Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Is Winter Waiting to Kick My Ass?

I don't want to say this too loud and cause anyone to faint in shock or anything, but there is Quilt Content Ahead, y'all, albeit MINOR quilt content. But still. For February it's an accomplishment. I've mentioned before that I usually really dislike February, which tends to be my least-favorite month of my least-favorite season in this part of the U.S. But this February - hell, this whole winter! - has been odd. It's been weirdly warm and the little bit of snow we've had has all fallen on days when the temperatures were so borderline that it only sticks around for a few hours before it all melts away again. On the one hand, I don't want to bitch about that because that means I haven't been trapped on my hillside for days at a time, which sometimes happens to me in the winter. And THAT means that I've been less cabin-fevery this winter than in many, MANY winters past. My moods have been almost mellow....really quite sane and normal. I've even done a few minor creative things rather than totally hibernating. "SO...what's the problem?", you may be asking. (In my head I am hearing that as said by Marisa Tomei in "My Cousin Vinny", BTW.) The problem is that I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I keep thinking that surely it can't be this easy. We can't expect to slide into spring in a few weeks with so little wintery angst and trauma, can we? So what are the weather gods waiting for? Could they, by any chance, be waiting for next month when I have purchased a pricy splurge of a ticket to see "Wicked" in Cincinnati on the day after my birthday to hit us with Real Winter? Could they be planning to trap me like a rat here on the hill, with two feet of snow and/or six inches of ice while the show goes on without me and my seat in the theater is empty and I sob and yell Very Bad Words at the sky? I hope not. I really, REALLY hope not. I admit I'm kind of hoping for a big honkin' snow storm in the next couple of weeks just so I'll feel like it's gotten it out of its system. The other shoe, y'know? Anyway, on to quilt content. Yesterday I finished some postcards that I'm donating to Virginia Spiegel's fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. They aren't super-exciting, but they're done and they're on their way to her door as of later today. (clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window) I also started another quilty thing a few days ago. It's smallish too, but larger than a postcard. So far I'm not happy with it though. I still like the IDEA, but my execution of the idea to this point looks too tight, too structured for what I have in mind. I think I'm going to chuck it and start over and see if I can loosen up a little. I'm basing this small quilt on a sketch - a doodle really! - and I want it to look sketchy and loose, not all perfect lines and finished edges, which is what it looks like I'm trying for in the first version. We'll see what happens.