Produce

Determinedly, I sat in front of my laptop on Monday and made a start on my Ebook. I drafted an overview and then fleshed out what chapters there might be. Although I maintain that my projects just seem to crop up and develop organically, a book on my work needs to have more substance. Inspiration, even the unconscious sort, comes from all sorts of places. Articulating those random and changing ideas into cohesive text proved to be a tricky. In order to explain to readers what to do, I had to try to figure out and describe my process of design. Obviously there must be one but my thoughts tend to leap around and they don’t often flow logically. 

I have told myself to keep the main points of each chapter brief but I reckon I can always add little asides later in text boxes. Becoming side-tracked halfway through is my nemesis.  I need to assault this task using the “New Linzi and Ellen Quilt-Show-Method” - where we systematically go up and down every single aisle with the catalogue not deviating from the floorplan or getting distracted by retail therapy. 

I thought it would be a major chore searching my computer files for relevant high quality digital photos but in fact I will need to take new shots with the help of a professional photographer for better lit and close-ups. Making decent video clips and diagrams will be yet another challenge. 

I finished marking the BzB anti-wholecloth which seemed to take ages but all the time I was doing that I was making a mental note of which quilting designs to include in the book. This  unintentionally solved the problem of what to do with the pastel silk strippy that was not right for the back of BzB - I could use it as a sampler for the Ebook. 

Finally, I had time to piece some wonky strips for the summer totems. These are meant to be berry and heather colours. I was mostly using up leftover pieces from other projects like BzB and Willowbay Herb or pieces that I had dyed. I was surprised at how quickly I used the heap of strips that I had cut and realised that I probably did not have enough. My smallest pile was green and yellow because they are colours that I rarely use. To solve the problem I ordered 15 half yards of plain fabrics online from “Simply Solids”. It is risky buying fabric or paint online as you cannot see the true colours but I was pleased with my selection. Some of the colours were not quite how I imagined them but they will blend in with all of the others, even the juicy tomato red. 

There is a great crop of brambles, blackcurrants and purple gooseberries this year. Picking them is hazardous since stinging nettles are guarding the fruits and the thorns are pretty fierce. I made a crumble and a large jar of slightly tart jam. Battling just a few prickles each day and freezing small quantities should provide enough to make sauce for ice-cream or a handful of purple fruit to add to a plain apple pie.

Most of Saturday was spent on planning and evaluating for school. I am not paid to do that amount of extra work as a supply teacher but for a regular class it needs to be done. As quilting commitments build up for next year I am reminded that it would be difficult to commit myself to a permanent position unless I was able to work for a very accommodating Headteacher. 

In an effort to make time spent on business more efficient I attempted to set up online banking. This is because it is no longer possible to phone my local bank direct with a simple query without first being diverted through a series of call centre operators all of whom demand answers for the security questions that I have forgotten. The system crashed before my registration was complete so I was told that I would have to be sent an activation code in the post! There is no doubt that it would be less stressful to keep cash in a biscuit tin.