I still have an entire November and some bits of December to account for.

I have been volunteering with the East Bay Heritage Quilters: three more days since the quilt show in San Mateo mentioned in the October 18 post. First was the working party organized to produce the patchwork postcards that they sell at their quilt show, held every other year. I remembered to take a picture of three of the five that I turned in.

I am intrigued by them, as the two bright blue/green ones in no way reflect my aesthetic sensibility. However, presented with a pile a fabric scraps on a table, this is what I chose to do. All right, I thought the nursery prints, the little animals, were cute and they look good on the bright blue and green. I feel like I’ve been bounced out of some sort of aesthetic rut. And what on earth is wrong with bright blue and green?

But that’s not much of an output for a five-hour stint. There is going to be another session in January, so if I do some piecing in the car, I might be able to make a better showing. And considering that they want to have their inventory of 500 up to 2000 before the show in March, the membership will have to exert itself. They sell the postcards for $5 a piece, and at the last show they sold 1500. That’s a tidy bit of change. I’m doubtful of the memberships’ ability to restock inventory to such a degree before March. I am curious to see how that goes.

Postscript: It is some shameless bragging, I must admit, but I cannot keep from adding subsequent efforts:

Aren’t they pretty? I’m really very pleased.

My second stint of volunteering was this last holiday weekend at the KPFA Holiday Craft Fair, where the quilters had a booth. I sold raffle tickets for two quilts they will raffle off, also at the quilt show in March. And I shopped. One of my many fantasy lives involves being able to Christmas shop, first at the KPFA Fair and then at the Dickens Faire … in a very big way. So many pretty things.

At any rate, all that socializing wore me out.

And the rest of the month? I read some things, I think. The virtuous I can’t recall, but I just finished Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour. There are two authors of dubious worth to whom I am susceptible, even though I know my baser inclinations are being exploited shamefully: R.R. Martin and Anne Rice. They can turn a suspenseful paragraph, though Anne will go on a bit. And I quit the last Throne’s novel about 75 pages before the end, because R.R. had gotten himself into a hell of a spot, plot-wise that there was, IMHO, no getting to a reasonably plausible denouement in 75 pages. What was supposed to be the last novel in the series never got written. But it was a wild ride while it lasted, and I never watched the telly series. It cannot possibly have been as good. Perhaps in my older age I will relent.

I had been holding out against Anne, and her franchise. Interview was very impressive. And I was also intrigued by the length of time between the copyright and publication dates. How can it have taken five years to find a publisher for that thing? But then, the publisher says: “oh, yes, we can sell another one of these!” And so then, I was tickled by how she managed to resurrect Lestat, and the novel was … very engaging. About halfway through, the power went out in my apartment, and I about had the proverbial heart attack … truly flew off the bed.

I left off the franchise at Queen of the Damned, in which there were several fun bits, but the poor woman was plainly on a deadline. You really cannot blame an author for sticking with what sells, and sells a lot. But a consumer really should resist such bald manipulations to the best of their ability. The Witching Hour was sitting in a free-box, put out at the curb, and I lapsed. Can I recommend it? Alas, no. It’s a nice fat paperback, and one looks forward to a proper wallow … but I skimmed a couple hundred pages easily. As I said, Anne will go on a bit.

I will get to the Dicken’s costume, but to sooth my anxieties during all that I took and hour here and there to carry on with the Yo-Yo ornaments. This is what I started with:

And here is the finished product:

I am very pleased. There are enough yo-yos to make another ornament, but I just haven’t had a quiet moment to get to it. When the other is done, they will be tenderly wrapped in acid-free tissue and put into a “Christmas Box” in storage for when I can no longer climb over back seat of the car and have to get myself into some public housing. Fun, fun …