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"...

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