A Contemplative Life

The lighting was different due to the wind blowing the quilt top/back how a fabric project was wont, why I'm putting three versions of this photo within this post. And a cute chicken pic at the end from about five minutes ago, my husband snapping it while closing the coop for the night. Much to note about those trail-happy chickens, but before I write about the hens, I want to share a quilt top/back finish. I wrapped up this medallion project a few days ago, snapped the photos, then found myself hip-deep in writing and sorting photos of the chickens trailing around with my better half. I finished a chapter this morning, prepped lunch, then that better half learned how to make pad gra praw. After lunch, I read over what I'd written, cleaned the coop, then spent the rest of the afternoon folding and hanging up three loads of laundry begun hours earlier. Stacks of shirts, etc, still adorn the back of the couch, while one little sewing project awaits its moment in the proverbial su...

That writing a novel about miracles feels to defy the heartless and predatory natures currently wreaking havoc on our planet, which must be deterred as best we are able. I was going to write this post in the morning, Saturday morning. It's still Friday evening in California, Pacific Standard Time, lol. The time change occurs this weekend, we'll lose an hour. I've whinged about it already, far better things for me to blather on about tonight. Like how I wrote a pretty nice chapter this morning, hehehe! My novel about miracles is about a third-ish of the way there, or here, or somewhere. It's in a place virtually, existing on hard drives and flash drives, yet firmly wedged in my heart, giving me strength at a time when so much feels uncertain. Ironically, I ended today's chapter with a bit of a cliffhanger, HAH! My poor characters, put through various wringers with only 32K words accumulated. But as I said a post or three ago, writing about miracles means a fair amoun...

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...

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, ...

And LOADS of other musings like aging and chickens and writing, lol.  On Wednesday, although it feels like AGES ago, I snapped pics of the latest round on the medallion quilt. Later that day I chose the border fabric, then many other items landed on my proverbial plate, a chapter of my new novel completed being one of them, WOO HOO. I left the clouds at the top of this shot because they are quite indicative of the colouring of the quilt, winterish and such. Maybe tomorrow I'll cut the border fabric and truly get this top or back DONE. But there's been no time until now to write about that pretty quilt, or the broody chicken Gigi, who as of this writing has yet to lay an egg today, although she did lay late yesterday afternoon. She's definitely broody, spent some time in the broody hen condo until my husband felt sorry for her and took her into the garden. He let Camilla in too, then other hens, then everyone was shooed out, and Gigi found her way back to the coop. Tomorrow ...

A trench my husband dug today as the run was a soggy mess from the rain. Owl or Cami Chicken is to the left. Photo courtesy of my better half. Sometimes a theme attaches itself to a sewing project. Sometimes I go into a quilt with an agenda. And sometimes it's a mix of these notions. The medallion quilt, the first I have made by machine, is both. (Pictures of the progress in the next post, once I complete the current round....) The gray/blue/neutral fabrics lend themselves to winter. Which is coming down with abundance right now all over California. In adding the pink, I wanted to break up, just a little, the gray/blue theme. But I didn't want to diminish the cool sense of.... Detachment? Sorrow? Understated comprehension of bleakness? Yes, I wanted to somehow honor those killed and suffering in Minnesota. Yet all over this planet heartache and injustice rages. But beauty and compassion and love also stand firm, welcoming all those seeking mercy and solace and affection. We can...

Gigi from yesterday enjoying a flowerbed inundated with weeds. She's looking pretty pleased with herself, lol. Photo courtesy of my husband. Don't forget the chickens, yet will they forget the sunshine? Sunday afternoon on the getting more soggy by the minute North Coast of California; I just finished adding the round of pinkish-orange Grunge around this developing medallion quilt. I've plotted out the next round, but am unsure how wide the strips will be. Currently the quilt is thirty-nine inches across, and if I add six and a half inch wide slabs of fabric, then I'm looking at a pretty large-ish quilt, with a couple more rounds to go. I'll have to consider this notion, but with over four inches of rain forecast for the next several days, I see myself sewing as often as my tinnitus allows. It will be striking if nothing else. Which has been every other day or so, but what's a little ringing of one's ears when it's super-wet out and cold for our neck of ...

I'm quite pleased with this to be wholly honest. So, about the quilting! A few days ago I completed a round of Alexandria, Jodi Godfrey's medallion pattern. Much to go before I sleep with this one, hehehe, but now I am FIRMLY into this project, which is good because of how much remains, ahem, and that I wasn't sure I'd finish it. (Kind of like writing a story, then realizing it was going to be VERY LONG, so instead of writing it quietly, it gets released bits at a time even though the author is nowhere near the end. LOL.) When I gave up on Alexandria, it looked like this. Pretty, but so incomplete. Why did I abandon it? A pinched nerve made hand-stitching impossible in February of 2023, and once I could hand-sew again, for whatever reason, I dove into Cornflower quilt blocks. Alexandria laid on a guest bed, or my work table if the bed was needed. I sort of ignored it, busy with writing and sewing other shinies. Well, I kind of ignored it. I kept stitching the next round...

  Last night's accomplishment. Blue and yellow blocks are to remember Ukraine's struggles. To my utter JOY (and no small relief) I am FULL of ENTHUSIASM in my return to Jodi Godfrey's medallion designed Alexandria quilt. W-H-E-W! I've been pining over it for months, but couldn't work on it until after my husband's party because it already takes up space and is only going to grow. Two nights ago I brought down the center, stitched nearly two years ago, then rummaged through the living room tote for hexagon blocks. Then I went to the office looking for another Alexandria tote for basted diamonds. Two totes for one quilt? Oh yes! Meanwhile, I pondered how these medium-to-large EPP projects mirror my medium-to-large book series, lol. Indeed a few parallels going on in my life right now. So, about this quilt. Currently I have four of twelve outer hexagon blocks attached, and am planning (hoping, praying) to continue adding two per night, which includes sewing the bl...

  Minus the four missing blocks, it already takes up most of a queen bed. Gathered the gumption to again lay my Alexandria quilt on a flat surface to assess its current form. Which is a stitched center surrounded by a plethora of hexagon blocks in varying states of readiness, four more required to reach one stage of.... Not completion, but to where I can set aside a big medallion, then begin the next stage. Which sounds like a hop, skip, and a mere jump from what lies on the guest bed. Few things could be further from the truth. The basis of which is do I have the guts (and gumption) to handsew blue and yellow blocks to an already sizeable center, then add pink and green blocks. (I think I can, I think I can....) So the honest truth to this quilt is that I upsized it from Jodi Godfrey's original design. Her 1.5" shapes became two inches, although that is the size she used when first making this quilt years ago. When she turned it into a pattern for her club, she shrunk the sha...