It’s 7:30 a.m., and I leave in an hour to go to the photo studio where we’ll start shooting the photos for the new book.  I finished the last project design last night and it’s beautiful.  I’m so excited – can’t wait to show it off.  Can’t believe I have to wait till next year….

Have a great day!

Spiros, I’m off today for Cincinnati, where I’ll be photographing my upcoming book for the next week.  I have two new quilt designs and all the fabric for them in my suitcase, and I shipped my sewing machine to my hotel, where it is waiting for my arrival.  (I think I’m really turning hard-core!)

I’m not sure how much time there will be for blogging in the coming week, but I hope to keep up the daily posts.  Remind next time I write to tell you what Amish women and Argentine tango dancers have in common.

Spiral on!

And now, for a commercial break….

Spiral Holiday Wreath

Back by popular demand, this festive wall hanging is a great introduction to spirals and can be completed in a weekend. The complete kit contains fabric and pattern, as well as preprinted foundations to make the project quicker and easier than ever before.  Make one for yourself and another for someone you love! 

Click on image to purchase

Spiral Christmas Stockings

These spiral Christmas stockings are unique and irresistible — you’ll want to make one for everyone in your family!  Kits include all fabric needed for one stocking, plus translucent foundation material for foundation piecing the spirals.  The pattern appears in the 2009 Holiday issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.   If you don’t already have the magazine, purchase it in addition to the kit. 

Click on image to purchase

P.S.  Any order that includes a Spiral Christmas Stocking is shipped free within the USA (or discounted shipping internationally).

Welcome to the Spiromaniacs Blog!  In addition to information about my spiral quilting techniques, lately I’ve begun adding posts about my own “spin” on life and quilting.  (There, I knew I could tie it to spirals somehow!).  I hope you find your visit inspiring. 

To look at finished spiral quilts, click on the Inspiralling Quilts and TA DA! pages listed at right.  Then, if you’d like to learn more about the individual quilts, click on the quiltmaker’s Work-in-Progress page.  All of the quilts (except for mine) were made by people who had never made a spiral quilt before.  Quilters of all levels accepted the challenge to learn spiral quilt techniques, then design and make a quilt of their own.  I think you will agree that the results are simply amazing!  And if they can, you can!

To purchase the book Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts go to the Store, or click on the link under “Blogroll” at right.

For Spiral Quilt workshops (both in-person and online): To see course offerings and register click here or on the link under “Blogroll” at right.  To see all my schedule in-person events and online classes click on RaNae’s Calendar.  To learn about how online classes work, click on Classroom at right.  Also check out the student gallery page.  If you’re registered for an online class, look for the class name and your name at right.  Schedule now for your show or guild so you’ll be first to present these great new designs!

To sign up for the newsletter and receive a FREE PATTERN click here or on the link under “Blogroll” at right.

For current Spiromaniac news scroll down below this post.  (This one is “sticky” so it stays at the top of the page, while current news posts below it, with the most up-to-date at the top.)

I’m now on Facebook!  Click on RaNae’s Facebook to become a friend!

To write a comment to a post (here on the main page), click on “Comments” below the title.  To write a comment to a page, scroll to the bottom of that page and write in the box.  (Your comments come to me automatically as emails.) Or, send me an email at ranae@ranaemerrillquilts.com

If you find errors in the book, check the page Corrections to SASQ.  If you find one that is not listed, scroll to the bottom of the page and write a comment.  (Apologies, and thanks, in advance!)  The next printing of the book is about to happen, and many of these changes will be made.

I look forward to hearing from you!  Spiral on!

RaNae

In the park across the street from my apartment, there is an area that was completely rebuilt and re-landscaped within the past year.  After a while, I noticed that it wasn’t being weeded, and, if things were left to go as they were headed, the landscaping would soon be completely overtaken by weeds and “volunteer” trees. 

Maybe it was the farm girl in me wanting to get my hands into some dirt.  Maybe it was the taxpayer in me that hated seeing my money going to waste.  Whatever the reason, on my morning walks with Morgan I began to clear away the weeds. 

Most days I just do as much as I can carry to the trash can in one handful.   As little as that seems, the area has remained, for the entire spring and summer, virtually free of weeds, giving the plantings a chance to get established.  It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in one handful a day.

Yesterday as I was gathering up my morning handful of weeds, I pulled up this little tree.  But as I did, something about it stopped me from throwing it on the pile — I brought it home and re-planted it.  I think it was the color of the leaves.  Here is this tiny maple tree about 4″ high with six perfect little leaves, all full-on, flaming, fall red.  Despite its youth and small size, it is already living as the mature tree it will become.

Who do I want to “grow up to be” tomorrow?  What goals do I want to accomplish?  Is there something I want to change in my life?  Though I may feel small today in comparison to who I want to be tomorrow, this little tree reminds me to live as much as I can of that “tomorrow” me today.

Just like piecing a quilt or weeding, living a little of “tomorrow” me today, I grow into “tomorrow” me — and often sooner that I expect.  It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in one handful a day.

Who’s running this show?

I am.  You are.  (Ask a quantum physicist.)

http://www.whatthebleep.com/synopsis/
http://www.whatthebleep.com/trailer/

A mini-essay for a busy day:

Are you running your life or is life running you? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl

The best ad campaigns often strike some simple, primal truth within us.  Today there are two going through my mind, because I have a deadline.

