Valerean

Here I am, making the very last stitch of hand-quilting the patchwork on the koi project. I began hand quilting this on January 9th, and finished on February 21st, so it's taken me six weeks, and (roughly) around 350 hours. To give you some perspective on the labor, if I'd done this work for minimum wage ($7.25/hour) I'd have to pay myself $2,537.50. As a labor of love, however, it's priceless. I've picked out the embroidery threads I want to use, so I'll be starting the embroidery phase next.

With spring just around the corner my guy is sprucing up the gardens and getting ready to prune our trees. This second year for our strawberry plants has been a bit odd; they flowered early but all the berries died during the last two cold snaps. Now they're flowering again. I'm seeing new berries, too, so I'm hopeful these will grow up. I want to make some vegan strawberry ice cream as soon as it gets warmer. The herbs are thriving. I need to trim the chives and dry some more oregano and parsley. We decided to leave the broccoli plant rather than cut it out after we cut the first floret bloom. The brussel sprouts are growing nicely, and we still have radishes to pick. We have multiple smaller florets growing now, so we'll cut these altogether to have broccoli a stir-fry one night. The tiny little buds between the stalk and leaf stem will grow up to be the actual brussel sprouts. We still have a couple of grapefruits to pick from Mom's mem

While walking the pups I noticed two glowing golden things in the front yard that at first I thought were some parts my guy might have dropped -- in the sunlight they looked like round pieces of brass. Turned out to be mushrooms. Maybe this is what you find at the end of the rainbow. :)

To read my new short story Unmasked , click here . Image Credit: josealbafotos from Pixabay

Back in January I signed up for these four at-home Covid-19 rapid tests the government is offering, and they arrived last week. I did not pay a dime for them or the shipping. I don't know if we'll ever use them, but I feel better having a way to test me and my guy at home. The tests are still available at covidtests.gov if you want to order some for your household.

A few weeks ago we ran into one of Kat's old friends at the market whom we haven't seen for a couple of years, which led to me inviting him over for a dinner of his choice and to meet our new pups (we're all vaccinated and healthy, so I felt comfortable doing that.) I made his favorite meatball stroganoff, and sent him home with some puff pastry apple turnovers for dessert. Although I'm very fond of this young man and was really glad to see him again, the whole evening felt a little awkward for me. I couldn't get used to him being in the house, and although dinner turned out fine I was worried about that, too. Then I realized why I felt that way. It's been almost two years since anyone but Kat has been in our home or had dinner with us. I've also only been cooking for two since last May when Kat left home. I wonder if everyone feels like this when they break self-isolation. Anyway, in the end I felt better about it. It's nice to see old frie

As I cannot walk away from the Westcott series I'm working on Someone Perfect by Mary Balogh right now. I don't have a lot of time for pleasure reading lately but I'm going to try to finish it before the end of the month. What are you reading? Let me know in comments. Image Credit: Olga Volkovitskaia from Pixabay

In a few days I'll be wrapping up my first novel for 2022, and while it needs a good edit I'm very happy with what I've managed to do on the page. I was a little worried about the holidays wrecking me, but I managed to shake off the Christmas blues fairly fast this year. It also feels good to continue my productive streak. I have made a few more adjustments to my process as well as my work sessions. I felt a little overloaded by the ambitious daily goals I had for the last three months of 2021, and worried I'd end up with burnout again, so I eased back on those. I'm making a point to shut off my work computer as soon as I've finished a session so I'm not tempted to go back and fiddle with the day's writing. I'm also finishing earlier every evening so I have ample time to work on my quilting and relax before bed. All these things are helping me maintain my work schedule without feeling exhausted. On the contrary, I feel just as enthusiasti

The j-drama film Go Away, Ultramarine is a bit of a head-scratcher; I watched it because it was labeled sci-fi when in reality it's something like a modern fantasy and a head trip got together for a fling and had a love child. The basic premise: People abandoned by lovers or companies end up on a beautiful but mysterious island where they are looked after by caretakers and live a seemingly idyllic life. They can't remember certain things, they have to follow certain rules, and they can't leave the island until they remember what they've lost. The story centers on the island's high school and a handful of students reacting to the female lead Yuu Manabe (Marie Iitoyo) a newly-arrived girl who is mouthy and only wants to leave the island. The male lead, Nanakusa (Ryusei Yokohama) knew and was possibly involved with the new girl before he came to the island. Both characters are a little confusing, and their connection to each other even more so, but as they do

I've made good progress with the koi quilt this past week; there are six blocks left to hand-quilt and then I can embroider the center furoshiki. No problems showing on the backing fabric, either (sometimes at this point I find a mistake and have to unpick some stitching to fix.) My stitching also looks better compared to the last big quilt I made, so I've improved a bit by slowing down. I have a pretty good idea of how I want to stitch the center, but I won't know for sure until I get out the embroidery threads and start that work next week.

To read my new short story Ready , click here . Image Credit: geralt from Pixabay

I tried a new concept last year while writing my last series for work, which is currently being published (not pictured here. This is just a random book store photo I took some years back.) Anyway, reader reactions have been coming in, and it looks like they're pretty happy with it. Seems I have not yet lost my touch. :)

Recently I added some 19th century patchwork blocks to my never-ending collection; this one is a beautifully embroidered heron on rose silk that has sun-faded a bit but is (unbelievably) still intact. The border strips are made of silk velvet and tapestry. Of all fabrics from the quilting past silk tends to be the one that shatters and disintegrates, so I'm really happy to own this block. I always like to see the back of the stitching, too, as it tells me a little about the maker and usually shows the original colors of the embroidery threads. Crazy or kaleidoscope patchwork, all cotton, still vibrant. Love the vivid reds. I think this piece illustrates the determination of many makers in the past, who always tried to use up their fabric scraps. The back of the block. This was all hand stitched together. Crazy quilt block with hand-painted flowers and leaves. The embroidery on this piece has such great energy. The two rows of slightly askew EEEEEs on the bot

We harvested our first head of broccoli from the veggie garden yesterday. Kat told us that the little yellow flowers are the "pick me now" indicator. I steamed the florets with a little olive oil and sazón completa, which is the way we most like to have it. It was delicious, and the stalks very tender, much better than the stuff we buy at the market.

Happy Valentine's Day from Valerean.

Despite two hard freezes our little gardens are holding on with few losses. This is the second year for our strawberry plants. Most of the first flowers and berries have died because of the cold, but a few made it. Nothing seems to hurt the herbs. The brussel sprouts and radishes also seem okay, although the radishes aren't growing as fast as they did in the fall. The broccoli is a monster now. We'll probably harvest this in the next week or two. The only total loss was our little pepper plants, but we're going to plant them again once warmer weather arrives.

The much-needed cold snap was a bit colder than we expected, and although we covered up our two little citrus trees they took a bit of a hit from the hard freeze. Here's Mom's tree. It may have killed Dad's orange tree, which is sad, but we'll plant another one if it dies. On a happier note, we are finally harvesting the fruit now (technically the only orange, on the right, fell off the tree, but we don't care.) Since my guy has been doing most of the gardening work I let him have the first grapefruit we picked. It's so cool to be able to walk out and grab my breakfast off the tree. The rinds are on the thick side, and they're very seedy, but they taste delicious -- not too bitter, not too sweet -- just like the grapefruit I had as a kid. Thanks, Mom.