Wishing You

As a Halloween treat for Kat I made this recipe for Witch's Hat Soup:

Quite tasty, like a cross between chili and vegetable soup. I made biscuits with it, and Kat added some fresh chopped banana pepper to hers. My witch hats didn't come out as pretty as the recipe pic, mainly because it's damn near impossible for me to manage canned cheese with my crip fingers. Although it's a cute garnish, you can probably save yourself similar headaches by topping the soup instead with tortilla strips and some grated cheddar. Also, this recipe makes a lot of soup -- half a gallon -- so if you're only feeding a couple people you might plan to freeze the leftovers.

Happy Halloween from Valerean.

Image Credit: PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Remember Your Mask Maker

Last night I spent my sewing time making new masks for Katherine and Edward; they both favor black but the original masks I made for them back in March are wearing out due to frequent washing and wearing. I expect others I've made will be doing the same.

I've been thinking about making a crazy quilted mask for myself. I know, frivolous, but it would be an interesting challenge to make one that is as functional as it is arty. That and a couple of my own masks are starting to wear out. :)

Also, just to remind my friends of my standing promise: for the length of the pandemic if you need cloth masks, I'm your girl. I can make them in virtually any color or pattern; large or small, with ear elastics or ties, etc. If you're worried about asking because of my hand problem, the work is all done on the machine, so it doesn't aggravate my arthritis. It's probably the most pain-free sewing I do. So just let me know what you need. :)

Falling

I've started a new journal for Fall:

Journaling has been helping me keep my spirits up as well as providing me with a safe outlet. I think we all need that in some fashion right now.

A few years ago I found a fabric leaf in our yard and made it into a quilted art piece. While out walking the dogs again last month I found these:

I'm pretty sure they blow off from our neighbor's outdoor fall decorations. Anyway, I made one into a slow-stitched piece for my Fall journal:

Treat Bags

All the Halloween bags I've made in my spare time this week:

It's probably the quickest and easiest bag design I've ever tried, and since it only takes two fat quarters it's economical, too (hardly any waste of fabric, either.) To experiment with sizing I varyied the length of the handles and the amount of cuffing. I also added a velvet ribbon to the one I made for Oliver (the gray and orange, second from the left) which classed it up a bit. Katherine's is the candy corn print, which is her favorite Halloween treat.

I'm going to tinker on the design a little more, but I believe I can stop buying paper gift bags now for good. :)

(Link to the video tutorial to make these can be found in this post.)

Timere

Last night I should have started cutting the fabric to make my shibori card trick patchwork. Instead I chickened out and made some Halloween treat bags. I had a similar problem last year when I was about to start making the boomerang quilt for Oliver's arrival into our lives.

This quilt won't be half as much trouble as the boomerang pattern was, and yet I feel intimidated. I'm convinced I'll mess it up, waste the fabric and look like an idiot for trying. Every nasty thing anyone has ever said about my quilting goes on repeat in the back of my head. I get squashed by my own timidity.

Vocabulary.com says "The noun timidity is related to the Latin word timidus, from timere, meaning “to fear.” In fact, fear is often a cause of timidity — fear of the unknown, fear of not knowing what to do. For example, you might experience timidity in visiting a country for the first time because you aren't sure of the local customs or you don't speak the language well. Because you are afraid of embarrassing yourself, you hold back."

Yep.

With writing professionally timidity (and trying to conceal it) was probably my biggest problem outside of dealing with those people in NYC. I would rather crawl under a bed and live there than discuss my work with anyone. Some of my more aggressive/blunt editors scared the crap out of me. Then there was dealing with all their fancy terminology. Remember, self-taught here. I had to ask one editor to send me a list explaining what all those weird symbols she drew on my manuscripts meant. Needless to say, she was astonished that I didn't know what editing marks were.

It never got better for me, either. Even with the very last book I published for NY I still felt clueless, and totally intimidated. My final editor was probably the kindest I ever had, and coached me on a couple of things that he felt I should have known, like "You should always name or identify the POV character for the reader in the first line of the scene." I felt dreadful because I'd already written fifty books without ever once worrying about something like that.

