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I have a long string of two squares sewn together. That’s sort of fun and not-really mindless work: picking out two squares that will go together. Two that will be sewn to to others or maybe more.

My plan right now is to sew quite a few of these together and then start making blocks and strips from them. Since I have two sizes of squares, I may have to figure out some common sizes to trim down to.

My normal method is to use my biggest omni square as a tray to hold all the squares. This is set to the left of my machine. I grab two squares and sew them.

Nothing magic there. Just straight forward: pick up and sew. Over and over again. Press the seams. Repeat. Keep repeating until I have enough to make something of it.

Actually, this is not my “normal” procedure. Over the past few years my normal method is to take all my squares and lay them out for color placement and then sew together.

This new method gives me a way to mush around differnet color combinations and add additional strips of color and then do the laying out later. Time will tell I guess.

Well first there was the traditional lead into sewing:

• the ceremonial cleaning of the sewing machine.
• Oiling,
• de-fuzzing,
• replacement of needle.
• Then the ritual of choosing the thread for piecing and winding some bobbins.
• Then, in the time remaining, sewing.

Yes, sewing. Not as much sewing as ritual mind you, but it doesn’t pay to fight tradition. Tradition almost always wins. But yes, piecing did happen in my sewing room last night.

In an on-going discussion on the QuiltArt list about the fine line between embellishment and “gratuitous bling”® (just kidding about the ®) someone issued a challenge to make something with only fabric, thread, scissors and sewing machine.

Well, I’m not going back to scissors for most things hon, but otherwise, ho hum. I do make quilts after all, which seem to be all about fabric, thread and sewing machines, with a smidge or two of rotary cutting or maybe ripping. Let’s just settle on the idea of cutting up fabric somehow.

Lots of fabric and lots of thread and lots of sewing machine time and some cutting time in my future.

So the NYTimes Mag is all about comedy and being funny (somehow that is just so appropriate after the elections are finally over, isn’t it?) and there’s an essay in there by Garrison Keillor which contains this:

How to Write Your First Hollywood Comedy

By Garrison Keillor, star and screenwriter, “Prairie Home Companion”

…2. Find a director. A famous one who is older than you and who is famous for improvised dialogue. This takes so much pressure off the screenwriter. Let’s say you choose Robert Altman. Call up your friend who knows a guy who went to college with a guy who is now Robert Altman’s attorney and wangle a dinner date with Mr. Altman. A threecourse meal in a place with ficus plants and white tablecloths. Mr. Altman has just finished shooting a new picture and he is in a grand mood. He regales you with stories about his famous movies, and then, polite man that he is (he is from the Midwest), he asks if there was something you wished to talk about. “Yes, sir,” you say, “there is.”

Well! I thought – wangle? Wrangle certainly. But no, of course the combination of Mr. Keillor and the NYTimes would not leave an “r” out of a word, not even to make it funny. So I did the right thing — I looked it up. So here for your edification and amusement:

wangle: to obtain something desired by persuasion or manipulation; often by means of scheming, trickery or deceit.

Now go, wangle somthing for yourself!