Sometimes creativity is a fickle (tricky) beast

-
I can't wait to sew this together!

The writing is going well; I had a big day yesterday, another good smattering of words today. The subject matter is tricky, in that I'm dealing with racial issues set in 1971. But there's the love story too, of which I am giving all due respect to the drawing out of a twosome aching to come together. Stark are the repercussions of a split, hard for a child to grasp why someone so beloved wishes to leave. Not to give away too many spoilers, but my duo is in that holding stage, waiting for someone to make the first move.

And sometimes it's not one within the relationship to push things over the edge. Sometimes another character nudges one toward their soulmate. Arranging all these folks to their correct spots is like laying a quilt on the wall. Square by square fabrics are placed, then replaced. By the time I'm a good third of the way along, I start moving down beyond where it's easy to navigate, then I have to rearrange just to make sure rows are lined up properly. Kind of like foreshadowing in a novel, lol.

The quilt above is for one of my granddaughters. I have a stack of squares ready for the sister-quilt, but I'm in no rush. These will be for Christmas, mostly because there's no manner for me to sanely and peacefully finish them by the end of the month, 'nuff said. I don't have a timeline about completing my novel; there's no sane manner for me to wrap it up by 30 November, although yesterday I, um, wrote two chapters. Haven't done that in a long dang time, let me say, but the muse said WRITE and I didn't ask how much.

Being open to one's creative forces is so important, be it in writing or sewing or, well, whatever outlet a person uses to express that inner sense of making something. Not all attempts are successful, in a finished kind of way or in "I really like this!" manner. I don't LOVE all my quilts, but I like most of them and some I wish I could keep, hehehe. As for the noveling.... Many of my initial unpublished drafts are crappy, not merely in the storytelling but the plot itself. Some are great and I wonder if those will ever see life outside of a flash drive. What I've written in the last ten years and have released are.... They are novels I am proud to call mine, hah! Not all were easy, but here I am, still at it. I feel the same with sewing, even if the design is simple patchwork squares. My granddaughters picked out most of the fabrics, and it's my pleasure to sew them together like a snapshot back to this summer when the prints were chosen.

Yet one difference between writing and sewing is that while I decide upon the fabrics and pattern, the plot and characters often tap on my shoulder, asking for their stories to be told. This series is like that, and in the current WIP, folks are turning up suddenly, wanting their moment in the sun. The sun is shining today, but dang it's low in the sky, our treeline obscuring most of the rays. Still I'm happy for the brightness, thrilled by telling yet another collection of tall tales rooted in reality. And while sometimes reality sucks big time, the silver lining remains. Love matters, kindness is imperative. And remembering history is vital to keeping this human race at relative peace with itself and with our planet. Learning from mistakes and not repeating them, whether in creative junctures or on the wider stage, is how we're all going to have a happily ever after.

Popular posts from this blog

Fits, starts, and restarts

-
Image
Two examples from two different skeins of yarn where breaks in the colour scheme occur. Very indicative of my current mood, lol. This is a funny novel, for all the hemming and hawing going on. Never before have I written, then purged scenes with somewhat of an abandon. I truly don't know what to make of it, chalking it up to age, grieving, the weirdly long winter (even though it's spring), or my new computer keyboard, which is small but adequate in a strangely truncated manner. I'm enjoying the writing, but the story keeps veering off on tangents I'm not comfortable with, in that too much is being revealed too soon, bleh. Future and Past Me's are steering clear of this manuscript, perhaps because what came before it was so out of the blue, so cathartic, and this prequel is just as outta my backside as any I've ever written. But I am writing, let me restate that, despite restarting a chapter here and there. I'm not getting much else accomplished, other than s
Read more

Orphan blocks are not like unfinished novels

-
Image
It's a busy day, getting ready for guests that will enlighten our lives for the next week. However my feet are a little weary, so why not ramble here for a bit, giving those dogs a rest as well as set upon a discourse about the above title before I forget why I thought it was important (lol). I don't even know why I first pondered this, maybe an IG poster mentioned them, which made me think of my orphan EPP blocks. I don't have many machine sewn blocks without a home, but plenty of English paper pieced designs linger in a tote, patterns I liked and HAD TO MAKE. I used plenty of them on a Turning Twenty quilt, decorating some plain tone-on-tone prints and that was a great manner in which to employ less than a quarter of what remains, ahem. Oh and I used some on a t-shirt quilt that I made in conjunction with a friend, who had lived in Hawaii for a few years and wanted to put her aged shirts to quilty use. But still many remain, although I have a plan for them, hehehe. I am h
Read more

Following one's heart

-
Image
Fascinating from the back, as though a map to an unknown destination. It was an early start today, half a chapter written, then texting with my youngest daughter and enjoying photos of her sunrise a few hours east of us. I woke to clear, starry skies, but clouds have since moved in, rain forecast for the next few days. Maybe in a few days I'll have completed my novel; it's VERY CLOSE to being done, but I said that in a recent post, The End dangling like a carrot merely an arm's length away. Meanwhile I've been stitching together Cornflower blocks each evening. The photo above was snapped last night, what I see as I sew. MANY papers to remove, but I'll deal with that later, lol. I'm also working on another quilt, hehehe, more about that in a day or two. And the last ones for this year are washed and waiting to be given to my granddaughters on Christmas, which is just a little over a week away! I considered today's title right after reading through the sevente
Read more