Day in the Life of an Idiot

 Y'all were like "Oh, Lyda, SOMEONE will want the quilt you keep calling gaudy/ugly." We shall see, my friends. WE. SHALL. SEE.

I put this up for grabs on Facebook. I will be surprised if any one wants it, but I put a weird amount of work into it. My only comfort is that Buttercup loves sparkly things and if no one really wants it (and I can't find a charity that will take it), it's clear that he will love it.

Okay, I already have to eat my words. Someone has claimed it. I can not believe it.
( Read more... )

 
Image: TOS Engineering insignia. On the flipside of sabotabby 's gaming quilt

This weekend, I finished up Sabs' quilt--specifically, I made it fully reversible with this insignia on the back side--and packaged it up. It is now winging its way to its new home. Rather than start right away on bcholmes 's quilt, I am finishing up the Avenger-themed one that I think I've showed off here before? I ran out of the comic book fabric before it was even lap length. So I'd  set it aside as I pondered what to do to finish it off.  When Shawn and I were out getting bias tape, BY CHANCE,  at the fabric store in the remnant bin was actual, honest-to-god Avengers fabric. It was not at all similar except in terms of the characters and the fact that comic book characters come in standard, bright primary colors. But, I decided that the price was right (one dollar after our discount) and a sign that was too obvious to ignore. 

I will have to post a picture once I finish the hemming tonight. It's... I mean, thematically, it works? The only thing is that it's kind of feels like I started with manga images and then finished off with the same story's anime, if you know what I mean? As nerdy quilts go, it's a fun one. I am still really pleased with it, generally. 

The other thing I'm doing is working on a second run of revisions. I got my editorial letter from Wizard's Tower and my editor spotted something I hadn't fully considered. I'm playing around with a character who is a solider and there's a kind a redemption arc and so I have to strike that balance of sins that can actually BE forgiven, you know? She had some thoughts and then I had tea and brainstorming with naomikritzer and so now I'm threading that idea throughout. I've already added about 500 words and am only half way through. I should have another draft by Wednesday, I hope. I'd like Mason, who is still home until the 22nd, to be my final reader. He's very good at asking the important plot questions, so if I'm too ham-handed (or, less likely, too subtle) in this pass, he'll let me know.

We briefly got a drifting of snow this afternoon. Just enough to have to sweep off the car before we went off to Shawn's kidney doctor check-in at 1 o'clock today. Today was a day of doctors, etc., for her. She got a temporary crown this morning at the ungodly hour of 7:10 am. However, I managed to get a bunch of errands done at the same time, including finally returning a huge stack of manga that I'd checked out from the library. I still have a decent amount left to read, but I'm pleased to have plowed through a bunch of it, including Boys Run The Riot about a trans boy who has dreams of starting a fashion line. I'd say it's a fun, feel-good read, but it actually triggered me a little? Our hero gets outed without his consent and I woke up dreaming about it several times last night. It hit me in the subconscious, apparently. But, I mean, it's a good manga. Unlike, say, One Piece, it's a complete story in 4 volumes. 

I'm still watching through some Star Trek TOS episodes. I watched "Squire of Gothos" mostly because I had no memory of it. It's one of those all-powerful beings who are actually children playing with us stories and... I mean, it's no dumber than say, "Mudd's Women," which I also recently rewatched. I've been thinking a lot about the various types of scientists on starships and I was reminded in this one that they have a ship's geologist. I don't even think he's the first one? We see another geologist in the terrible transporter accident one, "Enemy Within." I also finished watching all of the Star Trek: The Animated Series because Paramount+ has them. I'm now working my way through some Star Trek: Deep Space Nine until we drop our subscription.

I also picked up another correspondence RPG. This one is supposed to be played via email and, since I had such trouble doing "Stay in Touch" via email with my one friend, I thought we might try this. Wish us luck.

How was your weekend? Read or watch anything of note? 

Image: newest quilt, dinosaurs and gold & blue squares.

As I wait for some specialty fabric to arrive for the Star Trek gaming/pride quilt I'm making for sabotabby, I started this weird little baby quilt. I'm not sure about it. Is it too busy? Is the yellow right? Will I probably just finish it because I got this far and damn if those squares of squares weren't a pain in the butt to make?

