Jump!

Hi All- I hope that you have had a wonderful holiday weekend. Mine was spent close to home and fun was had while attending a number of gatherings and spending time at home working on some of the first deadlines coming up quickly for my new book. All was loads of fun, and though I would have loved to have been up in Seattle wandering around the Folk Life Festival it was not to be this year.

I did want to share a little story that I heard at one of gatherings this weekend, for it's meaning has rung true, true, true for me. The story is really a question. If there are four frogs on a log in the stream and one decides to jump off how many are left? Most everyone there, said OK, it's too easy, so we must have it wrong and answered 3. Well, we were wrong, and the story teller went on to say that the frog had only decided to jump, he hadn't really jumped. Therefore, there were still 4 frogs on the log.

This made me sit up and take notice, for it hit home. While I consider myself a person of action, I'm no different than everyone else who knows what they should do, decides to go for it and then finds something, anything to stop us (ha) from jumping. If we never jump, even the first hop then we'll never know whether or not it is successful or not.

Today, I JUMP!
and, I know the thing that needs that action.

There are so many things that we want to do, decide to do and then fizzle out. I hope that you now will remember the frogs and pick one thing and JUMP!

Happily stitchin' & Now Jumpin'
~Rose

Traveling & Teaching in Arizona

My recent travels to Arizona were spent sharing my new book with everyone at the Bernina Connection in Phoenix, and to teach workshops on Fast-Piece Applique and 10 Different Ways to Embellish.

The drive from LA to Phoenix was quiet and the desert that lay between these cities can seem desolate, but the fact that I had tons of ideas swirling around in my head continues to support my belief that creative possibility is everywhere.

Along the trip I began to see for the first time the mountainous desert hills in a new way. Ridge after ridge seemed to appear like faces looking skyward. Welcoming the warm breezes that made everything look dry... withering almost. The quick sketches I jotted down on the journey have already turned into a new design. The colors of the desert jumped out at me as well, (looking mostly like very dark chocolate). I am looking forward to selecting just the right fabrics to go in it.

An earlier trip along I-10 last spring introduced me to those watchers and at the time one in particular became the inspiration for the piece here.

I-10 Watcher (copywrite 2008)

My hostess in AZ (Sandee) was amazing and I will be forever grateful for the wonderful time I had with her. Not to mention the incredible Italian food she cooked up!

The workshop attendees were great as well. Everyone walked out of FPA with their quilts underway and I am looking forward to sharing some of these with you in the near future. In the second workshop everyone got to try their hand at lots of different ways to embellish their quilts. Sharing with each other was not only fun but enlightening as well, for everyone brings a little bit of themselves to each embellishment type.

Laura and Julie
playing
with lots on ways to embellish

The trip across the desert was lots of fun, and my own sketchbook has several new pages of ideas, and I'm looking forward to getting into the studio and trying them out. ~Rose

When passing through Phoenix don't miss stopping by the Bernina Connection. For info on the store go to:

http://berninaconnection.com/

For info on my lateset book (Dream Landscapes: Artful Quilts with Fast-Piece Applique) go to:
http://rosehughes.com/

Welcome...

-Confucius, is quoted to have said,
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with your first step.”

Agreeing totally, I have to say that each step that has brought me to where I am today has been filled with experiences beyond any possibility to list. Blogging seems to be the way to document and share many of the new steps to be taken on my journey, and hopefully open up opportunities to find and share new pathways. This more than anything is my reason for joining the blogging world.

Welcome to RavenSpeak Quilts.
Just this one time, step back with me. Way back to 1995.
It was back then, while searching out ways to branch out from traditional quilting, that I discovered ravens. These are wonderful, beautiful, smart (alecky) birds that seem to tell stories to my heart. Back then they became an important step or element to bring story telling visually into my quilts. Ravens let my arty side run free and seemed just enough out of the norm for ‘the quilt police’ to want to deal with. I felt I had total freedom to create with and for my ravens.

Raven spirit continues to nudge me in new directions, and has his role at the beginning of this new path.

1996 – Why Raven Is Black

This was one of my first raven pieces.

2008 – Riding the Thermals

This piece is one of the most recent.

In between these two works I have found creative possibilities everywhere, and I am looking forward to sharing the inspiration and my journey here.

Hope you choose to come along.

I'm off to Arizona now for a visit to the Bernina Connection where I will be teaching. I look forward to the drive and the classes and the new inspirations they bring. ~Rose