I am astonished to see that it has been nearly a month since I published my last blog post.  In general, I try to publish once a week every weekend, but sometimes I get caught in that time vortex where each week is but a day and each day but an hour…you know the ones I mean.  I am just bobbing my head up from the latest whirl as I prepare for Christmas and work to complete some deadlines.

I am waiting on a wish list from my most difficult of all family members to buy a gift for (my oldest son Ken), and if he doesn’t give me one he gets a gift cirtificate.  But other than that I have completed my Christmas shopping.  I have not yet even started decorating for Christmas.  I celebrate Christmas, the birth of my Lord,  from Christmas Eve through 6 January.  I also celebrate Advent as a time of preparation and reflection.  So for me, having the house decorated by about December 20th or so is just about right and in tune with the preparation part of Advent.  Yet, the other night I was driving home from being out and saw my whole neighborhood is bright with beautiful Christmas lights.  So I think for my neighbors we will endeavor to get our outdoor lights up this week.

My youngest son, David, is under a heavy set of deadlines for his writing.  He has been asked to contribute a novelette for a collection of stories that is due by the end of the month, and he has to get it to his editor by the 15th.  So I am putting off decorating until he gets that manuscript to his editor. He is a necessary part of this endeavor.  After all, someone has to go up that ladder to get the decorations down…LOL.

He also has been asked to be a guest author at a writing/fantasy/sci fi conference (Raven Con in Williamsburg, Virginia) in April, and he has the third book in his Law of Swords series close enough to completion that he wants to get that one published in time to have it in hand for the conference.  So snatching a bit of his time here and there is really difficult.  But I’m excited for him.  His writing is downright magical.

If you haven’t read any of his books, I encourage you to do so even if you don’t normally read fantasy, because they are full of romance, intrigue, and adventure and are so very well written. They would make great Christmas presents too, and talent as deep and wonderful as his is needs supporting.  So please buy a book and see what you think.

I have not forgotten the blog this past month.  I have been struggling to write a post about the magic of combining today’s wonderful drawing and painting software with fabric art and specifically with art quilting.  But I think I’m going to put that one aside because I just can’t get it put together like I want.  But believe me, it’s worth the time and money spent to obtain and learn such technologies as Corel Draw, Corel Painter, Bernina Design software, Electric Quilt, and any photographic editing software.  With it, you can paint in the computer and print on fabric.  You can design in the computer and print a full sized design.  You can design your own fabric and have it printed.  You can draw a whole quilt and have it printed full sized on wonderful fabric and quilt it. You can digitize your own embroidery items and stitch it out on your embroidery machine.

You can just draw something wonderful and print it out full size and replicate it on your free motion machine (even a treadle machine if that’s how you roll). It’s so exciting and wonderful that it’s almost magical.

And so what are my deadlines, you wonder.  Ahhhhh….that’s a good question!  Maybe I’ll tell you some of them next time.

Sew happy everyone!  I bet you have some kind of artistic software lurking around your computer somewhere.  It’s time to learn to use it if you haven’t already as part of your quilting and/or sewing adventure.