The Scented Road

Breathe deeply in early Fall's breezes to feel the aliveness of swirling leaves.  The wild and bright warbler moves quickly, his movements as fleeting as the light playing on the forest floor.  
In the presence of such flourishing aliveness & last blooming flowers, it is easier to feel our own bodies connection to this eternal Source.  The strength & power of connection raises your molecular vibrations and sets your blood in tune with Divine Harmony.  Ancient ones knew this and lived the reality of it in daily life. 
How can we bring this awareness & life force into our regular hi-speed lives?     I know of no other way than going to the Source.
Your own backyard, (if it isn't paved) can be a real fine place to acknowledge the presence of the Divine. Breathe deeply and connect your senses to all that lives and grows on Earth.  Scent activates neural pathways and DNA strands in the very core of our bodies.  It is this which responds to what God only can make.  It is our life force from which we are made.  The water, clay and sunshine grow us physically, and our insides are sustained & vitalized by our connection to our Source. 
   The real way home is found in the stillness, the silence where your soul connects to the unseen world.    So easy to lose in the flashing lights and goods of the material world.  Nature is always calling you too. And the life force of all creation powers your blood, moves you in time with the love that flows through you.  it is your choice to connect with the Divinity within and that which sustains you.  There's no ap for it.....
It's a do-it-yourself project!

See more designs by Juli Sibley @ redbubble.com 
user name: artfromthewilds

The seed Takes Root

Cycles of time bring forth life on this planet.  Age to age, we continually reap the results of the planted seeds.  Both in the physical world from the soil, and in the etheric levels of our own beings, life comes forward from what is planted & tended.  The young plants are eager for life and reach towards the sun to fulfill the patterns of their beings with the fruits of creation.  
We have learned to be the gardeners who raise plants from the soil into the full, final product they produce.  This is all to nurture our own bodies within the varied forms of sunlight, water, and minerals, of which plants make their bodies.
     As masterful as we have become at growing plants for food and industry, many of us rarely tend our own inner gardens with the same clear vision.  In our bodies made from Earth, we continually harvest the results of the pattern dance of thought, word and deed.  With so many levels to our beings, we can be acting or reacting from a cross-purpose and not even realize it.  Our thoughts and belief systems must be aligned with our actions to create our true heart desires.  "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." That's how the Good Book says it.
It is mostly easy to change your mind~
It takes much skill to align your thoughts, beliefs, words, and deeds, on the many levels of our mental states to manifest the true desires of the heart and soul. 
Creating a life of Love & Passion is the Truest Beauty and the Highest Calling.
May your heart be true to your Highest Vision, today and every night, always and forever!

"Feast" watercolor and acrylic available on redbubble.com
see julisibley or artfromthewilds

Calling In Mystery

Many opportunities & journeys through life open the door to new territory. Whether we call those in or they call us to enter into - w/o regard for our personal choice.  Each day always carries the potential for encountering the unknown, from passerby around us, to natural events, tech starts or failures and messages otherwise received.  Nowhere do we feel it more than when we are outside our usual routes, habits, & safety zones.   It why some people do not like to travel.   I never knew the young man who loaned me his winter coat for a long time.  Years later, living in another state, at another school, that coat sheltered me through stormy weather.  It was an emblem of good that arrived and stayed. Choosing a change in your life does sometimes require an inner or outer storm~ ~maybe both!            What do you choose to hold onto, in your psychic terrain, during storms?
    The changing colors of Nature at the end cycle this time of year, send us many messages, while the world is still holding onto floating patches of gold and golden orange.  No matter what we think or how we think we know it, nothing, has come to stay.  Slowly and imperceptibly, or quickly in a hot flash, this will end & you will know that it has because you will be standing in familiar territory.
   You have seen this before.
   Maybe the accessories to the scenery have altered, maybe your heart has as well.  The familiar territory may have new elements reconfigured by your own perceptions. Maybe the input was from other minds.  So are we ever truly in familiar territory if we 'never cross the same river twice?"
Maybe it just looks that way...………..

   The home where our hearts resides encircles us by our own walls that we have created. We live there only in the mists of Time with memories held & love given & received. This territory, like others we experience is made known to us by it's seasons.  This territory has our marks on it, the physical space of the land and those we live there with who reside within our psychic terrain. 
    No matter where your home or lands, life is always calling you to join the Dance.
As you resolve, reconfigure, & engage, with the rest of us on this globe, you have the opportunity to expand your awareness of your True Being!  Therein lies the mystery of discovering who you are in  the dance, when your partners, the dance hall & even time itself are without boundaries.
We all share All there Is   ~     TOGETHER    ~    As ONE.

