Tuesday 31 January 2012

At a Loss for Words

It  had to happen sooner or later. Me being speechless - a rare and unusual occasion. Now add in the fact that I have come up against a challenge that I don't think I am up to. I will give it my best go, but I am very afraid of letting down one of the wonderful Brit Bee ladies who has set this challenge. Letting Jenny down would be worse than my fear of this project.

Jenny is Miss February. She blogs over here. And this is what she is asking for her bee blocks for February -

Well not these blocks exactly.
But a self portrait block.
A fabric picture of me.
I think I'll consume the 'E' numbers she sent first.
And then make my block really psychedelic.

Meanwhile, I was doing things this morning and it occurred to me that it was going to be a very boring post today. Until the postman rang the doorbell. Things looked up after that. Because there were four parcels for me. The first one was the above bee block package. The second one had my awaited Zipit order.

Ten multi coloured 8" zips.
And ten blue 22" zips.
I have an idea for my Mouthy Stitches swap partner. But I am not sure if I am capable of doing it. I will try, and it will involve one of those 22" zips. If I fail then I will fall back to plan 'B' and one of those 8" zips will be used instead. When I have had a go I will show you what I want to do, whether it fails or not, but meanwhile I will leave you in suspense.

Number three parcel was some more bird fabric from a lovely reader of this blog by the name of Mary. She is quiet, but we have chatted a couple of times by email and she is always lovely. So these latest birds for the quilt have come to me from rural Wisconsin. Thank you so much, Mary!

I love those eyes on the owls.
And isn't the middle fabric gorgeous!
Last, but certainly not least was another HR delivery. This was one of my mini purchases for little money and lots of satisfaction. I finally decided I needed to have the little girl playing with her toy horses. And some orange flowers to go with it.

One more mini order to arrive.
I haven't ordered any HR in the last little while.
Honest, I haven't!
When I wasn't opening post I was cutting fabric. I have 44 fussy cut birds now ready for their sashing. I hope I have enough stash to find the right fabrics for each and every one of them. Because they all deserve an appropriate frame.


The other main thing I did today was go for lunch with a friend. We get together about once a term for lunch and a good old gossip. It was much needed for the goodness of my soul - chatting, laughing, bitching and generally catching up. That will keep me going until the arrival of my bestest Canadian buddy's arrival in 17 days - not that I am counting or anything!

Susan

25 comments:

  1. well didnt you have a good day keep it up !! not sure how you are going to go about the self portrait :))the fabric from mary is just gorgeous !!lucky you :)))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Susan. I have no idea how I'd even start a portrait of myself in fabric. Sending you happy, creative thoughts! xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like a wonderful day full of lovely things! Love your new bird and HR fabrics and I'm looking forward to seeing more bird blocks. I'll have a think about fabric self-portraits but nothing is springing to mind at the moment. Could you do something like the mini Renee got from a swap (at least I think it was a swap?) And I'd be waiting until other BB's had made their block so I could 'use their blocks as inspiration' (copy!) - good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. wow! How big a bag are you making to need a 22 in zip? birds lookin good xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh big challenge - are you piecing or doing applique!? Somewhere I saw someone had used a photo and cartoonised it on one of those photosites and then printed it to get an easier picture to use for fabric - hope it helps!

    http://www.befunky.com/features/

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a fun load of post..beats bills any day!

    Where did you order your zips from? Is it a UK supplier?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmm, have you thought about using one of those programs that pixellises a photo? Then you could have an almost ready made patchwork block pattern, you just have to find fabric to match the photo...

    As for the rest of the happy mail, enjoy! And lunch out sounds fab :o)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Stumped for words? I was about to call the paramedics, till I found out why. I think I'd be in tears. Still it's good to be pushed beyond your comfort zone. Easy for me to say sitting here!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Stumped for words? I was about to call the paramedics, till I found out why. I think I'd be in tears. Still it's good to be pushed beyond your comfort zone. Easy for me to say sitting here!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Stumped for words? I was about to call the paramedics, till I found out why. I think I'd be in tears. Still it's good to be pushed beyond your comfort zone. Easy for me to say sitting here!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well I can at least say SNAP! to your fisrt two bits of mail! I had exactly the same! Now wishing I had the rest of your mail too! Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Self portrait! Ugh! Rather you than me!!! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh! I didn't your self was ugh! Sorry!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. blimey, a self portrait: I would really struggle with that one!! Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh the portrait sounds fun!! You could always go super abstract - it doesn`t have to be a photocopy!

    ReplyDelete
  16. A portrait?! you see this is why I don't join Bee's. Sooner or later and in my case sooner - someone is going to ask me to do something above my skill level and I'll mess it up and mess the recipients fabric and it'll all end in tears.

    Loving that good mail!

    ReplyDelete
  17. great day - and a self portrait - how exciting! can't wait to see what you come up with - there's a blog called 'mamacj' (I'll send a link if you want) who does fantastic little 'heads' - it's all applique and looks really good - might be an idea

    ReplyDelete
  18. Awww dont stress so! Then again, my profile pic is a fabric self portrait so I've had some practice... lol

    ReplyDelete
  19. I am not even going to say how i am feeling about 'that'!! Jennie, I love you BUT...

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hmm, how about doing something Andy Warhol-ish with unusual colours and stylized shapes? You get nice mail, a lot it seems.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Isn't Jennie clever! (& brave!). You can do it! It's good for us all to be stretched a bit. How many birdie blocks do you think you'll need for a quilt top? Love those zips - intrigued by your plan for a large one! Jxo

    ReplyDelete
  22. Susan...I have an idea for you...email me!!!

    But you may be forced to trade that cute owl print....just kidding!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. The self portrait is a little daunting, isn't it! yeay for great post too x

    ReplyDelete
  24. Those little E numbers you ate are one of my favourite things (Yes we get those exact same Sherbet fountains here !)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Aww bless ya! I didn't mean to be this much of a pain; like a few of your comments say, it doesn't have to be photorealistic, just an 'interpretation'

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment. I read them all and I love them all. I do my utmost to reply to comments as often as possible. If you comment and never receive a reply from me there is the possibility that you are a no-reply commenter.