My Quilting’s in the Ditch

That’s right, I have Quilter’s Block.

I don’t even know what to say. I’ve just dried up. We’ve just finished a clinical study and I feel quite, quite depleted. I’ve caught up the sleep, but somehow my soul hasn’t caught up.

I’ve been sewing a dress for my daughter for a dance at her school on Saturday and I’m NO dressmaker so this has been an anxious task. I did warn her I wasn't good at it, but she said she had lots of confidence in me... so I let myself get talked into it.

And then I opened my large mouth last year and said I would make something quilty for my brother. :) That has proved to be far more difficult than it sounds. It was fine up until the point at which I asked my brother what sort of thing he would like. General style, general colour. So he said that he likes minimalist, beiges, browns...

!!!

I am a confirmed colour freak. Bright, bold, lots of colours. I have trouble limiting myself. And I simply do not EVEN KNOW HOW to do minimalist. I've never understood the point of minimalist. O help.

This has been sent as a challenge to me...

... and I am stumped.

A Happy Event :)

We're thrilled to announce the birth of 5 gorgeous kittens to Cassie on Tuesday 16 January. We were all there for the birth and everything went very smoothly. Instinct is an amazing thing and all 6 knew exactly what to do. Here's a picture of the furry black pile. One kitten is all black and the rest are black (mostly) with small patches of white.

And next we have another of the quilt inspectors, hard at work, inspecting another work, which I've got stuck with the quilting of. (I'm sure that is a very bad sentence!) Um, this is how art is made - how mundane! Oi, Abby, how will I get people to take me seriously, when you treat my work as a comfy place to lie???

... and while we're on the topic of cats on my stuff, here's a picture of Cassie, taken while I was making lariats. Could there be a more uncomfortable place to go and lie than right on top of all my knobbly beads?

*What is it* about cats that they feel compelled to lie right on top of stuff?

Random decoration

When I can't think of anything to make and have no ideas, I just make some decoration that I can use in some future work. I have no plans for this, but I'm sure I'll be happy to have it one day...
I've been tired lately, too busy at my day job to have any energy left for new ideas for art, so have just been doing busy-work to keep my hands going, while my mind numbs out in front of the TV.

Fabric postcards

At last I have got to posting these pictures. These were quick and fun to make and I can see myself making more.
( I feel I should apologise for the poor quality of the photos. I am really not a very good photographer and I know I should just RTFM and get to grips with the settings and the know-how, but..... there always seems to be something else to do.)

Well, whaddya know....

You Are An ISFP

The Artist You are a gifted artist or musician (though your talents may be dormant right now).You enjoy spending your free time in nature, and you are good with animals and children.Simply put, you enjoy bueaty in all its forms and live for the simple pleasures in life.Gentle, sensitive, and compassionate - you are good at recognizing people's unspoken needs. You would make a good veterinarian, pediatrician, or composer.

What's" Your Personality Type?

Wage slavery

I should not complain about my job; it enables me to do my art AND have elctricity, eat, pay school fees etc, but since Jan 2 we've been getting ready for a trial which begins tomorrow, which means very little *real work* has been done. And this is all I have time to blog for now. Perhaps this weekend, I will have some pictures. (I did catch the fabric postcard craze, after I posted about it, and made 7 little cards, which I'll try to post pics of).

Fabric Postcards

I have not yet got caught up in this craze, but an article from quilting.about.com on Fabric Postcards has just made me itch to try it. I think it is the small size that appeals to me - I can imagine doing several of these in a series, quite quickly and they would look lovely all hanging together. It could be an art form all on its own.

Why, o why do I have to stay at work all day???

Sigh

I KNOW I will miss my dear offspring when they fly from the nest, but I've realised there will be an upside - I will find my stuff where I left it last, viz. the battery charger needed to recharge the batteries for my camera! Digital cameras seem to devour batteries, so I invested in rechargables, which are GREAT, except when your teen daughter goes to the coast on holiday with her friend, *taking the battery charger with her!* Grrr. I love you, my love, but please don't do this...

So, no photies of what I have been doing. Not that I've done all that much, as we've been covering school books and buying and organising stationery in preparation for the new school year. Now is the time to buy extra glue sticks and pens and glues for all my own art projects during the year, as they all sell at special prices. This is fun, too- I really enjoy my fabric and stationery and bead fetishes! I wanted to take pics of all the packets of stationery goodies, but, alas...

Hilarious cat website

Stuff On My Cat

Cat lovers will recognise the facial expressions, the body poses and the LOOKS! Several pictures just made me crack up laughing. No animal cruelty involved! Just toooo funny :)

Fun has been had...!

Happy New Year to the innumerable numbers of readers of this blog! (Um, that is a joke at my own expense. I think I have perhaps two readers; my two brothers, and I'm sure even they do not read it that often! Still, that is not too much of a problem, since gathering readers is not the prime purpose here.)

I have felt uninspired to work on any quilt projects in the last few days. This was the last week of my vacation (I go back to work tomorrow) and I've been wanting to try some things in beading, so I got out all my beads (really, I have an obscene amount {grin}) and had fun just playing!

These are handbag charms (very 'in' at the moment) or can also be used as keyrings.

And these are lariats, or long rope necklaces. The idea is that you bead a long rope, which is then draped around your neck in various ways. I've wanted to make these for a VERY long time and to have some to wear as my own homemade jewellery and I've been collecting beads for about 20 years, so I'm thrilled to be doing it at last. I had made 3, but my dear daughter liked the orange one so much she borrowed it to wear to a New Years Party, so it was not here for the photo! They're ultra simple to make and look very extravagant. You just string beads on and tie knots between groups of beads to keep them from sliding up and down. These are about 2 metres long, so you can tie them in various ways.

I plan to try and sell the handbag charms (to feed my addiction for beads!), but keep the lariats.