A rambling post

When I am looking for something short and gentle to read in bed in the morning I check in on Garrison Keillor’s blog. He talks about his daily life, life in general, aging, his travels to perform, and occasionally, en passant, he makes sotto voce swipes at the American president. On his latest post, here, the comments were no longer sotto voce and took me by surprise. 

I have recently been looking for a new audiobook to listen to while I’m painting. I already have Pontoon, written and read by Keillor, which I’ve listened to a couple of times, so being in a Keillor frame of mind I checked out what else he had to offer. This is what I bought:

The title has set me thinking. Do you remember how a couple of years ago I was given a DIY neon sign kit by the lovely Jaine? And I asked Dave to make it into Courage, because I have no fine motor skills and couldn’t do it myself?

And how it became my motto for the year (2024)?

What I didn’t tell you was that I also painted a placard, which sits on my bedroom windowsill, because the batteries so quickly run out on my sign? 

That's condensation damage at the top

Anyway…back to cheerfulness. The neon sign kit could be made into a different word but I reckon that cheerfulness is too long. That’s why I am making a patchwork cushion cover of bright colours and will embroider Cheerfulness on it, and the cushion will sit on my studio sofa, as I spend more time in the studio than anywhere else in the winter, which is the time of the year when I need to be reminded to be cheerful.

I have a love hate relationship with patchwork. I have made four full sized double bed quilts and several baby ones over the years, and they drive me to distraction, because I love the design part and hate the sewing. 

After my Covid quilt…

… I swore off ever doing patchwork again, but this is just a cushion cover. I have started assembling materials from my drawer of remaining scraps, and I rather like these pink and orange pieces I dismantled from a quilt that had faded. The reverse side is not faded.

Watch this space.