Rayen

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. :)

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

I really enjoyed the pearl wave painting I did, and it helped exercise my beleaguered right hand, so I invested in two more kits of similar design. This gold, pearl and rhinestood moon is really glitzy. I want to turn it into a topper for a gift box. I also got a bird painting for my home office. I completed the first one on the same day it arrived. Generally I can do these in one night. The hand-eye coordination is good practice, and I think the results are pretty.

I'm feeling very blah right now. This month has traditionally been hard on me; there are the birthdays of two loved ones now gone from my life that I have to get through, the pumpkin spice nonsense explodes, and Christmas things show up everywhere in a big way. As I write this it's been raining steadily for two days, so I can't really spend any significant time outdoors. I need inspiration and motivation, stat. I have been looking in my own photo archives to see the projects I most liked from past Octobers in hopes that it would jog something, and saw this thrifted crocheted baby blanket that I acquired unfinished with the yarn and hook the maker had been using, and I finished it. I loved that project. In 2024 I made a small quilt from a pound of fabric an Etsy seller chose and sent to me. That is a challenge I really enjoy and I've made several quilts that way. In 2023 I completed the second embroidered recycled linen quilt in some of my favorite ...

While my guy and I were out running errands and mall walking, we stopped by a big church thrift store two towns over and I found a couple of bargains, which the very nice lady working the register packed in this luxury leather goods sack. Very fancy. :) For $5.00 I was able to get a mint-condition cream tablecloth with silver and gold embroidery, which I plan to use for Thanksgiving. I may have to shorten it a few inches. It came with three matching cloth napkins. I also needed some blank cards, and I found a pack of 12 brand new with envelopes for $2.00. That's about sixteen cents each. Here's my receipt.

This may not look very impressive, but it's a slice of something I've been working on all year. Backstory: my favorite cake happens to be plain cheesecake, and when I was diagnosed with diabetes it was one of the things I had to give up. I suffered greatly! Ha. Actually I thought I could eventually come up with a sugarfree version, but that turned out to be quite a journey. The crust was the real issue for me. The cheesecake filling (a half-size version of the filling from this recipe by the Sugarfree Diva) was fine, but I tried five different variations of the almond flour crusts and disliked all of them. I cheated and used ground up graham crackers, but that wasn't sugarfree. Finally I thought, why not use sugarfree Oreos? That was the tweak I needed, and now I have a mini cheesecake I can indulge in without any guilt whatsoever. :) Sugarfree Oreo Crust Mini Cheesecake For the crust: 6 sugarfree Oreo cookies 1 tablespoon margarine or butter, melted For ...

My guy and I drove out to Brownwood in the Villages last weeked to walk the farmer's market, and on the way home stopped in at Wildwood Antique Mall so I could look for some things for October decor and projects. Of course I came home with a little haul. :) I found another ghostly framed picture at the same booth I bought one last year , and had to own it. I might have to do a whole wall with these eventually. This pumpkin brooch will be adorning the October tote for my calendar project. I also invested in a mystery bag of jewelry, and got a nice set of silver and pearl pieces. I considered cutting up this kitchen towel for its Halloween colors and using the pieces for my tote, but I think I'll keep it intact and use it in the kitchen this month. I want to make some prim stuffies for Halloween, but I forgot that I used up almost all of my quilt pieces for my 2025 calendar project, so I looked for and found some very cheap to bring home. This is ...

Recently I read some fiction in which a terribly abused character regarded death as a dark, quiet room. She doesn't die during the story, and in fact her life turns around in a huge way shortly after that. The imagery of death as she viewed it was what stayed with me. In a bright, loud world where life is perpetually coming at you (and constantly subjecting you to some form of abuse) death as a dark, quiet room seems quite appealing. Being done with all these exhausting people seems very peaceful. All the pain stops. You're finally alone (and I do understand that longing more than I realized I would.) As a writer I've thought of death in a zillion ways, probably, but I keep coming back to crossing a finish line. The end of a life is that kind of end -- we're finished with this whole beautiful, disastrous mess of existence. I don't want to debate what happens after death, because we'll never know until after we die, assuming consciousness survives. Al...

It seems like the latest hurricane will slide by us without much fuss, but folks in the Big Bend and nothern Gulf aren't going to be so lucky. Please do visit the National Hurricane Center for the most accurate information on Hurricane Isaias, and if you're in the strike zone, please get ready and take care.

After making the pearl wave kit and having more fun (and success) than I'd imagined, I jumped on the Halloween diamond painting kit ($9.99). This is a children's kit, btw, but I am not ashamed of getting it for myself. Often children's kits are easier for my arthritic hands to manage than the huge, complicated adult versions. Plus it's Halloween themed, what's not to love? This picture wasn't difficult, as expected, and while it got a bit monotonous with the black drills I mostly enjoyed putting it together. It also came with its own frame, so once I finished and trimmed it to size I could frame it right away. It made me happy, which was the whole point. I definitely need to do more Halloween projects. :)

I decided to invest in a simpler diamond art kit to practice some hand-eye coordination. This kind of craft, like mosaic art and paint by number, is great dexterity therapy. At the time I bought the kit it was on sale for $5.59, so pretty cheap, too. This wave picture is only highlighted by the pearl drills in the kit, so it took only about an hour to complete. The trick for me was not dropping the pearls, at which I was fairly successful, and placing them where they were supposed to go, at which I did much better. I applied some glass coat mod podge over the pearls to hold them permanently in place, and this is how it came out the next morning. Quite happy with the results.