Reconnection

Birds have always been seen as special messengers of hope from above. While bird feathers, besides being engineering masterpieces, are often seen as symbols of reconnecting us with hope, and a belief in the unseen and as yet unknown.

I love finding feathers along my own path whether I am simply walking in my own yard in Oregon where feathers are more likely to have been left from one of my own flock of domestic chickens or along the beautiful beaches along the channels of ocean waters in my home state of Alaska where I reconnect with childhood, family, and the feeling of being home and truly returning to my own nesting rebirth year after year.

In a time of transition, and the beginning of a New Year, I seek the same reconnection. After many months of continuing my own daily life with all of the traditions of family, celebrations and feathering my own nest with the bringing in of the holi-day lights, the creation and giving of gifts, and the joys and sorrows of life and living, reconnecting with my own past took on new meanings this month.

After months of being in an internally aware state of grief for the loss of my youngest sister-in-law to cancer, and the tragic death of a dear family friend of 45 years, I was reconnected with the loss of his wife and daughter just 17 years ago, my best friend of many decades, and my youngest daughter's loss of her best friend since birth. A family that we shared the building of our two homes together on the same acreage, the births and raising of each of our three children to adulthood.

Reconnection to grief and mourning needed to rise up and be filled with constant reminders of life, of light, and of the grace and the beauty of our natural world.And I needed to bring those reminders of the natural and outside world into my my inner and internal world..both in my heart and in my home.

And then a new loss. One of my four little grand-cats was killed in a tragic accident. As someone who has loved animals her entire life, this new loss was just one more on top of those that had come at the end of the year. Again, I reconnected with the deep emapthic grief of anothers loss that mirrored my own and yet, was still my own.

Reconnection is truly connecting to source and to the divine that lives within each of us, just as spirituality connects us to spirit and religion links us back to the beginning and source of all understanding. Our awareness of any separation is simply an illusion or perhaps better yet, an allusion. For each of us is part of one another and a part of all that truly is.

And because I am always finding feathers in my own spiritual journey, birds and feathers as two of the many joys in the gardens of my own life.  And it was all of these feelings, all of this joy, and all of this pain that was transformed into a prayer flag to grace a wall in my home. A wall that rises up the journey of the stairwell...step by step, just as enlightenment in all of its forms and all of its stages, has come into the journey of my life since I was a young child playing in the fern filled forests of Alaska.

I brought in the symbology of the bird feathering her nest, long recognized as signifying hope and of course the feathers as symbols of creating and manifesting the improbable, if not the downright seemingly impossible. With bits and pieces of fabric and thread, yarn, jute, feathers, twigs and twine it speaks without having a voice and is heard without having a pulpit.

Reconnection fills my heart and lights up my soul, my prayer flag graces the steps, the pathway, and the journey as I walk upstairs to my art and quilting areas. With each step, and each new awareness, I seek to rise each and everyday to greater and greater joy, inspiration, and creativity.

And I fill my heart not only with gratitude for each new day, each new step, and each new understanding, and allow the reconnection to soften and gentle within me as grief merges with understanding and joy once again.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King

Be of Service...today and everyday

Reconnect..with empathy, caring, and love with one another.

For as Dr. King has said: "Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."

And he is also credited with having said: "Be the peace you wish to see in the world."

                                                                          

Reconnect with YOUR past, your present, and how we manifest our own future! I do on an almost daily basis!! Today, I realized for the first time, why I am so drawn to Melanie Testa's Meadolark fabric and why I am constantly drawn to supporting Breast Cancer Awareness. Each of us in our own ways, kicks our challenges to the curb and keep on going..day after day! Here is my latest Melanie Testa Breast Pocket contribution. This one donated at the end of last year to the Quilting Art's Challenge.

For not only did my own mother battle Stage 3b Inflammatory Breast Cancer and come down from Alaska for treatment but she ended up leaving with me and my family for the next 9 months as we battled..first her fear and refusal to go through treatment, but onto intense chemo, a mastectomy, and then intense radiation. She went from less than a 3% chance of surviving to not only surviving, hitting her 5 year benchmark and on to living for many, many more years. That she ended up with severe Alzheimer's and my traveling to Alaska for additional caregiving is another reconnection in so many ways.