Regardless, tell me what you think. I mean, if it is a baby quilt, I suppose it's fine to be this chaotic.

And I don't hate it. 

Sometimes, I even like it. 

Thoughts?

At any rate, yesterday was kind of a busy day for me. I ran around doing errands--one of which was buying printer ink. Shawn likes to do her reviewing of my manuscript on paper, so I printed out all of Lesbians in SPAAACE (aka Welcome to Boy.net) for her yesterday. Shawn is my Gamma reader (or whatever comes after Beta).  There will be other readers, most notably my editor, but Shawn will be one of the first to correct for spelling and to alert me to any last minute character/plot/continuity errors. 

So, now that the the book is sort of mostly off my plate (at least for the moment), I've been casting around for things to do. Of course, one of my first priorities is to plot out the next Alex Conner book, which is the next thing due at Wizard's Tower Press. But, in addition to that, I've also been goofing around with making the Thirsty Sword Lesbians mini-campaign I ran into something I could offer up as a kind of module on Drive Thru RPG or itch.io or wherever. That's been entertaining, if only because I could create characters and such all day.

It snowed here in Minnesota. I should probably plan something warm and Sustaining (as Pooh might say) for dinner tonight. 

How's by you?
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Addendum. I don't know why I keep having faith in the Internet community. I posted this same picture to Facebook and the MAJORITY of the people there said that they thought it was cute, etc., like you all did here. And, like, it's not that I feel particularly confident about this one, so that was nice to hear. But, the four people out of however many others, who felt the need to tell me how terrible it was... I just... WHY? Two of the four "advice" comments suggested different color arrangements, which is fine, though not helpful advice, really, because this is just my silly hobby. But, the other two who felt the need to point out how sloppily its put together really hurt my feelings. Like, was that necessary? Why would you do that?

I mean I think it comes from a genuine place? Where people who have expertise want to share their knowledge because sewing is something they also love, but I dunno, man, can't you just say, "Hey, nice effort! Glad you're in my fandom!"

The intrnet makes me feel twelve years old sometimes. 

Many months (maybe even as long as a year) ago, I posted about starting a sea-themed quilt for Mason, who, despite being born and raised in the Midwest, has always loved the ocean. WELL. I finally finished piecing it. Now, all that's left is finding a backing for it. I have something I'm sure will fit as batting (the in-between layer). Depending on whether or not I have to buy a piece for the back, I'm thinking I'll have it done for him as he's headed back to university.  If he wants, he can use it on his dorm bed.. I'm thrilled that this thing is finally headed into the final phases as it were! 

With this big one almost done, I'm starting to think about the next project. I've got two in mind. One, another Star Trek gaming quilt for lcohen And now that I'm done with Mason's quilt, I have a surplus of all these really cool ocean/sea life fabrics. I just offered up something with some octopuses and it was immediately snapped up. 



Image: blue, yellow, pink, and green octopuses on white fabric with coral in between


THEN, I found out today that another friend is expecting a grand daughter in November, so I have another quilt I can make for her! I've had some cartoon fish that I've been kind of waiting for a smol to want, so I'm really excited that one is expected. Here's that fabric:


Image: fun fish!

I'm so happy that my addiction is appreciated by others. 

 
Image: newest quilting project. This one features a jellyfish in the center. 

Ironically, if I'd known that I had this piece of jellyfish fabric left over, I would have used it as the centerpiece of my previous quilting project. The person that I was making that one for loves jellies in particular, but I only unearthed this piece from the depths of my fabric chest long after I'd sent that one. Alas!  

I'm struggling a bit with how I want to finish this one off, but it's nearly finished. Then, the plan is to do another queer while gaming quilt. Did I show off that one here? I know I posted the fabrics, but it's finished and ready to ship off to my god daughter once she's back in New York after she finishes the play she's starring in. I can attest to how soft and warm that one is because WE GOT SNOW THIS LAST WEEKEND, WHY?

Though not as much as my parents did in LaCrosse, WI. Wow.

It all seems so very weird, but lately, for some unknown reason, I've been clicking on the "Facebok memories" options and, reading those, I'm surprised by how many mid-April OMG, SNOW!! posts I've posted over the years. So, I guess that part isn't quite as unusual as it feels.

