Valerean

A few days ago a reader of mine reached out to me to see if I was still working (and probably to check and see if I was still alive.) They also asked me if I would ever go back to publishing under one of the bylines I used during the twenty years I worked for big publishers in NYC. The subject hasn't come up very often in the eight years since I went freelance and became a partner in a small independent publisher. I've made more money on my own than I ever did with an agent and working for NY, so there's that. I do not miss being in the spotlight and all the ugliness that comes with it; that dimension of my career was particularly brutal for me. I should never have gone the way I did; indy publishing is where I really belong -- but it didn't really exist back in my day. Here's some advice from a shy person who put up with all that nonsense for two decades: if NY ever offers you a contract, and promises that they'll develop your brand, promote your wor...

I got a bit of a late start on the October tote for my calendar project, but once I focused on it things started to come together nicely. I settled on doing a slow stitch design rather than a crazy quilt design. After I batted and backed the tote I finalized the arrangement of the fabric pieces, and pinned them down. I've got three weeks to do the hand quilting and embroidery, and (maybe) a little beading. I will use the machine if I have to, but I want to try to do some hand work this month.

To celebrate my dad's birthday and make a donation in honor of him and his love of animals, we visited our local no-kill cat shelter last week. To see the kitties we visited, check out my album of pics here.

I decided to try making my first primitive stuffie for Halloween by printing out Ann Wood's Happy cats sewing pattern . Since I was working with a quilt piece as the fabric I cut the large cat printout a bit larger. I sewed the pieces together on the machine, used amigurumi eyes instead of embroidery, stuffed it and then hand stitched to close the opening. The result was more than satisfying. I liked how the embroidery from the original quilt made designs on the front and back of my cat. My little collection of prims is growing nicely. I think I'll try a pumpkin next.

I really enjoyed the pearl wave painting I did, and it helped exercise my beleaguered right hand, so I invested in two more kits of similar design. This gold, pearl and rhinestood moon is really glitzy. I want to turn it into a topper for a gift box. I also got a bird painting for my home office. I completed the first one on the same day it arrived. Generally I can do these in one night. The hand-eye coordination is good practice, and I think the results are pretty.

I'm feeling very blah right now. This month has traditionally been hard on me; there are the birthdays of two loved ones now gone from my life that I have to get through, the pumpkin spice nonsense explodes, and Christmas things show up everywhere in a big way. As I write this it's been raining steadily for two days, so I can't really spend any significant time outdoors. I need inspiration and motivation, stat. I have been looking in my own photo archives to see the projects I most liked from past Octobers in hopes that it would jog something, and saw this thrifted crocheted baby blanket that I acquired unfinished with the yarn and hook the maker had been using, and I finished it. I loved that project. In 2024 I made a small quilt from a pound of fabric an Etsy seller chose and sent to me. That is a challenge I really enjoy and I've made several quilts that way. In 2023 I completed the second embroidered recycled linen quilt in some of my favorite ...