This 'Breast Cancer Pocket' was created as soon as I learned that my beautiful 27 year old niece was not only diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2014, but had almost immediate surgery, and is now having chemo, then radiation. Time for not only this breast pocket, but for another prayer flag!!!

Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey from Alaska to Oregon with thousands of free Quilting, Sewing, and Crafting Patterns and Tutorials. Help change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!

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!

Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

 Maya Angelou 1928-2014

Passes away at age 86.


"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel."

Indescribable and unforgettable. And now...very, very sad at such a huge loss for this world.

 shown above:
my prayer flag tree with the first hand painted silk prayer flags I made decades ago. All gone from this world and into the next.

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!

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

 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!

Gratitude

Note: Two days after publishing this blog post, my husband had a stroke. I am so grateful it wasn't worse than it was and he is recuperating wonderfully well.

Here is the original post from this date:

Life's Unexpected Challenges

I am feeling so very grateful for the beauty of Spring flowers, the sound of early morning bird song, the playful antics of dozens of little squirrels as they perform their high wire acts from limb to limb. I am grateful for the budding of new leaves on trees, the buzzing of bees, and the sweet hum of humming birds as they flit back and forth from our many feeders to fresh blooms in the yard.
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Grateful that my youngest sister-in-law, Shelley, with advanced cancer is holding her own, after her 7th chemotherapy treatment. She and my brother fly from Juneau to Seattle every three weeks for another round of treatment, so while it might seem discouraging that they she is now on 'maintenance' levels, that is actually a good thing. She is holding her own and still striving to live until her second grandchild is born in May.

Grateful that my brother in Eagle River who battles one round of pneumonia, and one medically induced coma after another, is now feeling well enough to have some physical therapy to get his strength back. And his wife, with end-stage kidney disease, who crashed and burned with severe high blood pressure and fluid filled lungs, is now back to holding her own against the increasing odds of finally being "sick enough" to make her way up on the kidney transplant list.

Life if filled with so many challenges, but we focus on the good, the daily gratitudes of health, happiness, and the ability to bear whatever pains we might feel that day.

As someone who was told in 1981 to prepare myself for a life in a wheelchair, I know better than anyone that doctors can be proved wrong, time is fluid, and so are all of our choices.  You just take it day by day, week by week, year by year with gratitude for what one has that is good and filled with meaning.  For everything that is taken away or given up, so much more is given that others do not have nor will ever be able to experience.

My little burlap prayer flags were made with remnants from the 14 burlap table runners that I cut and fringed for my youngest daughter's wedding last August. I bought 36 yards of that burlap, and combined with the making of 6 burlap wedding bags, 6 burlap Christmas stockings, and countless prayer flags, I've used that fabric well! Combined with bits of osnaburg from the 90 home made fringed table napkins and lots of bits and pieces from the tiniest of leftover cuttings from fabric used this past year for the making of charitable donation quilts and  pillowcases, nothing and I do mean, nothing!, goes to waste in this house :-)

As the second prayer flag says:  "Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier." ..Mother Theresa

Such simple little flags, but made with love and intention. Light enough to still flutter in the winds of time and spread their message of gratitude and love everywhere.

 It feels so good to be outside and working in the yard, seeing all of the new growth, and delighting in those little blossoms brave enough to face the possibility of late frost. We lost so many rhododendron, hydrangea, and peonies in our suddenly severe winter, but have the blessings of 5 new peonies hand delivered by the grateful owners of  Pookie, the precious little dog who got lost during the fire works of New Years Eve in Brooks, Oregon and somehow found his way over farmland to our home in Salem.

It was a miracle he survived the more than 5 mile journey and a blessing that he found us as we never gave up trying to locate his owners without benefit of a tag or identification of any kind.

Now, we hear that sweet little Pookie has a new collar with tags securely attached, but also a microchip, as well. And his young college age owner was so grateful she made her parents promise to get these peonies to us, before spring for planting! So, her wonderful parents,  who just happened to own Brooks Garden came by with a fabulous gift of five lovely peonies ....and they didn't even know that we had lost ours in the severe winter freeze! Oh, I do so love peonies..one of my favorite of all, flowers!

