Patience...and Inspriation

"Joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes."  Frederick Buechner  

Thanks for sending me this quote Marian.....so well said...and so true!

Last evening I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with a cable guy....we've all been there done that! At several points during the call I got frustrated and impatient as I tried to explain my situation. But in the end we worked things out and I thanked him for being patient and sticking with me.  He could have ended the call at that point and just been done with me....but he went on to tell me that he learned patience from his grandparents.  Neither one spoke English very well and it was always a challenge to communicate with them.  The more excited they became about something...the harder they were to understand. He said it was a challenge...but always worth it.....and it taught him the virtue of patience.

After his story I told him it was just like talking to me....and he laughed out loud for what seemed like a full minute. We both ended the conversation feeling good about the whole thing.  Yes.....joy is mysterious....it can happen anytime.....even with the cable guy.

I haven't had much time in the studio....that's just the way summers seem to go....so many things drawing my attention.  But I have kept up with my 4 x 6 exchange cards and am now playing around with little 3 piece collages from old paintings. Simple....quick...and fun.

They were inspired by a Andrea Deane Thompson who I've been following on Instagram for quite some time.  

https://www.instagram.com/andreadeanethompson/

Andrea's watercolor quilts and sweet drawings and paintings make me smile.  Recently she's been posting these little three piece quilt type squares made her from old art.  She challenged people to do the same....and I got hooked. 

There's something very rewarding about cutting old projects up and mixing the patterns and colors.

And inspired by another artist, Autum Moon, I played around with covering the seams with a zig-zag stamp. I wrote about Autumn before in this "Scrap Quilts" post: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2021/05/scrap-quilts.html  

Yes...I do like to do actual zig-zag stitching like on this card....but sometimes something simple like a stamp is the way to go. I can still stitch around the edges of these others depending on what I do with them.

Aren't they fun!

The stamps came in a collection of different stitches...and they were hard to use because they were long and floppy.  

So I glued them onto thin pieces of balsa wood and now they're much more manageable.