A Contemplative Life

My Lavender quilt-in-progress.... How now, suddenly, my heart is drawn to the Lavender EPP quilt when not long ago I didn't think I'd ever finish it. (And now that translates to other things, like certain novel series, Enran ahem....) Over five years ago I started basting shapes for Jodi Godfrey's Lavender quilt . It's from her book The Seedling Quilts , and in Godfrey's pattern, the EPP is surrounded by negative space. I first made the pattern with her Seeding Quilt sampler and I FELL IN LOVE with it, once I understood it. That took a while, staring at this beautiful design but not quite able to get my head around it. Then it was yet another English paper pieced quilt I just HAD TO MAKE. Several of those over the years, lol, but I've completed some. Yet for all my initial love of Lavender, other shinies overtook it. Shunted it to the end of the queue. Demoted it into a tote that despite being feet away from where I sit at night to stitch, it might as well hav...

During a lovely chat with like-minded friends this afternoon, I was hit hard but kindly with the sense that telling stories is truly my destined.... It's not a job and I used called in the title. It's my manner of using a God-given skill to touch as many hearts as its supposed to. Not that lately I've been pondering why I write or its intended audience. Sometimes the pings on our hearts and souls are merely to remind us then and there what we're doing that might seem unimportant to us or others does carry weight, have meaning, own a purpose. And to know that within my soul meant a lot to me, means much right now, why I'm typing this entry. I don't know if it's related to the story I'm revising, but certainly The Deadfern Miracles possesses a deeper layer than the tagline I came up with yesterday: A love story about miracles, marriages, best friends, second chances, and grace. Grace figures heavily, yet receives last billing. That's probably becaus...

Finished yesterday afternoon! Sweetness in Shell Rummel's Traverse fabric from her Daybreak collection. This project was far less painful than I imagined. The last time I made curtains was in 2014 for the house my youngest daughter was then living at, and those drapes were produced with the barest of sewing essentials; a machine, an iron and ironing board, tape measure, scissors, pins, um.... Certainly no ample table or cutting mat or rotary cutter. Which might not sound like much, but believe me, they made a big difference this time. My husband recalls me saying, "I am never again sewing curtains!" I don't remember that, which is good because if I did, I wouldn't have made these. Of which I am so pleased, especially since I didn't even think about matching up the waves when choosing the fabric. I simply had plenty, though I ordered and used more, and I LOVE the print, and.... I learned that in future curtain/drapery construction I won't pick prints that ...

Making soup on an initially damp day while anticipating revisions. That was yesterday's morning weather, much the same today without the overt drizzle. Again I made soup, split pea, same as yesterday. Not that I ADORE pea soup, though I do enjoy it. Merely that yesterday's batch went in the freezer and today's is in the fridge, and will last the next couple of days. What's different is that today is still cloudy. That's one beauty of living on the North Coast; how weather alters from day to day. Yes we most often begin with the marine layer, but when the sunshine emerges, and for how long, can't be predicted, and that's not taking into account the microclimates depending on how close one resides to the actual ocean/bay. Point in case: Yesterday it was almost RAINING, so heavy was the mist! Perfect weather for soup, as it felt like October and not the end of August. However by ten a.m. the sun was nudging its kind way through the clouds and by noon it was as ...

Nadia amid the wishflowers, what my granddaughters call dandelions gone to seed. Our chickens are sneaky creatures; this morning as I finished breakfast, I peered out the window and there's Nadia strutting across the front yard. It's not even eight a.m. and she's already flown out of the run, exploring as she is wont to do. Lately I've had breakfast before I feed the chickens, as I'm up early and we don't feed them now until around seven o'clock. But this morning I was mesmerized by a band of heavenly light sandwiched between two pushy layers of cloud that JUST COULDN'T PUT OUT THAT LIGHT! (Lol.) They tried, those portions of the marine layer, squeezing with all their cloudy might, but that light was just like Nadia Chicken; stealthy, smart, powerful in its own not so little way. Nadia's merely a hen, and yeah, she scales the door, and can fly right back in, as my husband witnessed later this morning. But those clouds, that marine layer, my goodness!...

This morning's gorgeous sky! Last night my husband and I shared supper with good friends. Before we left our house, marine layer-looking clouds were drifting from the north along the western horizon. I figured that marine layer would spread, and while I'd not been to our host's home, I hoped for a few minutes to admire the blue sky from her place until the clouds firmly took hold. This morning as the marine layer was interrupted by a smidgen of blueish sky, I was brought back to our lovely evening filled with great conversation, delicious food, marvelous friendship AND a clear sky that seemed to defy the marine layer until well past nine p.m.! Our host has beautiful western and southerly views from her backyard,where we ate, chatted, then enjoyed a fire in her firepit. All the while I kept remarking how amazing was the sky, unfettered by the ubiquitous cloud bank. I saw Venus descend, other stars emerge, and the waxing gibbous moon to the south, such astronomical treats! Ou...