Wishing You

Happy Halloween from Valerean.

Naked What?

While my guy and I were out on a long drive we spotted this rusty hulk half-submerged in a little lake.

It was the dream boat of every industrial grunge lover there ever was.

Two crows were using it as a gigantic bird bath, which tickled me.

As we came around for me to take one last photo, I saw an old sign atop it.

I thought the "No Naked Lights" was an interesting warning, so when I got home I looked it up. It's not a joke; it prohibits open flame; fire, open ignition source and smoking, and conforms to some regulation in force since 2019. So there, you learned something, too. :)

Numbers and Dates

A little baggie of cloth squares in my thrifted books & patterns lot turned out to be blank quilt labels, a few with duplicates. I love the retro look of these, and they probably date back to the eighties.

All of the books are in mint condition, also a bonus. They date back to the eighties and nineties. I plan to read them all this winter.

I'd really like to try some of these patterns and kits, too. These mostly have dates in the nineties, but there are a few eighties and seventies, too.

Onto the fabric that came with the books.

This included one lovely panel (for a pillow or possibly pillowcase) had a charming design.

It surprised me that the twelve fabrics turned out to be 14.25 yards altogether, with the majority being at least 1 yard. I'd date these back to the nineties as well, and aside from a slight storage smell they're all quite clean and in great shape. I'm very pleased with everything that came in the lot, so it was a good buy. :)

Score

My Halloween gift to myself was a stop at a Barnes & Noble while my guy and I were out for a long drive. Every time I'm in a book store I check for a new novel by Sarah Addison Allen; this time I got lucky and found one. Whee!

Books & More

Recently I bid on and won this lot of quilting books and patterns, and got a bit more than I expected.

The little bit of fabric in the lot turned out to be more substantial than I thought.

Some of what I thought were patchwork patterns were actually kits with the fabric included.

The lot dates back to the eighties and nineties, I think. I'll measure the fabrics and see if I can date everything, but it's all in very nice shape.

Cheese Please

To take a break after last month's work on the recycled linen quilt project I decided to make this thrifted kit into a small wall hanging.

As before I didn't have a huge amount of fabric to work with, and I challenged myself to use all of the fabrics in the kit this time.

I went with this simple arrangement and used the novelty cheese print as the centerpiece.

The green geometric binding strips and the pink paisley print didn't really work with the other fabrics, so I made them into a backing.

Here's the finished project. Because I used the binding strips to make the backing (and because it's a wall hanging) I decided not to bind the edges but finished them with a blanket stitch.

Dream Window

I had a dream last month that was so realistic I woke thinking I'd actually gone to visit that place and those people. The details have lingered for so long I thought I'd write a post about it, just for fun.

I dreamt of a small, pretty farm with an old farmhouse, from which a family was moving out. Mom and Dad were in their late thirties, and they had two kids (a boy and girl) running around the place. I didn't recognize the family, the farm or the area, but it reminded me of the Carolinas. The house was filled with vintage quilts and antiques.

I started helping the couple with moving things to their black van, which they parked next to a bonfire (they were also burning trash.) The fire bothered me, but not enough to say anything. As we carried things out the mom and I chatted about quilting, and what she wanted to let go of but couldn't make herself do so. Her husband was annoyed with a neighbor that should have come to help them but hadn't. I remember one huge window hanging with a beautiful red and white quilt covering the glass panes from behind, and I asked the mom if I could take a photograph of it. The kids constantly ran around us as they played. Nothing happened that was odd or strange until the end.

It was at the end of the dream that the couple's van began to glow red-hot from being so close to the fire, and I warned the dad, who began spraying the van with water from a garden hose to cool it down. Why he didn't put out the fire I can't tell you. When I abruptly woke up, I could still see that red and white quilt behind the window; it was that vivid. I also had a sense of intense satisfaction and happiness that I rarely get from dreams.

I think I can guess from where some of the dream elements came; we took care of our neighbor's property during Hurricane Idalia and had to move a lot of their outdoor furniture. There is an old cabinet on their back deck with glass-paned doors that resembles the window-and-quilt in the dream. Red always symbolizes danger for me, and the van's proximity to the fire was a lot like our proximity to Idalia. Me helping these people move was much the same as when I helped my guy move our neighbor's furniture. Yet the entire story of the dream seemed like something I was telling myself: be happy and move on, maybe.

I hardly ever dream about quilts, so to wake from one filled with them is probably what made me happy. Whatever the dream meant, I really liked having it. :)

Image credit: Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay

Hawking

Last month we came home after running some errands to find this guy sitting on our fence. I shot all these photographs while still in the car, but I was less than three feet away from him.

