Fever

It happens every year in February. I don't know what causes it. I don't know how to cure it. Extra rest and fluids don't help. Believe me, I've tried that! It leaves me helpless. Confused. Out of sorts. One downright CRANKY butthead! Even chocolate doesn't help ... now THAT'S mighty serious! So instead of suffering in silence and solitude this year, I thought I'd share my fever with y'all. Don't worry, you're far enough away to be safe from contagious cooties. I think.The first symptoms appeared while I was working on my tipsy coffee cups quilting project ... I couldn't decide how I wanted to back or bind it. I couldn't decide if the coffee cups wanted to grow up to be a wall hanging, or a coffee table runner, or ... so here it is pretending to be a sewing machine cover. However, I was REALLY in the mood for sewing ...... so I started another set of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. Oh, I should have known better! But I made a pair for Little Madam C's birthday last September, and they were kinda fun to do. Sort of ... relaxing and rewarding. However, once I got them to THIS stage, I couldn't decide what kind of clothes would go with their orange and white striped legs/stockings. While I was digging around in my fabric bins, I came across THESE fabric remnants ...... which probably would have facilitated a colourful Raggedy wardrobe, but when I laid them all together on my ironing board, they made me think of THIS quilting project in a quilting magazine that just HAPPENED to leap into my grocery cart last week. (That's another symptom of this annual fever ... leaping craft magazines.) While all these thoughts of sewing and quilting floated through my fevered head, I realized I was really in the mood for some knitting. I'm SICK, I tell you! So I started a new pair of socks ...... but THIS wasn't quite what I was really in the mood for. Pink and purple SEEMED like a good idea for a brief moment, but not ... well ... just NOT. So I started a wool gansey ...... and now I've decided I'm not really in the mood for knitting after all. Particularly not knitting with natural wool. It's so ... colourless. Or something. Or not something. I'm SICK! I really am! I SHOULD BE finishing Gryphon, who has been in production for exactly 2 years now (Happy unbirthday, Gryphon dear) ...... but my mind kept wondering to OTHER forms of cross stitch, namely long arm cross ...... which is more medieval than Gryphon and what we recognize as counted cross stitch in today's world. Actually, this particular pattern is from 1534 Italy. I could enter it in an SCA Arts and Sciences something or other ... IF I got it finished in time. Which is unlikely cuz ...... that DMC thread was SO RED it made me think about Valentine's Day, which brought to mind some really cool ideas for heart-shaped earrings, which a girl can never have too many of, but then I started feeling guilty cuz ...... that lovely new guitar my buddy gave me last year for Valentine's is gathering dust instead of getting practised with every day ...... and right beside it, my inkle loom is gathering dust with the second half of some woven trim for my medieval wool cape less than 1/4 finished. I'M SICK, I TELL YOU! VERY VERY SICK! But, I have the power to overcome this hellish February fever. I do. I really really do! This year will be different! So yesterday, I gathered my burning thoughts together and ...
... roughed out a painting. I called it "See No Evil". The woman in the painting is all twisted up and feverish ... just like me! I should have stopped there, but you can't have "See No Evil" without ...... "Hear No Evil" and ...... "Speak No Evil", so I HAD TO rough out two more paintings. I'm SO sick! Now I've got three partially finished paintings staring at me! Oh my head! Oh the fever! OH THE PAIN! But today is another day, and I have the power to overcome this annual affliction. I do. I'm POSITIVE I do. I just have to apply myself to make 2009 the year I finally beat the February Fever. So ...... I'll get back to y'all ...