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Olivia Marie Create

Creativity

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Playing along with @stitchedincolor and @gothamqui

Playing along with @stitchedincolor and @gothamquilts for their “Splash” Mosaic Contest today, since I can’t sew right now. .
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These fabrics remind me of the colours and pleasures of a day at the beach, so I’m calling it “Seaside Fun”!
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Given the pouring rain and cold weather we’re experiencing in the UK, I think this is as close as I’ll get to seaside fun this summer!
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Check out the blog post on @stitchedincolor’s website to feast your eyes on all the other entries and to play yourself!
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#ilovefabric
#fabricplay
#selectingfabrics
#fabricselection
#choosingfabrics
#beachhues

Yay! Progress on basting my #gypsywifeqal quilt!

Yay! Progress on basting my #gypsywifeqal quilt! Halfway through with my stitch basting. Swipe to see a detail.
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This is my #onethingwithamy for this week, so I’m really glad I’ve made so much progress and should finish this weekend.
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I can’t wait to start quilting this quilt, because I love it so much! I’m going to do straight line quilting on the strips, then do Intuitive Improv Quilting with big-stitch hand quilting. .
I did this a few years ago on a mini that I made for the @themqg mini swap, and it’s so much fun! Swipe to see a photo of that mini.
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It looks complicated, because the stitches are different in each section, but it’s actually really easy. You just drop into creative flow, and “listen” to the fabric and the thread tell you where to stitch — it feels very playful and freeing.
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Don’t forget that my LIVE Brain Facial Creative Mindset Reset online course starts next week, and I’ll be sharing the tools for getting into Creative Flow and doing this Intuitive Improv Quilting and Piecing in the course.
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Check out the all the details for joining the course. by clicking the Link in my bio. .
#2019gypsywifeqal
#stitchedincolor
#scrappyviolet
#alexanderhenryfabric
#annamariahornerfabric
#libselliottfabric
#carolynfriedlanderfabrics
#libertyfabrics
#creativeflow
#mindfulness
#consciousliving
#stressless
#trustyourintuition
#heartcentered
#dailypractice
#makeeveryday
#createeveryday
#makersgonnamake

While you cast your eyes over the snaps of my #one

While you cast your eyes over the snaps of my #onethingwithamy, which is basting my #gypsywifeqal2019 quilt top (swipe to see the pieced quilt back), just ponder this.
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We’ve all been fed the idea that Creativity is a special, secret gift from the gods/the Stork/the fairies 🧚‍♀️, something that you have to be born with, that is only bestowed on a chosen few great artists.
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But I’m here to call BS on this crazy, limiting story! I wasn’t born creative and originally trained as a lawyer, but I kept being pulled towards art & creating. I kept taking classes and exposing myself to art 😱😂, and I’ll never forget the day when a friend said to me, “Well, it’s easy for you, because you’re so creative, Donna.”
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I was completely shocked, because I’d never thought of myself as creative. I soon realised that:
✨We all have Creativity deep in our core.
✨When you look for and start to bring out or deepen the Creativity that is inside you, it can change the rest of your life as well.
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One of the best things Creativity has taught me is how to quiet all of the negative, gnarly thoughts rattling around in my Noggin all.the.damned.time, so that I can really listen to my Intuition not only to make cool quilts, but to create everything else from a Rockin’ Bod to the Life of my Dreams!
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This has changed my life so much, that I really want everyone on the planet to experience this. That’s why I’ve created a new LIVE online course, The Brain Facial Creative Mindset Reset, for a small group of women (10 max).
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It’s going to be LIVE, unlike most online classes where you’re buying pre-recorded videos (and somehow never quite get round to watching them all)! Instead, it’ll be a virtual version of those night classes we used to take in back in the olden days, you know where you’d show up at a local community center to learn French or sewing — except now you’ll be showing up and participating in the class virtually on your computer.
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I’m doing this LIVE, because I really want to make sure everyone who takes the Course actually manages to quiet your negative internal backchat, jumpstart your Creativity, and start to Create your greatest work of all — the Life of your Dreams!

This is the #gypsywifeqal2019 that intuition built

This is the #gypsywifeqal2019 that intuition built, but I was amazed at how much I got into #creativeflow and used my Intuition to “listen to the fabric” and watch it surprise me with what emerged in the blocks — even though this is such an intricate quilt with such a complex pattern! .
But I haven’t always been able to use my Intuition like this, because I used to have soooooo much negative chatter in my noggin that I could barely get through the day, let alone listen to my Inner Wisdom to make something that I really love.
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I still remember the very first time I was able to de-rail that negative chatter inside my head. While getting off the train on the way home from work, a thought popped into my head — like “I’m such a stupid fool.” — and then I just STOPPED DEAD in my tracks, right there on the train platform.

Instead of dropping into a morass of despair and feeling crap about myself for the rest of the night (and probably drinking way too much wine to forget how crap I felt), I just thought, “Hmm, I wonder where THAT negative thought came from?”, then totally dismissed it!
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It was F’ing amazingly, totally fantastic! It was the first time I really experienced taking a step away and truly knowing that I don’t have to believe every nasty little thought that my Inner Critic sends skittering through my little grey cells.
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Now I’ve gone and designed a LIVE online class, called The Brain Facial, so you can experience that same amazing feeling of stepping away from all of those gnarly thoughts swirling around in your Brain.
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It certainly cracked open my world and swept away one of my biggest blocks that I had to Creating anything — from a cool Quilt to a Rockin’ Bod to the Life of my Dreams. I just want to go round grabbing people by the shoulders and going, “Hey, have you heard about this????”, ‘cos I wish every single person on this planet could experience this kind of wide open possibility.
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That’s why I can’t wait to share The Brain Facial with you. Click the link in my Bio quick ‘cos the first Live class starts next week, and you don’t want to miss it (even if there is a replay)!