No Fear 
(No Fear clothing brand)

Just do it.
(Nike shoes)

I hate tight deadlines.  I hate the pressure and the limits.  They put me in a place of fear and anger: fear that I’m not going to get done in time, fear that I won’t do my best work because time is limited, and anger that everything else in my life goes on hold until that d*** deadline gets met, leaving me feeling as though I have no life.

In my birthday essay a couple of weeks ago, I said that in the second half of my life I wanted to live true to my better self.  So, as I dragged myself kicking and screaming into consciousness this morning, I realized this: with or without the fear, I have 5 days to complete what needs to be done.

Old self: I allow the fear, and let it hamper me. 

Better self: I realize that there have been other times when I used 5 days, without fear, to accomplish as much or more than I have to do now.  And I actually like to do what has to be done (designing, writing, sewing)  If it weren’t for the deadline I’d be looking forward to it.

Fear is a choice.  Time is not.

No fear.  Just do it.

—————–

Update: So I jumped in and started.  I’m making good progress.  And, here’s the fortune from the fortune cookie that came with my dinner today: “Well begun is half done.”

I’ve arrived at an awkward point in the work on my next book: I know what this section of the book needs to do, but I’m not quite sure how to make it happen.  And to make matters worse, it has to be ready to photograph by the end of the week.  I hate this.

As I lay curled up in bed and dread this morning, a verse from scripture went through my mind. (That’s 3 times  in one week, and I don’t even like going to church.  Hmmm……)

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Now, the “evidence of things not seen” part is a no-brainer for me.  Flip a light switch.  I can’t see electricity, but there’s the evidence shining through the room.  Easy sneezy.

What I find much more fascinating — and potentially powerful — is the “substance of things hoped for” part.

Now, I’m not an athiest or an agnostic, but if I were would this still apply?  Heck yeah.  Ask Einstein.  He put it this way:

E = mc2
[Does anyone out there know how to write a superscript in HTML?]

Energy and matter are the same thing.  They are interchangeable.  So since faith and hope are thought, which is energy, they can, under the right circumstances, change into substance, which is matter — or things that matter (like my book). 

From here on, I have been trying to write an essay on faith that would, ultimately, kick me into gear on the book today.  Instead, I keep writing myself into a corner.  So I’m going to take a break, go for a walk, and have faith that when I come back my mind will be rested and clear (isn’t that what Sunday is about anyway?)

I leave you to think this over for yourself.  Happy Sunday.

When I was 13 my family moved from the suburbs to a small farm about an hour outside Los Angeles.  We got animals — goats for milk, chickens for eggs, steers, pigs, lambs for meat.  We planted a large garden and orchard — every kind of vegetable and fruit you can imagine (including a few you have probably never heard of).

But my father (being a practical man) decided that if you couldn’t eat it (animal or vegetable), he wouldn’t have it.  He tolerated the cats because they caught mice.  When my mother got a dog, he would try to run over it in the driveway every time we left the house in the car.  Forget even asking about a horse, though every other kid in the neighborhood had one and having friends meant going riding after school.  Of course, that also meant no flowers.

From my father’s point of view, we didn’t need any of this stuff — it was just a waste of resources.  And strictly speaking, we didn’t need it.  At least, not for physical survival.

But let’s talk about soul survival.

We have needs, and we have wants.  Technically, we don’t need the wants, but we do want.  Wanting is an integral part of our human nature.  So why do we want the wants?

To quote my favorite line from the Book of Mormon: Adam [and presumably, Eve] fell that men [and presumably women] might be, and men [and yes, women too] are that they might have joy.

We exist not just to survive.  We exist to be happy. 

Abraham Maslow, in 1943, proposed that human beings have a “hierarchy of needs” that starts with physiological survival and peaks at self-actualization.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow’s_hierarchy_of_needs)  Once our basic survival needs are met, we want, because wanting is our soul’s road map to happiness.

This is not to say that we don’t occasionally (even frequently) stray — or get bumped — off course.  And it has to be acknowledged that there are a lot of factors out there that try to manipulate us into wanting what doesn’t necessarily make us happy. 

But have you noticed that often it’s the things that we want, more than the things that we need, that motivate us to create beauty (like quilts) or make some sort of change for the better in our lives?  When there’s something we really want, we find a way to have what we need to survive and what we want to be happy.

(And have noticed that you can be sad about some things in life, while you are happy about others?  But that’s a topic for another day.) 

So here are some things that I want (but don’t need) that make me happy today.  (Dad, sorry, but you can take your “practicality” and stuff it.)

Flowers.  One thing I love about living in New York City is that practically every deli on every corner sells fresh flowers.  I keep them in the house all the time.  Yesterday, just as the last golden leaves fell from my tree, the first of my paperwhite bulbs bloomed, and that made me happy.

Morgan.  Smart as a whip, and with a subtle, goofy sense of humor.  Not to mention the fact that for the past almost-14 years she has been my personal trainer, therapist and most constant companion.  She has brought me more smiles and laughter than any one single person in my life.

Chocolate ice cream for dinner.  Last night.  A lot of it.  I realized I may have wandered off the road to happiness just a bit when I developed a stomach ache from eating too much.  But this is a rare occurrence in my life and I’m happy that my scale this morning says no permanent damage has been done.

Enjoy your day!