EverGreen or Deciduous?

It’s Spring in Oklahoma, which means the Deciduous trees  have all leafed out, giving out landscape a full lush look, adding to the greenery of the Cedar trees.

Deciduous trees are those that who lose their leaves, in the autumn, after the leaves have turned the landscape colorful with their new orange, red, yellow, and brown before dropping off and leaving the tree bare for the winter.

Both types of trees are needed. We enjoy the benefits of both. The Cedar trees, the evergreens stay green through the cold, dismal winter, giving us a bright spot to view.

Our writing is the same. Some of our stories and articles are like the Deciduous, they have their time, and like the Deciduous trees come back, for use. Seasonal stories and articles can be used each season. Articles tied to events can be revived on the anniversary of the event.

It can be yearly, articles relating to the events of December 7 (Pearl Harbor), September 11 (Twin Towers), and April 19 (Murrah Building bomb) are often used every year as the anniversary approaches. Calendar dates can also trigger posts, Memorial Day will be next month. You may want to consider if, and what post you’ll write  for the day, and those who served.

Other date-related stories are used on significant anniversaries, the fifth, tenth, twenty-fifth, hundredth, and so on. For example, Arizona was admitted into the Union of the United States in 1912, the first foreign feature film was shown in the United States. If you’re a sports writer, pitcher Cy Young retired, among other sporting news.

What does that have to do with you, the blogger? Just as other publications need both types of stories, you need both for your blog. Sure, around the holidays, write holiday related posts. Your readers are probably going to expect them. Besides, they’re fun to write. And yes, you could relate every post to an event or happening in history. But why not intersperse a few ever-green articles? The advantage of an ever-green is that you can write it when you have the time and energy and save if for those days you just don’t know what to write. You can be calm when considering your blog post.

Although, truthfully, most days I look like this when working on a blog post.

Maybe I could enjoy the calm a little more if I had more Deciduous articles on standby.

You might want to check out a few of my fellow bloggers bloggers who have full lush blogs with Evergreen and Deciduous articles:

Funny lady Amy Mullis writes humor pieces, both on her blog, Mind over Mullis, and with other funny writers at, An Army of Ermas (as in funny lady author, Erma Bombeck.)Some of  Amy’s posts are timely because the humor is based on current events, however, most of her humor is timeless. Warning, don’t be eating or drinking when ready Amy’s posts, you don’t want to have to take time to clean your monitor screen.

Pamela Foster, author of, REDNECK GODDESS, intersperses timely posts, like her most recent, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pen with funny fictional pieces like, More – On the Road with Chesty and Rocca.

Beth Bartlett says she has more  One writer who includes evergreens with timely posts is Beth, on her blog, The Writing World of Beth Bartlett. Beth says she has more sides than a D20 die, her blog has a little from all her sides, and includes both Deciduous and Evergreen articles on her blog.

What about you? Are you a calm blogger? Do you have a few, or more, Deciduous articles in your arsenal? Leave a comment and share how you choose a blog topic.

 

Highway Words for God

 

 

 

Together Always – Five Minute Friday

It’s time once again for Five Minute Friday.  Once again I’m letting the lead character in my current WIP talk. Today Elizabeth Clayton Storm joins the Five Minute Friday bloggers at The Gypsy Mama.

Today’s word is “Together” – You have five minutes Elizabeth.

Go

Five Minutes? That’s not much time. Why does she give me Friday’s? God gave her seven whole days, she could let me have any of them. But, no. She gives me Friday, with it’s five minute limit and a special word! Oh well. I’ll take what I can get.

I watch my children sleep. They look so peaceful, no worries. How I wish that could remain the truth for them. The fact is, it won’t. I remember when I was younger, safe in my parents’ home, where our family was together. Then came The Reverend.

Now, I’m married, living far from my family. This new town offers little. Inside this little house, where we’re all together everything is fine. Outside these walls though, the world is threatening. How I wish we could all stay safe, together, in this house.

But, that’s not living. God will surround us, wherever we go, however far apart we become, we will always be together in our hearts, and minds.

Oh blessed! My five minutes are up. See you all next week when she once again lets me out to mingle with you nice folks.

