"Lonely" Saturday Afternoon

I find myself unexpectedly alone this afternoon - Himself decided to go to the city to hunt for workboots and workpants and a wine kit and other such essentials, and the Cherubic Infants unexpectedly asked to go along. I did not. I was already busy wallowing in my fabric stash rather than the gumbo outside, and couldn't believe my luck: to have the kitchen table all to myself for an entire day! Nobody clamouring to use it for meals! Sustaining myself with chocolate chips whilst I fret about fabric combinations!

We have a teacozy situation. We got a Second Pot. Now, I realize this has a polygamous ring to it, but they each have a separate realm; one for black, one for herbal. If things get tense we could even keep them on different countertops. However, liberal as our outlook may be, we draw the line at teapot nudity in this house, and there's only one cozy. One rather decrepit, very stained and unlovely cozy. It was beautiful once, but many years of spillage and fading have aged it before its time.


My mission for today was to build two new cozies. Unfortunately I was swamped with a surfeit of choice, and found myself completely unable to come to any decision about what fabrics to use, so two hours later I'm still without any fabric fetuses (feti?).

What I did manage to come to grips with was a quilt. Several years ago I bought a stash of batik fabrics, and never found a proper inspiration to use them. Today inspiration smacked me broadside and I realized that they're the perfect materials for a quilt I've wanted to make for quite a while for a young man. Those are themselves in the top photo, the 5" squares. Relatively masculine. Rather sophisticated and sober, compared to the stuff I tend to make for myself:

(Evidence. I'm a floozy for bright colours. Not for walls or furniture, but definitely for quilts. I pant for fuschia and orange.)

"And what, pray tell, is THIS pile, Madcap?" you may be asking yourself.

These, O Ye People, are the leftovers. Not enough to build another quilt with on their own, and I don't intend to buy any more batiks ever - they're lovely, but not my thing.

So.

So. So. So.

When this quilt is done, I'm going to have a draw for these bitsicals, and send them wheresoever they go. Sharpen your fingers, batik-lovers. I suspect haiku shall ensue.

Otherwise? The bull-fest is happening across the road. This is a cultural event I wasn't familiar with before moving out to cowboy country. Sort of an indoor rodeo-slash-auction, I think. They brought in truckloads of dirt to cover the arena floor. Dinner and "adult-only" dance to follow. Last year they hired a bunch-o-bouncers for that event. Should be a peaceful night in the country, don't you think?

And mud. Still lots of mud. I think it's my new matrix.