Suspect sewing tools and never-ending revisions

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A view indicative of revisions methinks.

A few months ago I ordered new hand-sewing needles; I like Clover both for sewing and their little clips. However the size ten needles, labeled for applique, aren't as long as they used to be, and are pretty useless for hand-quilting. That was a disappointment, but I had a few of the old production line stashed away, although I wasn't sure what would become of the truncated needles. Well tonight I found a use for them, in basting paper shapes! They are still VERY SHORT, but at least they won't be wasted.

Meanwhile I'm still fiddling around with my novel. Today I wrote a brief scene as well as rewrote a scene recently added. Dude.... Not quite a facepalm moment, but certainly an Aw Shucks sort of sensation that previously might have made me go GRRRR. But revisions are what they are, a reworking of a draft that desperately needed reworking, ahem. How the editing evolves is merely another day in the life of a writer, ba-dump-bump!

Rewriting is better than finding one's sewing needles are too short for their intended purpose. There's nothing I can do to lengthen needles, but boy howdy I can whittle away cruddy prose or pile more back on as necessary. This round of edits has meant a lot of going back in the draft to check this and confirm that and add more notes and delete dialogue written in the last revision, as I did today. The End feels further away than I had planned, but it's just a matter of actively perusing this novel within an inch of its multiple draft life. One of these days I'll get to start the next story.

I'm grateful the Cornflower blocks come together a whole heap faster than these revisions are plodding along. In the last couple of days I've basted shapes for four more blocks, whoa! Two more blocks require basting, and tonight I basted diamonds to complete the block begun a few days ago. It's great to put together these pretty assortments of octagons, petals, and squares in a variety of prints, bordering them all in green eight-point diamonds in myriad emerald hues. Of course the hand-sewing together of all these blocks won't be a speedy endeavor; that will take about as long as what these revisions have seemed, dribs and drabs of edits that Future Me holds to her chest like a special completed treasure. Past Me feels the same about this particular manuscript, but in a different manner, as though a sweetly scented healing balm that emerged as I tried to wrap my head around grievous loss. So while this novel currently drives Present Me more than a little nuts, my other selves are begging Present Me to just CHILL OUT, lol.

Sure, fine, whatever. I'll chill out. And do more revisions (and hand sewing) tomorrow.

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