Book 4, Chapter 2
Amid machine quilting the blanket above (and stitching yet another Ice Cream Soda block), I 'started' my next novel. I put quotes around started because I actually wrote the first chapter in May of last year, then immediately filed it away, moving on with the next literary shiny. Talk about a purpose for scattered fictional prompts!
That single chapter, and the five characters within it, became an inadvertent link to a manuscript I wrote at the beginning of this year after a beloved died. I'm all over inadvertentness, because what is attached to inadvertent is really not that off the cuff or out of the blue but fated from far beyond anything I can imagine, and I have a pretty attuned imagination, might I say. It's kind of like making lemonade with a inordinate amount of citrus, although I'd give up the rest of my writing life to bring back someone so dearly loved. However, all of that is out of my hands, so instead I'll start another book and see where that takes me.
In the meantime, there's the quilt pictured, a sixteen-patch with two random-ish rows of squares at the top and bottom. I adore the fabrics and the backing, whoa! It's a flannel-minky extravaganza that will be oh-so-cuddly as our days grow less warm and bright. It's a lot like the first chapter of Book 4; blocks made, then set aside, then pulled out and sewn together, bordered by some extra prints and suddenly it's the new shiny of my quilty life! Well, those Ice Cream Soda blocks are vying for first place in the how can I distract myself from the Cornflower quilt blocks so I don't finish them too quickly race. Oh my goodness I feel torn in about eight different sewing directions, while the current quilt on the design wall harrumphs, "What about me???"
Yes, yes, I hear you blue, purple, and pops of yellow quilt! But this afternoon my hubby and I sorted firewood and I had dishes to do and this post to write and.... And inadvertently I will complete that quilt one of these days, or weeks, lol. Maybe this week I'll finish the top. One step at a time, like one novel at a time, one quilt idea at time, one unwitting moment followed by another slotting themselves together perfectly into our universe.
