Whee! I spent most of the day at Road to California with some friends from my quilt guild. My first big quilt show! On one hand I spent too much and it was more crowded than I like, on the other hand there were some really gorgeous quilts on display there and I really love the stuff I purchased. I kind of wish I had the freedom to go more than ( Read more... )

Shadowlands word count: 989. A bit less than half a chapter, but I'm just going to make myself keep adding a bit each day and refining what's already there until the story is done ( Read more... )

On Friday, I got to take a class with Bonnie Hunter, one of the stars of the quilting world. Which was my first quilting class since the ones I took with my grandmother circa 1992! And I picked up some neat tips and techniques. But, honestly, string-piecing (one of Bonnie's favorite techniques) is a touch exhausting! So I'm just going to do a ( Read more... )

Hot weather arrived and with it, flea season. Yech. The cat has been Advantaged and I'm working my way through washing the everything-that-can-be-washed and vacuuming the everything-that-can-be-vacuumed. And squashing every flea I can catch ( Read more... )

I planted 107 popcorn seeds (one whole packetful) on Tuesday. Will be interested to see how many come up. Meantime, in the garden bed I planted with fifty bajillion seeds a week or so ago, the radishes and mizuna are popping their heads up and I think I saw the first sprouts in the spinach and snow peas areas. (Also in that bed: mesclun, lettuce ( Read more... )

Squiddle in his room napping. Jazzy laying on my left arm, napping. Winter rain, temporarily halted. It's turned cool (for SoCal) the last couple days and Jazzy's been wearing the baby sweaters his Granny knitted when I was expecting Squiddle. Gratifyingly, they'll probably keep fitting him for a while ( Read more... )

Last week, our visitors (my mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, and, separately, my sister) all flew home. My father's 70th birthday party, Thanksgiving, and my sister's baby shower were all successfully pulled off. So then, of course, I hit a bit of an emotional crash and Christmas stress. Whatever. I got past it by sewing. I can't ( Read more... )

( photos and cooking )

Squiddle and I got our flu shots today. Hooray! Me on the arm, him on the thigh. He was none too happy about it, but stopped crying within ten seconds of it being done ( Read more... )

While Squiddle and Jazzy are napping, I am working on a replacement wing for Squiddle's Toothless costume. (The original was lost at Comic-Con, and we're going to a Halloween party tomorrow.) And musing on the quilt I'm working on getting quilted. I finished the top nearly fifteen years ago, and I can see every single mistake in it. But I'm not ( Read more... )