Reaching For Spring

This rather large green plant has been wintering in the north facing living room. It's tiny friend, my orange Clivia, didn't do so well in that same room--- root rot. My husband tells me NOW that very low light and water causes rotting. I hadn't thought they had too much water as I hardly go into that room--so the plants perhaps got water once a month or every 6 weeks. So we dumped the wet soil around the Clivia, pulled off all the gooey roots and leaves and it is now in the southern most room with a dry bottom. It's usually been in this south facing room and done well and flowered every March. My plants were relocated north to make room for Puppy.

The large plant is taking up about 30% of this 10 foot long table. It just keeps sending up more shoots, filling the pot with healthy green stalks. Never blooms. Anyone out there have something like this--with a name? And I am NOT over fertilizing this plant.

Creatively Confounded. That was my alternate title for today's post. On my daily visits to blogs I see artists using the SAME sorts of materials that I have on hand here in my home. BUT they make ART from them and I--well, mostly I make the most pedestrian stuff lately. And then I rip it up and toss it into the bin.

I have always believed that given an even playing field (materials) I could be as good as any artist. Now I question that. I'm not taking crazy chances. My craftsmanship has slipped to shoddy. Perhaps I am overthinking and overworking. My best work has always flowed easily and quickly from my intuitive brain out into my fingers. At best, I felt like a bystander watching a demo. ART just happened while I was standing nearby.

Monday's bleach discharged fabrics (which looked like a dead cardinal in a bucket of suds) are now dry and I must have been "intuitive" while hanging them to dry because they are suspended on the rod in a most artistic way. I will be taking photos and then trying my best to get them aligned on the batting in this perfect configuration. Something totally outside the box that is ME. In fact, the discharging is so satisfying that I have to keep myself from dragging all my fabric to the sink and pouring bleach all over it.

I like the RANDOM splotches. I like the under colors that appear--colors I don't like and would never choose. It's like the universe is forcing me to use colors I am uncomfortable with. And in combination with Pamela Allen's influence this summer--fabrics that I have never used in a quilt before. Corduroy pants, sweatshirt seams, vintage napkins and stretchy crushed velour, the cheap stuff.

And now that I have written all this down--- and read it and noticed --- I can see that these NEW fabrics and colors are NOT suited to the type of work I have always done (neat, meticulous, colorful) and are suited to a more visceral, messy, dark sort of work (I'm thinking now that my chocolate piece was pointing this way). So I shall look into the depths of the bin and see what is worth looking at again.


Uncooked oatmeal.

The grass over the septic tank outlet. Always greens up first. I planted most of my daffodils near this pipe so I can have blooms Pronto! in the spring. Can Spring be far behind????

What's VERY Good Today: Lunch with my walking buddy. A long lunch. Much laughter, talk and good food. Sunshine, blue skies. An almost empty refrigerator and freezer. Working on using up everything inside and then giving it a very good cleaning over the weekend. I do LOVE a sparkling clean fridge. And if G is willing, a steam cleaned oven. We have a commercial steam cleaner and it just cuts through the oven gunk. Makes a huge mess, lots of filthy towels to wash but a clean oven is a wonderful thing. Nearly finished with the "Quiet Girl". Really pushing myself to read this--I can get through 10 to 15 pages and then need to rest and think. Reading difficult books is like exercise. Obviously, I have spent too many years reading "lite".

What's Not: Can't think of anything.