Valerean

To make a quilted Halloween treat bag for Kat I decided to experiment with an idea I had. I wanted to make a bargello patchwork that looks more intricate than it really is (and also hides my inability to match seams) but I'd never seen anyone try this variation of mine. I didn't know if it would work, either, but I had the fabric, so I thought what the heck. I started with these 5 Halloween fat quarters. I cut all the fat quarters into 3" X 7" rectangles. I sewed the rectangles into ten strips, staggering the placements diagonally. I then sewed the strips together -- at which point you can clearly see how I suck at matching seams. I took the block of patchwork and sewed the long ends together to make a bargello tube. I cut the tube into fourteen random-width strips, just avoiding the vertical seams that were there from piecing the original rectangles. I then unpicked a seam on each strip counting up or down one seam from the last strip, which crea...

Ten Things That Make Me Stop Reading a Novel Author as Character: One of Stephen King's unforgivable narcissistic writing sins for me was when he added himself as a character to that gunslinger fantasy series. As in Stephen King the author shows up in the story. No. Just no. Detailed and Horrific Torture Scenes: Most torture scenes like this are too much for me, but I can usually skim the one-pagers. The twenty-pagers, not so much -- and they creep me out over the author, too. Grated: One popular vampire romance writer who shall remain nameless used this word as a dialogue tag for her hero so often in one book I developed a violent allergy to it and never read her stuff again. Grating is for cheese, lemon zest and whole nutmeg. If you want me to read your story just write said , please. Ignoring Punctuation: A fluctuating style trend that infects writers every couple of years; the literati especially love it. Me, not so much. I end up mentally editing inst...

Yesterday I had to face yet another emotionally difficult situation. I don't want to get into details, but it involved unsolicited contact from a person who has been basically bullying me for about twenty years, and still won't leave me alone. When this happens I always feel compelled to respond and try to defuse the situation, but this time I stopped myself. People like this always seek me out, never the reverse, but I've never given much thought as to why they do. To deal with bullies I always first think of how I might best placate them and get out of their crosshairs. I want to change that knee-jerk reaction, so instead this time I just thought about it for a while. Why am I so afraid of these people? Is the way I usually react making me into a magnet for bullies? That was how I finally made some connections. The root of my problem is my older sister's constant bullying when I was a kid. I dealt with it by giving her whatever she wanted and otherwis...

We made our first visit to the vet with the boys to get their next round of shots and see how healthy they are. This is when I think they finally realized they're not at the puppy toy store place. They were a little scared but otherwise well-behaved. Everyone loved them, of course. The vet said they're both quite healthy, and administered their twelve-week shots. Beau has the beginnings of an ear infection, though, so we had to get some stuff to treat that. The vet also showed me an easier way to clean the puppies' ears. I might share that if I can get some pics when I do Beau's ears this weekend.

Making myself write in my desk journal every day, even if I just log what I eat for meals, is helping improve my handwriting. I've settled on this True Writer Kyoto fountain pen as my work horse writing instrument (for now, anyway.) My entries still look a bit sloppy to me, but they're evolving slowly. I keep trying to write at the speed I used to, which is when I lose control of the pen. The medium nib seems to help me write better versus a fine. Not sure why.

More pics of Kat's trip to Yellowstone National Park. The guy in the first one is her boyfriend; he went to visit her last month.

If I have time to make one more big quilt before the end of the year (a big question mark due to the puppies and everything else I have planned) I'd like to make one in gray. I've always wanted to design and make a monochromatic quilt. So I hauled out my gray scrap fabric stash last night to see what I have. There's about twenty or thirty yards in the bin, so fabric won't be a problem. The simpler the design, the more likely I am to make it well. I like the look of Mickey Zimmer's Beachy in Grey pattern , and I'm tempted to invest in that. But to make it really special I should design the patchwork myself. So more thinking to do on this, too.