So, joys abound. The Universe balances out the challenges with the blessings, bit by bit, day by day. I hang new prayer flags, one by one, and I am grateful

And don't miss this...a wonderful opportunity for a rare event a total lunar eclipse which turns the moon a rusty red. Known as the Blood Moon the sunlight will stream around the Earth and throws the moon into Earth's shadow.

Beginning tonight/early tomorrow, on Tuesday April 15 ( how filled with portents is this? ) at about 1:20a.m. on the East Coast, and lasting for about 78 minutes, we will witness a full lunar eclipse, Blood Moon.   At first this full moon will appear to be a little darker than normal, but eventually it will move across the face of the moon with the distinct reddish-brown or "Blood Moon' color. This is a the first of a rare event of a sequence of four total lunar eclipses expected over the next two years. Wow! I cannot wait. I love astronomical events of all kinds. I head out into the moo light with open arms and hands and sing out to the Universe "fill me up, fill me up" following in the footsteps of a long line of wise woman and their way of asking for blessings and abundance. And my way (tonight) of saying. a tax refund will certainly be nice ;-)

Shown, above #15,000 - And The Greatest Of These Is Love (sold for $105.00) : One of my 75 small format art quilts donated to the  Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (2007-2013). 

And....I am still grateful to have sold all 75 of these tiny little 9"x12" or smaller art quilts and have earned  $4,516.88 for Alzheimer's Disease Research Funding. The little moon is as close to a 'blood moon' as I could find among my art work and I did so love this little quilt. It makes me happy just looking at this photo and knowing it must have gone to a very good home :-) 

And last, but never, ever least....I am so very and truthfully, grateful for all of you. Nearing almost 6 million views now, I wonder "how in the world did my love of writing and sharing lead to me being a blogger? But again, the Universe had a different plan in store for me, and I just do my best to oblige in any way that I can. So, thank you, those who comment and those who do not..I am still grateful!

 The Prayer Flag Project 
Such a lovely way to remember to be grateful, to create blessings, and share with others.

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!

The Color of Love

 

I have spent the past week in a bit of a daze. A daze of emotions, of colors, of lights and sounds, and feelings.  So very, very much has been happening in the world. Both the outside world where people I love have been once again hospitalized and others released to go home once again. An outside world where, horrible things happen to good people.

A world where people can build their dream homes whether they are rustic cabins along the edge of a river, or beautiful mansions sitting up on mountain tops and suddenly, where beauty and hope once lived, a gigantic mudslide comes crashing down, bringing the entire hillside, all of the homes, and all of its hope filled people with it.

A world where people can get on an airplane anxiously returning to loved ones, on a lovely vacation, or simply flying back and forth between places as a part of their work. And suddenly, that airplane disappears from all awareness...just like that.

If you haven't heard of that mudlside in Oso, Washington or the nearby little community of Darrington, in Washington State, this has been in the news, and all over social media. It touched my heart to its depths when I read that one of our own, a quilter named Nichole Webb Rivera, lost her beautiful 20 year old daughter, Delaney, that daughter's wonderful young fiance', and both of Nichole's parents.

One moment in time  and the color of love and one's whole world can change. Just like that.

Last week, I was busy hoping and praying that my own brother would revitalize after a third, no wait, fourth visit via paramedics to his home in Eagle River, Alaska as he was once again rushed to the E.R. in Anchorage with pneumonia. The same brother that I followed through 4 hospitals in 3 states in 2011 until he was finally well enough to return home in May of 2012.

My brother got stronger after this now 5th attack of viral/bacterial pneumonia and was allowed to return to home. Then, the next day, his wife, who desperately needs a kidney transplant, who I also have written a great deal about, was at one of her tri-weekly dialysis treatments, when she "crashed and burned".  Her blood pressure became so exceedingly hypertensive that she passed out and her lungs filled with fluid. Again, with both viral, and bacterial pneumonia. Now, after many days, she is home, as well.

My other sister-in-law with advanced stage 4 and metastasized lung cancer has been placed on a maintenance level of chemo, meaning they have done their best, and now let's pray for a holding pattern for as long as that is possible.

And my dear friend of 40 years, whose son was hit in a flashing pedestrian crosswalk, by an elderly man who two years later at age 91, still has never had his driver's license revoked, visits her brain damaged son, on a feeding tube, in a care home for the rest of his life. A wonderful young man, who is now 33, whose life and the lives' of all he has touched by his story, is now forever changed.

