In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

Beginning this post, I don't yet have a title. Maybe it will be untitled. It's a quarter after five a few days past the solstice. A thin band of clear sky sits over the eastern horizon while the marine layer attempts a coup. One of my BFF's is visiting alongside our grandson. The days have been packed with card games, puzzles, conversations, and episodes of the Great British Baking Show from 2016. I know who wins, only because sometime last year I caught a show with the winner who I'd never seen but quickly learned was now a TV host in their own right due to having won the bake-off. That spoiler doesn't diminish my pleasure as gamey hot water crust pies and tennis cakes are presented; who else makes it to the finals is beyond my scope and I don't have to fret the actual outcome. Yesterday my BFF and I went to Agate Beach just north of Trinidad. She's here to celebrate her birthday which is just as much of a treat for us as it is for her. We sat with a festi...

My eight-year-old grandson's first mug rug! Violet Craft and Kaffe Fassett feature heavily alongside the bottom left batik square. Teaching my grandson the basics of machine sewing has been one main joy of the past week, amid the general pleasures of a youngster's presence. While I had initiated the notion of stitching, he brought it up on his first full day, and by Thursday he had a coaster waiting for the quilt sandwich treatment. He also helped me design a new quilt, which awaits time under the machine when life returns to its regularly scheduled programming. In these early hours of the day I've managed a good look at recent manuscripts and so far I'm happy with the results. I've come up with the beginning of what will be Book 5 in the series, and the basics for Book 6 are pretty firm in my mind. Those stories are definitely for Future Me, like 2024 Me. Yet it's great to have a road map for this saga; I might know the eventual destination, but how to get ther...

A great day to hang a quilt! Another finish, that of a fabric variety; this is the second in a brief series, lol. Our grandson is visiting for a fortnight, so time to set aside some of my usual pastimes, although there's always a spare moment for the last few stitches along the back of a binding, then tossing said quilt in the wash and voila! Mild crinkles but much goodness amid solid and print vibrancy. Ahhh, I do like myself a lovely little baby quilt.  The back is a mix of old and new, in that I've had the Disney princess yardage for almost ten years! The coordinating pink and mint green matching fabrics have been in my stash for a while, and seemed perfect to pair together here. The bottom yellow print I purchased last year, then a thin strip along the side that I used in a previous backing, a great piece of scrap right where I needed it. Smaller quilts come together so quickly, maybe I should make more of them. These three and six-inch squares were a joy to sew, and thankf...

March 2012; no idea which book I had just finished, but The Hook is looking fine.   Years ago after completing a novel, I would drive to the beach, to The Hook in Capitola to be exact. The trip was a good forty-five minutes over Highway 17, a little treacherous back then, worse now in that most traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area is more hazardous than before, or maybe I think that way because I'm older and possess less patience. Or maybe that's because now a trip to the beach is far more relaxing regardless of how goes the writing. But the writing, for now, is DONE! This morning I began, then finished the final chapter, and oh my goodness, the sense of relief is PALPABLE! So many emotions attached to both the initial draft and this version, so much hand-wringing, and SO MUCH TO PLAN FOR, lol. The first draft was merely a way to decompress after an awful death in our family. This story is like a rebirth, although I'm still mewling about, trying to decide what goes where a...

Tonight's creative endeavor. In addition to my planned fictional series, there's English paper piecing. Some designs are an eager stitch while others are the kind of thrill I dive into a few times a month, like sewing together these simple Lavender Quilt blocks, then tucking them into a tote. I need to fashion over a hundred of these four-inch triangles surrounded by half-hexagons; each one takes about three and a half lengths of thread, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes of sewing per block. Usually I'm entranced by the Cornflower Quilt blocks, which are much larger and take a few evenings, but they are some awesome shinies (which I know is technically not a noun and shouldn't be made plural, oh well) and currently I have one started and three more basted, whew! The Lavender Quilt will linger far past Cornflower; I don't know why certain EPP projects are more languid than others, but some just are SLOW GOING. Maybe I like having a project that allows for a very subdue...

Talk about striking hues; last night I completed the ruffle for this bright baby afghan. As Dorothy Gale wakes in the deadly field of poppies, the Emerald City waits on the horizon. I feel a LOT LIKE Dorothy right now, having finally pushed through the rewrites, an open expanse of yellow brick road and a green glowing landscape beckoning me to chase after it. Dude! I can't quite wrap my head around where I am in the writing; for what feels like ages I've been wresting and wrangling with this story, finding myself tangled within its confines. Over the weekend, I gave myself permission to not expect a finish anytime soon. Did that liberate me to get my arse in gear, lol. Regardless, tomorrow I will write something NEW, in that the scenes I've added recently were to pad out a chapter or plot line. Wednesday's task remains mysterious and boy I can't wait! Like Dorothy, I'm curious, albeit hopeful; did she ponder just how magical that wizard would need to be to trans...

Talk about one stop on a long process, that's what another Cornflower Quilt block is all about. I love writing. I also enjoy completions, lol. This morning I started reading at the beginning not only of the WIP but what has become the second in a perceived saga. I had *HOPED* to complete the rewrite of this novel before next Sunday. Not sure if that's gonna happen, que sera sera. In reading the first scene, I was struck at how this story (and whatever comes of it series-wise) has framed my year, which started off with saying goodbye to one deeply cherished. At the time, the WIP was merely a way to immediately process what I had just witnessed, it truly wasn't meant as the basis for what it has become. Maybe I need to acknowledge that to myself; for all my desires to wrap up this story by Father's Day, better is a slower path, especially since so much will follow. I WANT to finish this book, but indulging in the journey could be significant. The destination vs the expedi...

I just LOVE these hues! Not completely rainbow, but multicoloured and just gorgeous. My hubby and I just got back after spending a few days with our son. It's lovely visiting with family, yet always a treat to return to one's own domicile. I admired the results of a very wet winter; green flora flourished EVERYWHERE! I deeply considered my novel-in-progress, making notes not in longhand but on my phone. I did a little hand-sewing and a dab of crocheting, completing a blanket proper and starting the ruffle. Okay, maybe saying I 'completed a blanket' doesn't ring true until the border is finished, but it felt like a win regardless. (Unlike how I managed to center this paragraph inadvertently, quite a fail....) The above picture is one of the treasures. The truths came about like drops of scattered rain, concerning my writing mostly, but not merely the WIP. I pondered why I only publish novels as ebooks, accepting my place as a simple storyteller who takes full advanta...

A view indicative of revisions methinks. A few months ago I ordered new hand-sewing needles; I like Clover both for sewing and their little clips. However the size ten needles, labeled for applique, aren't as long as they used to be, and are pretty useless for hand-quilting. That was a disappointment, but I had a few of the old production line stashed away, although I wasn't sure what would become of the truncated needles. Well tonight I found a use for them, in basting paper shapes! They are still VERY SHORT, but at least they won't be wasted. Meanwhile I'm still fiddling around with my novel. Today I wrote a brief scene as well as rewrote a scene recently added. Dude.... Not quite a facepalm moment, but certainly an Aw Shucks sort of sensation that previously might have made me go GRRRR . But revisions are what they are, a reworking of a draft that desperately needed reworking, ahem. How the editing evolves is merely another day in the life of a writer, ba-dump-bump!...