A PATRIOTIC POST CARD

This will be my postcard for my FabriCardArt swap group. I'll mail them in time for arrival on the 4th of July. The 3 stars represent the fact that this will be the
third swap of our little group.
It's paper pieced, using Robert Kaufman fabric that I just fell in love with. I had every intention of going in a totally different direction with my card...but once I purchased those 5 fabrics I just had to use them in something.
I've lived in enough foreign countries to have formed the opinion that whatever complaints there may be about our country, there is no better place to live.
Bless the young men and women who are putting their lives on the line to protect her.

BEING 70

The following are exerpts taken from an article written by author Barbara Holland, author of "When all the World was Young" (Bloomsbury, 2005). It has put into words better than my own, my own feelings and musings.

"My 70th birthday didn't feel as breezy as my 60th, not half as cocky and capable. Face it, 70 is old. For a woman, the only plus side is that we can stop worrying about how we look: we look old, and suddenly there's not much use spending time, money and energy on our looks. Just try to make sure our clothes are buttoned and zipped and our hair is combed before we go out. Forget all those creams and colorings. It's a relief, in way.
We accept limits. Limits are always nasty, but we hold our noses and swallow them anyway. Meeting challenges is said to be good for us, but how often must we meet the same challenges, overcome the same obstacles? How often do we have to climb Everest? Is it time to look for someplace easier to live? Admit limits?
All of us, waking up in the morning, forget for a moment where we are and decide to paint the living room ceiling or go pony trekking in Iceland. By the time we've brushed our teeth we remember that we'll have to be content with ceilings already painted and treks already taken.
They make good musing. I know we aren't supposed to dawdle around in the past, they tell us it's healthier to live for the moment, to look to the future. But the future shrinks:how will our great-grandchildren turn out, what will happen with global warming? We'll never know. One of these springs, and then for many more springs, the wild rhododendrons by the chimney will bloom and I won't see them. (In my case, it's the lilac bushes outside my studio window.)
It's annoying.
The past, though, expands, and what we've already done improves the view. It lifts us up a bit higher every year. Great granite building blocks under us, all those people and places, summers and winters, everything we've learned and the songs we remember, all solid to climb up and stand on for a grand view of our world. Our personal, hand-made world. All happy people have self-protective memories, but if we'd rather be miserable, we can choose to haul along with us the tears and betrayals, missed chances, and lost loves. We can remember not the happy trip to Mexico with a friend and the margaritas we drank, but only that the friend is now dead and the margaritas now give us heartburn.
We can do what we like with our past. It's ours, and we've earned it. We can stand on top of it, taller than most, and admire our view."

Hello out there to women of all ages. I hope you are as happy as I am when you reach this part of your life.
Phyllis

A FAVORITE BLOG

http://www.fabricaffair.blogspot.com/

My journal cover

I just completed making my journal cover, complete with a mojo doll. She's there to encourage me to use my new journal for sketches, notes and all things of interest to me. It's the result of my weekend retreat with my most favorite and talented fabric art teacher and a beading class.

ANOTHER RETREAT PROJECT

One of the lovely, creative women I met on my retreat suggested that I post a picture of this project, that I made. It was a kind of "pull it out of the air" idea. I really enjoyed watching it develop over the day.
Thanks Linda.....are you gonna post your creations?

MY BEADED MOJO

I just finished making this mojo good luck doll. The latest in my learning endevors
from my weekend retreat. I find that when I'm taught something in class, I have to take the idea home and chew on it for a while before I can "spit it out" into a finished project. That's why I love classes...I learn the technique....ponder over the ideas presented, then try to do my own take on it.
So--take classes in whatever interests you, my friends. You'll be paid back many times over.

STORY TELLING WITH FABRIC

I had the pleasure of attending a weekend seminar at The Hermitage in Three Rivers, Michigan...about 76 miles south of Grand Rapids.
There I learned to kick start my creativity in fabric art with the assistance of 2 wonderful facilitators and 8 other Quilters.
Fabric art is not like quilting as you might think of it.
I could never call myself a traditional quilter....I guess because I'm not good at following hard and fast rules and patterns, and I'm a bit sloppy when it comes to finishing the work. I admire all the beautiful quilts I've seen and the people that create them. Anyway, I'm not even close to "showing off" any work I've done...in fact I'm just scratching the surface of all that fabric art has to offer.
I'm reading books and taking classes and trying to figure out where this new art form is going to take me. It's like starting with a fresh clean page and whatever I want to put on it will be all mine.