sidenote segue on my woo woo governor

I put a governor on my woo woo here. Seriously. I do. You know, like how some U-haul trucks have a built-in governor on the motor so we can only go a certain speed and no faster? They do that for our protection. They know we don’t know how to drive that big rented truck anyway and we’d be a liability if we could go as fast as we wanted on the most stressful day of our year–what with all of our belongings in the rear…on moving day…and we’ve gotta get that truck back by a certain time or we’ll get charged. read more

September 23, 2014
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10 simple tricks to help you believe in yourself
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10 simple tricks to help you believe in yourself

Well, as you know I wrote that book, The Little Spark–30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity, and it is coming out in October (!). In my book I offer 30 “Sparks” to help you on your path to living a more creative, passionate life. One chapter addresses the self-doubts and fears we all have as we tackle a new craft, hobby or passion. People often ask me how I deal with self-doubt and so here is a little list to inspire you to kick your doubts and fears in the butt and start believing in YOU so you can follow your bliss: =&0=& Because guess what? No one really is. Except maybe the lucky few who know you well and who you allow in. If you live your life as if you are invisible, then you are free to behave however you want because you are under the (false) notion that no one cares. But people care. And they are curious. We are social creatures and so we are all constantly craning our necks to see each other. But just for a day or an hour here and there, liberate yourself from the perceived gaze so that you can just be you. Just be you in your state of false invisibility. The more you practice, the more you will realize that you have become very good at being you–no matter who is looking–then you can do it more often. When Allen Ginsburg set out to write his epic poem, Howl, he wrote it knowing that he would never show it to anyone. Look what happened. Acting as if no one is watching liberates the ego and allows us more freedom. =&1=&

September 1, 2014
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An Inventory of Summer 2014
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An Inventory of Summer 2014

I almost read a whole book.
I had my first mammogram.
I tried to do a handstand on the beach. It is harder than it looks.
I fell down into a hole for a few weeks in June.
I stopped eating sugar, drinking coffee and eating chocolate to help myself climb out of that hole I fell into. Also, I took B Vitamins.
I turned 42.
I designed my next fabric line in my mind. I can’t wait to create it.
It rained once.
My first DVD came out. I watched it like 6 times.
I travelled home to the South with my family.
Kids do well when travelling.
Family love is big and beautiful.
There is nothing like cousins.
We led prayer flag workshops in Arizona and Alabama for our Happy Flag project in honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We got good press here.
My dad lives way too far away. It is precious time when I am with him.
My kids do not do well with boundless hours of summer stretching out before them.
My baby girl can swim…for real…like a dolphin-mermaid.
My son will undoubtedly grow up to design and engineer cool things.
He bought Fart Bombs this summer and enjoyed them very much.
My husband sleeps in our bed again after a year. (No, we weren’t fighting for a year…but he couldn’t sleep with the kids in there.)
It is really nice to sleep with my husband again.
We fought about money.
We bonded as our children’s behavior grew so bad deep in the summer that we holed up against their attacks by just laughing about it behind our closed door. We hid from them. We giggled.
He started planning our fall garden.
I did my once yearly deep cleaning of the whole house and it was good.
I surrendered all work and obligations to the rhythms of my children and our house:
laundry, Legos, homework, dolls, cleaning and cooking.
Wars erupted all over the planet.
Also, I read Harry Potter to my kids.
And my children’s feet grew–that part near the heel and below the ankle–
on each of them–it is so big–almost as big as mine.
We watched Master Chef and lots of other TV and movies together…a lot.
I ate my children. I breathed them in. I enjoyed them. They pissed me off.
They hurt my feelings. They loved me so much. ALL of the craziness happened.
And it was good.
They acted wild. They acted lovely.
They are beautiful.
So is my husband.
So was my summer.
My book about creativity, The Little Spark, comes out this fall and I couldn’t be more excited.
I made a lot of green smoothies with raw cacao.
Dates are a very good natural sweetener for cacao-avocado smoothies.
(I want a Ninja blender.)
My kids start school next week.
And as ever, my heart will break as they step into their classrooms and our cocoon is shattered again until winter break.
You’d think I wouldn’t miss them at all based on the way they acted this summer…
but a mother’s memory is short and faulty.
All we can see is the love underneath the boundary-testing and misbehavior.
All we see is beauty.
And it was a beautiful summer.
We all spent a lot of time together in the studio making things.
And then Robin Williams… read more

August 13, 2014
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Art Techniques for Quilt Design clip!
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Art Techniques for Quilt Design clip!