In other news, Denny Lein died. Denny is Terry Garey's husband among many other things, and, while I never knew him very well, the suddenness of his passing has haunted me. I think, particularly, because, by chance, when I was at Minicon I ended up picking up a bunch of the old Rune fanzines that someone had left on the freebie pages and he's, of course, all over in those since he edited the zine for awhile and was a regular contributor. I was glad to hear that he made it to Minicon and was even able to participate in the revised performance of Midwest Side Story, which I'm lead to believe he helped write. 

It's all so weird. 

 The first thing I want to report is that I revised a short story I've been working on for a shared-world anthology, and have now sent it off to my second writers' group for critique. Hooray!

Secondly, it seems that my Loft Zoom class is finally settling into a good rhythm, I think. We had a great class last night, at any rate. I was actually able to prod people to talk, possibly because I like to teach plotting by using my own failures to create story as an example. I have a very specific story idea that should work, but refuses to gel that I will trot out for class. I think people generally like to offer advice, and so when I say, "Please help me fix this broken thing and let's talk about why it's broken," works actually fairly well as a method to get people to really think about what elements have to come together to start a story.

Then, I had them watch a YouTube video recording of Kurt Vonnegut talking about story plots, so we pretended we had a posthumous guest lecturer.  

The last half of the class was the first time we rolled up our sleeves and started critiquing and that went very well, as well. Like I say, a success all around.

In other news I am putting the finishing touches on the sheep + octopus quilt and then it will be on to the next one, which will be deep-sea themed.


Image: deep sea fabric

 
Image: Nearly done "ugly" Christmas quilt (which I actually quite like) and Rhubarb for scale.

This is technically the pinned version, but I completed this quilt yesterday afternoon, despite being sidelined by YET-ANOTHER-PAINTING-PROJECT. 

When our pipes froze over the Christmas holiday, we ended up having to move a whole lot of accumulated STUFF out of a space we call our "utility" closet, even though what it actually is is a mudroom that used to connect to a backdoor that the previous owners closed off. (Like, bricked--or in our case stuccoed--over completely. The only proof that remains is the back steps that go up into a wall in the backyard.)

At any rate, once the pipe crisis was over, we started the process of moving everything back into place, we, OF COURSE, ended up doing some reorganization and sorting. Shawn cleaned out a cabinet completely of the junk it used to hold and decided that she wanted to move it to the basement and repurpose it for "fancy dishes" overflow. 

I fully support this because our house is over run by three things: books, fabric, and fancy dishes. 

So, finding places that are more out of the way for excess of any of those three things is GOOD.  

At any rate, this, OF COURSE, first necessitated making room in the basement. Shawn found a good spot, started clearing a space (which again, involves sorting, tossing, and recycling--all good in our house!) and when we looked at the wall, she said, "You know, I've always wanted to paint this wall a fun color." I said, "Just this wall? I could do that in two hours. Let's just do it!" and so we did. We now have a lovely mint green wall in the basement, which Shawn also spruced up with some curtains to hide some of the uglier rafter bits and a fancy "new" dish overflow cabinet. 

Whoot!

Of course, we didn't finish putting the pantry/utility closet back together, but we really are finally doing somethings around the house that have been literally on Shawn's to-do lists for YEARS. So, that's a win.

How was your weekend? Do any reorganizing, cleaning? Or... anything fun?

 
Image: Checker-board red and black quilt with strange, fun buttons at the corner points.

My favorite thing about this quilt is that, on Facebook, when I posted this I got an extremely Minnesotan response, which was, "Well, that's certainly bold." Which, if you're not Midwestern might be confusing as, on the surface, that's just innocuous and a little wishy-washy with the "Well" in front, like that, but to translate, if this person were a Minnesotan, they would be saying, "Wow. Actually, that's hideous." It's understood in Minnesota that bold should never be the goal. As is said in a country with a kinship in heart, "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down."

That I elicited this response doesn't actually bother me. I've been hearing from my wife that she straight-forwardly (rather than passive-aggressively) dislikes it and thinks it's too much. Good news, everyone! I'm making this quilt for me and no one else!  And I'm almost done with it. I have one more corner of buttons to quilt and then I will hand sew the edges. I'll probably have it done by the weekend. 

