In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

Some of this year's fave quilts! I've been pondering this post for a few days. Possibly in that I published novels this year, woot woot! The quilting felt luke-warm until I scrolled through photos, which revealed I'd made ten quilts, all simple patchwork save an English paper pieced finish. Another woot for that, as well as only three of them remaining at my house, lol. 2024 was a year of.... Change. No kidding! I had covid for the first time, which sidelined half of summer. My sewing machine has never been under cover for as many WEEKS as it was, and still is. The defeat of Kamala Harris was, and still is, gut-wrenching, yet the passing of Jimmy Carter could mitigate the agenda of the incoming administration if people choose to honor selflessness and service to others over narcissism and greed. We'll see what happens. Yet this post is not about the future. This entry regales what doesn't go in our Christmas/Hanukkah letter sent to family and friends. To them I ment...

Hearts made last night after my fave basketball team won. Lol. Fashioning hearts because love matters. So lately while my husband eats his oatmeal, I've been sewing jewels into hearts. I finish breakfast before him, mostly because his oatmeal takes ages to prepare (he chops an apple and uses old fashioned oats, which takes a good five-plus minutes to cook). Yet I don't like leaving the table just as he's sitting down to eat. Years ago I kept English paper piecing on the dining table, as I was awake before he was, and wanted to do something productive, if I wasn't writing, before he left for work. I don't like being idle, it makes me twitchy. Better to sew something than feel twitchy any day. Anyway.... Since starting these hearts, I've tried to squeeze time to make more of them. There's plenty to do for Alexandria, and I am, stitching hexagon blocks like the one above. I have eleven more to make, then of course HEAPS more to configure, but these hearts, oh m...

Cards I made this morning. More breadcrumbs fer shure! The perfect way to describe my novels. Seriously lol. Having taken off a few days from revisions (not writing, because in all honestly I am NOT WRITING anything at the moment), this morning I opened Splitting the Sky in manuscript form and began making corrections from the version on my phone. Where I had noted to rework this section , I merely inserted that directive onto the document, hah, then moved on with the next notation. I'll rework those sections after I clear all the tabs in the ebook, because it's still a holiday-sort of time, no need to get crazy with editing. Also that in the big picture, my books are digital breadcrumbs in the corporeal sky. Don't misconstrue; I take my writing (or revising, whatever!) seriously. My novels are the best of what I can produce right now, and I'm pleased (and a bit proud) of the themes pursued, prose created, characters blossoming whether I had them initially in mind or n...

In reading Give Her My Love, I'm struck at who I have become in being a storyteller.... Or more rightly, in who I am within my marriage, and how that's translated into my books. I'm the hawk, who'd have guessed? More rightly, I am Eric Snyder while my beloved and at times beleaguered spouse is the stalwart Lynne, always waiting for her lover's return. From writing, from sewing, from an abysmal childhood, though I carry no outward deformities, unlike a mysterious painter. Yet my psyche and soul were deeply battered from an abusive alcoholic biological mother, and through my husband's love and support, I am no longer (or not very often) a scarred, scared little girl wondering if anyone could appreciate me. Maybe these weren't the Christmas Eve revelations you were expecting. I wasn't expecting them either. All I wanted was to complete this read-through, upload the manuscript to Smashwords , then move on with my day. However.... Now I have plenty to ponder,...

  Already it's the last Sunday before Christmas. I could say this year has sped past, but time moves so quickly now that I'm...not so young anymore. And yet, for as quickly as this year is ending, another awaits, the fleeting and permanence of today's title. Much like our lives on this planet, our grasp of what we believe we possess, like our health, things, a claim on a month that is practically over; December roared in on a wave of advertisements and assumptions, as though shopping till we drop is the achievable nirvana once a year. Yet what does Christmas mean? It's still celebrated over two thousand years after Jesus's birth, so it's relevant. It's.... It's late on this Fourth Sunday in Advent, and I'm weary. Tired of ads proclaiming that all matters is sparkly holiday parties and athletes dressed up as Santa saving the day. I'm exhausted from all the commercialization of something sacred. And in a few days, attention will be turned to the en...

For a storm, Christmas, publication, a quilt, the new year.... We received half an inch of rain last night/this morning, but thankfully the predicted winds weren't as wild as forecasters considered. The basement is full of firewood, some in the carport not because it's tremendously cold but if we lose power. Our temps are currently mild. I'm grateful for it. Preparing for Christmas includes some cooking (I made cranberry sauce today, will fix a candy cane ice cream pie tomorrow). Presents I'm responsible for are wrapped, lol. (Paper, tape, scissors, labels, and a few bows are out for my husband, hehehe.) When we lived in the UK we got a gammon (ham) from Marks & Spencers, and ham remains our tradition, alongside garlic/Gruyere cheese scalloped potatoes and peas (my husband LOVES peas). All those ingredients, save red potatoes, have been purchased. Christmas prep also includes LAUNDRY. For some weird reason, I like doing all the laundry before Christmas, so that task...

The view from my living room window this morning. Not sure what this will be about, but something good, I'm certain. Today's title came from our pastor, who spoke about the unpredictability of life in a recent communion service. He was relating it to Joseph, who initially was going to divorce Mary once he realized she was already pregnant until an angel told him the true story behind this young woman's condition. Who can imagine what Joseph might have thought, other than believing, as he remained her husband and became, as the pastor put it, Jesus's stepfather, a term I'd never considered previously. As the pastor spoke, I closed my eyes, tears welling, but not quite streaming down my face. It wasn't from sadness, more from the massive joy I possess within my faith, and how life's unpredictability isn't always the end of the frickin' world. Sometimes it feels pretty dang bad, but even that unpleasant sting fades, leaving me with additional patience, ...

Ice Cream Soda block in progress. While it's awesome to visit with family, home is home for a reason. We're back and happy to be here, and with most things unpacked and laundry spinning, it's time to consider what's next. LOL. But seriously.... My shoulder feels good after several days without sewing. The Alexandria quilt will be my focus this evening. After I finish an Ice Cream Soda block (pictured above) that I started over the weekend. Okay, I did a wee bit of stitching. I supervised (or helped build) Lego constructions. Gingerbread house constructions. Craft constructions. Played several card games, including Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza , which is MARVELOUS! If you're looking for a last-minute gift for any age, and aren't averse to a cool game of Slap Jack, it's a winner. But SERIOUSLY.... While I didn't do much sewing, I caught up on edits of my next novel, Splitting the Sky . Always great reading a book on one's phone for that published fee...

  SF Bay Area traffic last night. This weekend my hubby and I are back in the SF Bay Area to celebrate our youngest grandgirl's birthday, as well as partake of some early familial Christmastime shenanigans. It's nice to reconnect with beloveds at this time of year, even if only for a few days. Makes all the difference in the world when we go our separate ways, as we all invariably do. When we left Silicon Valley for Humboldt County, there was a compromise. The traffic pictured above was happily jettisoned for California's quiet North Coast. For a small town vibe amid several not tiny enclaves that make up the Fortuna/Eureka/Arcata/McKinleyville corridor along U.S. Route 101. That's where we call home, a Redwood tree-lined mish-mash of locales and folks, banana slugs and brown slugs, deer and other critters. We've lived there now for three years and I LOVE IT. I really do. I also adore my children and grandkids, and none of them live anywhere remotely close. Remote i...