When love, writing, and fabric meet inadvertantly

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Having finally united the lovers within my novel, I find myself getting up very early to write. Well, my right leg is being troublesome, so that also plays into these well before the crack of dawn noveling sessions, but most of my enthusiasm at truly ridiculous hours of the day (night) is based upon itching and aching to further the story. That's an immense blessing and I'm extremely grateful for it.

Strangely enough, I am not dropping off for sleep at six or seven or eight p.m. at night! I'm not getting a ton of hand-stitching accomplished, but last night during the Kings/Lakers game I completed a Cornflower block, pictured above, and was struck at how it perfectly, but accidentally, represents my novel. Space-themed inner petals are bordered by hearts; dude that's my story to a capital T! This block originally had a dark blue floral print for the squares, but after I basted them, it just didn't feel right. I had a strip of the hearts print leftover from my youngest granddaughter's quilt, a fabric she chose in July that I too loved, and was thrilled to have enough left for some random scrap requirement. I had other blocks to prep, so yesterday afternoon I cut fabric for more squares, petals, and octagons, enough for what I think are the last three blocks of the quilt, yay!

Fast forward (or back up) to the basketball stitching; I was pondering my book, exited for what was going to be today's chapter, which entailed the morning after for my lovers. I didn't know how that would begin, and let me just say I'm pleased with the results, lol. Meanwhile, as LA was getting creamed, I was pondering those adorable hearts, then realizing like a sledgehammer up my skull how apropos were all these prints in regard to what else has been making my heart flutter. Not at all did I consider that when I swapped in the hearts for the previous squares, only that the petals were kind of irregular and this quilt is built on scrappy, and my fictional series is much the same. Women's fiction, romance, sci-fi, a little bit of literary too; no kitchen sink yet, but wait for it. One might pop up from nowhere, much like these hearts, this block, and if I want to get esoteric, my whole life, ha!

Not to get too esoteric, but.... There's just something so thrilling, so all the planets aligned, so damned cool when the inadvertent falls into one's day-to-day. It lifts the sorrow, breaks up the mundane, reminds that there is a purpose beyond prose and prints. Love makes this world go round and round and I love to feel that reinforced within my life by accidental fabric swaps or a cathartic book turning into an unintentional series. How marvelous are love stories, by the way, also reinforcing how random meetings can turn into life-altering detours not in a bad way. My lovers aren't young; they are pushing forty, having suffered their separate trials, and are willing to give happiness one more go. And I will let them be happy. For a bit. LOL, as I stitch up the last three blocks of my quilt, another serendipitous melody of art, beauty, and scraps. Scraps aren't the dregs; scraps are the miracles arriving in slivers of shiny light, sending sparkles of sweetness into hearts made for joy here and beyond.

That's my novel, this block, and love in a nutshell. May a ton of accidental scrappy-happiness be yours today!

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