Here is the first bit. I was kinda nervous for a few seconds but then by some miracle…I wasn’t! So this clip captures those first few nervous seconds and I seem to blink a lot  and…ummm…I say, “umm” a few times. I do so like that little non-thinking word of exhale. Umm let’s us regroup. Umm is the tiny stop-gap we put in our sentences to buy some time for the brain to catch up with the mouth. But after all the blinking and umms in the first minute subside, then for the next hour I teach a lot of really fun material that I have learned over my life as an artist to help you make cool things in a direct and fun way–like drawing essentials including blind contour and gesture drawing, composition and fast, fun collage techniques. I truly believe that if you can draw you can do anything. Undoubtedly, the simple drawing techniques I offer will help you see the world better and more clearly and therefor your creations will be that much better. Even if you aren’t an artist and don’t really want to be one, drawing helps all of your creative products from sewing to quilting to graphic design. read more

July 23, 2014
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Quilting Arts Season 1400 DVD blog party
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Quilting Arts Season 1400 DVD blog party

Remember how I told you about being asked by lovely Vivika De Negre at Interweave to fly to Ohio because they wanted to film a DVD and three episodes of Quilting Arts TV with me? It was such an honor for me to be included and so much fun. I wrote about the whole adventure here and my very old fear of flying, but guess what? The whole season of Quilting Arts 1400 DVD is now out and ready for you to buy or download here (or you can watch the episodes one by one on your local PBS station as they air).  =&0=&

July 21, 2014
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Independence of the Spirit

I had a pause today–a moment of quiet reflection–staring out the window…and I had some thoughts. On this day of Independence here in the US, I’m thinking a lot about freedom. Actually, I’m thinking about whether or not money buys us freedom. And I am feeling that it does. Certainly, it does. I know. But, at what price? What do we lose in the pursuit? Of course we must work and work hard…but at what? 

I have said and I maintain that I have never bought into the “struggling artist” paradigm. (In fact, I feel that if I am struggling at anything then I am probably doing it wrong.) Yet when I compare myself to others, I very much feel the loser. On paper that is. In the realm of stuff. But not in the realm of the spirit and the soul. There I feel very rich indeed, and not even by comparison. I dare say, I feel free. There are many routes to that freedom. For me, this moment right here with the keyboard under my fingers is my goldmine. Or being with my kids as they turn cardboard boxes into homemade foosball games and other contraptions, or lost in making magic in studio, whether painting, or sewing, or just gathering sticks on a walk to turn into something later, as we did today.

My life is not leisurely, per se. There is no, or very little, sitting still. Not much leisure, rest, respite, travel, or even reading. Not much time for reveries by the open window. But my life is the reverie. I am usually making something, cleaning something, emailing someone back (usually too late) or trying desperately to teach my children to eat healthy snacks and not clobber each other. Yet, it is all the dream. I feel terribly, terribly lucky to occupy this exact very life. I love it, despite the toiling, the constantness. Because my life is a creative expression of the love that lives in my heart. 

What we toil at matters. Where we put our love, energy and time matters, and it should feel good, although that isn’t always possible. Where I put my love, is where my life will go. So, I choose to go in the direction of my dreams. Don’t get me wrong…I so hope there is a pot of gold involved at some point of this rainbow, but there ain’t no use fretting over that too much. So I just keep showing up at work and play. I witness the beauty around me everyday and bathe in gratitude for the treasures I find in my family and in the world. Happy Independence day. I hope you have some freedom inside of you to follow your bliss, your passion, your Little Spark of creativity. If you don’t, go find it. It is there. Watch this video narrated by Alan Watts for some inspiration:



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July 5, 2014
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Have you heard of Kraft-tex?
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Have you heard of Kraft-tex?

Have you heard of Kraft-tex? No? Well, let me introduce you. You are going to fall.in.love. I did. You know that little tag on the back of your favorite old pair of Levi’s Jeans? You thought it was printed leather, didn’t you? It used to be. But now manufacturers use products like Kraft-tex–a tough paper that performs like fabric. It is durable, flexible, washable, paint-able, dye-able, stamp-able, sew-able, emboss-able, fold-able…getting the idea? You can make almost anything with this stuff. And that’s what you get to see in kraft•tex Style–a new book I’m in by Roxane Cerda (coming out in September from Stash Books) which shows so many very cool Kraft-tex projects. 

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June 15, 2014
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