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CREATIVE & INSPIRATIONAL QUOTATIONS:

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Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris

 

Friendship is a tapestry woven through the years with threads of joy, laughter, happiness and tears. ~Anonymous

 

I cannot count my day complete 'til needle, thread and fabric meet. ~Anonymous

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My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent. ~Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 

There's nothing quite like seeing something you've created come to life and resonate with someone else. ~Danielle Mason Hosker, linen business owner of Antage Bleu (Atlanta, Georgia)

 

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. ~Jane Goodall

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Creating takes courage. Everything you create reveals a little - or a lot - about yourself. Be brave and go for it. ~Anonymous

 

When I can no longer create anything, I'll be done for. ~Coco Chanel

 

True creativity is a fire that burns within, sparking ambitions and ideas, keeping you awake at night with all the possibilities. ~Luann Rubin of eQuilter.com

 

I truly believe everyone needs a creative playground. A place to create freely without an art director guiding you, a marketing strategy pushing you, or a due date hanging over your head. Pieces created in a space like this are infused with a special energy. ~Salli Swindell "They Draw & Cook"

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I, myself, am entirely made of flaws . . . stitched together with good intentions. ~Seen on a fibre art piece at Banbury Regional Art Gallery (Australia)

 

She believed she could, so she did. ~Anonymous

 

For those of us who share a passion for the creative arts, fabric is so much more than just the medium for creating fantastic clothing, beautiful home decorations and unique craft projects. Prints and patterns are artistic renderings that impact us in the same way a work of fine art does. ~Simplicity Fabric Guide: The Ultimate Fiber Resource

 

Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you. ~Diana, Princess of Wales

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Each quilt tells a story, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to let those stories carry you away . . . Remember if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a quilt is worth a million. ~Jim and Jan Shore "Passion for Quilts"

 

This world is but a canvas to our imaginations. ~Henry David Thoreau

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Wherever life plants you, bloom with grace. ~French proverb

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. . . just as the pieces of the quilt are sewn together with interlocking stitches, all people are linked together in the fabrics of our world. In a way, the patchwork quilt represents all the different people of the world. We are individual in our attitudes, life-styles, and backgrounds, yet we share so much of what it means to be human. ~Teresa Gustafon, "Love Is A Blanket"

 

“I make my quilts as fast as I can so my children won’t freeze. And, as beautiful as I can so my heart won’t break”.

I think that is the epitome of what quiltmaking provided for women throughout the history of the 19th century. ~Gerald Roy – first sentence of collector’s preface “Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/Roy Collection” at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston

 

Blogs are deeply inspiring to me because passions are shared and linked together virtually to form a beautifully patterned quilt where all voices are valued and important. They are the stitches and fabric, and each has a valued spot in this diverse community. My design blog is a big, warm hug on the internet that promotes creativity. ~Holly Becker . . . on creating a Blog

 

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas. ~Donatella Versace

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You can't chart a course around anything you're afraid of. ~Beryl Markham

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Whether it goes back to the old adage about idle hands being the devil's work, or simply is a passion for the creative, crafting is on the rise, and it's definitely not just for your grandma or maiden aunties anymore. ~Wendy Dwyer, "Luminaries" on the campus of the Indian River State College

 

Quilt-making is the ideal prescription . . . it is soothing and there is no exercise can equal that of really creating something with the hands. And later the product of these hands may be handed down as treasured heirlooms. ~Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger, from "Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America", 1933

 

Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. ~Mahatma Gandhi

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Remember The Four Cs: Use your Curiosity to look at Challenges - then use your Courage to make a difference. Through the process, you'll gain the Confidence to keep taking challenges and making differences. ~Anita Davis / Esse Purse Museum

 

Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom. ~Rumi

 

The things quilts sew into our hearts:

threads of common joys and treasured memories, pieces of cherished conversations and shared secrets, colors of rich smiles and endless laughter, patterns of friendship and love's sweet rewards. ~Temecula Quilt Co.

