In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

  Paper pieces in the box along with all the fabrics, etc. Going to be so much fun! Okay, it's not a total surprise because for the last few posts I've been going on about the Red Sky at Night sampler quilt . I've received the papers for the this project, have already started sewing an EPP block, lol! I'm super excited about making some version of Jodi's pattern; definitely a mix of machine and hand-sewn blocks, but no idea how many of each. The surprise I'm referring to is how suddenly the next few/several months will be full of traditional blocks that previously I had no desire to stitch. Not that I had some grand plan for fall in the quilt department, in fact I'm busy with another quilt that will fit itself into the schedule. But after a VERY QUIET MACHINE SEWING SUMMER, autumn is looking to be chock-full of me seated at my machine, even if I'm finding how my tinnitus isn't really keen on all that noise. (I wear earplugs and noise-cancelling head...

  Small, futzy blocks aren't usually my speed, but the units above have been rockin' my world since receiving Jodi Godfrey's pattern for Red Sky at Night . From top left going clockwise we have Square in a Square, Hourglass, House, Flying Geese, Pinwheel, and Half-Square Triangles. These are not blocks in themselves; Jodi refers to them as units. I capitalized them because, well, at three and a half inches square, with the exception of the Geese, measuring 3.5" X 2", these units have stretched my machine sewing muscles like no others. The Honeycomb Squares quilt was a lotta work, but nothing compared to what RSAN will be. Previously if I wanted complicated, English paper piecing sufficed. It still does, and certainly will with this pattern because some of the paper pieces are pretty dang little. My idea of enjoyable futziness is basting papers, then sewing them by hand; give me all the angles you want, lol! Using my machine, and loads of scant-quarter-inch seams,...

  My eldest called it the sunflower quilt, maybe that name will stick. I meant to write about this quilt top yesterday, but those HSTs muscled their way to the top of my brain. Yet, this quilt-in-the-making needs some blog love. I started it ages ago, slapping it on the design wall back in April, whoa! That was before summer started, before I got Covid, before, well, before. Sometimes before is recent and sometimes it's ages ago. Right now it feels like far longer than April, maybe for all that's happened in the last four months, not only Covid but twenty-nine times two and a Red Sky at Night, and oh yeah, those half-square triangles which I am ACHING to return to, but first I need to finish this post. Because completing that little quilt top, quite bright and a wee bit busy, has been the catalyst for me returning to sewing. Not that I haven't been stitching; loads of hand-sewing has occurred, including hand-quilting placemats that I assumed I would run under my machine...

HST stands for half-square triangles, which in my decade of sewing have remain conspicuously absent from the routine. I don't like sewing triangles; I can't control them. They have their own agendas and.... Anyway, in Jodi Godfrey's latest delightful pattern , HSTs and other angular manners of machine sewing figure heavily. I was reading over the clearly written instructions yesterday, when suddenly I found myself cutting squares, drawing a line down the centers of the light fabrics, then.... Well, those pictured above are what I curated before it was time to eat dinner. I spent a good while rummaging through my stash for appropriately unbusy low volume fabrics, of which I don't have many. Then it was a matter of choosing darker prints, then chain-piecing, pressing, and finally trimming to size. The trimming was the biggest hassle, well, right after finding low volume scraps. A few times I nearly walked away, then I'd gaze at my monitor, where the pattern waited, te...

  Stacked on many sewing projects (as well as a ruler) are these rows which I am FINALLY stitching together, whew! So today I used my machine. I had to dust it off; despite the cover, two months is long enough for particles to accumulate. It needed to be threaded, and to my slight horror and acute embarrassment, I had to look up which way the bobbin thread needed to go. I also oiled it after sewing two rows together, a strange noise that maybe is how it does sound, or perhaps I need to get it properly cleaned. I pressed open seams while the oil seeped into crevices, then still felt like the clunking remained. We'll see if I take it to a local shop for cleaning. I had started this quilt a few months back, sewing squares into rows because someone was visiting, maybe the grandsons back in March? Now it's mid-August, but I'm not going to ask where has the time gone. I've also cracked open Book 2 of The Enran Chronicles , getting through eleven chapters in the last couple of...

  Folders I kept. The last few days I've been steeped in novels I wrote over eleven years ago. I'd been listening to the playlist connected to these stories, and well.... Pulling up 2007-2013 in the books not currently under construction folder, I clicked on Forever of One Heart Part 1 , scrolled through the manuscript, then began to read. I didn't read anything else until I reached the end of Part 2 , which happened last night. Then I went to bed. After breakfast this morning I got dressed, wearing warm-ish clothes because we're actually receiving rain today. Then I breathed deeply, and from the closet I retrieved a box where I store notes from previous books. The big question was if I had purged the folder for Forever of One Heart a few years back when I did a massive clear-out of that box and another, fully aware I didn't need to keep information for drafts I had no plan to revise and release. Apparently Forever fell into that category, because to my chagrin, ...