Since I still struggle with timidity I have no wisdom to share on how to overcome it. Most of the time I just blunder along and do what I can to endure it in silence. Timid people are inevitably looked down on by the rest of the world; just try to find a positive quotation about it. My problem started back in childhood, and was likely triggered by a sister who was prettier, smarter and far more charismatic; she also liked to pull cruel, humiliating pranks on me. I never told anyone because I was afraid of what she'd do to me if I did. Intense fear + repeated embarrassment = timidity.

What I find ironic is that a lot of advice for shy people includes "Don't tell anyone." Maybe if I'd stood up for myself and admitted I had a problem I wouldn't be so timid.

I'm still fighting my shyness. For example, I've just joined a NaNoWriMo writing group on their web site. I've never done that, and maybe it will help me be a little more social.

NaNo & Vegan Pizza

Made this yesterday:

Much happier now. Onto the food thing: I prefer to make my own pizza, but sometimes it just isn't practical -- like tonight, when I was on my own for dinner. So I tried Daiya's frozen vegan pepperoni pizza:

It's a little larger for one person (I could only manage to eat half) and the crust is on the thin and crunchy side. But the sauce and the meatless pepperoni slices tasted pretty good, and I thought there was a decent amount of vegan mozzarella on it:

The product has a lot of sodium in it, and a little more saturated fat that I'd like. But as quick-to-fix dinners for one go, this is a fair option for vegans.

Free is Better

I'm running out of October, and still need to make some Halloween treat bags. So last night I went over to Youtube, and found this video tutorial on how to make a super easy lined holiday gift bag in about 15 minutes out of two fat quarters and some belting.

I used Halloween prints, and twill tape for the handles, but otherwise followed the directions to the letter to make this bag. Very easy, and yep, only took 15 minutes.

Vegan Chickpea Salad

My partner sent me this recipe, which is a vegan substitute for tuna salad. I tweaked it a bit to suit my tastes, but it's really good, and made a nice change from my usual lunch fare:

Ingredients:

15 oz. can low sodium chickpeas, drained, rinsed and diced

4 tablespoons of mayo (I used a vegan version)

1 stalk of celery, chopped

2 green onions, chopped (or use two to three tablespoons of chopped onion)

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

1/4 teaspoon celery salt (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste (I didn't use any)

Mix everything together and pile on your favorite sandwich bread. Really delicious on multigrain. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Scrappy

I need a wall top runner for Autumn, so I pulled out a pumpkin-colored solid and the Fall print from my scrap bundle:

Most of the Fall print had been cut into 4" strips, so I did the same with the solid, and pieced a simple checkerboard block runner out of them:

I might applique some leaves atop this before I back/bind/quilt it. Just have to look online for some leaf templates and get out the fusing web.

My Quilting Journal

I made this flip-through video of the quilting journal I started as part of my Ten Things in a Month challenge. All finished up; onto the journal I'm writing for Fall. :)

Eh, Craftsy Returns

I'm not posting this on the day I was notified, but it seems Craftsy is back in operation. They've offered me a year of access to their 1500+ online classes for the low low price of $2.49, too. Alas, I'm not biting.

Other than the fact that I'm not interested in taking any online classes, how all this played out disturbs me. Many creatives who make their living via teaching online classes were railroaded when Craftsy/Bluprint/And now Craftsy again went out of business. Communication to them was very poor, or non-existant. Even Back when Craftsy became rebranded as Bluprint the powers that be screwed over a lot of content creators, too.

If there is by chance some skill I need to acquire, I can find plenty of free blog and YouTube tutorials to teach me whatever I need to learn. I suggest you do the same. :)

Characters and Conflicts

I like Robin Hood stories, and when I saw the circa-2006 BBC TV series on sale I decided to invest. The big box came with three seasons over fifteen discs, and it took me about a month to work my way through them.

