Of thread and dancing and all the other little things that make life worth living.
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Two or three years ago the talented and lovely Marcia Young started a bit of a blog, Valley Fiber Life, about fiber art and artists in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, and I was lucky enough as a just barely expat of the Valley, to be one of her first interviews. Today Valley Fiber Life has several regular contributors and a broad umbrella for articles about great artists near and far, cool fiber-related videos, fantastic book recommendations, and a whole slew of other resources, including a wonderful free guide for offering critiques by art fabric legend Jane Dunnewold, which started me off on this post.
So the next time you need a hit of fiber fabulousness or a little inspiration to shake of your creative block, drop by Valley Fiber Life.
No animals were harmed and no fiber artists (including me) were paid for the production of this post.
I use hand-dyeing, needle felting, and wet felting to enhance my extreme-quilted fiber reliefs. I also design traditionally constructed contemporary quilts. I teach classes on art and quilting and draw on my past life (as a trained journalist, copywriter, and freelancer) to write articles and essays on quilting and the business and philosophy of art.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”—T.S. Eliot
"The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?" --Pablo Casals
“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” --George Bernard Shaw
"People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to. "--Malcolm Muggerige
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." --Jesus (John 13:34, NIV)
"You are dead only when the last person who knows you is dead."--folk proverb
"Do good work, but be brave and adventurous!"--Marka Harwell-Bentley
"Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion."--The Talmud
"He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself." --folk proverb
"We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without."--Henry David Thoreau
"I write a little every day, without hope and without despair."--Isak Dinisen
"Love is superior to everything ... durable, sublime, more resembling God..."--Michael Servetus
"To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man."--Sebastien Castillio
"It is better to light a candle than to curse the dark." --folk proverb
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”--Edmund Burke
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."--Thomas Edison
"If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it’s a waste of time looking for him further." --Mohandas K. Gandhi
"Every happening, great and small...is a parable whereby God speaks to us; and the art of life is to get the message." --Malcolm Muggeridge
"It is in our lives and not in our words that our religion must be read."--Thomas Jefferson
"We do not have to think alike to love alike."--Francis David
"What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?" --George Eliot a.k.a.Mary Anne Evans
"So live that you wouldn't be afraid to sell the family parrot to the town gossip." --Will Rogers
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." --Dr. Seuss (a.k.a. Theodore Geisel)
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter...." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Please read in haiku) "Speak only the truth; Follow your promises through; Lead with dignity"--Margaret Badger
"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We know what we are, but not what we may be." --William Shakespeare
"With malice toward none and charity for all." --Abraham Lincoln
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." --Anne Frank
"Life itself is the proper binge." --Julia Child
"The world speaks to me in colors, my souls answer in music." --Rabindranath Tagore
"Swim with abandon in the creative waters." --Linda Ruel Flynn
"Do not turn back on reaching the frontier." --Plutarch
"Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will pursue me always, I know it." --Paul Klee
Lagom--a Swedish word meaning, basically, enough is enough--in the literal sense. More is not necessarily better, regarding money, fame, etc. Sufficiency is fine and dandy and doesn't lead to pride. A pretty potent word!
"There is no 'must' in art, because art is free."--Wassily Kandinsky