How Does Nature Inspire You to Create?

Today is another one of those WFH (working from home) days because it is snowing pretty steady out and the roads are messy and slippery.  I am lucky enough to have the type of job where I can work from home and still get paid to do my job.

Today's snowstorm is cold, white, fluffy and beautiful because I am not driving in it.  While I own a AWD vehicle, its not my own driving that do not trust, its those other NJ/NY drivers that I don't wish to meet as close encounter on my bumper on the highways.  So I stay home and work from my kitchen table or basement office doing tasks that I am able to complete without issue and by myself.  I enjoy working from home from time to time, I get more done than in the office because I eliminate all 'walk up business' from my office colleagues.  The only walk up business here are my dogs coming in to check on me and see if I have any snacks for them or to get a little attention.

As I work, I look out the window next to my workspace and enjoy watching the white stuff pile up on the fence, bushes, trees, and even this little stake in the yard that marks my oil tank port.  I am amazed that this little, tiny,  not quite horizontal surface allows the snow to pile up on top of it.  The top of the stick actually has a little 2" x 3" plastic dragonfly on it. Nature fills in the spaces with softness and beauty all on its own.  In a harsh world, its little miracles like this that keep me inspired.

What if each of us could fill those voids and spaces with our own softness and fluffy beauty?   We could easily isolate ourselves against the storm outside.  Wouldn't it be better to insulate ourselves and the ones we love?  Quilts blanket, cover, protect, support, cushion, and wrap themselves around us with the love we used to create them. Regardless of the type of quilts you create, I am sure that you make them to the best of your ability and if you are lucky enough to design them as you go, you can carefully plan and create your quilt with a specific recipient in mind. Most of the time, I do not make quilts with an end purpose, other than to create a work of art, I see something I love and decide to make it my own in cloth.  Other times, I have to make a gift for someone, knowing there are rules or needs to be filled (color, size, date).  Either way, whoever ends up with my quilt in the end, will hopefully cherish it, use it, enjoy the spirit with which it was created and know that there are little bits of me sewn into the finished quilt that they now own. 

Like the snow on the stick pictured in my yard above, some quilts are only with me for a short time, until I can get them done and they go on to their owners.  They melt into my past and disappear making room for me to move onto the next project.  Others stay and are proudly displayed from time to time, and some never seem to get done and pile up as UFOs in my stash of maybe some day I'll quilt and finish it pile.  When I am in a 'finishing mood' I will pull one or two of these out and get them done.  Snowy weekends are great for when I have those moods.  I think the weekend that starts at 5 p.m. today is going to be one of those "GET 'ER DONE" weekends. Last time it snowed, I quilted and bound this one below....