Two Houses- One, Flower Power, Overwhelm Happens, Roguish Me

Rainy days do not get me down. That's good because we have had rain warnings with constant downpours for the last five days. Ned and I have gotten in our walks, me in raincoat and boots, Ned in his birthday suit.  Rainy days make me want to curl up and get cosy inside. How do they affect you?

Mary Anne created this sweet card below for a friend. She used paper scraps! How clever! She shows it in this Magpies Mumblings post where she also shares the reason why she doesn't sew clothes. Her story from high school left me dumbfounded about that home economics teacher-what was she thinking! 

In keeping with houses... here is the latest addition to my Rainbow Neighbourhood, an orange house or as I'm calling it, my Flower Power House. I was in university at the height of the Flower Power era in North America. When I saw Maureen McCormick's Flower Power for Moda line, I knew I had to have some of the prints just as a kind of souvenir of those wonderful days. Someone also asked and I had to dig to find this answer...the green is Kona's Tarragon. I picked it from stash as I thought it looked like a springish shade...there are probably more than 50 shades of green and often green can pose a problem to pick just the right one for a project. At least I find that. 

And that preamble leads me to another lesson to keep in mind in the sewing room. How many times do I have to tell myself this....Relax, take enjoyment in the process(and I am enjoying stitching these large houses now), take the time to look at the pretty shades and prints. It doesn't have to be perfect. Be okay with being a bad quilter too if that is what I am. So be it. 

But that last bit led me to the thought of why we want or have the desire to do something we may be bad/mediocre at...beats me.

I continued to take watercolour painting classes when I first came to Ottawa. Halfway through one of them, a student who was struggling became very upset, first crying then yelling. She accused the instructor of being a bad teacher because her painting was awful(so she declared). She was very angry and left the room in a state sobbing. Our poor instructor was horrified as were the rest of us. Btw, I thought the instructor just wonderful, both thorough and kind in her teaching. It would not have occurred to me to blame the teacher, especially such a sweetheart, for my own maybe questionable efforts. What do you make of that story? I guess Overwhelm happens, Frustration happens. 

This week work on the next Rainbow Neighbourhood house will begin.  I've a piece of grey and turquoise fabric with a chipmunk on it; I think it is Tula Pink. I checked online; yes it is Tula's Chipper in Mint line from 2015.

 I plan to coordinate that somehow with a few turquoise pieces in the stash to make my splashiest house so far. Wish me luck and do check back to see what I get up to with this! I am being a bit of a rogue where it comes to this QAL.

I am not raking outside yet and feel lucky we live where we can leave the lawns alone for a time. I like to leave things as they are till the overwintering critters can crawl away or whatever. But there is lots to do inside, always. 

 Here is one of my little "chippers"; three tiny ones appeared one day last week fresh from their den.

Hope your week is off to a great start!
 Linking this post with The Quilt Schmilt, The Inquiring Quilter, My Quilt Infatuation, It's a Small Town Life, The Quiltery, Quilting Patchwork Applique and Quilt Fabrication.