This production is spun more modern than most, and has an interesting cast. Robin is played by a skinny, boyish Jonas Armstrong, who did a decent job of the role, but had to compete with Richard Armitage, who plays Guy of Gisborne with a slow-burning vengeance. The Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Keith Allen, was beyond campy and ridiculous, which just made Gisborne smoulder even more. Maid Marian, played by the quite lovely Lucy Griffiths, is soulful, stubborn and has a mind of her own. The very small band of Merry Men -- known as only the gang on the show -- are all interesting actors. I really liked the characters, and how their roles changed and grew and did some surprising moral bomerangs.

The writing, especially most of the dialogue, is pretty dreadful. The costumes are beyond dreadful. The action is very low-budget, and the female actors and all of the extras are noticeably, painfully sparse. Regarding the latter, when you storm a castle with maybe twenty or so guys on horseback, you're not going to convince me the twenty or so holdups are doomed. Also, throw historical accuracy out the window because you aren't going to find much of it in this series.

That said, most of the conflicts in the series are stellar, especially those involved with the supporting cast. Seeing what they did with Guy of Gisborne, usually a thug role, was absolutely astonishing. I've never seen anyone do better with that character, ever. Allan a Dale was the best Allan ever, and I can't tell you why without spoilers, but trust me. Robin and Marian's relationship was not the syrupy hero-chick dynamic; Marian was literally Robin's equal in daring, determination and intelligence. I didn't quite buy the two of them falling in love -- for one thing, I think she could kick his ass if she really wanted to -- but I went along with it.

The Brits like to kill off characters, and a few that I liked a lot died over the three seasons. A few of the deaths were really illogical as well as unfair, especially at the end of seasons two and three. I got very pissed off at the end of season two and almost tossed it in the Friends of the Library box, but I kept watching to follow Gisborne as his arc played out. He often enraged but never disappointed me.

I think if you can get this box set cheap, and you have the patience to put up with the obvious flaws, it's worth watching just for the characters.

I Drank the Hexie Kool-Aid

As I mentioned earlier on the blog I decided to give English paper piecing a try and made some hexies, which was and probably still is a big thing in quilting. I never understood why. I see all these gals hand stitching these little scraps onto cardboard hexagons and then whip stitching them together and even making bed-size quilts out of them, and they all talk about becoming addicted to this method. How?

Anyway, I used some scraps from my last experiment to make the hexies, and then sewed together what I got done in one hour:

It was okay, I guess. I've done plenty of tedious work in the past (hello, slow stitch) but this variety didn't result in much. Sewing them made my neck hurt because I couldn't get into a comfortable position while making them. I still don't get what the big deal is. To me it felt like a LEGO style of quilting. Where is the originality in piecing all these things together? Looks like a honeycomb. Anything I make this way will just look like a bee hive.

So I think this was my first and last attempt to make hexies. :)

Homemade Turnovers

My guy loves apple turnovers, which I've always bought rather than tried to make in the past. Over the last couple of years the quality of our local market's pastries has gone downhill while the prices rose dramatically, and frozen turnovers are not all that great. Eventually I just opted to get him pastries from Panera, which have also gotten expensive.

With the pandemic curtailing my shopping, I hunted around online for a recipe using puff pastry sheets, which I thought would be closest to what my guy likes, and tried this one. It also didn't require a lot of fancy ingredients. The only change I made was to make half the recipe, and skip the icing and the egg wash. I just put the turnovers together and sprinkled the tops with some crystallized sugar.

To my surprise these were a huge hit -- Kat and her dad ate all of them in one sitting, and asked me to make more. If that isn't a recommendation, I don't know what is. :)

Second Table Runner Done

I finished up quilting and binding the second table runner last night:

The project took me longer than expected because I outlined the blocks with my new swan stitch, and encircled the stars with lots of bands of Holographic Sulky. And of course the hand issues didn't help.

From the back you can see the stitching better.

I think it turned out okay, all things considered.

Tried and True

I've grown tired of reading books that don't inspire, entertain or comfort me, so in addition to the store closing haul I'm going to stick to authors who are always keepers for me. Mary Balogh happens to be one of those few, and she just published the latest Westcott series novel, Someone to Romance, which will be my next read.

