Journal Pages and Ruminations

Journal page of tulips and other things. I was playing around with the "theme" quilt idea. Using the same image over and over and getting into the shape and color. When you know it's going to be another "tulip" and the subject is a given: well, you hope for some creative "juice" in the design and details. Notice I said "hope".

Love the polka dot dishes. I'm at loose ends today. Can you tell? I was working on the African quilt and it was all about turquoise and orange ( I thought) and as I was cutting and getting ready to piece it all seemed *so wrong* and I started in on the fabric closet and now it's all lavender and orange. Not what I wanted at all. Does that happen to you? It's like you have a trip all planned out and then you hit a detour sign and end up somewhere entirely different. Not bad--but not what you had planned.

A trip all planned? I'm scheduled to visit my friend Kay in March. I'm dragging my feet this year. We have not had a real winter here in Maine. In fact, I have been driving my roadster (dry snow-free roads) and usually it is in cold storage until April. So I don't feel the usual Maine "cabin fever" that affects us each winter. The sky is blue. The sun is shining. And every 5-8 days we have a *heat wave* of 50 degree days. Nothing to complain about. No snow on the ground either. I just don't know if I want to go.

I have also been doing at least one journal page a day--in the morning--and this has been a very interesting first for me. Gets me thinking about old projects and new for the whole day. Eager to get into the studio and mess around. I did do something terribly wrong the other day. I washed the orange and blue stripes before heat setting the paint. DON'T DO THAT!!! I had to rescue the piece with some fabric dye pens and it is but a shadow of it's former self. I'm keeping it around as a "Lesson".

"One's lifework, I have learned, grows with the working and living. Do it as if your life depended on it, and first thing you know, you'll have made a life out of it." Theresa Helburn