Still struggling with this, writing from my character’s point of view, and having fun at the same time. Come play with us at The Gypsy Mama. Rules are simple:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back at The Gypsy Mama and invite others to join in.
3. Please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments.

 

Share with us your thoughts on TOGETHER.

 

To Rip or Not to Rip

Recently, when commiserating with an online friend about the terrors of unsewing a project she mentioned that she spent way too much time with “Jack”.  On the other hand, I don’t spend nearly enough time with him.

I’m not a big fan of unsewing and resewing. Unless it’s horribly obvious, or I’m making something for someone else I consider most goofs a learning experience. I’m currently working on a quilt project with my quilting group, a friendship quilt using a modified leaf pattern. We are all  making several leaf blocks and signing them.

Once they’re all finished (some of us are a little slow, and it’s not me this time!) we’ll exchange them and each of us will have a leaf quilt representing each member of our guild.

When I sewed my blocks, I was in a hurry, thinking the deadline was fast approaching. Though I tried to be careful, I wasn’t. The resulting blocks looked nothing like the pictured leaf. See?

.

Because these blocks will be given to other quilters they were taken apart  and resewn in the proper order. Although, I left a couple “wrong.”  One of the ladies in our group wanted my block to be the ‘mistake’ block to include in her quilt. She said it’d be a different block, and when  asked about the different block, she could say, “That’s Nita’s block, she does things her way.” Not a bad way to be introduced, as an individual who does things my way.

A couple of the ‘wrong’ blocks will also go into my quilt as “crumpled leaves.”

We all have a few crumpled leaves in our quilts of life, but that’s good. It makes our life unique, special, one-of-a-kind, just the way God intended. We learn from our crumpled days and use the experience, or education for the days that follow.

Some days though, we wish we could ‘unsew’ a day and start it over. Terry Lynne Underwood, blogged about those re-sewn or do-over days. Check it out, it may make you feel better about your “re-sew” days.

How about you? Do you spend much time with ‘Jack?’  When do you wish you could rip a day apart and start it over?

 

Another Move

  It’s Friday. That means I once again link up with The Gypsy Mama for five minutes of writing, no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking and linking up with other writers to read their work.

Today, I decided to do something a little different. Yes, I still wrote for five minutes. Yes, I still wrote on the prompt LisaJo provided. However, this time, rather than writing about how the word affects me, or what I think of the word, I wrote it from my character’s point of view.

Meet Elizabeth Clayton Storm, the heroine in my Christian Western. in progress, and read her take on the prompt.

 

START:

GOODBYE

 

I shook my head. Another move. Another Town. Seems like I’ve been on the move all my life. When the Reverend and I married, I said goodbye to my family and a way of life I knew. I came with him from the mountains to the valley.

We moved and moved and moved. Leaving behind people I’d come to care about and have no way of knowing what happens in their life. Now, he’s taking us across the prairie to a place called Indian Territory.

What’s waiting for us there? Indians? Are they wild? Church going people or heathens? With a sigh I repeat the prayer of my life, “Dear God, be with us as we travel, help us to do you bidding. Help me to know what your bidding is.”

With a final look at our last house I turned and hurried to the wagon and my waiting children. The Reverend would soon return from his last minute business and we’d once again be on our way. Saying goodbye to all we know, and going into the unknown.

 

Stop.

Not quite the wagon of Elizabeth and her family, but close.

Wow, that was harder than I thought. Probably won’t be trying this again.

 

Time Travel

Looking back. Sometimes it’s a good thing to look back at where we’ve been.

On  Katie Ganshert’s blog today her main character, Bethany took over. Katie is looking forward, or at least planning, on allowing Bethany to return to her hometown. The planned trip has Bethany looking back, way back to her growing up years. So far she doesn’t like what she sees, will the view be different close up?

While Bethany is looking at a real traveling visit, The Quilt Show.com with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, on their Facebook page today asked, “When you chain piece do you sew all the pieces for all the blocks at once, or do you piece a few blocks at a time?”

To answer the question quilters have to look back, in their memories, at quilts they’ve completed by chain piecing and remembering how they sewed the quilt. The answers, on the Facebook page, vary, and are fun to read.

