Posts

Labours of love

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A year ago I was IN LOVE with Kawandi quilting. Hand-stitching thoroughly grabs me, and this was a way to make the quilt top WHILE quilting, what could be better? I actually thought I'd give up machine sewing, lol. Because I was delving into a method so THRILLING, as well as making my Heart English paper piecing quilt top ; it was like hand-sewing heaven. By early summer, my right shoulder was achy. I kept hand-stitching. By late summer, I was nearly done with a Mandolin EPP quilt , and I had a second Kawandi quilt underway . Yet that shoulder.... An X-ray in early October showed no visible issues with the shoulder, WHEW! I had cut WAY back on the hand-sewing however, finding myself in a routine of using my sewing machine every other day. Why every other day? Because even when using earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones, my ears would ring if I used my machine daily. Talk about FRUSTRATING. As well as not being able to get any PT for that right shoulder, sigh. Fast forward to 2...
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Reasons for miracles

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Another shot from 2023; I think my husband took this one. If life was perfect, miracles wouldn't be necessary. I've been pondering this since starting a novel about miracles, and of course current events make stark how badly this world needs miraculous occurrences. As a writer, I conjure drama within every story; plots don't turn without it. Yet manufacturing said melodrama is at times wearying. Balancing the lesser parts of life with joy matters as much in fictional realms as in our corporeal stances. With that said, here's Chapter 9 of my novel. The first scene was written yesterday, the second about ninety minutes ago, with time allowed for me to read it again, clearing the obvious errors. It was slightly unsettling to craft such vitriol, but the grace which follows eased that trauma, partly based on my own experience. Hearts mended by love are indeed capable of furthering deep joy, all I ever wish to do as an author.     Chapter 9   Three women spoke in the hous...
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What DID I do today???

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From summer 2023. I'm not worried about my nation and Israel attacking Iran. Which is weird but good, in the weird but good category. Yet I spent far more time than usual on my computer reading articles and Wiki pages about the unauthorized bombing, at least America's Congress didn't approve it. I didn't get much sewing done, or any truthfully. I did trash a lot of old photos off my phone, like Cornflower Quilt blocks from three years ago and landscape shots that I don't truly need and videos of deer locking horns, battling for supremacy. Is that what's happening in the Middle East, just some bucks, not young certainly, butting heads trying to prove who has bragging rights in the forest? I don't even know!  I did do my back stretches, including the clamshells and leg lifts! Did four loads of laundry, ahem. Helped one chicken find her sisters. The other crying hen walked away despite sisters arriving, whatever! I found the beautiful photo at the top of this ...
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The sun rising higher than before

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Yesterday I finished arranging this on the design wall. Might start sewing it together later today, a post to write about how machine sewing has made its surprise return to my life, like embracing the impending time change.... I know Daylight Savings Time begins in a little over a week, but recently, like yesterday maybe, I came to the realization that the five weeks it takes for us here on the North Coast to reclaim all that morning sunlight isn't the be-all, end-all as I often believe it is. That this year, instead of whinging how suddenly the mornings are dark again, I'll use that time to get my early a.m. stuff accomplished. Then someone will feed those chickens, lol.... Does the switch from Standard Time to DST bother you? It never previously irritated me until we moved to Humboldt County and I could SEE the morning light; no longer was it obscured by houses in our tightly packed Silicon Valley neighborhood. I don't recall what I thought of it when we lived in the UK, ...
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I sleep better when I'm writing (sometimes)

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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...
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Letting God direct the mystery

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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, ...
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