In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

Ruthie the Barnevelder hen. A not so broody hen notwithstanding.... First an update about that hen. Ruthie is now her name, as now I can tell apart the triplets, whew! Their combs tell the tale; Ruthie has a very small comb (and wattles), while Gigi has the largest. Icey is the third, and her name is made from the initials IC, which stand for irregular comb, as Icey's comb has an odd spike in the center. Fortunately Ruthie has been a well-behaved hen for two days now, and *HOPEFULLY* that spate of broodiness won't be revisited anytime soon. Now, about that novel.... I am still pondering how I can be ever so blessed to craft stories, especially after not writing a complete manuscript for over, ahem, two years! I finished Home and Far Away in mid December 2023, then wrote a quarter of The Enran Chronicles Book Five last June. Yet that incomplete manuscript, while not haunting, remains unfinished. The book I began today is a standalone (WOO HOO, lol...) about miracles. And it ki...

  Miss Broody Hen 2026....   What's been going on lately as I returned home from Silicon Valley.... So much to say, but only forty-six minutes to write before I check on Broody Hen. One of the Barnevelder Triplets has decided to go mildly broody; she doesn't try to bite, though she does growl if approached in her nesting box. She has plucked many feathers, but not down to her actual skin. And when removed from her box, placed in the Broody Hen Condo for an hour, then finding a way to escape she doesn't immediately race back to the coop. She hung out with her sisters, scratching through gravel and dirt near the coop as rain softly began to fall. Then the rain came down hard and I went inside and she went back to the coop, dang chicken! This is our first rodeo with a broody hen. She started this instinctual hoo haa on Friday, hanging out in a nesting box all afternoon. And evening. And sleeping there until at some point on Saturday, the day I drove home, she came out of the b...

Today's featured quilt was made for my eldest, celebrating her birthday several years ago. She asked for a blue and brown cozy, and I joyfully acquiesced with this beauty, which I enjoyed last night on their guest bed. A deliberate play on words in today's title; I'm visiting my eldest and her family in our former stomping grounds of Silicon Valley. And I'm reminded of a fave book amid my catalogue, Home and Far Away , for how odd it is to return to where one used to live, or from where one originated in some vague manner. Because in returning to a house I know well, and beloveds I know even better, there is a sense of, "Dude! Did I actually live in this wacky big city?" As well as granddaughters getting SO TALL and not being the wee sprites that pop up on computer screen savers back home. And where exactly is HOME? What does that mean in the grand scheme.... Most of these fabrics were acquired at Joann. But those dark blue leaves on faint light blue, from whe...

Always a pleasure to announce the release of a new novel; Nothing More Complicated: The Hawk Book Four has been a joy to my heart in these difficult times. Despite the blithe title, this novel addresses the effects of depression on three characters, and how their beloveds address a malady that in the early 1960s, when this novel is set, was rarely discussed. This story is also about patience. And healing. And how meaningful is family to which we weren't born, but have found love and comfort within. And this novel sets the stage for a major shift in the plot; Eric's issues have been the main topic for perusal, however a deeper layer awaits, which I did NOT foresee when beginning this tale back in the fall of 2013. It was merely going to be about a man who, well, changed. A LOT. And how that affected his wife and their friends. But sometimes a depth is plumbed little by little, which at times is all we can absorb. This series is that kind of character-driven saga. Below is the f...

I had planned to use pictures from the Winnie the Pooh quilt for this tutorial, but as I prepped the rainbow quilt, I snapped shots of that process for this post. Heads-up: This is long, lots of photos, and probably more words than you need, but I don't often (if ever because I use tried and true methods borrowed from quilters long before me) write tutorials, so please bear with me on this. However, might I add, not merely in my defense, but to strengthen my belief that if one isn't averse to hand-stitching, that this method, heavily borrowed from Kawandi quilting, is a marvelous manner in which to throw quilting bindings out the window. Okay, having said ALL THAT, here's how I go about securing the perimeter of a quilt! First, make a quilt sandwich just as you normally would, however, the extreme excess backing and batting can be eliminated for this method! Less waste = more materials for future projects, lol. Now, I like to sit for the rest of this procedure, but if you p...

I was fooling myself last week, assuming I could have the rainbow quilt on the living room sofa, all ready for me to hand-quilt. Conveniently I forgot about securing the perimeter, that I prefer to do in our guest room, with said quilt spread out on the bed. That imperative fact somehow slipped my mind, or I blocked it. Either way, for the next few days that precious quilt will loiter in its own space, and eventually it will meander to where I am currently seated, typing this post. One reason I didn't make the quilt sandwich until today was that yesterday I attended a protest/rally to denounce the murders taking place in Minneapolis, as well to honor Keith Porter, killed by ICE in Northridge on New Year's Eve, 2025, and others harmed and slain by ICE in the last year. This protest was announced in our local news and on Reddit late on Saturday afternoon. Less than eighteen hours later over one thousand people stood in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse seeking justice, peac...