2023 in review

-
Not quite finished, but certainly the last quilt of this year.

Books, blog posts, quilts, English paper piecing.... My creative life was awash with words and colour, fabrics and chapters. Not the series I though twelve months ago I would write, but then life turns into the passing of a life and my life took a turn too.

Twelve months cannot be summed up within one entry. I could denote the novels written, but I'm still not ready to spring titles from purgatory, lol. What I will say is I plan to release the first installment soon-ish. Like perhaps February. We'll see what happens between now and then.

I will also say that spending a year writing was marvelous; I didn't expect it, allowing these characters and ALL THEIR DRAMA to fill my brain and nerve endings in a manner that eased a tumultuous death in my family. A year ago.... No, I can't go there. Because now is all we have and now is slipping away with every sentence I type.

A sample of my sewing/crocheting accomplishments!

As for the quilts.... I made a dozen, plus two tops, one of which is basted and waiting for time at my machine. The other is buried under fabric, ahem, waiting for its turn in the basting queue. The quilts I made weren't huge; five of them were large lap-sized. The other seven ranged in size from medium to, well, medium. Some were simple patchwork, some were artsy, some were rainbow-themed. All of them made me happy, and most of them were given away. I think I kept two, which is exactly how it should be or the quilts could stage a coup and boot us out of the house.

In the English paper piecing department.... Early on I discarded the Alexandria quilt, then concentrated on Cornflower blocks that as of right now are stitched together in rows, a big win! I futzed around with some Mandolin and Ice Cream Soda blocks, stitched random hexie flowers, made quite a few appliqued Onesies for parents to dress their new babies in, as well as crocheting baby blankets for said infants. And I made several cowls with yarn, enjoying the ease with which that hobby travels.

I did some traveling, always with sewing tagging along for the ride. I'm considering taking the writing along in 2024, or rather the revisions. I have some big plans, no idea if they'll come to fruition. Maybe in a year I'll remark whether or not that worked.

We have yet to endure a hard frost, which means my nasturtiums on the back steps continue to flower, woo hoo!

Gardening was a bust for me this year, other than random flowers that brought great pleasure. My husband did well with green beans and strawberries, although the snap peas were kinda meh.

Mostly I wrote. And sewed. And got to see a lot of my family, which also calmed my soul, and tired me out, lol! I'm not the same person I was when the grandkids started arriving nearly nine years ago, but that's fine because change is necessary, as well as beneficial, even when it hurts like hell. The beginning of the year was an emotional mess, but 2023 is finishing up rather peacefully. And for that I'm grateful. I'm also thankful for you, dear Readers, and wish for you a joyous and calm start to the new year.

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