WARNING for the squeamish — Management regrets t

WARNING for the squeamish — Management regrets that many, many points were harmed in the making of this quilt, but it was as quick and painless as possible for those points (if not for the Maker)!
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This is the finished Sections 1-9 of my #gypsywifequilt, and Section 10 cut out. To tell the truth, I’m glad I got this far with the quilt, becauseSection 6 nearly broke me. As well as mangled points, there are more than a few dodgy seams behind all of this chaotic beauty. .
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But boy oh boy do I Love this quilt! It makes no logical sense, because it was incredibly frustrating at times, but I still love it totally, with all its flaws and idiosyncrasies. Hmm, kinda sounds like my kids (and a few others I know)! 😀
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I normally judge a quilt by how much I enjoyed making it — and ripping out a lot of seams, fighting to fit together the blocks, and struggling to understand a very complicated pattern isn’t usually my idea of fun. Well, I guess this quilt just has a special charm of its own that makes it irresistible — Hmmn, that also sounds like my kids (and probably some people you know as well)! .
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Well I guess that’s fitting for my version of the quilt at least, because I said at the beginning it’s all about Love, S*x, & Death — all the gooey, juicy, intimate bits that make up the truly important stuff of life. 💖💗💕
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#2019gypsywifeqal
#stitchedincolor
#scrappyviolet
#alexanderhenryfabric
#annamariahornerfabric
#libselliottfabric
#carolynfriedlanderfabrics
#libertyfabrics
#creativeflow
#mindfulness
#consciousliving
#stressless
#trustyourintuition
#heartcentered
#dailypractice
#makeeveryday
#createeveryday
#makersgonnamake

I took a mini break from IG & other social media i

I took a mini break from IG & other social media in the last week, because I’ve got so much going on, and yesterday when I started creating this post I realised why I did that! .
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I started creating this post and went on IG just to quickly check which blocks I had already posted — and ended up down a rabbit hole of looking at all the good stuff in my feed for like FOREVER, and then I forgot what I went on for, got distracted, and never posted! 🤣
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Please tell me that’s not just me! .
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Anyway, I’ve been working away on my Gypsy Wife Quilt — it’s my little reward for doing stuff I don’t enjoy as much, like working on my website — and here are the last of the main filler blocks.
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I’ve moved onto cutting and sewing the strips, because I just couldn’t wait any longer to see how they would look! .
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I’ve got quite a few of the little square-in-a-square blocks left, but I’m just going to make those up as I put together the sections.
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Over Easter, I actually woke up one morning dreaming about which fabric I could use for those background strips! I don’t have lots of yardage, and the main blocks are made from little scraps of another quilt, so I definitely have to add new fabrics into this crazy mix. But I have to shop my stash, because I don’t have the budget for new fabric at this point.
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So since I started this mad lark, I’ve been waiting to see what turned up for the strips, not at all sure what I would end up using — yet another example of my process of starting without knowing how the quilt is going to look when it’s finished, but trusting that it’s going to be great! .
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#2019gypsywifeqal
#stitchedincolor
#scrappyviolet
#alexanderhenryfabric
#annamariahornerfabric
#libselliottfabric
#carolynfriedlanderfabrics
#libertyfabrics
#creativeflow
#mindfulness
#consciousliving
#stressless
#trustyourintuition
#heartcentered
#dailypractice
#makeeveryday
#createeveryday
#makersgonnamake

Well friends, it happened again. I was struggling

Well friends, it happened again. I was struggling with huge skulls block and just couldn’t decide on colours, wishing I had more of the pink fabrics, trying to piece together some scraps to make it work, blah, blah, blah, then suddenly thought, “Why am I torturing myself with this?”
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I remembered my post from Saturday and decided to just put away the ginormous skull block until next day. .
Instead, I switched to improvising the little square in a square bordered block with the leftover hourglass in the middle. It’s off piste, for sure, because the pattern calls for a square of fabric in the centre, but I love the little hourglass and thought, “Hey, it’s my quilt, and I can do what I like!” .
Anyway, back to my original point, which is the next day, the big skull block came together instantly — like I walked into the sewing room and picked out the 3 surrounding fabrics, and within 30 seconds thought, “Well, that’s a party, so yes, it’s done.” .
And that was it — after all the agonising on the previous day. And just like it had already happened for me on Friday and Saturday with the Frieda block. .
I guess the moral of the story is that it takes a few goes to learn a lesson, no matter how valuable and simple it seemed the first time round.
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So I can move forward quickly and easily, so long as:
-I don’t keep struggling along when it’s not working, but move on to something else, then come back to it; and
-Don’t beat myself up for repeating the lesson. Some things in Life are like riding a bike (or sewing), in that you have to keep doing them (badly) for a while, before you finally learn how to do them brilliantly. .
Of course, mastering that lesson will just mean that I’ll get new lessons to work on! .
How about you — have you ever forgotten a lesson as soon as you learnt it and had to repeat it the very next day? Or is that just me? .
#2019gypsywifeqal
#stitchedincolor
#scrappyviolet
#alexanderhenryfabric
#annamariahornerfabric
#libselliottfabric
#carolynfriedlanderfabrics
#libertyfabrics
#creativeflow
#mindfulness
#consciousliving
#stressless
#trustyourintuition
#heartcentered
#dailypractice
#makeeveryday
#createeveryday
#makersgonnamake

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