 

Our stories and our craft tell us who we are and where we've been. Without the story of the craft, we lose our legacy. Even Alice in Wonderland understood that once she came back up the rabbit hole it was her turn to tell the story. If we don't tell these stories. . . . our precious fiber heritage and the rich connections between women and cloth might disappear like lost threads. Each stitch matters. ~Nora Murphy, "Knitting the Threads of Time: Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft"

 

Everything we create resonates with our deepest needs as human beings, as creative beings, to make things of beauty and worth. It's this act of creation that allows our souls to breathe, enables us to activate our spiritual selves and connect with nature. ~Lela Nargi

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I know I need to blow on the tiny ember of creativity that is within me still . . .  ~Pat Mofjeld

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"Every quilt tells a unique story. Some yell, some whisper, some speak to your heart, but all speak in their own visual language. The colors and prints chosen, their arrangement, relationship and composition, the proportion of various components and the stitches which hold them together. If only one of these is out of balance, the story will be just chatter. However, when each comes together to form a harmonious whole, the result is poetic." ~Donna Sharp

 

Every dream begins with a dreamer. ~Anonymous

 

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

 

In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, "If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination", and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand. ~Inspiration from Jo Packham, Creator & Editor-In-Chief of Where Women Create

 

Go after your dreams. Don't wait for things to come. Make them happen. ~Anonymous

 

We need time to dream, time to remember, time to reach for the infinite. Time to be. ~Gladys Taber

 

There is a fountain of youth. It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. ~Sophia Loren

 

When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the doors of our souls fly open and love steps forth to heal everything in sight. ~Anonymous

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Quilts are LOVE you can touch. ~Lisa Bongean

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​They're an essential building block of the culture that's making them. Women working with fabrics produce something reflective of it. I collect American quilts and they tell me a lot about the county. ~Ken Burns

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“We may not know their names and we can’t hear their voices, but when we stitch, we are picking up threads of those who stitched before us. ~Sara Impey

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"I found some time each day to work on my quilts. Working on them made some pretty bad times seem better to me." ~Hattie Wooddell

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"Peace of mind comes to me through making things with my hands. An added bonus comes if my efforts inspire others to try the creative process." ~Ira Blount

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Holocaust survivor. Grandma. Diva.

BIG SONIA.

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Sometimes the really big stories come from the smallest places. As filmmakers, we travel all over the world chasing stories about people making an impact. In making BIG SONIA, we realized some of those stories are right in our own backyards.

~Leah Warshawski and Todd Soliday, Directors

The world's first fully painted feature film!

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"Animation and fine art painting come together in this loving tribute to the work and life of a master artist."

~Tony Bancroft,

SIFF Animation Jury

RITA SMITH  1920-2019

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RITA'S QUILT: A lifelong quilter died before completing a gorgeous U.S. Map Project. Now, hundreds of Chicago Crafters are finishing the job to honor Rita - they have volunteered to help embroiderer Shannon Downey finish the quilt in honor of Rita Smith.

SPECIAL PEOPLE, PLACES and THINGS WE LOVE:

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SHANGA - "Kindness is a language that blind people see and deaf people hear" ~Mark Twain

Shanga is one of life's small and heartwarming success stories. In 2007, Saskia Rechsteiner made some necklaces for a Christmas Fair in Arusha. Today, Shanga employs more than 60 disabled Tanzanian people. All income from Shanga's workshop of recycled products, restaurant and shop sales goes toward employing more disabled people . . . and the waiting list for jobs is endless. A trip to Africa introduced me to Shanga's lovely work (especially their necklaces) - unique products, created in a positive environment that respects people of all kinds.

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Susan Branch is a self-taught artist and author of fourteen (and counting) best-selling "Heart of the Home" lifestyle books. From her studio overlooking her picket-fence garden in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, Susan writes and paints about the "home arts" of cooking, gardening, sewing, family, best friends, entertaining and the little things that make life sweet. Be sure to check out Susan's blog and quilting fabrics - she's truly a kindred spirit.

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HOLE IN THE WALL GANG CAMP - There's nothing better than challenging yourself to an athletic feat, overcoming a mountain of obstacles, and then crossing the finish line to achieve your own personal victory. Nothing better, that is, unless you're doing it for something outside yourself. That's what Team Hole in the Wall is all about. I challenge other quilters to become a Bandit Quilter, make a special pillow case or to participate in any sewing program for a seriously ill child.

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