A Quilt to Close Out Summer
This week I made a quilt. I have pursued this project with passion, in my imagination at least, for well over a year. I am not a quilter. I did not, nor do I after the fact, really understand what I was doing. All I knew was that I had an unusable quilted mattress topper and some torn bedsheets, good cotton fabric it seemed wrong to discard. There is so much waste already, didn’t I owe to it to myself, and the world, to make something new out of it? Yes!
Did I do it? No.
And then, this week, I did it. Behold!
My older kid was complaining of summer boredom, so I suggested we do this project, or at least attempt it. It took an entire two sessions: one to cut, one to assemble. Musical episodes of our favorite shows on in the background. The kid encouraging me and helping with the seam ripper and making the edging tape. It’s not perfect, but it is done.
There’s probably a lesson in there, somewhere.
ReaderCon Wrap Up
ReaderCon was last month. You all remember. As my dad said this weekend, “What’s ReaderCon? I mean, I know what ReaderCon is.” So I shan’t bore you too much with explanations. I sat on two panels and met some wonderful people and donated blood and read my work before an audience of four, two of whom I had never met. (John Wiswell assured me that’s a good turnout.) I would like to thank my best friend for coming, and for taking my favorite picture of the weekend.
What I’m watching and reading
The 14yo and I finished Riverdale, and I think it’s safe to say I love that show. Buffy walked so it could run. It remained bananas to the end (I think we counted 8 serial killers), but with so much love for the characters I know I’m going to miss them.
I have also recently gotten into Tiny Chef. Naturally, I discover this stop-motion wonder after his show gets canceled, by watching his emotional reaction to his show getting canceled. Doesn’t matter. That video is art. I’m not even kidding. Go watch it:
If you have Netflix you can watch the show in question, which is basically America’s Test Kitchen for kids aged 4-8. Why, you ask, would that appeal to a sophisticated woman-about-town such as myself? Well, I already like ATK. Tiny Chef shares my tendency to freak out, but he always works it out in the end. And honestly? The show made me want to cook when I was feeling down.
As for reading, I just finished A Girl Walks Into the Woods by Madeleine Roux. I know it’s wrong to review a book based on your expectations, but it didn’t really go the way I thought it would. I was expecting more Bluebeard, less folk monsters. But I enjoyed reading it.
My 12yo and I are almost done with The Bad Guys, a comic books series by Aaron Blabey that starts disposably funny and farty but, as the kid said around volume 14, “Did you expect it would become dark fantasy?” By v.16, it’s full-on horror. Great art. Kinda love it. Not interested in the movies.
I also took Howl’s Moving Castle, by Dianne Wynne Jones, from the library. I don’t care for that movie (Miyazaki stuff refuses to click with me, I dunno why) but I want to give the source material a shot.
And that’s what I’ve got. Summer is going to be over sooner than we realize, and it’ll be time to wrap up in our quilts. But until then stay cool, stay sane, stay vigilant, and see you soon.
