Inspiration

I'm still making my Monthly Landscape Art Quilt (see below for a peek preview), but for this month's Goal Setting Party at A Lovely Year of Finishes, I'm starting a new project.

Prayer Flags

I was actually going to skip the August goal setting because I wasn't inspired. I just couldn't get into anything - new or old. Not a good place to be. And then I started reading one of my many e-books: Prayer Flags by Quilting Arts Magazine. This was it! This is what my creative soul needs right now.

A project needs a plan to get things going, whether I choose to follow it or not!

Since Tibetan prayer flags, a Buddhist tradition, are hung in groups of 10 and come in 5 colours that represent the five basic elements, in August I'll be making at least one group of 10 prayer flags. Here are the colours and what they represent:

• Blue is for space;
• White is the air;
•  Red is fire;
• Green is water; and
• Yellow is earth. 

As Vivika Hansen DeNegre writes in Prayer Flags, "the words and symbols printed on the flags (the prayers) are spread throughout the universe as the flags flutter in the wind. Everyone who is touched by that wind is touched by the prayers. The wind spreads the intentions through the world, extending happiness, goodwill, and peace."

A Prayer Flag Project Button

Quilters have been making prayer flags for many years now. The Prayer Flag Project is "a collective project spreading peace, good will and kindness, one flag at a time..." It's been around since June 2011. Check out the blog for more information on participating and making prayer flags.

After I was inspired, I started making a list of the prayers and the flags I wanted to create - for specific people and ideas. I may be at this for a while. I want to make flags and hang them up in my back yard before winter comes. Since my garden isn't what I would like it to be, it'll be beautified by the prayer flags.


August's Monthly Landscape Art Quilt 

It's one of my friend's birthday in August. She requested a landscape quilt of her kayak and gave me a beautiful photo. I hope I can do it justice.

What I learned:

• Don't give up on inspiration. Just be open to receiving it!

The information about prayer flags is from the book, Prayer Flags.

This post is linked to A Lovely Year of Finishes,