If you’ve watched enough Christmas movies in your lifetime, you know that the Magic of Santa Claus is a lot like the Magic of Creativity. If you believe hard enough, it will come! But it is really more about the Magic of Childhood…when we occupy this place where we are (hopefully) allowed to dream that anything is possible. The Creativity of the Artist flows from this magical place – and it is REAL Magic! Unfortunately after a number of years we are no longer encouraged to be in this magical space, and so often the Artist, and Santa Claus die within us.
But then again, many of us discover that Santa Claus, like Creativity, lives within us…and has *always* been there waiting silently until we were ready to believe again. We learn that the true delight of the season is to embody the magic of Santa, and the true joy of the holidays is to share and give the very thing that we are craving. Love.
So we make our beautiful quilts that are stitched through and through with Love. Not everyone who receives a quilt will comprehend the depth and profound abundance of love that is contained in those hundreds or thousands of stitches, but that’s ok, because that quilt will still glow with love when it is taken out of a trunk 100 years from now. We make our quilts and we craft and sew special gifts because it opens and heals our own hearts when we put all that love into a gift. And it goes on shining with love, like the Velveteen Rabbit, into a future that we may or may not see.
I think it is safe to say that during this difficult year, we have all contemplated our own mortality, or at least the nature of being Human in troubled times. Nothing lasts forever, but some things last longer than others. The images, the words, the Love we put into a quilt today…may well be handed down to several generations, and comfort a descendant in troubled times. We seek the security of family, and if we don’t have our own family, we go out and make new families among our tribe of creative friends. That is part of the reason we come together at quilt festivals, and that is why we admire transcendent works of textile art that are sure to be treasured for decades or even centuries. The antique quilts we admire in museums, often started out as a gift between friends or family.
As you finish up your gifts for the 2020 holidays, there are many strong emotions that will go into those hundreds or thousands of stitches made during this challenging year, but the most important thing that will stay with those stitches is that little piece of heart and soul that we put into everything we make. And yes, it’s Magic.
with hope for the future…
Luana and Paul
