A Professional Dilettante

And Tuesday's, for that matter, because between the snow (which is gone now, thxmch) and going to see The! Hobbit!, I was too distracted to come up with more than 359 words. I did better today: 1056 words, and what looks like the end of Chapter 12. Maybe. And the beginning of Chapter 13. Again. Maybe. (Chapter 12 is short in comparison to the others, and the last time that happened, I ended up combining two chapters and calling it good).



Oh, and sometimes busy work -- in this case cutting 25 precisely 8 1/2" red squares out of fourteen different fabrics that will go in a new quilt I'm piecing -- is a good thing because it keeps my hands busy but not my brain. No, James, I did not realize a) that there was a traumatic event that caused you to hate the park. I thought you were just rebelling against everyone else loving the place. And b) what the traumatic event was. Are you sure you want to go there, James? Really?

There were snowflakes this afternoon.

No, they didn't stick, but still. Argh.

Hi, I'm Megaera, and I hoard quilt scraps.

[Hi, Megaera!]

Not just two pillowcases jammed full of fabric bits way too small to be of use to anyone but a Borrower (as in the Mary Norton books), but I just filled two garbage bags with bits of batting that somehow got stuffed into the back corner of my fabric closet where I swear they've been reproducing. Why was I saving this stuff??? None of it's of any use whatsoever except perhaps for filling dog beds. Note to self: I don't have a dog (although the humane society has many -- I wonder -- hmmm...).

I started quilting in 1988. I suspect some of that stuff may be that age (I know I've got bigger fabric pieces in my stash that date from not long after that).

Anyway, I also discovered enough bigger pieces of batting that are actually usable that I may not have to buy batting for a while, either [wry g].

And all this because I decided to start piecing another quilt, and couldn't stand looking at the mess while I worked. Did I actually get anything done on the quilt itself for the entire afternoon? Noooo...

Does the sewing room still look like a bomb went off in there? Yes.

Am I too tired to finish cleaning up in there today? Yes.

Sigh. I'll get there. I will.

ETA: I have found a home for both pillowcases full of fabric scraps. Not that I was actively looking for one -- I was basically just kvetching when I posted this here and to the Washington State Internet Quilters email list. But someone on the latter and I are meeting the Thursday of Christmas week, on which occasion she's going to receive both pillowcases and their contents. She makes scrap quilts for charity. This is the most win-win of all win-win situations, IMHO. So, go me!

This is actually a pretty good one, compared to the last few:

In which our author is inordinately amused. I do so love a character with attitude. Esp. when she's not the protagonist, and flusters the heck out of same. Yes, I know this is supposedly all coming out of my backbrain. I have my doubts, however.



Over 40,000 words! 1028 words today. A very good day.

Came to the end of Chapter 10 today. I'm averaging about a chapter a week, which is not a bad thing at all. So far I've maintained the most consistently high pace I've ever managed. I hope I didn't just jinx myself...



Only 404 words today, for a total of 39498, but that's because I spent most of the time giving Chapter 10 one more going over before sending it off to my beta reader.

And now off to the library and to take myself out to lunch!

38420 words in total so far. That is, I'm a third of the way through to 115,000 words. Which is the goal [g]. And still no Writertopia widget [sigh].

852 words today. And a bit of a shock from Jo. I knew she wasn't as uptight as James (not that it would take much), but I didn't know she was that laid back...

Either that or James really misunderstood her [g].

Three things making a post, obviously...

So. After figuring out why I had not gotten unstuck on Friday, I managed 1018 words today, for a total of 36818. Almost 32%

So, although according to Writertopia the graphics won't be fixed until at least tomorrow, here's the html, anyway, so it'll be there eventually:



Just to satisfy any lingering curiosity, it turns out I skipped too much between the end of Chapter 9 and the beginning of Chapter 10. So I'm going back and in-filling. It could be worse. I think most of what was Chapter 10 is going to end up being part of Chapter 11, so I won't be losing too many words.

Whenever I get stuck like this I have visions of the 1940s bathing beauty who is my muse flipping herself off the edge of the pool and swimming laps until I get it right -- and splashing the heck out of me in the process [g]. I got wet but good this time.

Anyway, I have started taking the boys out briefly on the rare occasions when the weather cooperates for more than five minutes straight. Yes, I know the patio is a mess. If it ever stops raining for more than half an hour at a time, I might get out there and clean it up.


Teddy on his way somewhere, and Ivan staring at something that must be shocking him to death, to judge from his expression.


Teddy playing with dead mint branches.


Ivan, enthralled with geese passing overhead.

And last, but not least, while watching my Seahawks win a game far too close for comfort yesterday, I finished the baby quilt for my nibling and his wife's third child, due after the first of the year. I shall mail it off with the couple of Christmas presents that also need to go by mail, probably next week.


This is another one of those "panel that needs to be used whole so as not to lose the print by chopping it up" quilts. The parents didn't want to know the sex of the baby ahead of time, or at least to tell anyone, so it's gender-neutral. I'm so glad I've figured out how to use those panels in baby quilts (because I have rather a lot of them collected over the years) without just using them as cheater panels.

Anyway, it's done. Ta-da! (or is that Te-dee! [g])

Today was a weird day, because yesterday I wrote 292 words, then I looked at them this morning and said eep, no.

So, I wrote 778 words today, but since I cut 292 of yesterdays, I was making up for that, so the net total is 486. If that makes any sense.

Things are going more slowly now. I hope that doesn't last long.

Well, and today seems to be a weird day, too, because I can't get the Writertopia word count thingy to work, either. 34358 words total, though. Almost 30% of the projected 115,000.

846 today. Not too shabby. Almost 700 yesterday, too. But I forgot to post them.

I went to see Lincoln yesterday. Daniel Day-Lewis was almost eerie, like watching the man himself come to life. I've admired a lot of performances of historical personages over the years, but this is the first time I've literally caught myself believing the actor was who he was portraying. If DDL doesn't win the Oscar for that performance, something's dreadfully wrong with the Academy.

The rest of the movie was magnificent, too. Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field, David Straithairn, in particular -- and James Spader, of all people, as an early kind of lobbyist with no ruth in him whatsoever. And a whole bunch of other talented people, too.

There was some artistic license that bothered me a bit, but other than that...

Oh, and what the hell happened to the Republican party in the last 150 years? (well, last 100 years -- TR was an admirable Republican, too)