Focus

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Suzanne

Daily photos: I’ve been taking them, but not necessarily sharing them. Or even getting them uploaded, but I’m caught up now. Those of you that visit via your RSS Reader won’t have noticed, but there’s a new link in my sidebar, at the top, that links to where I’m posting all of the Daily Photos. You can view them all, make comments, and subscribe to the feed if you so desire.

Nothing to write home about in these latest photos, partly because I’m taking some of them too late at night, which means the lighting is terrible, and everything’s been slightly out of focus.

Actually, that’s a pretty good metaphor for my life, too. The out of focus part, I mean.

If you’ve been here long enough you’ll know that I’ve written and self-published 2 books about machine quilting designs. I’ve been “writing” a 3rd book for the better part of a year. That’s in quotes because I go through spurts — if I’d stayed focused it would have been done long ago. I haven’t focused on it, though, for any number of reasons, many of which you can probably guess at if you’ve been reading long enough. New shop? Back to customer quilting? Knitting like crazy? Yeah, those have contributed, but there are other reasons, too.

I’ve been torn about whether or not to even try to put it out there, whether or not people will find it worthy of purchasing. I’ve been blocked mentally by how much I still have to do on it, even though I really have done quite a bit of work. Lots and lots of self-doubt. I’m my own worst critic.

Well, Saturday morning I was snoozing, and dreaming a bit about some designs that I need to work on for some classes I’m teaching in April. One thing led to another and suddenly I had a book-sized idea. The details are hazy, but the big picture is there.

Ironically that has meant that I’m suddenly UNblocked about the 3rd book. It has focused my thoughts on how I want to finish it, and how it might related to this new idea that I’ve had.

We’ll see what happens as I forge ahead. The rough draft of book 3 is on top, the binder full of tabs is waiting for me to scribble notes for book 4. I’m not making any promises, because I don’t want to eat my words.

Speaking of eating, I think I’d better go get some breakfast. And get my sleeves rolled up and get to work. I have a lot to do.

Suzanne

Working hard or hardly working

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Suzanne

In amongst everything else, I still have this book I’m trying to finish.

I still have a lot to do.

Today was the first day of registration for an online class that one of the MQResource members is going to be teaching “at” the MQR website. Color and Design for the Art Quilter. I’ve seen the first lesson (and pictures of Jean’s work). I think it is definitely going to be a great class. I’m still working on the first class I want to teach. It’s, um, based on that book I need to finish writing….sheesh.

The boys keep asking me “Can we paint our room this morning?” or “Can we paint the room tonight?”

As if all we have to do is whip open the paint cans and start painting. I should at least see if Mark can get the spackling done tonight, and I think we need to go visit the hardware store (again) for some blue tape so we can tape the woodwork. Such fun.

Back to work. Must get back to work.

Suzanne

The Snack Table

Posted on March 22, 2008 by Suzanne

Just got home from the Library Brunch. Here’s a shot of our table, all decorated. There are also canisters of mini chocolate chip cookies and potato chips on the other side of the flowers.

You can’t tell from the picture, but the flowers are arranged in my spaghetti canister. I took the spaghetti out and washed it first. It’s one of those that has the lid that flips over and seals with a latch.

There were lots of very pretty tables, but I’m pretty sure ours was the most clever. If I do say so myself.

The speaker was a lot of fun. Carol Bodensteiner is the author of a book called Growing up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl. She spoke a little about her experience writing the book, and also read a few stories from her book. A fair amount of her audience were also Iowa Farm Girls, so there was lots of head-nodding and laughter at stories they recognized: Traumatic Chicken Experiences seemed to be a shared memory by many.

I was fascinated that she ended up self-publishing her book because she could not find a publisher to take it on. She was told that while it was well-written and interesting, there was no character in crisis. Nothing bad happened. Except maybe with chickens. Not enough sensationalism. Just the stories that she remembers from back when she was 8-12 years old on a dairy farm in Iowa. Too boring I guess.

One of the questions that she was asked was whether her sisters and Mom read the book and agreed with/remembered things the same way she did. She said that many of the things that she remembered were only remembered by her. And in some cases, she remembered things wrong: she thought they did laundry on Saturdays, but her Mom (and the audience today) said “Oh no, EVERYONE did their laundry on Mondays.” One of the audience members lived in town growing up, and said it was something of a point of pride as to how early on Monday morning you got your first load hung out to dry.

Speaking of remembering things: my Mom will probably correct me if I’m wrong, but the pancake recipe I mentioned yesterday is one that I think came with the brand-new set of really expensive pots and pans that my parents purchased sometime in the early 80s? Maybe it was earlier than that? They don’t make pots and pans like that anymore. Mom still uses most of them. I’ve ready to replace my cookware, and I’ve only had it for less than 10 years. Plus, everything is sticking in my electric skillet, which is why I burned myself yesterday, so I need to replace it, too.

Pancakes

2 c. flour
2 T. sugar
1T baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 c. milk
2 eggs
2T oil or melted shortening

1. Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt. (Hmm. I never actually sift. Just stir them with a fork…)

2. Combine milk with beaten eggs; add dry ingredients.

3. Blend thoroughly, until lumps disappear. Add shortening or oil.

4. Pour batter into skillet, preheated at 400, and bake until bubbles break and edges are cooked, flip and cook until done, about 1 minute per side.

Serve immediately.

I don’t even know why I mentioned the burn yesterday. Maybe because it was so fresh and painful. I smeared some Solarcaine gel (that had aloe in it), and today, it doesn’t really hurt and you can barely tell I did anything. What a wimp.

Maybe this will week I’ll do a library brunch table retrospective. We’ve had some pretty clever ideas in the past, and they’ve always included a quilt of some sort.

Now, though, those log cabin blocks are calling my name. I must heed their siren call.

Suzanne

I am so blonde

Posted on April 3, 2007 by Suzanne

I’m laughing so hard I’m crying.

I got those 20 books sorted out that I mentioned in my previous post.

I went to start binding the other 40 that I had printed earlier in the day.

They aren’t collated earlier.

Apparently I had never checked the "COLLATE" box today. No mystery. Just plain forgetfulness.

I’d probably better go to bed before I hurt myself. I’d go sew a few seams but I can only imagine what disaster that might lead to.

Same old same old

Posted on April 3, 2007 by Suzanne

A couple of days ago I posted about a really great way to waste time: forget to click "COLLATE" when printing multiple copies of my book. I’m sure a lot of you (some of you? one of you?) thought "Gee, that was dumb, I’ll bet she learned her lesson."

Umm.

Yeah.

You would think so.

Only this time: instead of discovering it right away, I actually let the printer print all 20 copies uncollated.

Oh yeah. I’m blonde.

Actually, I’m not really sure how it happened. My only guess is that I accidentally unclicked collate on my way to click print.

Dianne had asked why my children weren’t helping with the last collating job. Well, the last time I had them help collate it didn’t go so well. I had to "fix" a lot. Plus, they are in the doghouse this week, and my level of trust in their ability to act responsibly is almost nil.

(One of them WROTE on his shirt with marker today. "But it’s a washable marker, Mom." And this is but one example of a bad choice that has been made. Ugh.)

I had a different (funny and not whiny) post planned in my head for today, but maybe I’ll do that post tomorrow. After I run to Waterloo for the 2nd straight day because I’m apparently incapable of accurately predicting how much toner I need.

Can you tell I’m not having the best of weeks? I wish I could start over. I might choose not to get out of bed.

I feel guilty for not having very many pictures lately, so here’s some feathers on silk for your enjoyment: