Spring 2015 - Ditto

I'm just going to spit it right out...I had a lackluster May and June. I could skip this post altogether and nothing would be missed. I'd pull the 'cancer card' and blame my lack of productivity on Jana's cancer, but her surgery was early in May and since then our lives have resumed a normalness that we hadn't experienced since November 2014 when Jana was diagnosed with cancer. I'd blame it on the weather, but actually May was an exceptionally cool month and it's only been recently that things have heated up around here. No, I don't have any excuses. I've just misplaced my muse and lack all inspiration. I'm feeling rather blah! The little time I've spent in the studio has been used to make more of those gorgeous totes...an endeavor that is completely brainless and requires no creativity or thought, but is satisfying on some level.

Backing up a bit, in late April after Jana's final chemo treatment, Lauren drove home from SoCal with us and spent not quite 36 hours and then flew home to Portland Sunday afternoon. She essentially had one day at home. At noon on Saturday, we walked down to the cabin/studio and on a whim decided to start a project together. After an intense five or six hours, we had this adorable little sunflower wallhanging to show for our time and a beautiful memory of making it together. That's something I love about joint quilting projects -- they make wonderful memories. This picture was taken before it was quilted.

I had a similar experience in May when Maria spent a couple of days with us. We didn't have much time to spend in the studio, but after my experience with Lauren I knew we could make a quilt in an afternoon, albeit a long one. We had the same wonderful experience together and same beautiful results. Another memory!

My third and final sunflower experience was with Sally's project, which came to me completed. She was so unhappy with it that I'm surprised it didn't end up in the waste basket. I was needing something to jumpstart my creativity and when I saw her sunflower...well, I won't say what I was thinking, but I knew that it was an opportunity for me to do whatever I wanted with no risk of making it worse. (Sorry, Sally) What freedom! I started by cutting off the black border and added the new green one, applied a bit of fabric paint in places, and heavily stitched the project. It was transformed!

That's it for sunflowers...and now I'm sitting here without one. How's that fair? Who is going to come and spend an afternoon cutting while I sew? Hmm???

On to Cece, the woman who is never idle...if she's not quilting or knitting or gardening, she's out walking the dog(s) she's fostering at the time. Most recently, she was caring for two adorable Shih Tzu's (known to their owner as a "couple of little shits"). Funny! This year alone she has made these adorable sculpted leaves (very similar to the Timtex bowls we made a few years ago, but better). Only the leaf in the first picture has been shaped; the bottom three are in progress.

She's made a couple of quilts (quilting them herself) and she knit an afghan that's got to be the cutest project I've seen in years. Makes me want to get out my knitting needles and start one. Sorry, I didn't take a picture, but imagine a very contemporary design (wide bands with each band changing stitches) and three or four colors (sage green, purple, beige). It has a large block fresh and modern look, one that seems to mimic quilting designs of the 'modern' movement, which has been attracting more and more quilters over the past decade.

That's it for now. Even writing this has been tough. I'll work on getting past this creative block (actually, off my lazy arse and down to the cabin) and will hopefully have something to show for my time when we next chat.