The Calico Prairie

Hello.
Fist off, I want to thank you all for the very kind and encouraging comments you left on my last post. You are all so ace! You made me feel better and so grateful to have this lovely community.

I am on the up-swing for certain. We have had a few days of the most glorious weather, and really a little sunshine goes a long way in putting thing to rights. Long days spent in the garden, planting promise and meditating on beauty is most uplifting.

So today I thought it was long over due to talk a little stitching, share a wee bit of the creative mayhem that goes on around these parts. As I said before, there hasn't been a huge amount of craftiness going on here - what with the busy and a little green cottage in a certain amount of upheaval - makes for less making. I am currently working from my sewing machine on a little rolling cart that gets moved about to any (and there isn't really) clutter free corner I can find. Still, a moment here and there some stitchy business can be had.

Sometimes in my creative process I can become a tad fixated, or even obsessed as the case may be. I wake up one morning and there is a little voice in my head that whispers to me saying things like, "Octopus", or "Stripes". So then I get consumed and spend the day thinking about octopuses? - octopi? - octopodes?, or stripes. After thinking and pacing I begin to work and suddenly I have stenciled an octopus on a tea towel, a dress, and a backpack. You get my drift.

Some of these obsessions are short lived, I get my fix and then the next little whispers begin over my morning coffee. Some obsessions last longer. My latest obsession has lasted a couple of months now and it shows little signs of letting up. It is all about Prairie Dresses!

Not to be confused with Little House on the Prairie dresses, but a slightly more modern interpretation of an all purpose Prairie Dress. One that can be worn over pants, layered with T-shirts, or on their own. Made with Calico from my grandmother's fabric stash in funky combinations in various lengths and sleeve types.

It all started with a whisper, a certain Pony Girl, and some of my grandmother's fabrics that had been hanging around waiting for their chance. A bit of thinking and pacing led to a pattern drafting and then to the first of 5 so far.

There have been a couple of pattern tweaks along the way and there may be more to come. I am in love and I just can't stop! I do wonder when the passion for the calico prairie will wane and the next fixation will take over, but in the meantime I'll be picking out the fabric combo for the next one.

And what about you? Do you ever find yourself creatively obsessed? Do tell!