I am known for getting obsessive about some things, I am definitely like it with food, and will get sudden urges much like pregnant ladies do for a particular food stuff. We aren't talking chocolate or cakes here either, I will get an overwhelming desire to eat a vegetable such as cabbage or onions, but in huge quantities, which basically become my meals for a few days.  I am occasionally like this with meat or dairy foods, blue cheese especially, but can't ever recall being like this with sweet food.

I am the same about learning things. I am never content to gloss the surface of a subject if it piques my interest, I have to read everything known to man on the subject, I must have first hand experience, and try things for myself, taking someone else's word for it is never enough. Some people think I am intelligent and clever - when in truth I am just obsessive.

Sometimes a practical craft will grab me like this too, and this past week having been floored by a cold, running a high temp, being unable to eat and keep anything down, I have found it impossible to concentrate on anything. I have found huge comfort however in sorting stashes of fabrics into piles of pieces that I think co-ordinate. Usually such a task would quickly bore me, but I have found it almost soothing this week!

I have a lot of swatches taken from various manufacturer's samples books, my favourites being Liberty Fabrics as shown above. They are only small scraps measuring 14 x 20 cms each, but cut into 6 equal sized pieces, they are perfect for patchwork.

I sorted all the pinks and plums, and cut them up already. They have already been pieced together in blocks of 9 patches and I now have a stack of some 36 blocks like these below.


 

I think I will find a plain self patterned damson coloured fabric and border the blocks with this so that each sits like a little island in an ocean of bruised purpleness.  The blues above will be tackled today, and undergo the same process.   I am wondering how long this current obsession will last, at the moment I am relishing the feel good factor as each little complete block is its own reward, and then as they join together, they just seem to come alive.  I am not doing anything clever or complicated, but the colours really seem to be having a positive effect on my mood, as does the repetitive nature of sewing the pieces together.

Mad? probably, but I am content too.