Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands: Search results for prayer flags

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Jun 6, 2014

Spreading Peace and Prayer Flag Love!

I have been having so much fun with my love of creating my peace and prayer flags. But even more fun with all of my volunteer efforts to inspire others to make their own and pay if forward by sharing with others!

This week I was invited by Anne Gilbert Walton to share the history of Prayer Flags with a wonderful group of women from our Mid-Valley Quilt Guild where Anne hosts art quilting get togethers at her Zena Learning Center

Inspired by the beautiful Zena Springs Farm located in West Salem in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, Anne has created a learning center for young and old, alike, as she shares her teaching gifts and her beautiful 160 acre family farm with others. From home schoolers, and creative art projects to Willamette University students studying her farm and forest eco-system, it is a beehive of creative learning and fun.

We were greeted by a flock of chickens, two wonderful dogs, and owner/instructor Anne Gilbert Walton and her co-teaching/artist-in-residence, Marnie Jeffers.

While most of the art quilting group had been together for several years, we were joined by several brand new visitors so it was wonderful to greet some of the ladies that I had previously met at the Mid-Valley Quilt Guild and meet others who were invited by friends to join in.

Zena Learning Center co-teacher, Marnie is a talented artist who spent several decades with some high powered greeting card and other art distribution groups, but she hadn't sewn in a while. And this is exactly where this kind of project can be so much fun in jump starting not only sewing but the beginning elements of art quilting, as well.

Making peaceful prayer flags was just perfect for her and as she created a prayer flag for her son, currently serving our country as a logistics coordinator in Afgh*anist*n using her own creative talent and her grandmother's sewing machine, her sewing joined the hum of a dozen plus others in our group.

We had other wonderful quilters and art quilters and we filled the classroom to the brim, and still had spaces if we'd needed them, for more! I talked (those who read here already can imagine just how much I love to share!) and shared my history and how it all tied in with my own focus on the making of art quilts transforming into my passion for creating prayer flags.

The melodic humming of sewists and artists at work was joined in by the inquisitive cackling of three chickens as they climbed up the steps and came in to check out the hen party inside! I was instantly reminded of my own experience with my three adult chickens in my post

Seriously?

on chicken dinner not meaning chickens in the dining room. I think Anne's girls just knew that I'm a chicken lover. After all, right now, I have.....

Edith, Dorothy, and Little Nell

in my dining room as deliberately invited house guests awaiting their growth into outside chickens instead of inside pampered pets!

Cats and quilts go together, dogs and quilts go together. But you should have seen me auditioning 4 quilts just for a bin warmer for my little chicks! And now, I know...Prayer Flags and Chickens go together (apparently!) as well!!!

Art Quilters and new friends! Thank you all for being so warm and welcoming, providing such a fabulous lunch,and great, great fun! I enjoyed teaching my Peace and Prayer Flags class and sharing with all of you! Thank You, Anne Walton for creating this beautiful and creative space in the rolling hills of family farms and vineyards.

We all had such great, great fun!

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Visit me @ The Prayer Flag Project:

The Prayer Flag Project: Gratitude

The Prayer Flag Project: Happiness

The Prayer Flag Project: Making Prayer Flags

The Prayer Flag Project: All You Need Is Love

The Prayer Flag Project: Finding Peace

The Prayer Flag Project: "My Valentine of Love"

The Prayer Flag Project: Gratitude

The Prayer Flag Project: Love is...Looking in the Same ...
The Prayer Flag Project: Garlands of Prayers for Everyone ...

The Prayer Flag Project: To Boston with Love

The Prayer Flag Project: Garlands of Prayers for Everyone ...

The Prayer Flag Project: To Boston with Love

The Prayr Flag Project: From Alaska..

Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join her and make and donate quilts to charitable causes. Help us change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!

May 15, 2013

Prayer Flags for Boston: The Color of Love

When I first discovered that the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild was asking for prayer flags for Boston, I thought to myself...... in this order .... I'm not a 'modern' quilter...(I like to see myself as improvisational, or liberated, not 'modern' ;) ..... I've already made a Boston prayer flag (and shared it)......I don't have one single moment of extra time and... how can I keep doing what I do.... and survive my busy life....and then......as I always, always do..

.....ok, so why can't I make a prayer flag for Boston????

So, I did!

