In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

How can I NOT finish this quilt? Mandolin musings.... So a couple days ago, probably right after I wrote the previous entry, I considered using six-point diamond papers from my Mandolin pattern for Alexandria, which is in desperate need of diamonds. I've been pondering the Mandolin EPP quilt-in-progress, as well as the Myrtle design, Lavender, Ice Cream Soda, ummm... Lots of English paper piecing WIPs, and sometimes I rob Peter to pay Paul, so to speak, to keep them all supplied as I don't have exact kits for each. The Mandolin quilt, blocks pictured above, is my second version of this pattern, and the first one I actually use the proper kit to construct, lol. Why not steal some diamonds for Alexandria, then get to work on that, I blithely considered. Until I found I had finished eight Mandolin blocks! I thought I had maybe five, six tops. But eight, out of the dozen I had planned, wow! Slight guilt crept over me as I examined them, all made from autumnal Art Gallery fabrics, ...

  I wash my dishes. We don't have a dishwasher, although we're planning a kitchen remodel, and at this point it is looking to be a 2025 project. Which is fine, because if I'm happy manually washing mugs, silverware, etc, I'm doing pretty well. Revisions have been my morning focus, as I wash dishes in the afternoon. Every other day I work on Enran Book #2, mixing it up with an older novel that I might or might not publish. I didn't plan to alternate the edits, but in the last several days, that's how it's been going. It's refreshing, both in the switching round and the spontaneous nature of how that evolved. I'm chalking it up to the twenty-nine times two theory, not stressing out about it. But if I wanted to analyze it, just a little bit.... LOL, that's what this blog is kinda about, looking at my life, from writing to kitchen maintenance, through an altered lens. Or a lens rarely considered while I'm poking at prose or scrubbing teacups. Or ...

 A 2020 finish for my eldest that turned out far more beautifully than I could have dreamed; The Seedlings Quilt, pattern by Jodi Godfrey.   The plot for my current novel has been in my brain for ages. Sometimes books are like that, or story ideas, but not always do they come to fruition. This yarn was first spun well over a year ago in the guise of an initial chapter that went nowhere, or so I thought when abandoning it after just twenty-five hundred words. Now many more chapters have been accumulated, the end kinda in sight, or it better be for how the word count has risen, ahem. The writing and plotting have been good, maybe why it's evolved into more than the standard 80-100K book. I'm fine with that, it is just the first draft. But now that I'm reaching The End, I'm starting to wonder how this tale will actually look once I get there. Fortunately I have several days to ponder it, hehehe, as I'm taking off this week from writing to enjoy the presence of dear fri...

The fun of machine quilting! And does it all come together FAST. Not quite like making hay while the sun shines, but when the plumber turns off the water for four hours on a soggy day, this seamstress knows how to make do. It's been a week full of anticipation, not for the plumber mind you, but for dear friends arriving this weekend. I've been sewing a quilt top, pictured below, that I didn't want loose on the guest room design wall, hah! I've caught up on laundry from our sojourn last weekend, tidying here and there, but yesterday having completed that quilt top left today and tomorrow wide open for the kind of cleaning that, well, I basically put off until right before guests arrive. Yeah, that was how I meant to spend today, hip-deep in dusting, mopping, etc, etc, etc. But when the plumber arrives with loads of enthusiasm to fix a few other issues, we said, "SURE THING!" The water was going to be off for four hours anyway, might as well knock off other thin...