Life is filled with loss, filled with challenges. Life is filled with the color, the sounds, the feelings of love.

As I continue to make and share my prayer flags with as many as I can. I reach as high and as far, as I possibly can and the color of love in my world is sent along the winds of the volumes of love in my heart to everyone, everywhere.

My love comes to me suddenly when sad and terrible things happen to good people. My love comes to me when wonderful and happy things come to all people. One day, I am sad and using all of my gifts  and all of my love to create happiness in my life and the lives of all that I love.

And then another day, when I realize that someone higher up has plans for me as I suddenly realize that my name, my textile art, my dreams and hopes, have suddenly appeared in a lot of other peoples lives..all over the world.

5211 - Mama's Brain Got Tangles...but Mama's Still Inside

My name and my work was used as a reference in an international publication (Working Preacher) used by ministers for creating sermons!  The connection was the parable of the "Blind Man" and how, my quilt symbolized the ability to see through the layers of Alzheimer's Disease (called it the Johannine gift of double illumination) and all of its ragged and jagged edges, to the golden layer of my 'true' and 'real' mother, within.

Yep, that is exactly why I put that metallic gold ..can you see it there, within the cracks of the illusion of all of those tangles and plaques of Alzheimer' Disease??? And yes, how lovely, that lovely man, this gifted sermon-maker, truly 'got' my little art quilt, and really my purpose for blogging about my mother, about the disease process, and about how my mother was 'still there'. Because when you go within the stillness, that is where truth really is. Between the cracks, between the layers, it just is. That is where you find it all. And sometimes, it takes a lot of pain, a lot of challenges, to crack you open wide enough for the light to come in and then...you see it all. You feel it all. But as they say, that truth also sets us free. Free to love, to see the colors of love, and not the illusion that people wear.

And suddenly, in one week, Lutheran (all over the U.S. including Hawai'i) pastors are writing me and asking me for more information and permission to use my name and one of my small format art quilts in their Sunday sermons.

And then, suddenly...other pastors, in other churches, United Methodist Church (UMC) and Mennonite, and other, yet...suddenly used my "Mama's Brain..." on the covers of their church bulletins (and no, they did not ask me first ;-) and mentioned me, and my quilt, and what and how I wrote about it, and my mothers 'disease' and how I still saw her for who she truly was, and not what she appeared to have become...in more and more church sermons, and downloadable pdf's and on the front of handouts, and newsletters online..and it just keeps growing.

The message, that I feel so blessed to be a conduit for, just grows.  And then I understand why. Yes, it's because of my blog, and my message of giving on my blog, and of sharing, and of how I was never afraid of my mother, of her illness, of being and doing for her, even when it was so very, very challenging. But it was because, deep down inside as well as on the outside, I never, ever, ever saw my mother as her disease.

This was not my mother with Alzheimer's Disease, this was simply my mother wearing an illusion of something that so many fear, walk away from, can't bear to go and visit at care homes everywhere.

This was my mother. And because I never stopped simply seeing the real truth of who she was, I was never afraid of her, or the illness that others saw and always connected with her. And I still do. I still do. And it is a blessing.

6399 - The Alzheimer's Prayer

My hopes and dreams that the making and donating of my small format art quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) would somehow make a difference in how people saw the disease and those of us whose lives have been touched by it.

But most of all, that the work of my hands and of my heart, the giving and sharing of love for my mother, for my father, for my sister-in-laws, and brothers, for all people everywhere, would and could make a difference. And it does. It just plain does.

Love makes a difference.

So, yes, what we do and how we do it and all whose lives we touch..the seen and the unseen..we make a difference with our practice of love.

My love is all colors, all shapes, all sizes, all different kinds of love in all different kinds of ways. And I show that love by making and giving away small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for people I love as well as for a variety of charitable programs.

 

What color is the color of love in your world? 

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 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!

International Day of Happiness

The International Day of Happiness is celebrated throughout the world on March 20th. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 when world members were inspired by reports of the tiny nation of Bhutan, a place where everyone appeared to be genuinely happy, and amazingly...all of the time.

