In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

  Much more of this to come! Last night I began sewing together rows of my Cornflower Quilt. Compared to how long I've been stitching the beautiful blocks, this part will be a faster finish, albeit laborious. Wrangling rows is a little tricky, but having taken out as many of the papers as was possible makes it less cumbersome. And as each row is added, the marvelous sense of completion rises, proffering me the essential impetus to JUST KEEP SEWING. Sometimes that kick in the butt is crucial, pushing one past the tallest hurdle or most mind-numbing element within a project. I haven't done anything writing related for a couple of days, trying to catch up on sewing. I spent my usual book time this morning basting a quilt that I've made on request, which is always a thrill, like getting a five-star review on a novel. I'm hoping to jump back into the writing next week, perhaps starting off with some revisions, then we'll see where that leads. In chatting with a fellow au...

  Snapped yesterday on another excursion to the shore. I just finished reading through the first novel of my current series. It was going to be the final revision before leading to publication, but two days ago I felt compelled to look up a few more agents, despite submitting this series to over thirty last fall. I'm waiting for a sci-fi novel to arrive, written by woman who I just learned this morning currently lives here in Humboldt County. Once her novel arrives, I'll give it a read, then either feel compelled to query this series in a very limited fashion or get a book cover made and release it myself. Life in this post-Stan world is full of inexplicable notions. My brother-in-law Stan died a year ago last week. My husband and I went to the beach recently and the southern end of the shore was basically GONE. A huge shelf where we took our granddaughters last fall has been sucked back into the Pacific, such power the ocean possesses, but lately the waves have been ...

What a colourful little quilt this shall be! I'm nearly halfway done with the above quilt top; three and a half inch squares are futzy, also mindless. Six rows are currently stitched together, another two waiting to be attached, that leaves nine left, which I'll tackle this weekend. But I am taking special care while ironing the seams open, spritzing them with my spray bottle to make sure they lay as flat as possible. That's a plentiful amount of open seams for the back, and smoother is better when I make that quilt sandwich. Yesterday as I stood at my ironing board, pressing and pressing and pressing, I considered how so much time is spent standing there as opposed to sitting at my machine. If I'd been told that when I first started quilting, I'm not sure I would have believed it, lol. Then I pondered how writing is similar, at least for me, in that a first draft spills from my brain onto the keyboard, but much effort remains to shape it into something I'm comf...

  Grateful and grimacing at the same time, such is life as one gets older. Last night I sewed four-inch squares onto the sixth row of my Cornflower Quilt. I lamented the five missing squares, but didn't stew obsessively, as I have another quilt requiring hand-stitching as a distraction until I am ready to deal with those absent squares. Yet, as I headed to bed, laying that sixth row under the fifth row, I sighed softly, wondering how long I could put off basting five more squares to complete that part of the quilt. Dressing for bed, I was grateful for our relatively warm winter temperatures, many Pacific storms leaving Humboldt County drenched but not chilly. I snuggled under blankets, closed my eyes, receiving a tender goodnight kiss from my hubby. He turned off the light, departed the room, leaving me with some last musings for the day. I considered how I could sew triangles to the first row, filling in gaps before conceding those five missing squares were truly beyond my possess...

  Bright and busy! A mostly AMH quilt ready to assist in recovery. At the end of last year I started a quilt top to send to a dear friend who would be having knee replacement surgery soon. Where have the last four weeks gone? That surgery has taken place, the quilt in her possession, and here it is, the twenty-second of January! I enjoyed sewing up that lap quilt, large rectangles that came together easily from Anna Maria Horner's Fluent collection, with a few extras added from my stash. It was machine quilted, as I wanted to send it quickly. I spent much of yesterday afternoon at my machine, quilting another project, but I'll add some hand-quilting to that as soon as I finish attaching the binding, also by hand. Also by hand are more stars! This batch consists of kites around a hexie, which I found in need of basting in my Flock of Stars tote. I kind of thought I'd concentrate on the stars, once I had the Cornflower Quilt completed, but those FIVE MISSING SQUARES (ahem) a...

  So I'm still looking for those five missing squares. Above is how the quilt looks now, draped over the bed, another quilt underneath it, kind of obscuring the essence, but you get the idea. I basted a bunch of triangles for the borders, still plenty left to do. This Cornflower Quilt is coming together on its own time, and I'm not going to argue with it, missing squares be darned. Last night I read three chapters of The Hawk . My goodness I am enjoying this tale! But all that reading cuts into my evening sewing time, as well as a fantastic episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . "By the Pale Moonlight" takes place in season six, well into the Dominion War, and if you are keen on great drama and magnificent performances, have a gander at what Avery Brooks and Andrew Robinson produced, truly stunning television. But awesome distractions aside, I've started hand-sewing in the mornings while my hubby has breakfast. I've already eaten, because I'm on day nine ...

  For Christmas I received the above pictured journal. It's not my typical decorative choice, but I saw it in a local bookshop and pointed it out to my husband, who took note of my affinity for it. I didn't know what I would write in it, but something about it called to my heart, and suffice to say my hubby was glad for the gift idea. After we returned from our Christmas sojourn, I scribbled a few entries, nothing more than trying out various pens and pencils. It sat to my right on the sofa where I hand-sew, quietly trying to muscle its way into my evening routine. It wasn't having much luck until I started my nightly edits on The Hawk , where I decided to loosely keep track of the revisions. Magical realism figures heavily in this book, so this particular journal seemed perfect for the task. Those edits are going more quickly than I first imagined; a couple of nights I've read through three chapters, merely because the story is so captivating, lol. I haven't read t...

