what I've been doing instead of writing for the last two weeks

[mmegaera]

Sigh. Between what has just been pointed out as my annual SAD (why can't I see this happening to me for myself?) and the second longest January dry spell in recorded history in western Washington (complete with varying burn bans, stagnant air advisories, and all the cold, dank fog and murk your little heart could desire), which just ended yesterday with a good cleansing rain, thank all the gods, and the uncertainty of jury duty, which just ended today without me getting picked for a jury, the writing has ground utterly to a halt.

So this is what I've been doing instead, a second attempt (after the catastrophe that was the Yule Log Cabin quilt) at a Christmas-themed quilt for my bed:



Just the top. I've been quilting on the flame quilt, which will probably take me to spring to finish, and have several other smaller projects for over the summer, so I probably won't actually quilt this till next fall. Hopefully I will get it quilted and bound in time to put it on my bed in December.

Anyway, here's a side view:



The inner narrow red border does not look nearly so pink in real life, and the white dots are snowflakes.

And a closeup of a couple of the stars and the borders:



Six whites/silver fabrics for the stars, about twenty reds, and about thirty greens, all from my stash except for a couple of the whites/silvers. The borders are all new fabric (I don't buy fabric in the yardage needed for borders for my stash unless I absolutely fall in love with one to the point of ridiculousness, which has happened maybe half a dozen times in twenty-odd years).

So. Piecing time is good thinking time, and I did at least partly figure out why James has clammed up. I suspect it's because this is at least in part a mystery story, and, well, I've never written a mystery before. So I went to the library yesterday and put a bunch of how to write a mystery books on hold. Hey, that's what I did when I was learning how to write romance...

Comments

[threeringedmoon]

This is one gorgeous quilt top. Fabulous.

[mmegaera]

Thanks!

[madwriter]

I like. :) But then I've always been partial to quilts, especially ones with traditional designs. We used to have a gigantic quilt show here every year at our local folklife festival--it filled our entire gymnasium--with pieces ranging from brand new to mid-19th century. Unfortunately it faded out three or four years ago when nobody stepped up to volunteer to keep running it.

[mmegaera]

Thanks! I am something of a quilt show junkie (I go to at least half a dozen shows a year and drive up to an hour and a half one way to get to a couple), and I understand they are one heck of a lot of work to put on. The ones around here are put on by local (for varying values of local [g]) guilds, and the state fair (which is just a couple of miles from here) has a large show, too. I'm very lucky in my access to quilt shows.

[thnidu]

Holy smoke! (and I don't mean what's been in your air) At first I didn't realize that this was your quilt: I thought it was "This is a museum/showroom example of what I'm trying to do." Wow, just ...

[mmegaera]

[g] I've been quilting for over twenty years. This is actually a very simple pattern from my point of view.

Well, argh. I was going to give you a link to my photo page on Flickr, where you can see some of the rest of my quilts, many of which are much more elaborate than this, but all the early photos on my Flickr page have been deleted. The descriptions and everything else are still there, but not the pictures themselves.

Well, there's a project. I needed to put them up on my website at some point, anyway. I'll do that soon and post you a link.