The top view of mountain scenery created with paint, maple leaves and photo collage is available on redbubble.com          ****    See julisibley or artfromthewilds

A New Year of Blessings

May this be the year of your Greatest Blessings and realized Dreams!    Grace and Light are continually poured for us.  It's necessary to sit at the table to receive the continual feast of life.
To do that we have to look for the Blessings, especially in the winters of our lives.  Love & Light can appear anywhere, it is up to us to recognize when they are appearing.

"Light Table" photograph by Artist & Designer, Juli Sibley.
Available on redbubble.com -- my new online store.

Present Awareness

As the feel of summer draws to a close, a signal is  sent for the next season.  Look carefully around the ridges & the mountain sides in late July and August and you will see. There's always that one red leaf which appears to tell you that Fall is being prepared, even tho you can not feel it in the air just yet...  Mostly in life as we gather our fruits in one season, the times ahead for the next season are being organized into existence. Nature does it and so do we with date books and calendars. 
   We exist only in this moment of time, and so our challenge is to balance our knowledge of the Present within the knowledge of the Future we are always moving towards.  The best way I know is to place my attention on the information my senses are collecting.  Tree branches sway softly in the wind as the sunlight moves the shadows and places them in rare sparkles on leaves. Night creatures sing their sleepy-time song as the sun rises higher and I can feel the soft touch of the breeze on my skin.  I move into the day as I continue my own Dance with Nature to bring into the world within me. Feeling our way through Life brings our attention & focus to the NOW where we actually live.
  May your days be filled with the Beauty and Strength of Nature.
  I now have an online store which sells prints,  designs, and products. This photograph and more available on: redbubble.com  Go to artfromthewilds or julisibley. More designs are being added!

Spring Dreams

   As early in the summer as we are, the memories of Spring are still budding all around us.
I was called away into another Dream when I awakened at dawn to a mountain spring scented with wild roses, honeysuckle, mock orange, & tulip trees.  Birdsongs bring forth more nectar as the sunlight streaming over the ridge casts rainbows all over the room from the crystals in the window. What Grace creates these Blessings for us!
Outside, it's a beauty of a day, as the backyard meadow speaks softly with wildflowers. 
Fields are plowed on the valley floor and from this land we grow ourselves from the substance & energy of this place. Beauty makes us whole, as our  work produces the energy needed to produce fields ripe with food.  The stream of time creates this growth into a season of harvest. When the land does come into the fallow season again with more turns around the sun, the revitalization process begins anew. 
May your joy in this cycle be complete with  the full sweetness of revitalization.
photo of the Enchanted Valley by Artist Juli Sibley

Rains Give Life

 

Greetings from the mountains~
Winter's Light and winter's fires bring warmth to those seeking sacred inspiration. May the radiance of this season bring joyful tidings to all lands!
Recent rains fell like a benediction, which blessed the homes of all creatures.  Replenishment occurred and brought life-giving essence.  With grateful hearts & songs of praise we were restored from a lengthy drought.    In this photograph, layers of leaves edge a full pond hidden away in a mountain forest.  These living waters fulfill all who gather here seeking to renew life.
Blessings & Light for the New Year
> Juli 

A Dance Around the Sun

In the days when the leaves begin their last dance to Earth the Mountain Mystic dances to the tune of the music of Creation.  The pattern of the Dance is part of the great Circle of Life.  With her partner, Sea's Dream, the circle is complete in the union of opposite forces.  The Mystic wears twilight  & the moon on her sleeves and dawn on her skirt.  Her hair contains the mountains and sunset, with a red leaf at her crown. 
  Sea's Dream has a rainbow on his chest, mist in his hair, & the twin fires of faith and passion form his calves.  

This section is from the 2016 Fall Festival Quilt made for the John C. Campbell Folk School.  The other dancers wear costumes composed of artist's creations made from the pages of the school course catalog, which were photo transferred on fabric.  The originals were paper dolls used to decorate the Community Room during many Winter Dance Weeks of the past few years.  Nanette lead a class in making recycled decorations, which in this instance,  her inspiration was from the song about, " 9 lords a leapin' and 8 ladies dancin' .'' 
This and other Festival Quilts can be seen in their full glory on display at the Community Room of the John C Campbell Folk School located in Brasstown, North Carolina.