If there is one thing I have learned in the past 15 years, its that there is always time for whatever you make important ..that day...that hour.. that minute..in your life. And I do it and the more I do it, the more I have discovered that I continue to do it. And strangely enough ... .the saying is true...I have, indeed, gotten stronger and stronger and stronger.

I had a lovely Mother's Day, yesterday. My three children and their significant others all came up and over to be with us, I received lovely gifts, fresh flowers, potted flowers and plants, and the chickens and cat all honored me with their 'presence'. And it was a warm, and sunny, and lovely day.... when it wasn't even supposed to be. I remember the song from Annie...... singing in my head...'The sun will come out, tomorrow..." And that feeling stayed with me, all day, all night, and into my quilting and prayer flag creating, today.

It was quite wonderful, really.

But the more I thought about my own blessings, the more I also thought about the flip side of that coin.. the hardships we all face, we all feel like we are battling. But for every person who has it 'better' or 'easier' or at a higher standard of living than us.. there are always 9 more people who have it far more challenging. And, yes.. I have lived through devastating losses.. just as many of you have. I have faced them, battled them, survived them and seen the sun come out 'tomorrow'.

For all time is now. Past, present, and future. The clocks stop, the face on our wrist watches spin in the ever continuing cycles of one great 'dreamtime.'

And yes," time may heal all wounds", but love is the greatest healer of all. It can heal anger, and hatred, and jealousy, and even the desire for revenge.

So, for all those who suffer, all those who have lost loved ones, I created my first little flag for Boston. The center little prayer flag.....with its required sewn edges and 6 inch by 8 inch shape ..and with its required 1 and one half inch wide by 16 inches long strip folded and sewn into a binding tie strip...very different from my usual rough and ready for action in the great unknown prayer flags.;

But the quilted flag, itself, shares all of that ragged and uncertainty of life made into one unified whole...inside and outside of time.

Titled "The Color of Love" and featuring a quotation by the artist Marc Chagall which states:

"In our live there is a single color
, as on an artists' palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love."

And to make that symbolic point, I used a black piece of binding/tie strip. People always want to see black as dark, as negative, as the opposite of life, and love, and optimism. But black is the summation of ALL colors. And so, it too, is 'the color of love.'

Out of what may appear to be great and challenging darkness, come one thing and one thing only that is greater than all that we think we see and feel. We are one and the color of that one is love.

My little prayer flag is made up of cut up and put back together bits and pieces, all from my own re-purposed and recycled fabrics from free cycled groups. I wanted to create order and unity from chaos and destruction and desolation. I want to create love joined, love created and now, unifying, and love ever growing, and ever expanding outwards to all.

And then...because I could....I made two more prayer flags for Boston..for each side. Now, there will be a trinity of prayer flags made with my heart and with my hands..heading for Boston.

A flag with a little 'Heart' and another one with a 'B"...both made "For Boston With Love"

Our prayer flags will fly in the Shapiro Family Courtyard at the ....

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

How awesome is that? And they will fly.....this year, over Memorial Day weekend ....and through mid-June ......and then, again...next year, in 2014 in remembrance, once again! Sharing so much love from so many places.

The details of this Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild project is posted here.

And if you do not belong to a Modern Quilt Guild and do not have a local address for one, I did find the posted mailing address for Amy Friend, who is collecting prayer flags for this fabulous display. Her posted already on the Internet address is: Amy Friend, PO Box 774 West Newbury MA 01985.

Amy's blog, by the way is: During Quiet Time, and just visiting her, at her site, was indeed very quiet, and soothing .... and her work is just lovely! Check out her own lovely projects!

I made mine 'outside of the box' and in my own style and not necessarily '
modern' but they still use of the bright colors that were suggested as signs of love, hope, and optimism for the future. For indeed, the ' sun will come out tomorrow.'

Please join in and send your own prayers, as well. It doesn't have to be a prayer flag, it doesn't have to be a quilt, it doesn't have to be the hundreds of thousands of things that people all over the world have already sent to Boston, or to Newtown, or to other disaster areas. Send a good and loving thought, the color of love when sent from the heart is the most beautiful, amazing, and meaningful and meaning filled thing that there is..... for that is the power of good.

Love to Boston, love to all who were in Boston that fateful day, love to all of those who are stuck in the place and time of that day, still. May be all live in the eternal now of love-time fulfilled.....today, and every day.