  Amid stitching black squares to long rows of Cornflower blocks, I've been dabbling in six-point star blocks, kite blocks, and Lavender Quilt blocks, all of which are petite and easy. I find mixing up the EPP is how I enjoy it most, not feeling tied to just one project, especially when on the downhill slide of a hand-sewn quilt where the whole thing is kind of tricksy in wrangling it all over my lap. Don't get me wrong, it's GREAT to be at this stage of the Cornflower Quilt, but with those five missing squares still hiding, I'm not in a huge hurry to reach that last row and need to cut fabric and baste more squares. Anyway, so yeah, I'm dropping in quick small blocks in the evenings, vibrant colours brightening my world that has been super soggy, over two inches of rain falling yesterday. Also lifting my days have been some marvelous books by Elizabeth Rowan Keith , a fantastic writer I have had the privilege of knowing for over a decade. Recently she released a no...

  Okay, maybe two of them, lol. The English paper pieced block above is from Jodi Godfrey's Ice Cream Soda pattern, the large version of the design. The inner and outer fabrics were Christmas gifts from my eldest, the red kites a perfect scrap from my collection. Forty-some blocks are necessary for this quilt, but it's a long-term project that I hope to cajole my grandkids into sharing with me. Or maybe I'll find myself making these beautiful blocks in snippets of spare time, especially since the five missing basted squares have yet to be found. (Whatever five squares. You can't have traveled far.) But hand-sewing isn't the only hobby on my mind. Morning edits are going well with my current series, and I've incorporated evening edits into the routine. For months I've been mulling over The Hawk , a book I started over ten years ago, finishing in the spring of 2018. That novel has quite a place in my heart, written during a great shift within my personal life ...

Snapped last night before I realized what was missing! (A basted square halfway attached, but others remain elsewhere...) I know I'm not feeling good when I'm too weary for editing. A debilitating head cold has finally drawn its line in the sand. Dude, don't play games with me. I might feel crappy, but seriously? Especially on a really SOGGY day here in Humboldt, a king tide making the ground squishier than usual. Whatever the elements, nature and viral, here I am limping along like a forgotten sock soaked in the rain. And.... I can't find five basted squares for my Cornflower quilt! I had the sewn rows and their accompanying stacks of squares laid out on the guest bed and after completing a row last night, I placed it with the other two, then gathered the next row and squares and.... What the heck? I don't know what I did with them, but my husband checked around and he didn't see them either. Basted paper pieces just don't walk away on their own, ahem, but ...

A heap on the sofa, where I'm current sitting. This blanket, in need of the binding attached, is the quilt equivalent of my current computer headache. My husband and I joke that I am actually the techie sort, self-publishing novels for over a dozen years now. I don't think of myself as a techie gal, preferring the artistic side of noveling, quilting too. But someone has to format and upload manuscripts, post blog entries, etc, etc, etc. That someone is me. Past Me, Future Me, and little old Present Me, lol. I don't know how long I'll be in this indie author gig, in that I'm happy writing my stories. Full disclosure is necessary here: I queried my latest series, got no takers. I'm fine with that, in fact I'm somewhat relieved. Maybe it's liberating in the consideration of these novels being what they truly are, my heart and soul. I could wax a whole lot more lyrically about it, but suffice to say, I'm grateful for the opportunity to write a book, then...

Snapped at the Pacific Ocean on 1 January, 2024. Listening to a playlist tonight, the title of which is the same as this entry. It starts off with "Passing Through Air" by Kate Bush, which leads to "Edge of Seventeen" and "Stand Back" by Stevie Nicks. Basketball is on, the Knicks and Bulls, a fire popping near where I'm seated. It's a January evening, 2024, a new year having dawned. I read five chapters of my latest manuscript this morning, machine-quilted a lap blanket this afternoon, and now it's time to ponder what all this might mean, if anything, as music plays, a fire sparks, and minutes slip past in the very early stages of the next year of my life. I was thinking about my life, 2024, and how chill this year has begun. Chill as in mellow, also cool, rain and gray skies the norm. Music has been blasting, well, playing at a chill level, for my ears aren't happy if the tunes rawk too loudly, lol. Past Me stares hard, cranking it to 11 w...

Happy 2024 to you! Despite suffering a small cold, I feel a lot like the mini figure pictured above. My youngest daughter sent me this photo a few days ago when she was putting together a Lego set. This chap's impish grin reflects how I'm feeling as January gets underway, so let me explain.... It's sunny today, also a little cool, one reason for my enthusiasm. Little by little the days are getting longer, what's not to like about that? Yesterday my hubby and I went to the beach with dear friends who we haven't seen in a long time. The waves were large and impressive, the camaraderie marvelous. The latest manuscript read-through continued this morning, an enjoyably easy way to delve into the writing as well as entertain myself, LOL! I'm happy with this initial peek at this first draft, stoking my interest in the next installment of this series. But mostly, I am EVER SO GRATEFUL this year begins for me without the scepter of agonizing heartache. Who wouldn't b...