A Contemplative Life

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...

Mandolin block on the bottom, Cornflower block on top for size comparison. Going between large and medium-sized English paper piecing blocks has been fascinating. I knew the Cornflower Quilt blocks were easy, both in the choosing of the fabrics as well as stitching those prints. But lately I have incorporated Mandolin blocks into my nightly routine and yeah. Size makes a difference. It's the amount of time dedicated to completing a block. You could say it's like comparing a standalone novel to crafting a series, especially if the smaller quilt blocks are made from scraps or just not one theme of fabric. Which is the case for both of these EPP projects, lol. Why not find one more way quilting and writing go hand in hand, huh? (Another post awaits for when I can't compare my fave hobbies, but for now....) My first foray into English paper piecing was hexie flowers using 1.5" hexagons and the blocks weren't that big. Next were Mandolin blocks, way larger! Those were a...

In the last twenty-four hours, we have received nearly two inches of precipitation. The photo above was taken yesterday at 4.25 p.m., and overnight a little more landed in the gauge. The air is clear over most of Northern California and in Southern Oregon too. Fires are still burning, but a great relief has been experienced. When we lived in Silicon Valley, fire wasn't a major threat until the summer of 2020. I think back to those days, packing precious belongings as we were near an evacuation warning zone. I keep a go bag at my bedside now, in part from the threat of earthquakes, but fire remains a major issue, and then rain falls, rain so prevalent earlier this year but extremely absent for the last several. As the sun streams in my office window, I am still picturing yesterday's gray skies, water pouring from the heavens, dousing the flames and bringing respite. Not much else to report, in that the writing, sewing, etc, are about as usual. I have begun revisions on my novel,...

Okay so today is the official beginning of autumn, whatever. I was fairly loopy yesterday morning, and surprisingly I didn't get tired until about seven p.m. I was able to stave off the yawns by starting a little 1.5" diamond cutie, pictured above. More about that, perhaps even in this post. First, however, I FINISHED MY NOVEL. Woo hoo and all that! So let me just say that while I knew the end was in sight, I didn't imagine The End would arrive on a day when sleep was minimal, skies were (and still are) smoky, yet rain is on the horizon. I had hopes of completing this story maybe by Monday? Maybe. And that maybe is mostly due to not wanting to rush myself, as well as the drama, but more me. Taking one's time to wrap up a project is necessary, although a few of my books (and quilts) have been finished in a rather speedy fashion. As this novel is packed with alluded to details, it was a little tricky about what to wholly reveal and what to hint toward and what to spell...

Most recent Mandolin block laid out, minus the perimeter diamonds. Being awake at 4.21 a.m. (when I began writing this post) happens occasionally. It's not due to being uncaffeinated, I'd like to think I'm over that adjustment. It's partly due to a rather cool night that my summer duvet wasn't quite prepared for; later today I'll switch it out to the autumn quilt better suited to keeping me warm. It was also partly due to being near the end of my novel, HURRAY! Which is interpreted by Semi-conscious Me when waking at not quite 3 a.m. as, "Hmmm. It's early, yes, but I've slept a good stretch and well, if I don't immediately go back to sleep, I could get up, make the morning decaf brews, then sit for a bit, wake up a little more, then start today's chapter." Yeah, that's how I roll sometimes, not much I can do about it. But after perusing my fave internet sites (Wikipedia, the weather, catching up with what Bluey episodes I've see...

Maybe my fave. I'm taking off a day from the novel; I had to visit the local endodonist, the consultation result being I'd rather spend a few hundred dollars to have a tooth removed than a few thousand for a root canal repair and probable new crown. A-hem! Yet stepping away from my writing provides time for other pleasures, after getting back from the dentist, lol. And with most of the coasters done, a couple of placemats completed too, here is how the battle for attention panned out between mug rugs and their larger cousins. A nice assortment to scatter here and there. The coasters won, of course, ha ha! I have one still in need of a binding, otherwise all are washed and waiting for the first of October. Our cloudy and now smoky weather continues, but it is still September, a couple more days before autumn begins officially, and these will adorn my tables of various sizes until the end of November thereabouts, no immediate rush to slap them where teacups usually land. I just a...

Now this is my kind of outdoor activity; making a cowl from gorgeous autumnal yarn. So a spoiler alert: I have been writing my latest novel with a modicum of realized plot. A modicum of realized plot; that in itself could be the title for this post. But Important details uncovered works too, in that what I'm kinda confessing is that at seventy K into this book, I finally figured out the Aha! element, answering all the big questions that have been piling up, ahem. And Oh My Goodness am I grateful to now understand what's going on with everyone, lol! Yeah, big deep sigh of relief, followed by, "OMG, I need to remember all this and finish the dang story!" A few times I have been so brazen to write with this scant of a clue to what this twist meant and what that cryptic gaze implied. The ending I have had in mind for months remains solid, but jeez Louise, what's with all the cloak and dagger hoo haa, most of it within my own head? Well, Future Me exhorts, sometimes ...