Bhutan is a magical place, high up in the hills of southeast Asia, where one immediately can feel the happiness so intently that it makes them feel happy just by being there and around the wonderful people,  as well.So, this very small, and seemingly impoverished and simple nation, has become a symbol of the art and practice of happiness.

In honor of International Day of Happiness, I am sharing a simple garland or bunting that I created in just a few minutes. I simply cut out the words without using a pattern or even drawing the letters first and glued them onto the fabric.A few moments of my time, no judgment of myself  for the simplicity of the project, and gratitude for having the time and the fabric to create and hang my little garland of happiness.

Why not make a peace or prayer flag, a simple bunting or garland and create your own simple act of happiness today!

And each and every day, here is my own variation of 10 ideas for celebrating happiness in ways that will make you happier, today and every day.

 1. Be Kind to Yourself
 "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." The Dalai Lama. If you have ever heard him speak, then you know that he truly is.
 Being kind does not mean to go shopping, although that is often the only way most people seem to be able to find as a way of being happy. Truly, it means not being critical or judging yourself of the things you create in your life. See everything as a teachable moment in your life, part of the purpose for this journey. Learn and grow in that awareness and in that self care and kindness.
2. Be grateful:
An "attitude of gratitude" is simply appreciating everything and everyone..no matter who they are or what role they may play in your life. It is about recognizing even the tiniest acts of kindness, both given or received. It is about appreciating nature...the beauty of the natural world outside and the inner beauty of spirit within. Having a constant recognition of the many gifts and blessings we do have in our lives helps to ease the pain and suffering, and challenges that we might otherwise focus on and experience, instead.
3. Be curious:
Curious people tend to be attracted to new people, new things, and new experiences, and they are rarely bored. Everyone possesses curiosity to some degree but it is up to us to foster that curiosity and to use it in ways that benefit our life's experiences. When I am curious about anything or anyone. I ask questions, I look it up, or if it is someone I have just met, I connect through the heart to that person in that moment. Life is filled with curious people, places, and things..find out what you are meant to learn, grow, or experience from life's journey.
4. Take in the good:
Face the sun if it is out today, or imagine it if it is not. Now, close your eyes, and take a deep, deep breath from within the very depths of your being. Hold it for a few seconds bringing in all of the positive energies of the world...love, gratitude, connection, and the flow of the divine. Now, gently release the breath and with that release allow any pain, any sense of judgment or negativity to flow out, as well. Direct that negativity to go into that part of the cosmos that accepts and reconstructs negativity into all there is, without harm to others.
5. Connect with someone:
Reach out to another, it can be in real life, over the telephone, or in a letter whether it is traditional mail or an email. Show your love and caring for another, or in the reverse, allow your connection to listen, truly listen, to their heart, their journey, or their problems that they need to share to lessen their own burdens. Then notice, truly feel, just how much better you now feel.
6. Laugh:
We know laughter therapy is the best therapy. My mother and I found things to laugh about all during the 9 months of her cancer treatments and again through 8 years of her Alzheimer's Disease. Neither was something most people would think of as opportunities for joy or happiness but they were for us. She had a less than 3% chance of surviving that advanced cancer but did. And yes, she went on to get Alzheimer's. but it was still an incredible journey of love and learning for all of us, as challenging as it was. And because of our practices and our understandings, we were able to connect her to a deeper place within where she still felt joy and still maintained a sense of humor when almost nothing else was working (inside or out) for her anymore.
8. Breathe:
Just breathing slowly in and out, can reduce your stress and bring on a physiological relaxation response. I breathe in deeply to a count of 8 focusing on bringing in the light, and an out breath of 8, as well, this time releasing the dark.
9. Live in the Now:
Living in the moment is a concept we all can believe in, but one that takes practice to maintain. There are many books and practices that provide opportunities to learn about this process. Some people practice yoga or meditation, others go out into nature, and others garden or quilt! Being focused and joyful and outside of time and space in the what the aboriginal people call "Dreamtime" allows us to express our 'True Nature'. A happy person who lives life the best that they can, and as they say..when you know better, you do better.
10. Love.
Love is the greatest gift of all. It is the center of all things, the purpose of all things, and gives meaning to all things. Simply love.


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!

Finding Peace

If any of you have followed the art and quilting journey of MaryLou Weidman, then you might know that her husband, Mark, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer last year.