I've been trying to decide if I should put in a final push for the second ugly Christmas quilt that I started so that I can give it away on our local "Buy Nothing" holiday giveaway or if I should move on to the silly sheep one that I want to make to donate. Perhaps when I feel more organized, I'll take some pictures of these projects and let you all vote. 

In other news, the kitchen painting project continues. I have started on the cabinets finally, and that's the last leg of the journey. It's also a LOT, so it's going slowly. We are more than on schedule to have it done by Thanksgiving. I'd wanted it done by my birthday, but that's Friday already and I'm not willing to push myself too hard every day. Plus, we've been doing this in a way that the kitchen remains useful, so it's like, do one drawer, let it dry, put everything back in, move on... not the fastest? But since it's just Shawn and I, it is working fine.

 
Image: A bright blue spiderwort blooming in a literal sidewalk crack.

I sent in my Lawns2Legumes reimbursement request for the pocket habitat that I spent a couple of hundred dollars on, and, lo, in a literal sidewalk crack on the side of my house, a bright blue prairie spiderwort, native to not only Minnesota, but specifically Ramsey County, where I live, has volunteered and bloomed. Rather than consider this THE GREATEST IRONY OF ALL TIME, I shall imagine that this lovely native bloom is a thank you gift directly from the Goddess. 

Because it's either laugh or cry.

In other news, we ended up spending a fuck ton of money on Willow, our Void, who had been throwing up a lot. Because this is the self-same cat whole swallowed an actual needle, I did tell the vet to go ahead and take x-rays just to make sure that she wasn't barfing because of some insane (insane intestine!) obstruction or another. Willow was perfectly clear, though the vet did see a lot of gas and whatnot in her intestines. The best guess was, in fact, a bout of stomach flu, or some kind of minor bowel infection. The vet prescribed some antibiotics, but Willow has been deeply resistant to the squirt (to be fair to her, is smells like that fake banana smell. Why? Why not, I dunno, tuna~!) and has taken to hiding under the bed for a lot of the day. It might be the humidity? But her hiding is not very like her and so now I'm all worried again. Does she have an actual infection? Should we be more aggressive trying to get the medicine in her? Or is the medicine what she's hiding from?? 

I wish she could tell me. 

Other than that, we spent the 4th hiding from the fireworks, ourselves. I've started another "ugly" Christmas quilt, though this one I like quite a bit more.


Image: red and green and white quilt, my second "ugly" Christmas quilt

Here's a close up on some of the fabrics:

Image: Close up on some of the fabric in the quilt, there are a lot of snow persons and creepy Santa clones.

And, yes, I did notice after I got this section together that the army of Santa clones are kind of all bunched together. At this point, I kind of don't care? It's visually (from a distance, at any rate,) more about the green and gold star bowties and the solid red bowties. 

Tell me what you think (so long as it's a compliment! I'm not in the mood for critique of my stitching or fabric choices right now, sorry!)

 
Image: my latest quilt project. It is a lot of squares of pink/white bird patters and darker purple/lavender squares.

I finished the last details on this quilt just a few minutes ago and now I am boxing it up and sending it off to the UK (to a baby who isn't quite so new any more, but hopefully will still enjoy it.) It's going along with the other quilt that you saw, the brightly colored one with the buttons. That will be going to the child who is already a toddler. 

The backing for the quilt was an old bedsheet of ours which happened to match perfectly, but was a tiny bit worn on the other side. There were a few micro-holes and thin patches, so I decided it would be cute and clever to patch the back with various fun shapes. 


the back of the quilt

Since it's hard to appreciate at a distance. Here's some close ups of the fabric, etc.


Image: back patches on the quilt, so you can appreciate my crappy embroidery.


Image: edging and mitered corners.


Image: the bird patterned squares and my yarn ties.

So, that's that project. Now I'm casting around for new ideas. I would like to make one for John, my nephew, who also just had a baby (or, I suppose, technically, his wife just did.) And, I've promised one to the UK folks for their older daughter, a tween. Then there are friends whom I'd like to make more for... I don't think I'll run out of pandemic quilting projects, at least! Which is a good thing. As my grandmother would say, it keeps me off the streets.