  One of three EPP blocks I finished yesterday after the kids left, hehehe. Weather along California's North Coast is wholly unpredictable. Meteorologists might provide an outline of temps and conditions, but truthfully living here joyfully means embracing the alterations that can slip away in less time than it takes to enjoy a cuppa. This morning is one such example; about half an hour ago the fog erased the nearby treeline, obscuring the roadway by our home. Within minutes, the fog began to lift, and while the mountains are still shrouded, I can see the treeline and street. I wouldn't hazard to guess if sunshine will make an appearance, but it might. Life is full of surprises you know. #2.... The grandsons left yesterday, the week full of trampolining, trail hikes, books, art, card and board games, a wee bit of Bluey , and other pleasant pastimes. Before they departed, a momma possum trotted through the yard, at least four babies on her back! None of us had ever seen that, al...

  Speckled fabric by Rashida Coleman-Hale: I LOVE this! Years ago I spent the pre-dawn hours seated at my computer working on revisions. I used those moments to slowly grasp a new day as well as fit in necessary edits that allowed me to casually embrace writing without overtaxing my brain. Those were days before I was into English paper piecing, before I became a grandmother. Those were years when I thought I needed to squeeze activity into every spare minute to justify being a stay-at-home spouse even if the most of the kids were out of the house. I still don't like being idle. I'm terrible at meditating, or even watching TV as a relaxing pastime. My oldest grandson finds that hard to comprehend, lol, but I explained that as a kid we only got three channels and television never seemed the be-all end-all. In the last few days, I have returned to those early morning screen hours, but not spent in the office. Instead I'm seated in the living room where the laptop lives, heavi...

My grandsons will be visiting, along with their folks, for the next few days. The stuffie pictured above is Peanut, an old fave of my eldest grandson. Peanut has been in our family for probably over twenty years, and is waiting to be claimed. I thought about putting Peanut on my grandson's bed, but that lad is nine and a half, better for him to do the honors, lol. I was going to read a chapter of The Hawk , but in twenty minutes my hubby and I are off to run errands and get lunch. I probably won't have time to read that book, or write blog entries, while family is here, and I can write a post more quickly than peruse a chapter. I *might* get time for revisions, but only if I wake up super-early and my youngest grandson doesn't, hahaha. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend in whatever manner is most pleasing! More tales from Humboldt County next week....

Last night's EPP finish. After a six-week hiatus, I sat down yesterday with The Hawk . OMG, how I missed those.... Characters is the correct manner to describe them, but honestly I felt like I'd entered a village hall, stepping into a warm camaraderie of family. It was silly, lovely, sentimental, and just what I needed. My goodness I'm glad I wrote that saga! At the end of June, I wrapped up what will be Book 6, as well as finishing Volume 2. I left home feeling pleased for how much I have read since the beginning of the year, hoping to complete these revisions before the start of 2025. That's still my goal, although if I spill into January, no worries. Especially since reading this story brings me incredible joy, which wasn't what I'd considered when initially choosing to revise this, this, this.... It's a LONG tale, originally released in thirteen sections, but they were novellas for the most part. In this re-release, for which I have yet to decide a start...

  The mug pictured above is a pleasure, and a bit of a disappointment. This morning I noticed some of the print is starting to flake off; I just bought this in June for my husband, oi! Yet the messages on this Fred Rogers cup are timeless, and we'll treasure it as long as the words remain. Despite being partially disfigured, the quote in white struck a cord in me today, hence this early morning entry: Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else. Wow! I'm truly feeling that in my current getting over illness, merging back into my house state. Mostly this sense of newness is related to, ahem, accepting my age. Not that suddenly I'm ancient, but OMG I am certainly not as young as I was, um, previously. How previous? Earlier this year, last summer, pre-covid 2020? I'm not exactly sure, but for discussion's sake, let's say March 2024, when I decided to dip my toes into semi-retirement. When I was still fifty...

  Sewing from two night's ago; oh good did this feel! I'm back in the swing of most activities, although my beloved remains partially sequestered. We did enjoy Blake Snell's no hitter against the Cincinnati Reds last night, watching the San Francisco Giants' victory IN THE SAME ROOM. Social distancing is becoming a chore, but until the threat of covid has been erased, so be the power of six feet of separation. In the meantime.... I've been deeply pondering a 2018 quote by Mark Beaumont, writing for the New Musical Express , concerning Kate Bush's life/work balance. To simply paraphrase Beaumont, Kate Bush has deemed life to take precedence over the work, not the other way round. Further in the article Beaumont notes how her later output never felt like comeback attempts, rather more like priceless views into the attic of Bush's creative soul. Again I'm paraphrasing; here's a link to the article. Boy that quote whirled in my head! Earlier this year I...