In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

Flowers at home that the deer ignored. I wonder what of them will remain when I return.... Today's title refers both to my upcoming Midwestern holiday and what I might write when I get back. And sew, but the sewing is really more for later this year, while the fictional prose definitely relates to what I hope to accrue from mid-July onward. Well, in mid-July I'm getting a tooth extracted, but after I recover from that.... Then it will be all about the noveling! I've done a fair amount of traveling this year, more than usual, and while I adore time with beloveds and investigating new places, I also love writing. I miss writing. I haven't written anything solid in months. Revisions are fine; they're necessary and kinda easy (at times) and a change of pace. But writing.... Crafting prose and dialogue makes my pulse race, my heart flutter, my brain happy, and puts my soul into a sphere that, well, proffers a creative joy none of my other hobbies offer. Writing provides ...

  Minus the four missing blocks, it already takes up most of a queen bed. Gathered the gumption to again lay my Alexandria quilt on a flat surface to assess its current form. Which is a stitched center surrounded by a plethora of hexagon blocks in varying states of readiness, four more required to reach one stage of.... Not completion, but to where I can set aside a big medallion, then begin the next stage. Which sounds like a hop, skip, and a mere jump from what lies on the guest bed. Few things could be further from the truth. The basis of which is do I have the guts (and gumption) to handsew blue and yellow blocks to an already sizeable center, then add pink and green blocks. (I think I can, I think I can....) So the honest truth to this quilt is that I upsized it from Jodi Godfrey's original design. Her 1.5" shapes became two inches, although that is the size she used when first making this quilt years ago. When she turned it into a pattern for her club, she shrunk the sha...

  Photo courtesy of my husband. While much in our garden has been attacked by critters, the green beans seem to escaped unscathed. Fingers crossed these purple bean plants, pictured above, as well as the regular green bush variety will continue to grow well! In other news.... Sewing has been a pleasure, but it's not the only joy. This morning I finished revising what will be Book 6 of The Hawk , and wow, what a treat this section has been. Fast-paced action and plenty of it makes for a quick read, amazing this author how deftly a large cast with lots of drama seamlessly winds between characters old and new. I completed not only what will be the sixth installment, but also the second volume, from where I have been reading. One more remains, broken into, ahem, four books. Yeah, it's quite the saga, not at all what I had initially envisioned over a dozen years ago when the idea popped into my head. But sometimes that's how life, and books, goes. Not that I bit off more than I ...

  Thanks to my better half for photo op assistance. Getting something accomplished. Invention too, but in this instance, four rows of my Lavender quilt are now stitched together, mostly for the large triangles I needed for another project. LOL! This quilt has been around for at least three years, maybe four. It dwells in a tote in the living room, patiently waiting its turn in the queue. For the last few months I've pulled out that plastic box, rummaged through blocks made up of four-inch triangles and two-inch half hexagons, realizing I had nearly enough blocks gathered to start the putting-together process. Yet the Cornflower quilt edged out Lavender, other shinies always relegating this beauty back to its spot near the sofa. Well, until I decided I needed YET ANOTHER PRETTY, which requires lots of four-inch triangles. Hence Lavender stepping onto the sewing stage, and now about a third of it is completed, assuming I make this quilt a dozen rows in length. Lately this is how my ...

Sunset on Mum's last day, June 2018 Around the northern hemisphere summer solstice, I get a little introspective. My mum died six years ago at this time of year, and even now I still miss her, maybe I always will. Better that one's parents go first certainly, but she wasn't even seventy, shite! Recently the band Camera Obscura released an album, their first since 2013 and the first since their keyboardist Carey Lander died of osteosarcoma in 2015. My husband put the digital files on my computer and yesterday I listened to some of the.... It's not a record, like in vinyl, but Look to the East, Look to the West is an album, and on it is "Sugar Almond", the tenth of eleven songs, a tune Tracyanne Campbell wrote for Lander. I'm listening to it now, Campbell's melancholy vocals enhanced only by a piano, probably played by Donna Maciocia who was brought into the band for a gig alongside Belle and Sebastian in their Boaty Weekender cruise. Maciocia became Ca...

The whole enchilada!   Here's a quilt I made, love, and would enjoy sewing again if time, energy, and the right fabric collection all align. The Seedlings Sampler quilt, designed by Jodi Godfrey, my version pictured above, based upon the fabulous Literary collection by Heather Givans . Elderberry Quilt block These shots were taken last month at my eldest daughter's home. My youngest granddaughter needed a cozy, and her mum brought out this fave blanket. I snapped it while cuddling with said grandgirl, pondering many things. Yarrow Quilt block How nice it is to snuggle with a beloved. How lovely that when a quilt was required, my daughter offered this particular one. How marvelous it was to create. How blessed we were at that moment to be together. How much I wanted to write a post about this comforter, but it took me a few weeks to do so, lol. Feverfew and Cornflower blocks This quilt was planned in September 2019, and I began stitching during Jodi's sew-along the followin...

