the creative process of art, as an example

My table is a mess with fabrics, pieces cut, tissue overlays, enlargements, sketches, photographs, scraps of - well, my mind, as the case may be.  I am working on a series of landscapes of Hawaii.  One wonders if it will come together at all, or if it will all be lost.  

Faith.

Take the creative process of shaping one's body, as another example.

I took a yoga class from a great teacher yesterday.  She said something that really hit me - we were all in a new pose, and she instructed us to keep breathing.  

She said if we lost our breath, that PANIC would start to well up in side of us, and our pose would be lost.  Panic. Can you imagine?

Trust.

Take the creative process of Love.  Friendship.  Of lives entwined.  Another quote comes to mind, 

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."  Rumi

Can we loose friendship?  Love?  Lives entwined?  Dogs, are a great example of what we should have the greatest faith in...When we are apart from a dog, we miss them terribly.  Grieve their purehappy presence.  But when they see us again, it is like anew for them.  Brand new sparkling, pure, gleefully joyful tail wagging, giggling all over love.  Sooooo happy to see you again.  They do not forget.  That feeling they have IS forever.  Hold on to that.

And believe that softening, letting something go, breathing into something, does not mean that it is gone. 

You can trust that some things ARE forever.

That they can be.

Today, in this posting, I hope for you the pulse of the Universe, God, Faith, Breathe.

Maybe it is more passive than I believe it to be To Be.  Be.

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

Road to California - the gift of friendship

Road to California is a California Quilt Show.  Quilts are juried in to be exhibited and vendors are juried in to be a 'show shop' during the show.  There are classes and hotel rooms and restaurants, and taxis and airplanes and all the things needed to get this many people into one place for one thing. 

Quilting.

beyond the reef is pleased to be chosen as a vendor for this show.  We are happy.  Playful.  Joyful.  But I am a sole proprietor and you notice I use the word 'we'.

I must take a moment to thank my customers.  Who come and stand in the aisle and smile, looking at my new set and the booth.  Or comment on the new layout.  I must take a moment to thank my suppliers.  Who greet me once or twice a year as a friend, but who make, pack and ship their fabulous things to me in time to bring them to you.  Who make the bamboo batting - who bring us Amy Butler's new fragrance Sola.  Who year after year come up with great ideas for our industry.  

And I must take a moment to thank my friends - Suzanne who leaves her home in Arizona to come be a part of my home for a while.  Lisa, who cuts straight, folds well and is always of good counsel.  Jill, who made this - the largest show in southern california - her first quilt show.  John who drafted for moondoggie & gidget and who loaded bins and boxes.  Patrick who continues to push chain.  Jeff for my little red wagon, for the painting, and for the loading.  Greg, for his incredible talent, and for sharing it with me.  I am the sum of all of their parts, and I thank them for that.  

Recognize the gift of friendship - of sharing between each other.

And smile.

With our friends, we truly can be. do. create.

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

New Years Eve Reflections - 2007

"We are the echo of the future."  - W.S. Merwin

On this eve, I choose calm and quiet.  I am still and I listen for the echo of what is to come.  To create.  To do.  To be.

And if you are not calm and quiet, and if you are singing and dancing and greeting the new year with revelry, I think that will be what you create and do.  That is what you will be.

So, choose wisely.

May the new year be a delight to you all of the days of 2008.

It is a blank page; write well.

As for the old year, I quote Buckminister Fuller:

"There is no conclusion.  There are no fortunes to be told, and no advice to be given.  Farewell."

And as for the bittersweet ache that 2007 has left, I quote Luis Cernuda:

"I know well enough that this image - fixed forever in my mind is not you, but the shadow of love which exists in me...and although I know this, I then think that without you, without the rare excuse you give me, my love, now a tenderness today would be there within sleeping still and lying in hope...then I thank you."

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