In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

  The first finish of 2024 to hang on the laundry line. It's not often one gets to blog on the twenty-ninth of February, lol. I've been busy wrapping up a quilt, a quilt block, and making a little mess of some marvelous six-point diamonds, but they can be absorbed into the Flock of Stars quilt, so I'm not going to berate myself for one night of faffing about. Life is meant to be lived, not meted out in a draconian fashion. Ahem. Perhaps I'm feeling so generous with myself because a book cover is underway, a manuscript is formatted for release, synopses are written, genres chosen. LOL! Mostly I'm feeling unencumbered because 1) I finished the languishing baby quilt, pictured at the top of this entry. 2) I completed the appliqued onesies and mailed off the quilt and onesies to their new home. A flock of onesies. 3) I wrapped up the Cornflower block, even getting it washed, and now have a decision to make concerning how I want to hand-quilt that project, as well as whe...

A few random nasturtiums amid plentiful weeds and a ceramic frog. For all my tidying, much remains amiss, like planters in the garden. And a plethora of EPP projects that live in totes and on other surface areas. And a couple of basted but not yet quilted quilts. And some revised novels itching for release. Mostly I'm aggrieved, for lack of a better word, with all the hand-stitching patterns that I've indulged in over the last few years. I found yet another set of basted pieces waiting for my attention, and yes, I started sewing them together all the while mumbling under my breath at how disorganized is the sewing, and so far flung. A few projects to mix up the evening stitching, sure! Over half a dozen, ummmmm.... Dude, that's kinda excessive. Now maybe if I only sewed by hand, okay. Six, maybe seven projects wouldn't seem so outrageous. But those two quilts waiting for machine and hand-sewing, plus a couple of onesies that require applique, and then books to release.....

We're enjoying some glorious sunshine and warmth, sometimes those don't always go together. I trimmed the garden blackberry bush, then sat in the sun reading before going in to wash the dishes. I'd hoped to get to that Cornflower Quilt, wanting to make that quilt sandwich, baste it, then bring it downstairs to begin the hand-quilting. But my work table needed to be cleared, which meant putting away the paper shapes from the above mentioned quilt. It's thrilling to remove papers as the blocks, then rows, are sewn together. Bagging those papers, I knew eventually I'd need to return them not only to their box, but from the sources where I borrowed squares and diamonds to complete it. Fortunately I'd written down how many I used, so it was a matter of counting out shapes, slipping them back into envelopes. Certainly not the exact shapes I'd removed, but the papers were in good condition, and I won't be using them anytime soon. I put the Cornflower Quilt box ...

  Special thanks to my husband for the heavy lifting, lol. About half an hour ago (at the time of writing this post), I made the final stitch, completing one phase of crafting this Cornflower Quilt . Photos have been taken, a few sent to those in the know. Now for a moment to sift through the last couple of years in the creation of this quilt top, which after the last block was stitched, came together a lot faster than I had anticipated. A sample in the sunshine! It's darker than I thought, the black squares and perimeter triangles adding a drama I hadn't considered. It's beautiful, lol, but that kind of goes without saying, although I seem to have made this observation second to how dark it seems to me. (Having just finished August , by Judith Rossner, I'm in a little of an analytical mood, and maybe I'll write a post about how much I enjoyed that novel, but that's for later.) Two of my favourite blocks.   It's full of fabrics from the last few years of my ...

  Definitely a scrap quilt, but one so dear to my heart. Stitching has been my balm lately. Writing has not, but that's fine. Instead I'll tell you about the quilt, or half of it, pictured above. And mention some wee darlings that keep me smiling. So the Cornflower quilt .... I am pretty much head over heels for this English paper pieced marvel designed by Jodi Godfrey from her book, The Seedling Quilts . I was infatuated while making the blocks, adding an extra row because I just kept finding great fabric combos to turn into ONE MORE BLOCK. Lol. All were edged in green diamonds of various shades, then black on-point squares act as the glue, in a manner of speaking. But it's one thing to make a heap of adorable blocks, another animal sewing them all together. Stitching the rows was easy-peasy, but then.... Then those rows have to be attached. To each other. Ahem. Now, I've made three other wholly EPP'ed quilts; two were of 1.5" hexies, the other a Cherish quil...

