EQUINOX - Spring 2005

While my sister in Minnesota is shoveling new snow, we in New Jersey are seeing the Snow Drops appearing in our gardens. The winter Pansies are struggling to stand upright after being buried under snow for much of the winter. Sunshine permeates our home and it feels like Spring is finally here.

Equinox is always a time of shifts & changes – not just in weather, to be sure. I’ve been watching our grad students and noticing how severely stressed out some of them are as life circumstances are changing for them. Others seem flexible and more able to go with the flow of change rather than bothering to fight it. For myself, I seem to go back & forth between being very relaxed with what is so, to becoming worried about some silly little circumstance. It is at the equinox times that I find my balance tested & refined; my boundaries are challenged and I must remain constantly in touch with my own inner knowing.

With external change, internal changes occur. At equinox, I often come to see where I have been artistically for the past 3-6 months with regard to line, form, color, space, structure, shape, composition, texture, complexity and the like. I’m noticing my new color choices as I work on several items for Fabri-quilt Fabric’s booth at the Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City this year and for a special exhibit there: “Kansas Art Quilter’s: Spring Market.” Now I realize I don’t live in Kansas anymore – nor did I ever, although once I drove through it during a devastatingly HOT summer… However, membership in Kansas Art Quilter’s is open to all art quilters around the world and it is wonderfully active – their daily digests often number in double-digests when there is a ‘hot’ topic! That’s when I get behind in 1.) reading my e-mail or 2.) doing anything else!

Anyway, I received my shipment of Fabri-Quilt fabric and fell in love with the wild, colorful selections. I immediately made one quilt top within 24 hours of receiving my box. A second top is now completed with a third in progress. Two are now sandwiched and ready for quilting – and how I love to draw with my sewing machine on a new quilt top!

And so, for me, Equinox Spring 2005 is proving to be inspirational, pivotal, and delightful. O happy spring!