What we can’t read though are the actual memories. Memories about a particular quilt and the problems it caused, or how easily it went together; memories of the reason for the quilt. Sometimes those memories are happy, we are making a quilt for a loved one to enjoy. Sometimes the memories are sadder, the quilt will never be seen or cover a loved one who has left and gone home. Whatever the memories, they’ve been relegated to where they belong, the past, until we are asked to mentally travel back to that time to answer a question.

Returning to our past, either in our memories or physically will help us today. We can see the mistakes we made, both in quilting and in life and adjust our actions to avoid those same mistakes. Staying in the past isn’t good for anyone, but visiting once in a while can help us tremendously.

One thing I learned when I traveled back to answer the quilt question was that I need to sew one block before chaining the entire quilt. That way I’ll know if I’m sewing them right, not upside down or backwards like I did with this leaf block. You can see it looks nothing like a leaf. Ten blocks had been sewn before I

This is what happens when you get in a hurry to finish a block.

realized the mistake. Most of them were ‘unsewn’, however a couple weren’t. The mixed up blocks will be used in the quilt as “crumpled leaves.” Also, traveling back to when the quilt blocks were made, reminded me to take time and verify the correct order of sewing the patches.

This is how the block is meant to look:

Song of Solomon 2:11-12 (New King James Version)  “For lo, the winter is past, the rains is over and gone.The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land.”

Have you traveled back to your past, either physically or in your mind? How was the trip? Did you learn anything that can help you today?

 

Blog Hop

I’m baaaaaaaack.

I know I’ve been MIA this week, I had planned to take the entire week off and not blog until Monday, March 19. This week was supposed to be devoted to building a website, and making this blog look nicer, and better represent me. Since I’m not having much luck on either front and, Michele/Mishka is doing it again, organizing a blog  hop, I’m back sooner than planned.

This Hop is especially nice because it celebrates St. Patrick’s Day. As a child I wasn’t fond of this day. However, as an adult I’ve come to enjoy the day and celebrate the greenness of the month.

I had so much fun on the last blog hop, met some great people, made new friends, and Michele does an outstanding job organizing these events. Naturally, when I learned she had another one in the works I wanted to participate. When she’s not working on blog hops, she maintains the Quilting Gallery site which includes so much more than I can list. If you’ve never been to her site, please check it out.

For my part in the hop, I will be offering a set of five quilted postcards, as well as a copy of my book. Your choice, print or an E-copy. All you have to do is follow this blog, simple. The post cards aren’t made yet, but I’ll come back and post a picture of them once they’re finished. The book, of course, is ready to go.

All you have to do is sign up to follow me, if you’re already a follower, just leave me a note in the comments to let me know and I’ll add your name to the pot. All new followers will have their name added. You can find the rest of the partying bloggers here. Have fun, and good luck.

 

Daily Bravery

Two posts in one day. Whoo, what a change. But it is Five Minute Friday, and time to play with all the bloggers at The Gypsy Mama. We write for five minutes, no thinking (well, a little thinking), but no re-thinking, no editing, just writing the words as they come to us and then posting them.

 

Ready? Set. Go -

Brave

Sometimes we think we know what brave is and who is brave. Firemen who go into burning buildings are brave. Policemen who stop traffic offenders, never knowing what they’ll face when approaching the car. Our military people are brave, going into scary situations to protect us. Missionaries are brave, going to unfamiliar territories, either at home or abroad, to teach the word of God.

Bravery is found everywhere, in everyone.

My babies were brave when they first started walking. Taking that first step, letting go of my hand and stepping toward their daddy was beyond brave.

When they started school they were brave. Leaving the security of our home, and going out on their own, to a roomful of people they didn’t know. Going to a new experience.

When they married they and their spouses were brave. Stepping away from their families again, and starting a new family with each other.

I was brave when we buried my husband. I’ve been brave everyday since, some days more brave than others.

I’m not alone, other women have braved this same frontier.

What makes all of us brave? The security of our families love. Our physical families, my kids always knew we would be there for them. But also, the love of our heavenly family. Even when I stumble, I know God will pick me back up.

It’s easier to be brave, and step out into the unknown when we have the security of our Father’s love.

End.

