Waiting for IT to come back...

It has been a while, but I have been busy doing lots of stuff, mainly cooking, and am waiting for the creative spark to come back. I feel that I am in some kind of creative limbo. This has happened to me before, many times, but it does come back - so I know that it is not lost forever.

In the meantime I am getting a little knitting done and wishing I could go out to garden. It is way too early here do do any gardening, but the weather is just so beautiful. Mother Nature is just waiting to pounce on us New Englanders, I know it.

This morning I woke up to such a beautiful sunrise! Here's a photo so you can enjoy it too.

I just finished tidying up my work room and now it is off to do something else - at least I am busy, busy and not just sitting like a lump :)

Working in the background :)

I have been doing a lot of stuff, but not saying a word. In between working on the house, I have quilted two small pieces and this one is basted and ready to quilt on too. I have another in the to-be-appliqued stage, too.
The work on this Trillium was interesting - as I have recently given myself permission (don'tcha hate to have to do that) to use my inks and paints to enhance the colors. It has been lots of fun and has incorporated my painting and drawing with fabric. The best of all worlds!

Lately it feels very spring like and I have spring fever and want to be OUT since there aren't any bugs to bite me. I do like this in between season best. I get to walk around in the woods and check on what lives where and pick up nice rocks for the garden - stuff like that.

I continuously lurk and keep my eyes on everyone too! My BF has just stopped working all the time and I am looking forward to some good quilting/creating time soon.

February Challenge - Feathers

Here's my example of the feather challenge for February. I found it hard to do and practiced a lot, but I seem to write better than I can make feathers. I did learn stuff from it which to me is the whole point of the challenge.

If you glance at it really fast it looks great! LOL!
Next up March!

Moving on

That Grackle finally kicked my butt and I let it go! For some unknown reason, the beak came out huge again, so I just gave in and put it in the UFO pile.
Moved on to actually finishing a piece and basted two others and am contemplating another this morning.
I think I need to make some lighter background pieces for my work. Can't decide to use paint or to dye them.
Spent most of the day yesterday painting Mike's bedroom - with Mike! We did a very nice job and now we need to do a teeny bit of work on it to get it ready for the flooring. I also need to wash down the woodwork to paint that too. After Norm fixes the heater cover (got beat up through the years) then I will paint that too.
That's it, just working on stuff all over the place.

Not working on fabric but -

I spent all day yesterday painting the new drywall. It sucks up the paint like crazy and I only have a little left too. Today the flooring guys will come and measure. Are they in for a treat! Nothing is square in this room :) It is one of two odd rooms in the house - well really odd rooms, the rest are just normal odd. Can't wait for it to be done too.

I did start placing fabric the other day on the next piece to applique. It is a scene that was down the road last summer of a small tree growing on an post. I liked it, so thought it would be nice to make. The POSTED sign on it was fun too.

Off with his head, off with his head!

Ok, so that may sound a bit overboard, but yesterday I went a little too far when working on my Grackle's beak and he ended up looking like Cyrano de Bergerac.
So I did the next best thing a girl could do and cut out his head! Like completely out - then I had a hole in my piece and thought it was a complete loss. While pondering my situation, (I walked around with crabby face for 30 minutes or so,) I came to another conclusion and a solution to my dilemma.
Lucky for me, I had more of the background fabric, so I pieced in a large triangle and then covered the seams with more reeds. Now I am working away at the repair and will baste a new head and beak today :) Voila! Happiness again.

Picking it out!

You know when you do something to a piece and then let it sit for a while? I did that with one of my pieces because something just wasn't sitting "right" with it for me. I goofed around with it again this morning and then just decided to rip it all out.
Now I'm glad I did. So far it is much more appealing to me and I can continue to work on it..........as soon as I am done picking it out.   :0)