Tree Of LIFE

 

An ancient symbol

passed around for centuries from many different cultures all over the planet.      Representing unity & connectedness, the tree has roots anchored deep within the earth & at the same time reaches for the sky and stars.  For us, it holds a reminder of the mystery & wonder in all life as we cross the boundaries separating us from the love of ourselves, other creatures and planet Earth.

 

This tree, in an Art Nouveau style, is the beginning of the center panel design for this year's Fall Festival banner at the Campbell Folk School.  It is being pieced, appliqued and quilted by Louise MacDonald of Brasstown and will be presented at the opening of Fall Festival in October.  Look for it in the barn where the fiddles are playing some good tunes! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COLOR IN The Sky

Lifeblood & Lifeline, the sunlight that falls through the blue dome atmosphere of Earth is a large part of the physical equation of why we can live here.  Mystics have told us for centuries that the cells in our bodies connect us to every single thing on this planet.  New research has proven that trees and other plants in the forest have their own type of world wide web communication which is made possible by fungi. 
 
   The change in the sky that signals the day's end is the beginning of starlight and night.  Our bodies have cicada rhythms, & homeostasis, which are like our own internal tides which guide us, in the way that animals and plants have cycles too. These inner cycles connect us  to light and the movement of air & water.
Making waves, making way to twilight or the glory of a sunset is the beginning of a turn in our spin around the sun.  A new dance begins as we let change flow through our lives. 
   Our lives can get really colorful as a phase ends.  As we acknowledge it, loss, and  change, get replaced by other experiences. Looking up, we see the beauty & wonder of starlight which moves through our beings and touches our lifeblood.

May you find peace in the flow of Life and what this day brought to you.

Mountain Sunset in North Carolina, photo from Nov 2011 by Artist Juli Sibley

HEART FLOW

A day for love & Everyday for love.
Much is said, more is done, when love is our Guide.    A life of our highest purpose comes from visions of love carried in our hearts.  
I'd like to see the whole world sing that song!
Go in Peace                 Walk in Love

Heart composed of 3 inch squares of commercial, hand-dyed & overdyed fabrics.  Machine and hand stitched on a hand-dyed background.   By stitch and by prayer, 2015, by Juli Sibley, with techniques from her book, "Earth Friendly Fabric Design"  available on Amazon.

"Love is the only freedom in the world
 because it so elevates the spirit
that the laws of humanity
& the phenomena of nature
do not alter its course"
                           Kahlil Gibran

N E W VISIONS

 

The solace of Winter is in the stillness where the plant & animal kingdoms gather their forces.  In the still space of the Dreamtime we find our own highest visions for our life's purpose.  Ice crystals & rain, thaw and retro-freezes ~ the patterns we can see mark the currents in the unseen world around us.  These patterns of color and sound, from the natural elements, are the vibrations of the universe itself.  Just  the same as the visions in our hearts which guide our choices  in the creations we plant into the world.
 
May the new year find you within the ways of creating greater love and peace for our Dear Mother Earth.
Namaste
Blessings, Peace & Love from Juli

Fabric patterns shown here are from the movement of salt crystals in a double salt dye.  From page 67 of the book,  'Earth Friendly Fabric Design' by Juli Sibley. Available on Amazon.

The Sky Is Their Pathway

         These amazing creatures have begun their annual migration south.  The skies fill with their colors.  Along the southward path they alight for refueling and water.  What a wonder that such small creatures can travel so far to find their way to a winter home.  So much instinct carried with a small body.  As the last traces of summer leave us, we get to witness this transformed creature take a long journey on wings that let the light shine through them. 

May your 'transformation' into this golden season of the harvest be one that opens your heart more fully as a receptive instrument to Divine Wonder.

Butterfly Design ~  Stitching by Freda Chasman.  Dying and color by Artist and Writer Juli Sibley, from her book, "Earth Friendly Fabric Design" , page 136.

Original fabric on view at Morning Song Gallery in Hayesville, NC    828 - 389-9690

WORLD RELEASE: Earth Friendly Fabric Design

 My newest book and 1st of it's kind, "Earth Friendly
 Fabric Design" is now available on Amazon, all over the planet and also directly through my publisher createspace.com

This book is a guide and compendium of fabric design ideas and techniques.   Sponsored by Createx Colors, the maker of non-toxic colors from which all processes in the book are based. 