Once I finish all the others I got from the BAM closing I might reread some of my favorite keepers. Anne Frasier's Elise Sandburg novels are top of my wanna reread again list, and so is basically everything Bill Bryson and Peter Mayle have ever published.

Oddly I haven't had much luck with nonfiction lately; I'm still plowing my way a few pages a day through How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman, which is well-written but very history detail-dense and a bit chilly in tone. Try as I might I can't connect with this guy as a writer. I gave up on Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire when the author killed a critter out of boredom, something that loses me instantly as a reader. Once I finish the Scots book I might reread Mark Kurlansky's Salt, which is a nonfic reread favorite of mine.

What are you reading now? Let me know in comments.

You Lost Me

Barbara O’Neal’s The Lost Girls of Devon is another deeply wrenching women’s fiction tale by the author, who seems determined to emotionally wreck her readers (in a good way, I suppose.) I did read the entire novel without skimming, as the writing is professional and the setting appealed to me.

That's a bit like me saying I like you because you live in a pretty house, yes? Sigh.

The story, set in a contemporary UK village with a mystery at its heart, is a reunion/reckoning/reconciliation tale of sorts involving four ladies. We have the family matriarch Lillian, who is a cozy mystery writer succumbing to the ravages of old age; her New Age/free-spirited daughter Poppy, who abandoned her very young daughter to Lillian’s care so she could chase her dreams; Zoe, Poppy’s artistic, unforgiving and now full-grown daughter, who hates her mother with unwavering ferocity (remember that when I get to commenting on the end); and Isabel, Zoe’s secretive teenage daughter who is trying to overcome a mysterious trauma apparently inflicted by her friends. The four women come together when Zoe’s best friend in the UK, Diana, suddenly disappears, and they try to sort out what happened to her.

The mystery feels more like an excuse to bring them together rather than a real event, but okay.

Because I identified with three of the four female generational characters I sympathized with them. Mostly with Lillian and Isabel, as I’ve dealt with issues similar to theirs, and they were the most genuine-to-me voices in the story. I also resonated somewhat with Zoe, although at times her extreme hatred of Poppy didn’t seem plausible, given her intelligence plus what the mother actually did. When you factor in how empathetic and compassionate Zoe is toward just about everyone else the whole scenario simply doesn't compute. I'd have tweaked that grudge a lot if it had been my story. As for Poppy, she seemed the most fake of all four characters -- stereotypical New Age dingbat in a nutshell -- and I didn't care for how she subtly blamed all her crap on her mother, who it seems spent most of her life cleaning up after Poppy.

I liked the first and last chapters of the story, I think, as much as I was able to with all the emotional wrecking balls flying at me. For the most part Zoe’s ex-boyfriend, Sage Cooper, who like most of the author’s romantic male characters is very exotic and fetching, kept me interested. The mystery of what happened to Diana was sidelined by all the reckonings among the family, and seemed to be on the scanty side. I think more interesting mystery aspects and way, way less angst would have served the reader better. But it’s women’s fic, not a mystery, so we must expect the persistence of wrecking balls.

In the end I felt the book never got hold of me as intended. It could be that my own rocky moods and issues influenced that; I tend to wall out that sort of thing when I’m struggling with my own unhappiness. Women's fictional relationships with each other mostly bore me, too; I find most women are not as they are portrayed in books by women writers (but male writers don't get it right, either. Maybe no one can write us properly.) There's some yearning in these type of stories for women to be much more than they are, and that strikes me as misleading and occasionally sadistic. The final revelation of exactly what Isabel suffered was over-the-top, and seemed more like a soapbox rant at the dangers of social media. I also didn’t like how things worked out with Zoe and Poppy at all; given Zoe's hatred it felt quite unrealistic and, in the end, far too sugary.

I don’t know if I should recommend this one or not. Maybe I need to stop reading women’s fiction until my head is in a better place and I'm not so darn prickly.

While It Rained

As I write this keep in mind that Blogger (aka the jerks at Google) has forced me to start using their new interface by eliminating the old/legacy option, which means my posts may end up a bit wonky while I learn how to use it.

