Rayen

Shadow has been very difficult to photograph, mainly because he's so dark. I finally tried using my camera's flash to get a shot of him to come out clearly, and it worked. Now you can finally see his cute little face and pretty markings. He also has the most beautiful eyes. :)

I'm considering participating in National Novel Writing Month this year. If I can juggle it with work, I'd probably write a web novel and post it on my stories blog -- but my job has to come first.

May you share some joy with a friend today.

After cleaning out our little raised bed gardens we planted a few more veggies that will grow before the cold season starts. Here are the cucumbers sprouting in back of our strawberry plants. To keep our container herbs going my guy rigged up drig irrigation. In the second bed we've planted pole beans, radishes, broccoli and brussel sprouts. The beans and radishes are already going strong. I especially love the pole beans, so we planted an extra one in hopes of harvesting more.

Our new fruit trees flowered, and now have little fruits on them. Mom's tree has probably a couple dozen. I hope they survive. Having fresh grapefruit I can go out and pick this winter would be wonderful. Seeing these tiny fruits makes me remember my grandmother, too. She would pick grapefruit from the tree in our backyard and make English marmalade from them. Dad's orange tree had a couple baby fruits on them, but sadly one just fell off. The rest may do the same. The single orange that survived the transplanting is still okay, so maybe we'll have that one this winter.

To make a quilted Halloween treat bag for my favorite person I decided to experiment. I had an idea on how to make a bargello patchwork that looks more intricate than it really is (and also hides my utter 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 why not. I started with these 5 novelty fat quarters. I cut all the fat quarters into long rectangles. I sewed the rectangles into ten strips, staggering the fabric placements diagonally. I then sewed the strips together -- at which point you can clearly see my mismatched seams. I took the block of patchwork and sewed the long ends together to make a tube (I learned bargello piecing from a book, but there are tons of free tutorials online to show you how to do it.) I cut the tube into fourteen random-width strips, just avoiding the vertical seams from piecing the original rectangles. I then unpicked a se...

Why I Follow You on Twitter (in no particular order): You make me laugh. I have walked a path very similar to yours. We share the same daily challenge. You're incredibly talented. You make me smile or think. Usually both. I admire your incredible work. You followed me first, which I thought was nice (X3). I'm a fan of yours. You care about the same things I do. You have inspired (and continue to inspire) my textile art. Your eye for color is amazing. We have so much in common it's eerie. You're my kind of crazy. We share a lifelong love. You're fun. I want to visit you someday. You remind me of home. I think you knew me in another life. Maybe on another planet. I wish we were neighbors. I have loved you from the moment you were born.