Mark has been fighting a valiant and courageous battle, and with many rounds of chemotherapy, his tumors had been shrinking. Recently, however, MaryLou shared that his brain cancer has returned and it has been very, very hard on all of them.

She asked us, if we believed in prayer, to send prayers for peace as they have all had a most unsettling time with this hard, and most challenging of news.

If prayer is not a word you choose to use, then simply substitute positive thoughts, caring or loving thoughts, or whatever imagery or words you use when your own heart reaches out to another and you wish the best for them.


When I first learned that Mark's ongoing battle with brain cancer tumors had returned, I immediately began to make one of my prayer flags for him. I have learned from so many challenges facing my own family that when someone is facing a terminal disease, often it is peace and faith in whatever power you see as being a force in the Universe, that serves one best.

So, went MaryLou asked us to send thoughts of peace for them, I simply popped my completed prayer flag into an envelope, and sent it as quickly as I could. My intent had been there all along, the manifestation of that intent in process, so all I had to do was send it on the wings of "lung-ta" the ancient word for the winds that blow the prayers to those who need them, via the modern winds of 'priority mail'.

For after all is said and done, it is only love, only peace with all that is (that is often also called faith or grace), that serves one at the very end of all of life's challenges.

We focus on staying centered and positive, we focus on the heart as the center of loving kindness, and we send those energies out into the Universe for universal good through the seat of our own power as loving and sentient beings.

So, today, I honor that process, and that love, that feeling, that hope for health and healing of the human heart for a sense of peace for Mark, for MaryLou, and for their children, grandchildren, and loved ones.

They are surrounded by so many loving friends, family, neighbors, and quilters who have taken MaryLou's quilting classes, purchased her books, and perhaps even made one of her now famous 'cow' quilts that created such a stir at the Houston Quilt Festival in November.

So, even though it hurts my own heart to know that a friend's heart is hurting, so do I also know the power of friendship, the power of loving and caring, and the power of good and positive intentions for another.

Mark has been described as the epitome of the 'gentle man' a man who treasures family, who has worked hard all his life to be a good provider, who tries so hard to be there for his wife and his children, and to be brave when all of this is so deeply frightening, unpredictable, and challenging.

I sent Mark and MaryLou Weidman (*pronounced Wide-man) this prayer flag with its blessing the rainbow that comes at the end of the rain, a dove that brings peace and good wishes, and the symbols of love, happiness, and hope in my prayer flag.

We infuse or concentrate goodness (godliness), wholeness (holiness) to create the place of feeling whole and complete no matter what happens, or what may come our way. This is the heart and center of the place of the great peace (piece) that passes all understanding.

Words and meaning may change through time but the intent and the manifestation of that intent, remains the same.

Picture an image of Mary and Mary in a red convertible with big smiles on their faces, the wind whistling through their hair, and a feeling of pure and perfect peace and joy, no matter what comes their way, in their hearts.

My prayer flag of peace arrived this past week and is showering them with love and blessings in their Spokane Valley home. May your blessings be sent to them as well.

Shown below: the quilt i designed and created sewing my own cross quilt blocks as well as including blocks made by quilters from around the world for MaryLou when she had been diagnosed with cancer, herself. 

Other ways to show support:
 Mark a "thinking of you" card
Visit MaryLou Weidman's website (take a class, buy a book):Mary Lou Quilt Designs - Home
Visit her blog at:MARY LOU AND WHIMSY TOO and leave a nice comment
Keep them in your hearts

A facebook note from:
Mary Lou Donahue Weidman Mark's white dove Peace hanging is in the bedroom hanging by the bed...it is beautiful! And a reminder of someone who loves us. Thank you Michele. That was very thoughtful and touched us both...mark went up right away to hang it...he loves it!

Michele Bilyeu (*pronounced Bi-lue) 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!

My Heart Filled With Blessings

My prayer flags of blessings are flying high in the winds of gratitude.  Blessings of gratitude for all of the many miracles in all of our lives, gratitude for patriotism that unites rather than divides us, and love for the good that is done in this world by so many.


My brother was brought back and out of his medically induced coma, on Valentine's Day!!! Eleven days after he had been placed on a ventilator and into the coma to allow him the chance to breathe without stress. And a chance for his pneumonia scarred lungs to heal.

