finding my words::ice {mosaic contest}

Lately, I haven't been very creative.  Sure, in my head, I'm designing quilts and planning projects.  But in reality... when I get solid time to sit and create I just sit {and watch TV.  We're currently ploughing through The Shield}.  I want it to be different, but wanting isn't enough.  Maybe now that I've written it down I'll find my boot strings, pull myself up, and quit wallowing.  Maybe...

How about a little bit of creativeness with just a little bit of commitment?  A fabric mosaic challenge issued by Rachel at Stitched in Color.  Challenge accepted! A chance to play with fabric with some wintery inspiration.  And when inspiration starts to flow it's always good to roll with it.  So, instead of just seeing what I could come up with in fabrics, I thought about a story that would go along with the fabrics.  I gave myself just a few minutes to write and see what came.

Then I remembered that I like writing.  And I remembered that writing is also creative.  That it doesn't require anything more than a few moments at a time, if that's all I can give.  It doesn't make a mess that'll need to be cleaned up.

The fabric mosaic prompt was 'ice parfait'.  I immediately pictured the layers of colors and light caught in fractured bits through icicles.  Here is the little story that goes along with my fabric selections above...

It snowed for the first time of the season last night. Even in the dark, she could tell, the extra blanket covering the landscape outside quieted things. She slips on the rubber soled shearling slippers, the ones with the outlines of her toes permanently pressed into their soft and welcoming insides. On the porch the frost stands up on end as if the wood planks grew a buzz cut overnight. It crunches down in concentric half-moons as she walks to the edge and stops just above the steps. The sky beyond the eves isn’t black or blue or grey but a deep combination of the three that hints at sunrise to come. She knows the day will be mellow and slow. Below the railing hangs a tiny icicle that formed during the warmth of the day before and would be gone again by noon today. Its bumpy, glassy exterior is like an upside-down version of the drip sandcastles she’d made as a child. Thinking of the wet sand slowly running through her finger tips she brushes this cold approximation of the warm summer days. Her skin turns pink where she touched the ice and she can feel the same pink creeping into the tip of her nose where it’s so cold it feels hot. Turning back to the dark house, she can just make out the soft lump on the couch that is the queen of house cats tucked in the usual spot waiting for the clock to turn to 6am and the furnace to kick on. And then it does. The low rumble sound draws her in from outside. It promises of warmth and comfort.

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pearl bracelet in midnight||prisma elements in sapphire sparkle metallic||crosshatch in blue||breeze in sky||crosshatch in lake||quilter's linen in ecru||prisma elements in pearl and gold metallic||weave in white||prisma elements in soft wulfenite