Sep 17, 2019

Reaching Out With Joy and Blessings




There is only a single, urgent task: to attach oneself someplace to nature, to that which is strong, striving and bright with unreserved readiness, and then to move forward in one’s efforts without any calculation or guile, even when engaged in the most trivial and mundane activities.

Each time we thus reach out with joy, each time we cast our view toward distances that have not yet been touched, we transform not only the present moment and the one following but alter the past within us, weave it into the pattern of our existence, and dissolve the foreign body whose exact composition we ultimately do not know.”


Rainer Marie Rilke
Letters on Life page 7





Our sunflowers come up year after year. Thriving and reseeding with very limited attention or care. They give me great hope in perseverance,  hope, and survival in spite of all challenges.  I choose hope, joy and finding beauty all around me.




And a deep faith and sustaining belief that all sentient beings are connected to and with nature. If sunflowers can grow with such abundance and exhuberance of spirit then so can we all.


No matter what our challenges or problems, fill your hearts with hope that we can all persevere through any and all trials and tribulations.

Even in the darkest hours of adversity, strength can pull us through.



After a lifetime of helping others,  even the  kindness of strangers is now being returned and it brings me to tears  with gratitude. 

Here a gift from volunteers at the Willamette Cancer Care Institute where my daughter is holding strong after chemo Round 3 of 6. 




These gifts and their message of caring lifting her spirits and mine.  Thank you for these lovely blessings. 

Especially those who have sent caring messages and donations:

Bless you and thank you from all of us.


On my home front of keeping my heart filled with love and hope and my hands busy with helping others. 


And two quilt tops pieced, backing selected and pieced and donated to our charitable quilting group for hand tieing by our dynamic duo of lovely  ladies!


Keeping busy, spending time with family, having a day to give to community quilting and blanket making at a local church with a lovely bunch of ladies and gents from our extended community.

 Keeping up my spirits and rejoicing in every good day and survival of harder days. 
But its it's all going as well as challenges can be. 

Fabrics of all kinds have gotten so expensive!  Thank goodness I love scrap quilting and I hit the sales big time for fleece sales!  

Not cheap even at 60% off or as low as $3.99 yd when you need 3.5 yds for a double sided chatitable blanket! Our group has limited funds and we do our best to save what funds are in the donation pot for expenses. 



Hit those free cycle tables and garage sales and share with charitable groups when you know its still sitting and sitting in your stash. 

Boy, do we go through our scrap bins big time!





Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands as she shares her imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon. Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting... from my heart and with my hands.

4 comments:

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

Both of the quilts are beautiful. It shows your generous spirits as well as keep your mind from worrying about things you cannot control.

Michele Bilyeu said...

Boy are you right! Thank you Shasta 💜💜💜

quiltmom anna said...

Thinking of you and your beloved daughter these days. Sending prayers and lots of positive healing thoughts her way.
You are right about the cost of fabric these days- I am so grateful that I have the stash that I have - I only occasionally visit the local quilt shop and buy new- I try to buy what ever I might need on sale.. It still adds up when you count the batting and the thread and pattern- some of those things you can get around - batting is a little tricky. I am soon going to spray baste 6 large quilts so I am going to deplete my batting stash- I may have to order some from Connecting Threads.
Be well dear friend- hope you find someone who is cleaning out there stash so you can make more scrap quilts. Hugs, A

Michele Bilyeu said...

Thank you so very, very much. You are a joy and delight in my online quilting friends. I know you've had your own challenges and I love seeing you now living your life with love, family,and caring for others! And quilting up a storm again. Fabulous!