I forgot to check the clock, may have gone a little over the five minutes. But, here it is. Now it’s your turn, what do you have to say in five minutes about  BRAVE? Be brave and take a turn at this five minute thing.

To read what others have to say about BRAVE check out The Gypsy Mama.

 

Not Really Empty

It’s Friday. That means time for Five Minute Friday where I write for five minutes, unedited (oh scary) and link up with The Gypsy Mama.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments.

Empty…

9:39

It sits empty, a testament to another time. Falling down and in, this house that lives down the road from me. Outside, the roof is caving, the walls are leaning, inside, the ceiling is drooping, and the floors are more holes than boards. It looks empty, no life left.

Looks can be deceiving though. On the door jam is still the faint line marks where someone measured a child’s growth. Palling from the walls, but still hanging on, is wallpaper, carefully selected to add joy and beauty to the home.

The furniture is gone, the people have left, all that remains is the skeleton, the shell of what once was.

Some days I feel like that house. Empty and depleted, noting left. But then the sun comes up, a note comes in the mail from a friend, or a child calls and instantly I’m filled again. I am reminded, I’m never alone, never completely empty. God sees to that.

End. 9:44 Whoo-hoo, I did it. You can read others take on the word EMPTY at The Gypsy Mama, come and join us, or just offer your support by reading (and commenting on) some of our ideas

 

Helpful Hints from Binding In

A tutorial by me was on the agenda for today. However, the project I’d planned to use didn’t come out as expected, so no tutorial. I don’t figure anyone needs directions on how to make a mess. If you do, let me know, I’m an expert at goofs, I can give you some tips.

In the meantime, for Tutorial Thursday, I suffered around the internet and found some I thought you might enjoy trying.

If you have any tutorials you want to share, please let me know. The plan is to post a tutorial every Thursday, and it’s a cinch I won’t have one every week, so I’ll be sharing your brilliant suggestions.

First up on the list is a quilt with a ruffle rather than binding. I first saw a ruffle on a quilt 5 years ago when my little granddaughter was a baby.  I attended a show and my daughter-in-law pointed the quilt out to me. I took pictures; sorry I don’t know where they’re located now, and planned to make a similar quilt. Plans are one thing, actual making is something else. However, I’ve now found directions thanks to Anne Sutton at Bunny Hill Designs  for purposely putting a ruffle on a quilt, here.

Next up are borders.  Many quilters like to put a border on their quilts to frame the piecing. Me? I usually piece to the edge of the quilt. Although, borders are also handy if your quilt is too small. If you’re having trouble with your borders not coming out right, Pigtails and Quilts has you covered, with her easy-to-follow method.

If you need a quilt design, this zig-zag quilt might be what you’re looking for. I love this  quilt, although it looks more like large rick-rack appliqued to me. Whatever you call it, it will be perfect for one of my grandchildren for next Christmas. Maybe you’d like to make one.

Now that you have a quilt, and a border, what about quilting? If you take it to a long-arm quilter, or you have a long-arm machine, no problem. Free motion quilting is good, but some of us aren’t quite as proficient as we want to be, yet. I love the look of straight stitch quilting.  However, since I don’t get too upset over blocks not being exactly square, or seams matching, following the seams lines when quilting leaves a bit to be desired.  This boxed in quilting tutorial from Blue Bird Sews looks like just the thing. If you try it, let me know how you liked it.

Now that you have a tutorial for a quilt, the border, even the quilting, what about binding?  What do we do with our binding fabric while waiting to add it to the quilt? Some of you even have  four or five, or more, quilts ready and waiting to be quilted, what do you do with the binding while you’re waiting?  I can’t imagine not having, at least the fabric, stashed somewhere for when the quilt was ready for it’s binding. For those of us who haven’t been organized in the past, here’s a method for storing several batches of binding until the quilt is ready. It’s from Jaqs Studio. Having the binding ready to go, or at least having a way to save it, may make getting those quilts finished an easier process, or not, who knows?

For a change of pace, here’s a little project for you to try. An ID/Luggage Tag, from Guila at Guila Greer Arts. After all, quilters travel, to visit friends and family, to retreats, quilt outings, and much more. Wouldn’t you like to have your own unique tag on your luggage?