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The Mug Rug Way

I have a bunch of scraps leftover from making my October tote for my calendar project. I have zero ambition to start quilting anything by machine. Time for a mug rug, I thought. I have an entire box of mug rugs. I make them whenever I feel blue. It's a tiny project that I can accomplish in an hour or two (yes, I'm that slow now.) I like using them in the sewing room and my home office. Deciding to make this one made me happy in a sad way. I have no Halloween mug rugs. Will I even be able to hold a needle by next October? I hate my arthritis. I let go of all the noise in my head. I sewed the front and back on the machine, batted it, and hand stitched the rest. I didn't think about next October, Halloween or anything, really. I just stitched. Slowly, painfully at times (my fingers are still sore from making the tote) but steadily. I found a couple of hours of mindless bliss in making this little mug rug. I love how it looks. It completely changed my mood a...
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October Elegance

I set aside all my other projects and devoted a couple of days to stitching, embellishing and assembling the October tote for my calendar project. My fingertips grew sore for the first time in years because I haven't been hand-stitching, but I took my time and did what I could while not trying to be too ambitious. For the fabric elements I just focused on getting them stitched down securely. I added some feather stitching here and there when my hands allowed a little more work. I also didn't do much hand quilting, but I did add some beading, which I hadn't planned to do. The vibe I got from the finished slow stitching was very elegant. I added two fabric pumpkins to one patch to emphasize this. Then it was time to assemble it. Because I pre-batted and lined the tote, I just had to sew up the sides on the machine. The finished tote. I'm very happy with how this turned out. We're all ready for Halloween now. :)
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Oops

There's a new blind date with a book seller at one of our local antique malls, so of course I had to invest and show my support. I'm wonderful that way, lol. I meant to pick up a contemporary romance, too, but my man distracted me for a moment and instead I grabbed this historical fiction/romance. Ah, well, I'll just have to suffer. This seller included some very nice items tucked in the wrappings: a big paperclip, little journal and bookmark that resemble old library checkout cards, a pen and a tea bag. I got If the Tide Turns by Rachel Rueeckert, a novel and an author I have never read. Sounds like it's right up my alley, too: witchhunts and piracy. Very happy and I will be going on more blind dates with this seller again.
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Back to the Byline (or Not)

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...
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October Tote

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.
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Kitties

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.
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Happy Cat Stuffie

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.
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