Full Moon, Solar Flares and Sun Spots

We're enjoying our creative lives today, Willow and I.

She has been seeking camouflaged privacy.....and daydreaming in the sunlight's refuge... and I am still massively creating....in my little hideaway of my sewing nook.

Massively, because major solar flares have been bombarding earth, for three days. On top of the full moon...which was totally gorgeous, here...it's been interesting astronomically! A large, perhaps even gigantic, solar storm racing towards Earth (and our magnetic field) is made up of a cloud of super charged particles. These particles which strike a number of times a year, could potentially disrupt utility grids, airline flights, satellite networks, and GPS services.

I am feeling the expansion, the creative explosion, and taking up scissors and nipping and ripping. I make a little nip, then grab the fabric in both hands and rip. That's my way of creating liberated piecing. It also releases pent up emotions, and supercharged energies!

And you don't have to look too closely to notice that my newly created table topper....it took me one single hour...start to finish....is just enough off kilter to make people wonder if I'm just a sloppy quilter... or did it on purpose. Yep.

My years of endless perfectionism and perfect piecing are long gone. Chronic lack of sleep, constant care giving of loved ones have pushed me over the final creative edge. Suddenly, the urge to create strikes... and I revel in it!

A table mat for the counter, a coffee mat ..not shown...for the coffeepot and the finishing of an art quilt...only one corner shown here. The first two are now replacing the more wintry ones on my kitchen countertop, the art quilt ..in its entirely and not just the corner ;) is finding its way to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Oh, how I had fun making all of these!

And the art quilt? I loved it so, so, much when it was finished! Lots of artsy effects and great fabrics...it was super hard to not want to keep it. To me, that is always the sign of a really good project...you want it desperately, yourself! Good thing I make myself let go of everything...after all, everything is transient in the end.

Wanting and holding only creates more wanting....and more holding onto. I much prefer to release my good out into the world with a prayer that all of it finds grateful recipients and good homes. And my last post and those two art quilts? They BOTH sold! How lovely is that? Another $145 for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative and Alzheimer's research funding. Awesome!

Besides sewing, lots and lots of daily visiting with my MIL in her new 5 person care facility, here in Salem. I actually thought that moving my MIL into a care home near us would be easier for us, especially my hubby who drove 44 to 88 miles a day (1 or 2 round trips) for the past two months, to take turns staying with, and caring for her. But actually, as stressful as this change has been on, and for her, I'm spending as much as 3 hours a day with her, almost every single day, as it now is. And yes, that's me, and my choice...I know! But by now, you also know how I am ;) and she's 96 and while we did all we could for as long as we could..it's still very hard for her.

So, as hard as it is to take care of my own mother in Alaska, at home, by ourselves, with her advanced Alzheimer's, as my MIL says...'at least she doesn't realize how bad it is for her.' And you know what? That is completely true. Small blessing for a terrible hardship and challenge for all of us!

Whether they are astronomical, or human emotions...we just ride the tides and the currents and keep the explosions to as much of a minimum as we can. And we sew, and we craft, and we bake, and we garden. We have our family and our beloved pets..yes, even my chickens..and we make the best of each day, no matter what!



Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join in the Liberated Quilting Challenge and make or donate small art quilts to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Help us change the world, one little quilt at a time!