I saw him once before in our front yard, possibly hunting squirrels. It explained why all of the songbirds who hang out at our feeder haven't visited for a few days.

I'm pretty sure he's a broad-winged hawk. He's a little bigger than a peregrine falcon, and this is the time of year they migrate through our area.

Whatever he is, it was such a thrill to see him up close and be able to snap some pics.

Done

I have to brag a little today. This is my latest project for work, finished last Friday. It's also the last in that series, so that's complete, too. I've written five books this year, and I would very much like to do one more before the year ends. Since I'm one series ahead of schedule now, that means starting on the first book we'll be publishing in 2025.

There was a year during my time writing for NY when I wrote nine novels in eleven months. I don't think I could repeat that now, nor ever reach my lofty goal of writing ten in a year. I must be content with what I can comfortably write these days, and since I don't know any other writer who can consistently produce five or six books a year without stopping, I will be satisfied with that.

Less than $4

I did not post about this particular acquisition of thrifted fabric last month as at the time I was battling a Windows update that completely changed how my computer imports and edits photos (don't ask for details; I'll start ranting about unwanted and unnecessary updates, and we'll be here all week.) The majority is quilting cottons, but there are some outdoor, tapestry and upholstery fabrics as well. There was more scraps than yardage, but it's a pretty decent stash. I paid $3.99 for the entire pile, mainly because it was going to be dumped in a landfill if I didn't. I can't save them all, but I couldn't let this get trashed.

Among the more interesting fabrics included are three StarWars prints (one is 3 yards) and two patchwork blocks I'll guess to be a pillow in progress UFO and its scraps.

A couple of oddities were thrown in, including this sample of batting still in its wrapper, a big ball of dusty rose DMC crochet thread, and a bag of some sort.

The original owner did a nice piece of heart and stripes embroidery in wool thread, and fused a crocheted house onto some medium blue broadcloth.

I wasn't able to measure the fabric for a time due to my desire to finish embroidering another row of patchwork on the recycled linen quilt, but I finally got around to it. The total amount is 54.35 yards, making this lot about seven cents per yard. I'll keep the older fabrics and donate the newer yardage to the local guild to sell at their show next month.

Bagged

In October I want to get all the bags I need for the holidays ready, but I'm running low on the canvas foundations I use when I make them. I also needed some new reusable shopping bags to take to the farmer's market (all mine are too flimsy or worn out.) So I bid on a cheap lot of six totes for $4.99, and won the lot. When it arrived I realized I didn't get exactly what I wanted, but I can use everything.

These two matching plastic totes are perfect as new reusable shopping bags. They're both brand new with tags.

Since the original price was $10.00 for each of them I definitely got my money's worth with just these two totes.

This is the kind of canvas tote I use as a foundation for the ones I make, only I really like the design of the leaves that's already on it. Since it's perfect for the fall I might save and use this one for shopping, too.

The is actually a diaper bag that retails for about $20 new even without the monogram, and it's barely been used; all it needs is laundering. I can't use it for a holiday gift bag, but it will make a nice picnic tote/carry-all for when we go to the parks.

The pink pineapple canvas bag just needs a wash, too. It will likely go to Kat, as it fits right in with her locale.

This embroidered Cape Cod souvenir bag probably cost around $50.00, and is also in new condition. It's roomy enough to serve as a weekender tote, or as a bed quilt project bag. I'm thinking of using it to store the star patchwork quilt blocks I got in the NC lot.

With shipping the lot cost me $10.67 total, which works out to about $1.78 per bag.

Annoy Me Ten

I haven't done one of these in a while, and some things have been getting on my nerves frequently of late, so here are

Ten Things That Really Annoy Me

AI Everything: Suddenly Artificial Intelligence is everywhere, doing everything, and just in case you're not worried about that, it's also going to kill us all (and is even actively threatening to do so.) What can I do about it? Nothing. I have no idea what AI is really doing or could really do, but if the people in charge of it allow it to do dangerous-to-us stuff then bad things will probably happen. And what can I do about that? Nothing.

Censorship Online: I just had to kill a free story as promo plan for my day job because I now have to worry about the people involved in online censorship of anything that is contrary to their personal belief systems. Seriously, did someone accidentally erase part of the Constitution, or what?

Doomsdayers: This is like the AI everything thing, in that there is nothing I can personally do to stop Doomsday. I'm old, so I likely wouldn't last long no matter what the circumstances (just not having my diabetes meds will probably kill me.) Yet according to these folks I still need ten years of nonperishable food and water hidden in a secret location on my property, lots of guns, and solar generators because the world is coming to an end (but if you use their special code, you'll get a five percent discount on the dried food, guns, solar generators etc.) Tell you what, if Doomsday arrives, I will be ready not to survive it. In fact I'll have a We're All Going to Die party at my house, and anyone else who isn't planning on surviving is invited. Much, much cheaper.

