Debra VanDeventer, Author at Seams Like a Story

September 4, 2025September 3, 2025

Quilting the 52 Hike Challenge

a quilt commemorating my 52 Hike Challenge

The idea came to me on New Year’s Day, 2024 when I saw a social media post for the 52 Hike Challenge: “A challenge where you gain physical fitness, mental well-being, make new friends, explore new places and connect with friends, family, and yourself through nature.“

The program encouraged one hike a week (described as any walk outdoors for a mile or more) for 52 weeks. After conferring with husband Ed, I signed us up. The challenge was on!

The inspiration…

As a writer, I planned to track my hikes through journaling, but wanted a visual record as well. What if I sewed something? A quilt or small wall hanging? I could use a color or pattern for each type of hike, or maybe select a fabric to represent each experience. The pattern would be random, patchwork, but yes! This could work!

The plan…

Full disclosure: I’m a sewist, but not a quilter. I would need some help. I called on a friend , who just happens to be a quilter and a mathematician. Over lunch, she drew a series of squares and measurements on a scrap of paper while we ate our sandwiches:

“Triangles make an interesting pattern. Let’s see… 52 triangles would make 26 squares. If you added two accent squares you could do a small quilt with 7 columns and 4 rows. It would make a nice wall hanging.”

Yikes. Lots of math but I had a plan.

The Fabric

At the Cactus Quilt Shop in Tucson, I spent a glorious morning picking out fabric. With a color scheme in mind—desert hues of rust, gold, umber, sage, with splashes of turquoise—I filled my basket with bits of prints and solids, sunbursts and tiny cacti, abstract lines and dots. I couldn’t resist buying a fat quarter (a pre-cut quarter yard) of whimsical black fabric with wild suns, and lizards. For accent borders and backing material, I purchased two yards of cotton in a rich shade of cinnamon.

Measure twice, cut once

A rule for carpenters, it works for quilters as well. Back at my friends house, I measured and cut the fabric into 4.5 inch squares, then cut them diagonally into triangles. Interior border strips were cut in 1.5 inch widths, outer border in 2.5 inch strips. I also decided to add accent squares in a neutral beige leaf pattern. I cut these in 1.5 inch squares.

Construction

At the completion of every 2 hikes, I used my machine to sew a pair of triangles together (using a quarter-inch seam) to make a square. As our hiking year progressed, it was satisfying to see the patterns of squares and triangles emerge. To make the math come out even, I made two additional squares using the “badge” I’d earned from the 52 Hike Challenge, and a small embroidery piece I stitched up from a kit. Once we had completed all 52 hikes ( no small task, mind you and that’s a story for another day), I laid the squares out in various configurations with the borders and accent squares until I found the design I wanted, then began to stitch the quit top together. With the help of a YouTube video, I assembled the finished top, batting, and backing using the “envelope method.”

Finishing touches

sewing a button on the 52 Hike Challenge Quilt

To finish the quilt, I top-stitched the edges of the border with my sewing machine. Since this was a small project, I decided to “tie” the quilt by sewing a vintage button onto each accent square.

Ta-da!

I’m happy with how the quilt turned out! I have a few ideas on where to display it in my home. We’ll see where it wants to live. But wherever it ends up, it will be a beautiful reminder of the year we hiked.

More to the story?

As I stitched my quilt together, I was also piecing together the stories that each hike had to tell. Like the hikes themselves, this work is taking me to unexpected places. A third book? Hmmm…

Threads of Thought

Let’s get creative! Sewing, knitting, painting, writing? In what ways have you , or could you imagine yourself, interpreting a life event?

author holding two books, Until Italy and Out of the Crayon Box

Read on! My first two books Until Italy: a Traveler’s Memoir and Out of the Crayon Box: Thoughts on Teaching, Retirement, and Life are available in paperback, eBook, and Kindle Unlimited. Click here!

August 18, 2025August 18, 2025

Once Upon a Typewriter

typewriter against a floral wallpaper background

My favorite local bookshop, Stacks in Oro Valley, has a vintage typewriter in a cozy nook. Sometimes people leave a message on it. I wonder who it originally belonged to? What words, reports, stories did it bring to life?

Then…

I’m old enough to remember taking a mandatory typing class in high school. Rows of desks lined up edge to edge facing the front of the room where Mrs. Brown held court. We memorized “home row”–that strip of keys (A to : ) where fingers hovered , eventually learning how to navigate the expanded array of letters and symbols without looking at the keyboard.

“Repetition is the key to success” was our mantra. We trained our eyes on our workbooks and typed ” The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.” over and over to practice all the letters of the alphabet. Day after day, the fox jumped and the dog remained lazy as a room full of adolescent fingers danced to the rhythm of clacks and dings.