Last night it stormed too much for me to get on the computer, so I worked on my quilt journal and made a small silk art piece for it. Earlier in the day I had printed out a free English paper piecing template for hexagons, and I used the 2.5" size to trace out and cut up about thirty or so from an old file folder. Then I made my very first hexie out of scrap fabric, just to see what it entailed.

It wasn't difficult, although I had to go back and reread a tutorial on how to make them, and watch a video on how to take out the cardboard template. So I'm going to make some hexies on the side out of my scraps, and see if this can help make a dent in them.

Watch me grow. :)

Hyper, Sure

This is a pic of most of the books I've written since I went freelance (I took it to show an old writer friend what I've been doing since I left traditional publishing.) There are also about a dozen novellas that I wrote as a freelancer that were published in e-book only format, so I have no print editions of them. I wrote all this in about five years.

I don't pay attention to any work once I've finished it, other than to stick one print copy in a book case in the event I need to reference something. I don't think about what I've written in the past much, either. As writers go I'm the Queen of Moving On. It was only when I decided to physically move all my freelance stuff to another place in the house that I felt a little startled. I wrote all that since Publishing booted me to the curb, really? Soon I'll have more freelance novels in print than what I published with NY under my own byline. I already have more published in audio format incognito.

Feels pretty good, actually. As I told my pal, success is the best revenge.:)

Given the state of my shelves, plus my blogging, and the hand-written journals I've been keeping since 1974, I might have some form of hypergraphia. The only time I'm truly happy is when I'm writing, which is one of the major signs. I'd rather write than do most other things, also a flag. Consistent, voluminous writing output is likewise a box I definitely check. The so-called disorder has been linked to temporal lobe epilepsy, bipolar disorder and some other fun conditions, none of which apply to me (that I'm aware of, anyway.)

I find it amusing that prolific writing is considered a disorder, but not surprised. When you're so different from the majority of your peers you won't find much in the way of acceptance or even tolerance. Most writers I've known seem to struggle with and/or constantly avoid writing. The way they describe it sounds like self-torture.

It's never been that for me. When I started writing it was like a secret little fountain inside me that only I knew about -- a lovely place to escape to and build stories with the sparkling flow of words that came from who knows. Over time it grew into this amazing cascade of countless waterfalls that never run dry. The only change was that being published allowed me to invite people to come and see what I created. I do the same thing now; they just aren't aware that I'm the source of the waterfalls. :)

Of all the problems I have -- herniated neck discs, diabetes, arthritic joint deterioration and just plain old age pains -- I will not complain about the one that has made me a prolific writer. I think we should rename it, though -- maybe call it Storyflowing?

Giving it a Whirl

For the quilting on the second table runner I decided to do an outline of the off-white patches, and then circle-quilt the pinwheels so that it would look like they're spinning when the light catches the threads:

It's a bit hard to see from the front, so here's a look at the quilting from the back:

Ready to Go

Batted, backed and pinned the second table runner:

I picked three colors of holographic Sulky for the quilting:

Now hopefully my hand cooperates and allows me to quilt a little on it every night. :)

Zero Waste Batting

This fluffy mountain is my collection of scrap quilt batting:

I save all the batting I trim during quilt making, and use the pieces for smaller projects. I did this long before I went zero waste because I'm cheap. :) I can cobble together the scraps to make larger pieces to use as well. Here's how I covered the table runner with strips of scrap batting to get the right size/amount:

After that it's just a matter of basting the edges together with some old thread (also why I never throw away thread):

No More Procrastination

I've been stalling on starting the shibori card trick quilt because I'm still not sure what size to make the blocks. I want to use as much of the fabric as possible, but piecing the blocks is tricky. So I've been dragging my feet, and that wastes time, so I'm going to set it aside for now. My next project will be:

The second table runner. Should also give me a bit of breathing room so I can brood some more over block sizes. :)

Improv

I've been looking for books with more info on how to do improvisational embroidery for my slow stitch work, and Laura Wasilowski's Joyful Stitching offers lots of that as well as stitching on felted wool, which happens to be something else I needed to research.

