Marching on

Finally, that's February over with. I think maybe I should have been a bear in winter, because I tend to go into a kind of hibernation.Once Christmas is over with I look around and find everything dark and dreary, I don't deal well with the cold, and although snow looks pretty on postcards, having to trudge through the wet and slushy stuff in town or trying to keep upright on icy pavements... nah, not my kind of thing.

I don't seem to get much sewing done, unless it's by hand and tend to end up snuggled under a blanket with a good book or some knitting.

Once March makes it's debut things start to lighten up again. There might still be snow and cold - "the beast from the east" is still causing trouble - but the days are getting longer, and with more daylight I also find my way into the sewing room. So I'm back in the saddle again and have spent a lot of this weekend by the sewing machine and made a lot of progress on this quilt. Just two borders left to quilt and I can add the binding.

With more daylight hours suddenly my head is full of ideas, but I have ambitions to finish three more quilts before I start a new one. And it's not just because I feel an obligation, I really want these to get finished soon.

And then I have plans to get to grips with all my scraps. I have them sorted by colour, and I have some ideas, but I bet they wont make more than a dent in my scrap pile... we'll see. at least the inspiration to sew seems to be coming back, and that feels good!

Behind the Scenes

Yes, there is work going on here, but somehow I haven't been able to get my head together and place words on the screen lately. As I have written about every year since I started blogging, I think, I tend to go into hibernation in February. Somehow the winter just seems too long and cold and bleak at this point, so I have a hard time getting my creative juices going. It is a time for using quilts, rather than making them for me. But now, slowly, slowly I'm getting started again. Some finishes approaching, a new project started and heaps of ironing - who's buying all this fabric? :-D

Yes, Spring is approaching, I can feel it in my bones, and at last there is evidence of it outside as well. Welcome back!

Stash building

Look at these beauties! I just couldn't resist Reunion from Sweetwater and bought a whole stack of fat quarters + yardage of the black and white check and that lovely red - great for binding and borders respectively, I think. I have a pillow in mind for some of them, but I will need to come up with some ideas for the rest, and maybe some other fabrics to play with them.
It's funny, I never used to keep fabric from one single line together, but would sort them by colour and include them in among the rest of my stash to be used randomly. But recently I have found it hard to separate such groups and have come to use them together. Maybe I need to get back to being more adventurous, but I need to do some serious sorting and organizing of my entire stash to make that happen, and February isn't the right time for that. Too cold in my bedroom where I do my sewing, I guess.
And that's also why there hasn't been too much sewing either. I was beginning to hope for spring, and actually saw some daffodils sprouting their first green leaves out on the balcony yesterday, but wouldn't you know it: today everything was covered by King Winter's white blanket. Sigh. I'm so ready for spring and warmer weather.
Ah well, I have a comfy sofa a pile of quilts to huddle under, Poirot on TV and some hand stitching to keep me occupied. Not a bad way to pass a Sunday evening, really.

February is the shortest month, or is it?

I don't know what it is about February that hits me like a ton of bricks almost every year. I think it has something to do with the euphoria from Christmas having faded, everyday life picking up speed again and then suddenly realizing that we still have months of winter left. And I'm sooo not a winter person!
Well, I'm fighting my way through it and trying to beat the winter blues by surrounding myself with bright and cheerful fabrics and a bit of hand stitching, while watching so many Gilmore Girls-DVDs that I feel high on caffeine and sugar just from watching. Also reading my way through stacks of books and magazines and only getting some machine quilting in during weekends when my bedroom is warm enough to work in during the daylight hours.
Now, this sounds a lot like I'm moaning and feeling sorry for myself, but it isn't all bad. I quite enjoy this hibernation period, really, and maybe this is something I need at this time of year, gathering my strength for spring when it is "all systems go" again. I know that come March I will begin feeling energized again and start planning, working and playing. I have never understood the concept of New Year's resolutions - to me that's absolutely the wrong time of year to start being strict with yourself. In March, however, I know I will get the urge to spend more time outdoors, becoming more energized by the increasing daylight and craving lighter food. So why fight those natural urges, I'll just lean back and enjoy the quiet life for a couple of weeks more. And maybe I'll do a bit of stitching... 

