Creativity

Creativity
Mind Spark - A lightning strike from which poetry springs

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

My First and Only Quilt


















I learned this pattern way back in grade school. It's called Grandmother's Flower Garden.
Back before we had printers and online resources, we carefully traced the hexagons onto magazine covers and cut them out. Those were the patterns. When I did this one, I went online and downloaded the hexagon pattern and printed it out in sheets of the exact size I needed. Cutting them very carefully was the reason the quilt turned out even and flat. Three months of feverish hand sewing and the top was done. The actual quilting took two weeks, then finishing all the edges took another week.
My next quilt, should I try it, will be more traditional, with white paths between the flowers, and with all yellow centers to flowers that will be all different. But since I have another book to finish, maybe it will be awhile before I plan and attempt another one.
Keeping the separate elements in metal cookie tins, I was able to sort out onto a tray the pieces I needed for the day. I worked in my cozy arm chair from this tray, and sorted the finished pieces on my filing hutch, watching the quilt grow by the day.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

New here, be nice

I joined the club - let's blog this sucker!

My great stupendous news this week - I received a fan letter for my new novel
Days of Dante. Between re-reading it i'm doing my happy dance. Feedback is so lovely. Family strangely silent, but what did I expect?

Happy Sunday, here north of snowy Chicago. Happy to not have to shovel again for another day, I sit here with coffee, french bread french toast made with orange juice and ground cardamom seed (thanks, Alice)

This looks just like a blank page when I'm writing. Forget the heart stopping slam when it's going well, I bet other bloggers know this already. The intimidating blank page, the urgency of getting something down, anything at all, and then the scary look for typos.

Okay, I'm Donne now!