This is a nice, large-format book with six very colorful projects and twenty-one embroidery stitches with excellent, step-by-step example photos using real materials. This is so much better for me to learn from versus sketches or text; I can do some practice stitches and hold them up to the pics in the book for comparison.

The author uses a beginning stitch in each example as the starting point for improvisational embroidery, which is really what I've been doing all along, so glad to discover I was on the right track. She also encourages using stitches as fill and to create movement in the projects, and that makes sense to me (I do that with beading on my crazy quilt projects.)

The projects are basic, simple shapes that are filled or detailed with embroidery, so I think this book would be a good choice for a beginner. The colors and stitchwork by the author reminds me a lot of quilting and stitched work from India, as well as Laurel Burch's style, so I'm guessing those were two of her influences.

The instructions are well-written and clear, and the whole book is well-oprganized. It would have been nice to see some neutral and cooler colors used in some of the projects, or shown as an alternative look. I admire Laurel Burch (you should read about her life if you want some major inspiration), but all rainbow all the time makes me a bit nervous. All those hot colors, I suppose.

Bottom line, this is a solid book for anyone interested in learning more about improvisational embroidery. Recommended.

Oat Milk Rec

Now that I've had to go dairy-free again to deal with my arthritis flare-ups (which have gotten dramatically better since I ditched milk, and more on that in a future post) I still have to get more calcium on a daily basis to help my bones stay healthy. Oat milk has turned out to be the best sustainable food source for that, and over the last month I've tried all the brands available at my local market.

Oat milk doesn't taste much like milk -- it tastes like liquid oats to me -- but I don't like the taste of milk so that's a plus. Also, some brands are better tasting than others. Silk brand Oat Yeah milk, for example, has a very heavy, unpleasant cardboard taste to it. The lightest and best-tasting oat milk for me turned out to be this one from Chobani:

This product has about 7 grams of sugar per serving, but now that my diabetes is under control I can have small amounts like that and not worry about it impacting my blood sugar as much (it also helps that I drink it in the morning, and have the rest of the day to work it off.) The added bonus is that oat milk contains beta-glucans — a soluble fiber which can bind to cholesterol and reduce its absorption.

If you're looking for a dairy alternative and don't want to go the way of soy or almond products (both of which are not good for the environment) I recommend Chobani as a decent substitute.

Like I Needed More

After a very tough couple of weeks I gave myself permission to buy some vintage fabric for some planned projects and some inspiration. No, I don't need it, but it cheered me up a little.

The two bundles will likely become an autumn runner quilt for my kitchen wall top, and a crate quilt for Skye.

The sheer printed panel is probably part of a curtain. I've wanted it since the first time I saw it.

Here's why -- it matches my favorite little platter for the holidays.

Have no idea what I'll make it into. :)

Another Relearn

Every time I open my blog dashboard these days it displays in the new Blogger interface (click on the image to see a larger version):

The "legacy" interface, which is what I've been using since the last revamp of Blogger, looks like this (click on the image to see a larger version):

How is the new interface an improvement? Because it uses teeny tiny symbols instead of words? Really, how much more can they dumb it down?

Anyway, no matter how often I switch my dashboard back to the "legacy" interface, Blogger keeps switching it back to the new, which tells me I have maybe a couple of weeks to relearn how to use my blogging site before what I do understand disappears forever. Again.

Stitch Book Pages

The stitch book is going to be a fun little ongoing project:

I'm also able to use up a lot of smaller scraps of my art fabrics:

Even the ones that aren't so pretty:

Slow Stitch Indulgences

I had a small scrap of pretty eco-dyed silk that I've been saving forever, and finally used to make a bookmark for my quilting journal:

Stitch books are made of cloth, and are used to save samples of decorative machine embroidery from a particular machine. I think they should be used for slow stitch samples and practice pieces, too. I've seen some made of muslin for sale on Etsy, but I'm going to make my own. Here's the cover piece:

Thank goodness for slow stitch. I've really needed it over the last week. It is the essence of finding peace in troubled times for a stitcher. :)