A Lot of Inspiration from Marsha

I needed a little inspiration today. I'm working on a project and I'm stuck, baffled, not sure where to go with it. Everything I try doesn't seem to do the trick. Is it time to let go, toss it out and start again, or am I just needing to get over the hump?

Rolling my eyes, fidgeting in my chair, chewing on my pencil and trying to force myself to rescue what I'm working on, I look desperately all around the room. Searching... stalling. Then my eyes see it. I began to remember, the wheels begin to turn and, well.. here is it's story:

The picture to the left shows a beautiful hand felted piece made by one of my wonderful friends, Marsha, who lives in Oregon. Marsha and I met in our writing group and we instantly bonded. We lived in the same small town on the Central Oregon Coast and we've had so many crazy adventures, I wouldn't know where to start with the stories. Marsha is one of those forever lifetime friends - it doesn't matter whether you live next door or 2000 miles away six states over -- when you hear each other's voice you pick up where you left off. She's always just a phone call or airplane ticket away. So whatever Marsha bestows upon me, is really, really sacred. This particular piece of felted fabric was what she called a "left over" but she thought I'd like to play with it and make something. (She actually used the words "left over" in describing this beautiful textile I was in awe of). Of course I'm enamored by it's beauty but also that it's handmade by my dear friend. I had it hanging as is on my wall for a while and then pretty soon as my little art "studio" became more and more cluttered (I mean FILLED!) it found its way into a drawer, essentially lost and forgotten.

It was the class at Quilt University that required us to find a piece of fabric or fiber that we dearly loved. To USE in a project. You know the feeling; you can't possibly force yourself to cut into that lovely fabric you just love so instead of using it and displaying it in a work of art, it's hidden, folded, forgotten until you stumble across it sometime. You can see what I came up with in the next photo on the right. I used her piece as the mountain and as the colorful stream bed below it. I absolutely love my wallhanging that features Marsha's felting. But it WAS one of the hardest things I had to do: make that first cut. What if I ruined it? What if it's hideous and I've wasted Marsha the artist's precious time and material? What if my friend is disappointed that I ruined her gift? What if? What if? What if it turns out to be a work of inspiration? A work of love? What if it makes me smile and inspires me everytime I look at it?

What if I head back into the studio and re-think my project at hand and ask, "What if?"