writing | BulgingButtons

November 12, 2016
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The Itch to Stitch

Taking out my autumn quilts has awoken in me a desire to sew. I know, I know… I have enough going on right now, what with blogging everyday for NaBloPoMo and working on a novel for NaNoWriMo, but I really want to stitch!

The table I write at is also the table I sew at. It’s situated perfectly for both activities. I can easily see who’s coming in the room since the table sticks out from the wall. That was a requirement so the fabric has somewhere to do once it’s gone through the sewing machine. Sewing at a table pushed against a wall is impractical and frustrating.

I made this several years ago from my fabric stash.

Behind my table is my stash of fabric. Most of it, anyway. I have a low wall of cubbies under the window (so sunlight can’t fade the fabric) and it is full of flat-folds of fabric. They’re sorted primarily by color, but also to a smaller extent by type. The hand-dyed fabrics are together as are the plaids, for example. This colorful assortment greets me each time I enter the room, and it makes me happy.

Long ago I was a cross-stitcher. I created many lovely projects, and I had some of them professionally framed at a small cross-stitch shop that I loved dearly. Each time I was in the shop I would pick up more patterns, knowing full well that I already had more than I would ever stitch in a dozen lifetimes. I lamented this fact one day as I was paying, and the kindly woman who owned the shop said, “It’s as much about collecting as it is about stitching.” How wise she was. Permission granted to keep on collecting.

I’m a collector of fabrics, of patterns, and books. I may never use them all. In fact I’m sure I won’t, but it doesn’t matter. I enjoy my collection, and adding to it from time to time. But really, I’d like to dust off my machine and take a few stitches. Maybe come December.

November 9, 2016
by BulgingButtons 3 Comments

And So We Bleed

Today I choose to focus on the positive.

For example, a pen exploded all over my hand today in class. It inspired a bit of writing, which I humbly share with you, although it may lack something since the blobs of green ink are missing.

The Power of Ink

My pen is out to get me. It thinks that if it explodes a little bit I’ll give up on it, and then it won’t be used and it can keep its precious ink forever.

Ink is like blood to a pen, but unlike blood, the pen doesn’t recycle or regenerate it. Once the ink has been scrawled across the page, it can never be returned to the pen.

The ink, of course, becomes much more powerful once it’s on the page – after all, it turns into words. Words that form stories, legends, contracts, and vows.

What was once plain ink can turn into the Declaration of Independence, or an adoption decree, or a letter to a soldier stationed overseas.

The pen is selfish. It needs the ink in order for it to be considered useful, however, the ink only becomes useful once it finally leaves the shelter of the pen.

November 6, 2016
by BulgingButtons Leave a comment

Am I Really A Writer?

I like to think of myself as many things. Some of them are irrefutable. I am a mother. I am a teacher. These are simple facts. I have a son, therefore I am a mother. I go to work each day and spend the day teaching fourth grade students, therefore I am a teacher.

What else am I, though? And how do we verify these different identities?

Lately I’ve been a writer. How does one become a writer? By writing, some would say, but many others would say that one becomes a writer only when one’s writing has been published. Even that definition isn’t sufficient for many people. I’ve heard the argument that in order to be considered a writer one must be published and paid for one’s writing.

Well, I do write. And I have been published. I publish here, in my own little corner of the internet, regularly. Nobody pays me for it, though. I’ve also been published on other websites, like Scary Mommy and Education Week. Again, no money in that, but to me it’s still pretty cool.

My design!

I have actually been paid to write. Not much, but I’ve submitted tips to a teaching publication that have been published and I’ve been compensated for them. I also designed a fish quilt that not only made it to the cover of Quiltmaker, a well-known quilting publication (it’s an inset photo, but hey, it’s still on the cover), and the design was turned into a kit complete with gorgeous watery indigo fabrics and magentas and purples for the fish. I was paid for that too, not much, but still they cut me a check. That one, however, wasn’t really a writing win, even though I was published.

I’ve been writing for NaNoWriMo, too. I finished a manuscript during NaNoWriMo in 2013, and I’ve been revising it with help from my critique group (another thing real writers do, I’m told). Now I’m into a new one story, about a young English teacher who needs to solve a mystery that threatens the security she’s found amongst the quilters she meets in a small town. See what I did there? Teaching, quilting, things I know and like.

I also teach writing. I teach it to my fourth graders, sure, but I’ve been teaching it in the summer too, for the past three years. Kids from seven to seventeen have come to these camps, and working with them as they explore the creative side of writing has been such a privilege for me. We’re not focused on grammar, structure, or spelling in these camps. We’re focused on imagination, empowerment, and risk-taking. We’re helping kids to develop their voices through their writing, whether in a poem about a leaf or an ode to their dog or a comic about super heroes and villains or an introspective look at their own strengths.

This type of writing is so powerful for kids that I’ve begun an after-school creative writing club at my school that is well attended. Both boys and girls come in to write and share their writing, blasting the stereotype we sometimes hear that “writing is for girls.” I’m sure Stephen King, James Patterson, Dav Pilkey, Neil Gaiman, Alberto Ríos, and many others would disagree.

So yes, I’m a writer, even though you won’t see anything I’ve done on the shelves at Barnes & Noble and if you search me on Amazon you’ll come up empty. I’ll keep at it, though, and maybe someday you will see my work there. Maybe someday soon.