Dump-and-Go Recipes: There are women who love dump and go cooking; I am not one of them. It's lazy cooking, and the name is very unattractive. Please at least invent another name for it.

Halloween Hate: It's always been a harmless holiday for kids. I loved it when I was a youngster, especially as we were poor and didn't get a lot of treats back then. If you have a moral/religious objection to Halloween, shut off your porch light and keep your kids home, but don't tell me not to decorate or hand out treats.

Hearing-Impaired Impatience: I'm sorry I'm going deaf, and I do try not to bother people with my deafness. Sometimes I will ask you to repeat something you said when I wasn't looking at you so I can try to read your lips. Scowling at me or behaving as if I've instead asked you to cut off a limb is not going to make my hearing better, by the way.

Mannerless Young People: Someday you will be my age. When you are, I hope you remember the door you let slam in my face, or the grocery cart you shoved into my hip, or the way you cut me off on the road because I was driving the speed limit, you young jerk.

Rude Old People: Pushy, impatient, and just downright rude old people embarrass me. Just because you're elderly doesn't mean you can forget your manners, either, you old jerk.

Support My Cause or Else Threats: Any statement someone makes that is a variation of "If you don't support my cause, you are actively supporting the enemy of my cause" is not going to win my support. It's going to make me avoid you no matter what I have to do.

YouTube Quacks: Suddenly YouTube is rife with videos about homemade "cures" for everything from clogged arteries, diabetes, tinnitus and even more serious diseases. Which all boils down to quackery, people. Even if you can drink a cocktail of lemon juice, garlic, cayenne pepper and apple cider vinegar, all it's probably going to do is give you heartburn or make you puke. Follow your physicians advice and take your meds, and don't look for get-cured-fast crap.

Caught

One of my weirder habits is to photograph the thread snips and fabric bits that I clean out of my thread catcher when it's filled.

I think it looks neat. I also try to match up the layers with the projects I've worked on in the past few months. There is a lot of perle thread snips from my recycled linen quilt, and pretty embroidering floss from my calendar scroll project.

I also save what I clean out in little sandwish baggies. I'm hoping to find a way to resuse these bits in a craft project one day, but until then they live in my sewing recycle bin. Yes, I know -- I warned you it was a weird habit! Ha.

Adverse

I wrote poetry before I wrote books; I spent about five years of my teens taking refuge in verse. I won awards for my poems, and scared the daylights out of everyone with them, too, I think (which was ultimately the reason I gave it up.) Other choices lead to me becoming a novelist; had I not made them I think I would have instead become a poet. I'm very glad I decided to write books, but sometimes I wonder who I would have been had I traveled the road less taken. That's what I kept thinking as I read In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive by Clementine Von Radics.

This is not an easy book of poetry to read. The author was (or is) mentally ill. It's frank to a brutal degree, and howls with pain, and demands answers the poet will likely never get. I saw way too much of myself in the verses, in particular when I was in my Postcards from Hell phase during my parents' divorce. So I don't recommend this if you're feeling fragile; it might smash you to pieces.

With that disclaimer, this is a brilliant, intimate collection of intensely personal thoughts that draw you into a silent conversation with the poet. I haven't been this impressed by someone's verse since reading Ariel by Sylvia Plath. So there's that, too.

Journalpalooza

I burn through a lot of journals every year, and they're not getting any cheaper, so being able to thrift these four made me quite happy. Two are guided (the big goals on the left and the Be Happy second from the right) which just means they have prompts or questions to answer; the other two are blank.

The cat cover journal is missing a few pages at the front; likely someone tore them out before donating it. I don't mind; this will make an excellent journal to carry in my purse.

The Be Happy journal has a religious theme, which I also don't mind (you say God, I say Universe or Fate) and I like the theme; it's very upbeat. This might even be a gratitude journal, and it doesn't hurt to remember to be thankful.

All the pages in the blue wrapped seahorse journal look like this. Love it.

The goals journal has some funny and inspiring quotes on every left page, as well as list planner pages on the right. I like making goal lists so I might use this one for my monthly creative projects.

Reward

I let myself spend $9.99 as a reward for finishing the last novel for work (I'm so generous to myself) and with it won this lot of journals and poetry books from ShopGoodwill.com. Let's see how I did.

Very nice for ten bucks, I think. Three of the journals are unused (one was used for a few pages, which were torn out before I got them.) The poetry books are in decent shape.

The candles are unused (the pink one smells wonderfully of roses) and the Starbucks mug is in mint condition. Turns out to be a very nice reward. :)