On this first day in Lent, I continue to pray for common sense in accordance to American guns laws. I pray for those injured, for the family and loved ones of the person that has died. I pray for peace in hearts and minds, and for human beings to matter more than weapons of mass destruction.

The quilting side of my creative life has thankfully been smooth sailing. Two baby quilts have been sent to their new homes, a third on the wall waiting patiently for me to spend a few days at my machine. I've made good progress on the Cornflower quilt, attaching rows in a manner that is actually pretty relaxing, but then wrangling a couple of rows is less futzy than all the rows, lol. I have twenty of ninety-four Star blocks made, I have a plan for abandoned Alexandria quilt blocks, which will free up two-inch hexagons so I can perhaps get back to that medallion style quilt in some future date. Future Me won't say if I will complete that quilt, but then she's also keeping quiet about the current state of my noveling existence. But first, the quilts.... The photos above and right below this paragraph are actually the same quilt! This is the first time I've made a quilt purposefully reversible. I like how in the small square side the perimeter is about half-square sized,...

One of two recent quilt finishes, more about those in the next post. Yesterday I did something I have never done before. I deleted the first chapter, save the last paragraph, of my new novel. I suppose there's a first time for everything, but wow. Yet, as I wrote that alleged first chapter, I felt detached. I was even, gasp, distracted by my phone. That NEVER HAPPENS when I write, other than a quick glance at the screen in case it's an important text or call. So yeah, a day of writing went down the tubes, except for that final paragraph, which I liked and kept at the end of the rewritten first chapter. Today I wrote Chapter 2 as though the initial Chapter 1 never existed. I wrote with total abandon, I wrote from a place in my head and heart that cut me off from where I am right now, in February, in Humboldt County. Instead I was in Corning, California in the heat of June, where a twelve-year-old girl was hoping to find the secrets her late mother had left behind. After completi...

A mock-up for my next Ice Cream Soda block; looking forward to sewing this as another yarn is spun. Starting a new book today, but it's not even seven in the morning and I haven't eaten breakfast and, and, and.... And this novel, originally slated in the number five spot, has moved up considerably. Now it's the prologue, ahem, requiring a little more gravity than previously. Previously it was an addendum, fleshing out a character that emerged offhandedly in Book 3, but much like Seth Gordon in The Hawk , this character has turned into a key player. Stories are funny like that, but I need to go with the flow and see what happens. Well, I know what's gonna happen, or I think I do, lol. I've also decided that instead of publishing this series starting this year, I'm going to wait. I won't release it like I did The Hawk , piece by piece as it was written. This series will emerge much further into its creation, even if the novels are presented in a kind...

Amid a break in yesterday's storm, I snapped the nasturtiums pictured above. The sun shone as though it was May, although today's a flat gray wet mess. Still a month of winter remains, but thankfully February is short, even with the Leap Day. I'm ready for spring, but in the meantime.... There are books to start, EPP blocks to fashion, even some gardening to consider, if no more than admiring the nasturtiums I HOPE won't succumb to a crazy late winter frost in the next few weeks. Despite all the precipitation, I haven't noticed any overt achiness, my hands and knees feeling pretty good. Daylight increases every morning and lengthens each evening, and here in Humboldt the grass is thick and green, albeit super squishy. I wear wellies (rubber boots) when walking outside, which lately hasn't happened much as it's been SO DARN WET. But again I'm grateful we haven't lost power, the basement isn't flooded, and tonight I'll build a fire, enjoying th...

A very Kaffe Fassett block for my Flock of Stars quilt. Since my last post I've had a brainstorm amid the lull between storms where I live. Physically I reside on the North Coast of California, but lately I've felt adrift between Earth and some far off galaxy where my novel also takes place. Flitting back and forth between these realms has been fine, but I've also been hurled against how to present my stories, and now as the flat gray sky breaks into streak of blue, I'm grateful to be back on the indie publishing train. It's truly the only way for me. Releasing my own books isn't flashy. It is self-satisfying. Independent publishing demands a lot of work, or not, depending on how much visibility an author wishes to obtain. Self-publishing is a term I'm not fond of because I don't do this by myself. Yet if pressed, that's what it is. I publish fiction on my own rather than shove novels in a drawer or leave them cloistered in a hard drive, languishing ...