Thoughts on Ideas and Creativity

Ideas...
~something I am accused of having too many of.
~something that wakes me up at 3 am and brings me to my computer screen
~something I am thinking about having read a marvellous list of quotes on quirksltd at 3am
~some of which I would like to share with you today.............


Linus Pauling: "The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, then throw the bad ones away."
Ok here are some of my good ideas from 2010, a year I want to be overflowing with good ideas
~ January I started doing an 8 week online course called Unravelling. This has led me to meet, read and do much that excites me.
~ starting a 365 -flickr group which has led me to take a photo every day since I started on Feb 14th and reconnect with friends. Although I was the only common link at the start, we really are becoming a group who know each other. Think about starting one yourself, it is a lot of fun.
~ deciding to make 2 quilts a month - at least one for charity.

This is made for an ISB project to give to a sheltered home for young adults with mental challenges

~ committing to writing a book on .... you'll see later!

~ starting work with a life coach to help me get to the next stage!

Anonymous: "Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you and just before you realise what is wrong with it."

This happens every time I have an idea to write on this blog and now I am writing it I am feeling the second part! Hope you will indulge me by reading to the end.

Scott Adams: "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

My blog clearly shows I don't now yet.... but thanks for reading it regardless

Mary Lou Cook: "Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun."

That sums up for me what it's all about and I am trying to find it in the photos I take and the people I am with.

Having fun in Beijing art district last week with friends over from Denmark

Maya Angelou: "You can't use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have."

So on with the next photo, quilt, chapter and whatever new things come my way.

Albert Einstein: "Creativity is courageous. Pass it on."

So thanks to all those wonderful friends and blogs who keep passing it on to me. 

I'd be nowhere without you - Astrid, Linda, Kendra, Anne, Pia, Mai, Ayumi, Beth and many more.

The most treasured gift - I never received

This morning in my email box was a lovely message from my daughter Astrid and a beautiful photo of a quilt. This is what she wrote to me on my birthday - "It was my first little quilt... supposed to be a Thai temple dog at sunrise for your Chiang Mai apartment! Anyway, sorry it never made it to you, but I wanted you to know that my first quilt was made for you!"

I feel this is the most treasured gift I received today - but didn't.

Sadly the chinese post is very unreliable and things often don't arrive... but this is the hardest thing to lose. 

But the thought that went into this makes me so warm inside.

I was exceptionally lucky today to spend it with friends, husband and younger daughter - beautiful gifts and warm words. 

Just what I needed to start the next year of my life.

Thanks to everyone who made the start of my next year a special one.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. --Leo Buscaglia 

Quilting in Beijing

What a week we had together. 

Five friends from Copenhagen - reunited in Beijing.

By day we saw the sights 

and 

by night we sewed.

We each finished our quilt tops.

 Chinese coins was the design we all worked on.

Each of our quilts uses a little fabric from the other four.

The white Buddha in my garden 

served as a beautiful model for the quilts.

Hope they bring some colour to your day.

Time Out in Beijing with friends

Four fabulous friends from Copenhagen come to visit me in Beijing for a week and this is a glimpse of some of the fun we had....

The Temple of Heaven

The Great Wall at Mutianyu in the snow

798 - The contemporary art district

Getting in line with the sculptures

Buying art at PanjiaYuan - also known as the dirt market

and finding time to quilt every evening together .... tomorrow's post!

Stillness and excitement

No time to write much

but I just wanted to share

this photo I took

with my newly purchased 'Shibuya' film

on

my Hipstamatic App

for my iPhone

It makes my room look like an old dutch master.

When in fact

 reality is 

the last crazy stage of 

tidying

before Linda, Gerd, Jo and Marie

arrive from Copenhagen today,

to spend the next week

exploring Beijing

with me.

Can't wait.......

Hope your weekend

is filled with both

stillness and laughter.

An Ode to Fabulous Fabric

Just wanted to share with you 

a bit of the fun i had today

 at my favourite place in Beijing - 

Mu Xi Yuan  ( the wholesale fabric market).

Those of you who have been here before 

will know that i LOVE this place. 

Covers a huge area, 

 is dirty, 

disorganised,

 piled high with bolts  

and endless possibilities

Oh the decisions to be made....

That is Phuong top left and me bottom right and my favourite fabric guy in Beijing helping us.

i would have bought the whole bolt of this amazing fabric (below)

if only

 i could think of how to justify it

so i bought 3 yards and 

then went back and bought 5 more 

and may just decide to go back and

 buy the rest.

Does a fabric ever have this effect on you?

Some of the softest satinised cottons

ready to be turned into 

tiny outfits for my granddaughter

who is expected to appear

in June

in Texas ... 

and could very well be appearing on this blog 

in just a matter of months

wearing one of these very fabrics.

There will never be a time 

when I won't need 

to buy fabric -

 that's one thing I know for sure.

The first day of March

We woke up to 2 inches of soft snow 

No good for riding the bike......

so Rufus and I enjoyed, what I hope is, the last snow fall of the winter.