  House rules call for Free Parking to be more than a quiet resting place. Last week I visited my youngest daughter's family, helping out while her hubby was away on business. The weather in the Sacramento Valley was HOT for the first three days, and while later on we went to a park, splash pad, and pool, for the first few days we stayed inside and indulged in a different kind of entertainment: card and board games! Fortunately my grandsons love games, especially the eldest. Crazy 8's and Go Fish have been staples of his childhood, and his younger brother got in the act, learning the basics of Go Fish and how to deal, hehehe. Board game-wise we enjoyed Junior Scrabble, Life, Carcassonne Junior, Yahtzee, Battleship, and finally managed to squeeze in a game of Monopoly, National Parks version, pictured above. My youngest grandson wasn't a participant of all those games, but many, and I was so pleased he's taking an interest in card games. A deck of cards will never run ou...

My beautiful Cornflower quilt is DONE. This quilt was sewn by hand, except for attaching the front of the binding. I also machine-stitched the perimeter's edge. The rest was an English paper-pieced effort from my fave designer Jodi Godfrey . Initially I made these blocks while stitching the Seedlings Sampler quilt in late 2019-early 2020. After that project was completed, I made a few extra blocks, but didn't plan on making a full Cornflower version until perhaps 2021. Then blocks were fashioned as I worked on other projects until it became obvious how much I loved making this particular design. I enjoyed it so much that I enlarged the quilt, adding an additional row. I haven't measured it, but it's definitely a rectangle, and plenty long to snuggle under lying down. Strangely enough, less than ten days ago I thought completing this wouldn't occur until perhaps summer's end. I wasn't in a rush per se, although I was tired of it taking so much spa...

  Not to give away spoilers, but in revising The Timeless Nature of Patience , the sixth Alvin's Farm book, I was stunned to find how much of my family's history was included. Veiled yes, but pertinent. Especially in the wake of my mom's passing, which occurred six years ago on the upcoming solstice.  What I realize now, a good dozen years after I wrote the above passage, is mostly due to what Mom told me shortly before she died. How she prayed for all of her kids to not make the same mistakes in life she did. What's especially poignant is that three of us five weren't her biological offspring, me included. Yet she thought of us as hers, although my natural brother disliked her intently. Much as Tanner hated Alana, my brother Joe loathed our stepmom. She knew it, loved him anyways. When Mom shared her insights, she didn't differentiate between her natural children, her sons, her daughters. We were five, although Joe was dead by then. Yet she still loved him. Wh...

  Edging the perimeter is a slow process, but very rewarding in the overall sense of almost being done! Literally less than a week ago I mentally decided if I didn't get my Cornflower quilt done until late summer, I'd be happy. As long as I had it in time for autumn, woo hoo. One more of the edging process because the fabrics are so pretty, lol. Two days ago I finished the hand-quilting. I hadn't planned on it, but late in the afternoon I sat down to stitch and whoop there it ended. I hauled it upstairs, because it required perimeter stitching, a binding made, then attached, but wow, suddenly one great big task was over. Meanwhile I had started machine quilting a new comforter for my husband, and assumed the Cornflower quilt would wait patiently for its turn at the machine. Perimeter sewing DONE! Yesterday slipped away with no machine sewing whatsoever. I've been reading the last book in the Alvin's Farm series and spent most of my free time with that, sincerely en...

  After thoroughly checking every block of my Cornflower quilt, I have finished the hand-quilting.  That element is DONE. I did find three small sections I'd forgotten. Stitch stitch stitch.... What I thought was the last block until I found the incomplete sections, lol. Stitch stitch stitch. So many stitches, so much love. I told my husband this quilt is for us, the first English paper-pieced comforter I've made that hasn't been for someone else. I also told him if someone likes it, I'd gladly give it away. So then I can make another, haha. But for now it's ours, and I love it. I loved choosing the prints for each block, basting the papers, sewing them together. Making this quilt was indeed a labour of love. Next up is machine-sewing the perimeter. Oh, and making the binding, then attaching it. When those steps are accomplished, I can't wait to share the completed quilt! Meanwhile.... Here's another finish, a baby quilt. Happy week everyone!