And don't forget, the wonderful The Prayer Flag Project which I am very proud to be a member of and which I also share my prayer flags contributions with, for posting there.

Apr 27, 2014

Quilt College: Peace and Prayer Flags

I had a wonderful time this week teaching a class on the making of "Peace and Prayer Flags, Garlands, Pennants, and Bunting" at the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreal, Oregon for our local Mid-Valley Quilt Quilt's "Quilt College".

What a great group of women! Each and every one went 'outside of her personal' comfort zone in creating peace and prayer flags from my kits with directions to be as individual as possible. And they did! Every single one of these lovely ladies added something that was unique, creative, and different than my samples!

Quilt College is a biannual fundraiser and county fairgrounds space holder for our guild. Without the donation of its teachers' time, and the support of the quilting community, we wouldn't be able to reserve the this space for our Mid-Valley Quilt Guild quilt show during our 'every other' years.

We're fortunate to have been 'grand mothered in' the reservation of the space and work hard to maintain its yearly rental fee. So, when I heard this past January that a lot of teachers had 'dropped out' (for little reasons like they had quilts selected to show in Paducah ;-) I was quick to 'drop in' and offer to teach a few classes as my donation to our cause. We offered a great many classes over all, with at least a dozen running each day and I taught this one on Friday afternoon.

I provided kits for 14 different peace or prayer flags and they had a wide variety of individual kits to choose from even among their favorite 'looks'. I provided choices that included patriotic, country, Victorian, rainbow 70's, religious, spiritual, just plain cute, and native cultures and traditions. But of course, I didn't tell them, what was what or give any advice on selection and being me, they could switch ingredients and ink jet quotations if so desired.

Such fun! I made so many kits they filled a medium sized suitcase and sold each kit, with directions and a photo and all of the ingredients including trims for only $5, plus art fabric postcard kits for only 3/$5. I am a bargain hunter and like to share with others, so I lost money rather than made any and I taught the class for free but I was paid back in the joy of sharing with others and making some really nice new friends and getting to know each of them so much more!

Community sewing and quilting at its best. Joining together, creating fun and lovely things, and filling up hearts and souls with love! It touched my heart to get to know these ladies on a more personal level and to feel the love of creating bring forth the power of intention and manifestation so women could receive what they needed from the power of the spirit flags!

How much fun did we have? Just look at my face! And I can't even remember who said what to get me to laugh this hard! I truly allow myself to feel everything and allow only the good to remain in my heart...the best that I can!

And even better....all of my students shared their prayer flags and their experiences creating them and going outside of their own creativity boxes during our very next Mid-Valley Quilt Guild meeting. I couldn't have been prouder as I watched them line up among all of the traditional quilters and share their experiences and their flags!

Community art, quilting, and prayer flag creation at its best!

Yes, it's been one tough week with rushing to the E.R.for Life's Unexpected Challenges, but I found a lot of good in this, and in every day and did my best to give out even more :-)

Now: Featured on the

The Prayer Flag Project

Making Prayer Flags

Apr 16, 2022

Prayers, and Prayer and Peace Flags Still Flying High

During times of intense national, global, or personal challenges, where I have often asked for shared prayers, and well wishes for even members of my immediate family, the designing of prayer flags has always been a natural progression of my fiber art.

When I learned during the prayers flags from the many world religion books I was fascinated the amazing discovery of just how much seemingly disparate religions share in beliefs, stories and symbols, I realized that my need to be and to do continuing good in my world stemmed from innate beliefs and energies archetypically handed down by the many generations of my ancestral lineage.

All of my many interests and passion, my cultural and spiritually combined belief system and the deep inner knowing of who I truly was in my innermost being had led me to all of the places and all of the people who would come into my always interesting but still basically home centered life.

Creating peace and prayer flags from the simplest of fabric strips that I hang from trees or my prayer arch arbor outside and the prayer flag garland I created from vintage fabrics or Crocheted pieces I inherited as well as my inkjet printed words and quotes added such heartfelt love and joy in their use!