He could only be on a ventilator for 14 days before it would become dangerous for medical complications. And when this happened before (in 2012) they were unable to bring him out and we waited with praying hearts and bated breath for an extra 3 days.

After 14 days, they either breathe on their own or have a tracheotomy for a surgical implant of a vent in the throat, rather than the vent down the throat. Oh, it has been hard learning so much, going through so much, yet finding out just how strong we all can be.

Four hospitals and three states later, in 2012, I was the one nonchalantly vacuuming out his trach vent (taught to do so by a doctor, first, trust me!) when he began to choke. You push that nurse's call button but sometimes, you just need to remember that we are part of all miracles and accept the responsibility for right thinking and right doing and have to do both!

This time, his oxygen levels were just to low to bring him out earlier. He was in the 80% range and he needed to be at 98% or above. And bit by bit, he got there to that level, thus allowing his doctors in Anchorage to bring him back up and out, once again.

I give thanks that he has yet another chance to live for surely to have survived so much, there must still be more good that he is meant to do in this world.

Gratitude for the beautiful snow last week, here in Oregon, that gave me such joy but lifted so quickly to let the sunshine back into our lives.

I had a lovely Valentine's Day of staying centered for the miracles to ensue while I baked Valentine sugar cookies with sprinkles, made a huge batch of potato salad and spaghetti. Comfort foods not necessarily eaten together!

And I was so grateful for the shameful goodness of Cinnabon cinnamon rolls that my husband brought home, that I ate for dessert...after far too many sugar cookies, first. Some days, one needs to be more sweet than others, after all! And I hadn't eaten one in years!

Grateful for great big, huge things like miracles, and little bitty swirled things topped with cream cheese frosting,  and wonderful little home baked cookies with colored sprinkles, too.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines, and if you live in the United States, as I do,  that you enjoy your President's Day holiday and a long, good weekend of gratitude, creativity, and joy.

Blessings and gratitude.

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!

My Valentine of Love

Oregon is facing the challenges of a huge snowstorm. We live down a long, long country road driveway and we haven't been able to leave the house since Friday. 

And on Thursday, I learned that my brother Doug, of Eagle River, Alaska was put on a ventilator and into a medially induced coma.

This is the second time in just 2 years that my brother has been rushed by paramedics to Providence Hospital in Anchorage unable to breathe from severe cases of pneumonia. 

What is a worried sister, whose heart is filled to bursting with love and prayers to do?

I could go crazy with worry or I could do all that I know how to do to send my prayers, and postive thoughts across the miles. And for me, staying positive means staying very, very busy. So what did I do?  

I made another prayer flag and hung it outside in the polar freeze, of course. 

In 2012, I followed him through 3 states and 4 hospitals and we got an amazing miracle of miracles back then. He lived when doctors said he wouldn't  and he came back to us, bit by bit over the next 6 months. 

We had to use a medical transport jet back in 2012 and medevac him down to Harborview Hospital in Seattle, where I lived in a hotel for a full week, walking up to 32 blocks a day (I got lost a lot!) to visit him and his wife Becky, who had fallen her very first day there to see Doug, and broke her pelvis, and had to be hospitalized there, as well.  Becky, besides having osteoporosis, also suffers from severe kidney failure and needs dialysis three times a week for four hours at a time.

Bit by bit, amazing miracles happened..ones that all dozens and dozens of his doctors just shook their heads in disbelief and some even acknowledged that yes, miracles do happen.

But the MRSA pneumonia scarred his lungs and now he has his 3rd repeat of an attack the underlying weakened immune system, and has developed a propensity towards pneumonia.

So, here we are once again. Facing another heart rending and most challenging place with him on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma......all over again. 

This time, I am snowed in with few flights going out of Portland, and our other brothers all in crisis with their own wives. Doug's wife is in end stage kidney failure as of 2010, desperately staying alive with dialysis, three times a week in Anchorage.

My youngest SIL was diagnosed with Stage 4 Small Cell Carcinoma (lung cancer) in late October and has now had 4 rounds of Chemo where they fly from Juneau to Seattle every 3 weeks. Her next treatment will be February 20th. My other SIL just had foot surgery and her husband is caring for her as she cannot walk on it for 6 more weeks.

