Inspiration

This is my dear friend Vola at her home after we went out to lunch together a few weekends ago.  Vola has been a dear friend for many many years. The way she lives her life is an inspiration to me and most who are fortunate enough to have crossed her path.  A long time ago she tried to teach me how to quilt.  I wound up making a quilted table runner, realized how much time, work, and effort is involved in quilting and decided to go off into the worlds of doll making, beading, painting, jewelry making, and collage.  I may sometime go back to trying my hand at quilting when I feel I have more time to spend.  But I still use the stitch she taught me that hides how the thread is tacked onto the quilt, and how to use it to end a thread you are using to quilt.  I use it all the time in my doll making.   But, that is a little off topic.

 What is inspiring about Vola is that she spends her life every day trying to do something to make someone else's life just a little bit better.  She lovingly works on quilts daily to give away to all that she knows, to the homeless,and  to the children that are victims of domestic violence.  When she is not busy making quilts to give away with love, she is knitting hats to keep those less fortunate warm in the cold winter months.  I had the good fortune a year and a half ago of sitting beside her at her 90th birthday tea party.  People from near and far came to wish her a happy birthday.  Many shared with me how Vola had touched their lives in a very significant way by her acts of kindness during a difficult part of their life journey.  I have always told Vola that when I grow up I would like to be like her and feel lucky to have her friendship as a part of my life for so many years.  Not only does she inspire my art but she inspires how I try to live my life.