Then there is my Buddhist prayer flags specially delivered via two Quilting friends. Starting from an Oregon Quilter who moved to the city of Mungpoo in the Dar-jeeling District of the Himalayan mountains as she fulfilled her wish to truly study Buddhism in a Buddhist abbey with monks who sent me an authentic prayerful flag garland, which is always above my sewing projects on my little loft sewing table. We didn't manage to meet up at the Sister's Quikt Show as we'd hoped but left them with another quilt collector and his promise to mail them to me after their mutual visit in Oregon.

They were a true delight to receive. Even is she teased me by asking me to forgive their musty smell as it was the wet and often humid monsoon season in Mingpoo. She also added that they were carried down the mountain on the back of a yak." Not sure about that but it made me laugh!

Rainbows are such a beautiful symbol of miracles and of hope as they always follow the rain. The rainbow and the dove are both biblical and ancient symbols of hope and peace as things we always, always need.

So today, I salute and pray for Ukraine and Ukrainian peoples everywhere. Bless you all and may God/ the Highest Powers of All and all that is Divine hold and strengthen and protect you with a multitude of Angelic High!

Praying for peace now as spiritual warriors is what all of us can join in and continously do. Be peace, live peace, send peace from and in your deepest being.

These original style prayers above (on one of my many surfaces displaying my special gifts or found objects) used to be free gifts mailed to those of us in the 1980s for encouraging further donations to "Free Tibet" groups in India comprises of displaces monks driven out by communist China long ago. Sadly I have not received additional ones in a decade or two but gladly with prayer I hung or used as gifts to others .

But I love my lone surviving packet and these cloth ones above my hand-me-down 1940 or 1950s little folding table that once was our only dining table and now is my rotary cutting table for fabric for sewing, quilting or crafts.

From the Himalayas to these special art flags that I created for Oceanside Museum of Art a number of years ago for a special gallery exhibition. Oh the joy of knowing my three prayer flags were flying high and being looked at by everyone from art lovers to gallery members to those with open and loving hearts spreading this simple but deeply meaningful art form.

I had followed the Prayer Flag Project blog for a very long time, and have loved all of the beautiful flags that everyone had created and shared their and shared many of my own there as well. The site is still there but no longer moderated or added to.

However, I kept my own bigger site going with its Prayer Flag Page as it has aways had the first and biggest compilation of the history of Prayers flags that someone used to rewrite even the Wikipedia entry. I can only hope my very ancient library angels and their books predating the internet are smiling!

It was a a delight to extend my thoughts, my prayers, and the making of my own flags to a greater, and deeper meaning as I created my prayer flags for submission to the Oceanside Museum of Arts Prayer Flag Project and their project submission, eventually to be included as part of this group! It is so incredibly sad that the group slowly dwindled down through the years where artists were giving up blogging and out of need focusing on their own time for making their own art. For me these flags are still being made and given as gifts to others during hard times.

My Oceanside Art Musrum flags were made on my own painted fabric with raw edge applique, beads and inkjet printing. They include quotations from well known sources on their fronts, and my own prayer flag blessings (in poetic form) on each of the backs of the flags to tie them into my themes.

Knowing that my three prayer flags were flying high with so many beautiful creations,in California, I know that so much goodness and intent is being manifested during all of our personally challenging times and the challenges of Hurricanes and Super Storms on the East Coast. As we have since learned our weather pattern and the number of super freezes, storms, hurricanes and tornadoes have increased year by year.

We are all combining our energies of manifestation, and healing from East to West, and West to East and the thoughts and prayers of so many only intensify with the height, the depth, and the breadth that all of these external energies of rain, wind, and storm!

And throughout these heartbreaking times with the Covid-19 virus in its many mutations, prayers have only increased in need and sharing.

Blessings to all of you during our ever continuing times! And many happy blessings for a celebration of Easter Sunday, Passover, or even the original Oestre that those with Druidic, Shamanic or the original pagan practices of ancient peoples still practice following their own beliefs, spiritual practices and innate roots to re-ligion which originally meant "to link back"!

However you celebrate this time of rebirth and renewal as Winter transforms into Spring-- celebrate with family, friends or loved ones and enjoy the beauty and sense of peace we all carry within. We will be with our family of 12 including our four beloved grandchildren and 4 dogs. The cats stay home as do the chickens!

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2022/03/for-courage.html

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2022/02/go-to-limits-of-your-longing-and-pray.html

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2022/03/the-clearing.html?m=1

Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands sharing an imaginative, magical,and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon. Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, "from my heart and with my hands."

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