And my only other brother, with a fairly healthy wife is in Seattle at a conference..also snowed in.  And yes, we just keep coping and dealing and doing what we need to do for ourselves and in my case, everyone else.

And I deal by keeping as busy as I possibly can and creating openings for prayers and miracles to flow through. And one of those ways is by making and flying prayer flags and all of their heartfelt wishes across the miles.

With just a few scraps of polar fleece leftover from my project of making fleece neck warmers, I made this little prayer flag filled with love!   Now, we might not have penguins in either Oregon or Alaska, unless you count our zoo's, but he is on my flag with his February Valentine and lots of love for my brother, Doug, my sister-in-law, Becky and all of their family and ours.


Big, big hug and lots and lots of love across the frozen miles!  Please take a moment and send positive and healing thoughts to my brother, as well.   Thank you.

  
Previous Link Ups to My Brother's Story of Many Miracles...Please let there be another one!!!

Praying for a Miracle and Blessings: Updated 2014

Crisis
Providence Alaska Medical Center
Providence, Divine and Otherwise
Song of the Hills and an Air Flight Medevac to Seattle
Salem to Sisters to Seattle
One Miracle at a Time
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Update 2012..many updates added to this last 2012 post
Final Update on Praying for a Miracle 2013   2014 (this post) 

I'm a Member of  The Prayer Flag Project

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!

Making Prayer Flags: All You Need is Love

For my full page on this: click on this link:

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/p/prayer-flags.html

 It's February, and our thoughts all go to Valentines Day, hearts, and love, love, love.

Are you singing the Beatle's song? I know that I am!

But then I grew up with long hair, skinny suits, mini-dresses, dangly earrings, tie dye, rainbow colors, graffiti, and hoping and praying for love and peace everywhere!

Oh, wait...those are all still here... and yet back "in" again!  They might have a new name or a slightly new look, but it's all part of how patterns all repeat in our lives. All we need is love..and somehow, that never, ever, changes.

So, I'm hoping and praying for peace and love...here, there, and everywhere. Peace for the Super Bowl, Peace for the Winter Olympics, Peace for our homes and in our hearts!

And what have I been doing?......making peace and prayer flags...it's all about love!

You can always get a clue that I am really, really busy from my 'filler posts'...Quilts in Bloom at local quilt shows, updated sewing and quilting free pattern lists etc.etc.etc.

But what it really means, is that I've started another new big (for me, and I'm the lady who's always busy, and never sleeps!) project.

And I have filled up my sewing loft, my little sewing machine nook, and just about every surface around the computer table that I can, with the kit making ingredients of a class I will be teaching in April (at the Polk County Fairgrounds) with my own local quilters of the Mid-Valley Quilt Guild.

I'm starting my 3rd week making 14 prayer flag samples and lots and lots of kits for each of them and always I wonder..."why did I offer to do something more, once again?"

I make a huge, huge mess beginning at 8 a.m. and clean it all up again at 5 p.m. It's actually far worse than this photo, but when I'm  really busy...I can't find my camera!

I can't remember where I put anything if I don't put it back where it is supposed to be! And oh, I am so tired of saying..."I know it's here, somewhere!"

Somewhere keeps changing its location. Or "somewhere" simply hides under a new "somewhere".... or a different "some thing"....else!  And in my constant state of sleep deprived stupor, I have to be far more organizational than you would ever, ever, possibly imagine!

So, why do I keep repeating these patterns.... filling up my sewing loft and my heart with bright bits of fabric, ribbons, lace, buttons, beads, and thread?

Because quilting and sewing lets you feel the love. You feel such happiness, such joy from the process and all I need right now..is sewing and quilting "love, love, love!"

It's February and my thoughts are going to hearts, and valentines, peace, and love.

So, I'm making and feeling the "Prayer Flag" love!!! And the bits and pieces are flying and so are my prayer flags ....as they get made...one by one by one!

What will you be focusing on this month? Are you feeling the love yet?

Michele Bilyeu shared a link.

The Prayer Flag Project: All You Need Is Love

theprayerflagproject.blogspot.com

In June of 2011, Vivika Hansen DeNegre started The Prayer Flag Project. She invited people from around the world to to join her in making Prayer Flags. Each flag is created in the artists own style,

 The Prayer Flag Project

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 at a time!