Stepping away from the work

Wildflowers and sunflowers I grew from seed, unbothered by our coolish weather....

Well kind of moving aside, this post notwithstanding. Yesterday I uploaded the second novel so it can be sampled by prospective readers while The Possibility of What If hit other online retailers, that was exciting! So this morning instead of plopping down in front of a computer, I parked my behind on the sofa and picked up a big English paper piecing project that is sort of near completion. A Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt for my youngest granddaughter only needs the rows sewn together, but that's a lot of hand-stitching, kind of like finishing a first draft then saying, "All I have left are the revisions!"

Ah revising; there's no beast quite like picking apart a paragraph and putting it back together. I've sat with two or three of those in the last few weeks, trying to figure out the best way of saying this or that, or wondering what I was on about originally. Yet there is an ease to editing, not coming up with everything like when I wrote the darn book, ha ha. It's like quilting, how there are the choosing of fabrics, the cutting up of fabrics, the basting of papers or arranging of prints upon a design wall. Then those scraps are sewn together by machine or hand, how a quilt top is born. In writing there are steps to follow; plotting either tightly or loosely, writing, revising, then if one chooses there are paths to publication. Books and quilts don't just make themselves.

The garden is similar and after lunch today I did some revising there too; I pulled eight tomato plants that were put in the ground too late for our mild summer here in Humboldt County. It was a little sad yanking them from the dirt, good root systems that in many other places would proffer plentiful toms throughout September. But I couldn't justify the water they would require just to stay alive, and I have plenty of other plants with fruits that I might actually get to eat before our first frost or the sun dips too low past the trees. This is our first year of gardening here, so much has been an experiment. I'll try Black Krim tomatoes again next year along with cold-tolerant varieties that I can get in the ground sooner next spring than when they went in this year.

Much of life is the willingness to try, possibly fail, then do it again. I keep a gardening journal and today's entry will be all about the toms that went in the bin. Blogging here is like keeping track of the writing, and of course I have a quilt notebook with details about various projects. Mostly what matters is enjoying all the processes, be they for public or private pleasure. And letting each have some breathing space; I don't garden every day, I change out the quilts-in-progress, and for as much as I love writing, it's vital to separate myself, even just a bit, from that marvelous endeavor. Then I can return to it with fresh eyes and eager typing skills ready to create or overhaul whatever feels right. It's indeed a blessing to have these awesome treats to not merely keep myself busy but to exercise the creative spirit that feeds my soul, and maintains my sanity. Now if I can just figure out a good place to sow seeds gathered from today's photo where the critters won't cause overt mischief....