Happy new year!

Best wishes for the new year from my happy little village, which has grown this Christmas - the two towers were among the lovely gifts under the tree. Some good books, and other stuff (more about that later) were also among the thing I was blessed with.

We had a white Christmas, but the weather at the beginning of the year has not excactly been delightful - wind and sleet makes it more tempting to stay indoors and contemplate what I'm going to make in 2011.

I have a few plans lined up, so there's no reason to be idle in the coming weeks. The idea is to keep busy through January, finishing projects and hope the momentum carries me into February, avoiding the usual February Funk. Above are the eight projects I'm currently working on. I'm hoping to make some progress here, and finish some of them, if not all, but of course I have hundreds of ideas of new things I want to start, so we'll see if I get distracted along the way... (very likely!).

Having fun again

Amazing...

...how the rise in temperature outside....

... gets my creative juices flowing!

And then there was cake

Another way to fight the February Funk: Make a cake and invite a friend over for a stitch'n'bitch session. The cake is a chocolate fudge recipe from the latest Ideal Home Magazine, but with apricot marmalade and whipped cream instead of the fudgy filling. Delicious!

Some ham-and-cheese muffins provided sustenance before we tucked into the cake. And hours of chatting, knitting, hand-stitching, looking through magazines and books and sharing inspiration, reminiscing and laughing gave sustenance of it's own kind and made for a lovely afternoon.

And, if the last couple of posts have left you thinking that I'm in the midst of a deep depression: it isn't quite that bad, and I am in fact managing to get a little work done, albeit slowly slowly. The zigzag top is almost complete, more pictures soon. Or not. It's not a time for making promises about progress, but I will get there ;-) And in the meantime I'm soaking up inspiration from all those books and magazines, sketching and taking notes for future projects. So maybe taking things slowly for a while isn't such a bad thing after all.

February as an excuse...

A cold and dreary February morning is the perfect excuse for indulging in a warm and comforting Latte.

Not quite according to plan...

Here I was tucking my camera into my bag before I left for work. The icy streets told me that taking the bus would be a good idea, so no photos on my way to work. And then a friend gave me a lift home, making me forget all about my photo plans until I came home. This blurry shot of my honeysuckle plant will have to do. It is a small promise of spring, after all, with it's tentative little green shoots, but it was too dark to get a good shot by the time I got home. The lack of proper daylight is, when I come to think of it, one of the reasons why February feels so dreary. I might have to pop out during my lunch break to snap some pics.

I'm sure there are birds in the trees, for instance. Like these sweeties on a paper napkin I snagged from my mum's last Sunday. So pretty - I wish I could have some fabric with this pattern! I might find some kind of craft project to use them in, though. Any ideas?

February Funk

I should start this blog with a picture of a dreary day or something, to illustrate what I'm on about. But I won't. Amanda at SouleMama was writing about February Funk today and I know just what she's talking about. It doesn't make sense, February being the shortest month and all, but it really gets me down. It might be something about the happy glow of Christmas having faded into nothing and of being plunged back into everyday life again, knowing that winter has only just begun, but I just don't seem to be able to gather the energy to do anything creative. Spring just seems so far away, the days are busy at work, and I only want to huddle under a quilt in my favourite chair when I get home and read and snooze. I keep fighting it, though, and I do manage to get a few things done, but it is apparently not a time for any major effort on my part.

Maybe that is the way it should be. Maybe I just need to take time out to relax and let my imagination run around on it's own and let some ideas stew for a while before I actually do something about them. I think I'll do just that and not beat up on myself for being lazy. But poor February, it isn't all bad, so this year I'll follow Amanda's example and make an effort to find the positive aspects of this month. Starting tomorrow I'll be carrying my camera to work and try to find something positive to document every day.

The pictures are of the little "Art piece" I tried my hand at, combining fabric paper and quilted fabric, a way back. I added some more layers, a bit of embroidery, some buttons and beads.
I think it is done now.