It's a Kristastic World!

I don't know what people use their blog for, but for me a blog is a place for me to keep track of what was happening in my creative space that day. Finding time to actually do the creative things I want to do is very, very difficult for me, and then when I get there, I'm too tired to think about what I want to do.

Primarily, I am a quilter, though I don't have that many finished quilts to show for it. But I compose quilts and quilt projects in my head all the time. I am inspired by passion in others. I was drawn to this blog space because of Leah Day's 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting blog. I want to do FMQ to finish all those tops I have laying around. Her site is inspirational and makes it all look so accessible. It is genius.

In my musing about genius, I have been thinking about Julia Child. I read the book "Julie and Julia" by Julie Powell about her quest to cook all the recipes from Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," then I saw the movie made from the book. Julie Powell was disappointed that Julia Child was not a fan, but it's no surprise. Because of the huge scope of her project, Julie never set out to cook the recipes well, she just had to do each of them once. I am now reading Julia's autobiographical (with Alex Prud'homme) "My Life in France." Julie's attitude toward cooking would never evoke a positive response from Julia. Julia had such a joyful, ebullient view of the world and she was driven not only to do something, but to do it until she had mastered it. This is one reason Julia was so well liked by the French people she came to know in France. She loved the way that the French did not put the emphasis on productivity in terms of numbers, but preferred the approach of the artisan, whether it be in the making of cheese or wine, or a simple and elegant meal.

I love Julia's joy for life. I love how it showed in her cooking, her art. And it was never just about doing it, but doing it well.