Shown here is the front and back cover of Artist and Writer Juli Sibley's new book.

A very Special Thanks to Diane Frenz, for Book Design and Rosemary Royston for Editing!

We are showing our Planet some love today!!!

 

The Door to Adventure Opens

 

Our adventures start in the same way our Dreams do, at the places we feel most alive & connected.  Our hearts and souls can direct us to the places, people and events that we bring life to with our love.  Every day that door is open for us to travel.  It's our own willingness & our attitudes that make it fun for us or make it drudgery.

   If new horizons are in your viewfinder today, then I hope you take off with a spring in your step and a twinkle in your eye!

    "The Door to Adventure" is a Fall Festival art quilt designed and dyed by Artist Juli Sibley. It was sewn and pieced by Pat Meinecke, Resident Quilter at the Folk School. This art quilt is just over 5 feet in height. It is currently on display at the Community Room at the John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.  Seen here, as featured on the cover  of the Folk School catalogue for 2014-15, this colorful design expresses the spirit of the school with views of the garden and mountains beyond.

 

 

 

 

This is a story about time. 2 travelers going the same way fly out into the world that meets them. A deepening twilight & a dawning vision show them the place they will stop for awhile.  The energy that carried them along breathes life into their visions.  Leaving home and the sight of the familiar can be a way for transformation.  New lands show us previously unseen parts of ourselves.  When the winds call you home, you can go with all you have discovered about new lands inside you. 
Fabric Design from Chapter 9 of upcoming book, Earth Friendly Fabric Design: by Artist Juli Sibley, 2014 

The Time Of The Lilly

Fast and fleeting they appear.  Standing in the sun, heads nodding to every breeze; they are always part of every mid-summer's color story.  They appear where they will amd maybe where the birdies carry them. You'll see lillies in old established gardens beside stately homes and in the same glory along ditches on back country roads.  Dressed for the day in full bloom, their lives exist only in the moment, just like ours. Yet the power of their existence lives on long after they fade.  The cycle of life continually creates new wonders.
   "Lillies" title page illustration from the book, 'Earth Friendly Fabric Design'  by Juli Sibley, to be released later this year on Amazon.  The book is about direct dye, line resist, and line media, all with Createx Colors.  I am pleased to announce that Createx is the sponsor of this book. Look for it and Earth Friendly Design Sets by Createx out in stores and online later this year.

The Bloom in The Woods

Spring proseeds us by widing the scope of greens.  New color has reached the highest mountain in Georgia which is on the edge of this valley.  Wild hydranga and tulip poplar bloom with all the power of scent.  Roadside and hillside, blackberry brambles show forht flowers among the brambles.
   The only traces of the frozen barroness of Winter is the barely visible structure of mountains and trees.  The strength gained from the silent  reflections  is only available in your own quiet. In the stillness & silence can be seen and felt all the forces of nature, both your own and the planet's.
May the truest love and strength of all nature be your guide in inner and outer harmony.
Watercolor illustration; "Dogwood Branch" by artist Juli Sibley.

THE SUN IS UP

The sun has risen on  a brand new year.  Another time, as we travel through space to bring new creations into play.  Changes continue as we evolve in our relationships to other beings & the planet itself. 
How is life expressing through you today?  If your higher calling is joy - then where are you planting those seeds and handing out those flowers?   May this time show you with clarity the full potential of your Divine Nature.  Let the sun shine brightly on your truest heart!!
"Bird in the Sun" painting. tye-dye and sewing by artist Juli Sibley. Prints available at Morning Song Gallery.

FOLLOWED BY FISH

At the neighbor's pond the fish swim about the small dock.  As I begin to walk around the edge, the crowd gathered then followed my footsteps with their fins.  What can it mean to them to see and follow a creature from another world?  For now it means bread cast upon the waters, as I walk with a piece of wheat bread in my hand.  Is it tameness or wildness that causes this behavior ?  In spite of our differences in language, bio-culture and lifestyles - - we have met in a place where we share.  They reached out to me in their willingness to follow me around.  So, bread, I decided, was a sign of language  that fish can understand, coming from me. So, I went home and got some!
  Nowadays, they gather where I appear and I continue to marvel at the innocence and simplicity of beings other than my own kind who would choose to float with me as I follow the pond's perimeter.  Our reflections merge with the falling leaves - leaving my world for theirs, to swirl on the surface.
"2 Fish"   batik on fabric, by Juli Sibley