In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

Before I slip into all about writing, let me say that Gigi is no longer broody! She didn't need to be placed onto the wall-shelf last night, and has spent the last two days out with her sisters. Yesterday we received SO MUCH RAIN, over three and a half inches in twenty-four hours. Owl and Nadia were out in the rain MOST OF THE DAY. Camilla joined them for the latter half of the afternoon, and by evening, as a mere drizzle fell from the sky, all eight hens were poking around the grass and gravel as if worms had fallen from heaven. Eight hens preening or chillin' out, sweet chickies! Also, I completed the medallion-Minnesota quilt, but it was TOO WET to hang it out for photos. My husband acquiesced to act as holder, and I'm very happy with it. Right after the photo session, I carefully folded it, and now it's on the stack of finished quilt tops/backs that are beginning to pile up in the closet where my stash lives. Not sure at all when I will get to them, or in what manne...

As I've attached two sides of the border, the third pinned and waiting for maybe tomorrow, here's an excerpt from Can't Be Done Alone: The Hawk Book Five , which I am formatting for a late spring release. I love this exchange between Lynne and Marek, written maybe ten years ago, and wholly relevant for what's happening today, as in Gigi the most recent broody hen has been behaving since we let her out of the Broody Hen Condo before lunch. It's been windy but sunny, good weather for chickens to keep a broody sister busy, and the Warriors beat the Nuggets despite Doris Burke wishing otherwise, lol. And because sometimes we simply have to take things on faith: novels, quilts, hens, etc....  Lynne felt a chill as Marek stopped speaking. Their eyes met, then the pastor nodded. “Please give me Laurie’s address. Do you feel he’ll be there a while?” “I do, or I hope so.” Lynne’s lip trembled. “Actually Marek, I don’t know what to wish for other than God’s will.” “That, ...

And LOADS of other musings like aging and chickens and writing, lol.  On Wednesday, although it feels like AGES ago, I snapped pics of the latest round on the medallion quilt. Later that day I chose the border fabric, then many other items landed on my proverbial plate, a chapter of my new novel completed being one of them, WOO HOO. I left the clouds at the top of this shot because they are quite indicative of the colouring of the quilt, winterish and such. Maybe tomorrow I'll cut the border fabric and truly get this top or back DONE. But there's been no time until now to write about that pretty quilt, or the broody chicken Gigi, who as of this writing has yet to lay an egg today, although she did lay late yesterday afternoon. She's definitely broody, spent some time in the broody hen condo until my husband felt sorry for her and took her into the garden. He let Camilla in too, then other hens, then everyone was shooed out, and Gigi found her way back to the coop. Tomorrow ...

A trench my husband dug today as the run was a soggy mess from the rain. Owl or Cami Chicken is to the left. Photo courtesy of my better half. Sometimes a theme attaches itself to a sewing project. Sometimes I go into a quilt with an agenda. And sometimes it's a mix of these notions. The medallion quilt, the first I have made by machine, is both. (Pictures of the progress in the next post, once I complete the current round....) The gray/blue/neutral fabrics lend themselves to winter. Which is coming down with abundance right now all over California. In adding the pink, I wanted to break up, just a little, the gray/blue theme. But I didn't want to diminish the cool sense of.... Detachment? Sorrow? Understated comprehension of bleakness? Yes, I wanted to somehow honor those killed and suffering in Minnesota. Yet all over this planet heartache and injustice rages. But beauty and compassion and love also stand firm, welcoming all those seeking mercy and solace and affection. We can...

I could use this shot as a cover photo for the book, lol. Just a scene, merely to note that while bad things happen and no one blinks, why can't miracles occur similarly....   The actual haircut took ten minutes, the chit-chat minimal. Hannah was no-nonsense during her work, one of the reasons Kym had started going to her over fifteen years ago, after Hannah got her ya-ya’s out living in Santa Rosa, first in attending cosmetology school, then meeting who she would marry, then dragging that man back to her hometown because despite losses, nowhere on God’s green earth was more beautiful and peaceful than the King Range. Hannah had been smart enough to know that Deadfern was the closest she and Connor would get in terms of urban living, and Connor had been wise enough not to argue with her. He worked at the post office, and had weathered a few years with Shauna before she had been moved to delivery. Yet Hannah and Connor were years younger than Kym, had three kids, and after Kym adm...

Gigi from yesterday enjoying a flowerbed inundated with weeds. She's looking pretty pleased with herself, lol. Photo courtesy of my husband. Don't forget the chickens, yet will they forget the sunshine? Sunday afternoon on the getting more soggy by the minute North Coast of California; I just finished adding the round of pinkish-orange Grunge around this developing medallion quilt. I've plotted out the next round, but am unsure how wide the strips will be. Currently the quilt is thirty-nine inches across, and if I add six and a half inch wide slabs of fabric, then I'm looking at a pretty large-ish quilt, with a couple more rounds to go. I'll have to consider this notion, but with over four inches of rain forecast for the next several days, I see myself sewing as often as my tinnitus allows. It will be striking if nothing else. Which has been every other day or so, but what's a little ringing of one's ears when it's super-wet out and cold for our neck of ...