I typed my college papers on a Smith-Corona, a graduation gift from my parents. Oh, the nightmare of having to use the ‘correction tape’ or that bottle of White Out with its tiny paintbrush when I made mistakes. Then there was the impossible task of trying to guess and leave enough space at the bottom of each page for the required footnotes.

Of course, it didn’t help that I had waited until the last minute and was usually typing into the wee morning hours. I filled trash cans with botched and blobbed pages.

Famous Typewriters

I can’t imagine writing a book on a typewriter, though some authors prefer it. Something about the satisfying clacking sounds and the carriage return “ding”. Reportedly Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on a Hermes Standard 8, Danielle Steele uses a 1946 Olympia Manual, and J K Rowling, lacking access to a computer in the beginning, crafted the first book of the Harry Potter series on a vintage Olympia.

Actor/author Tom Hanks collects typewriters. In his collection of short stories Uncommon Type, a typewriter appears in each of the tales.

a picture of a laptop showing a picture of the author — A laptop named Dash

And now….

Though I complained about it, I’m glad I had the keyboarding experience in high school. It made the transition to computers much easier for me. No more White Out. With the click of a button I can delete letters, words, even whole sections of work. I can save, file, print, and send copies to my critique group, editor, and formatter. My computer files are a mess, but my trash can is empty.

Interestingly enough, the keyboard on my cellphone is a miniature version of the typewriter keyboard I learned on. Now I’m texting, answering emails, and composing facebook and instagram posts on my phone. Of course, I can’t fit all ten fingers on my tiny device. I used to do the ‘index-finger pecking’ technique. These days I’ve (almost) mastered thumb-typing, but I’m still a bit clumsy. Please excuse any typooos or autocorrrrrects you may receive from me.

I’ll close with this words, forever embedded in my memory. I imagine the clacks as my fingers fly over silent computer keys.

The quick brown fox jumped over a lazy dog.

Try it someday. (the typing, not the dog jumping)

Threads of Thought

Your turn! Share your typewriter tales in the comments!

Lots of words were typed into these titles!: OUT OF THE CRAYON BOX and UNTIL ITALY are available here!

August 4, 2025August 4, 2025

What is Your Creative DNA?

a three picture collage of creative outlets, writing, sewing, crafting

Creative DNA

I first came across this term in Twyla Tharp’s book “The creative Habit”. She says each of us has a creative DNA–our creative hardwiring, the way we see the world and express ourselves. She imagines that we have strands of creative code that govern our creative impulses. Tharp goes on to say that though she can’t scientifically prove it, you might sense this when you try to understand, why you’re a photographer, or a writer, or a dancer, or a singer or…any combination of these. Why you are drawn to express yourself in some ways, but not others.

And even in a specific creative field, one can narrow it down. For example: a writer might prefer a particular genre…poetry let’s say. Then within that genre does the poet compose beautiful nature poems with flowing stanzas, or deep introspective pieces using sharp, crisp language?

Your Creative DNA makes you unique

For me, this is the key. Just as our genetic make up makes us unique individuals, our creative “dna”, how we view the world and express ourselves, makes us uniquely creative.

In describing my creative DNA, I would say that I see life through a positive lense, finding moments and turning them into words, stories, and images that others can relate to. I express myself through a blend of writing, sewing, and photography, with a few threads of music and art tossed in.

No one else has my exact creative code so whatever I create–a book, a story, a garment, a photograph–it will be unique. And here’s the exciting part: whatever you create with your unique mix of creativity is unique as well! With this in mind, we can celebrate each other without envy. We should no longer say “I want to write like you, or cook like you, or sew like you, or sing like you, or….”

You be you. I’ll be me. And together we will fill the world with amazing, glorious things!

Threads of Thought

Describe your creative DNA. What types of creative expression are your drawn to? What is something you would like to try?

I recently had a chance to meet authors and readers at a book event in the presence of an entire bookstore of creativity!

You can find my titles here!

July 21, 2025July 20, 2025

Creative Non fiction Explained

An Author’s Perspective

Debra VanDeventer, author, moments bloom into words

What do you write? This is the first question I’m asked when I tell someone I’m a writer. sure, I can rattle off the titles of my books, but it goes deeper than that. Writing is part of my creative DNA, and within that realm my overarching genre is Creative Nonfiction. What’s that you ask?

Creative nonfiction is a form of writing that uses the creative techniques of literature to tell a true story. A CNF writer incorporates figurative language and storytelling elements such as dialog, character development, theme, pacing, plot, foreshadowing, setting, conflict and resolution. The goal is to communicate a bit of the real world in a way that will sing on the page, creating a piece of writing that will inform or change the reader, make an impact, bring a smile, a tear, or an ah-ha moment.

When I mentioned this to someone recently, she said that she’d attended a creative nonfiction writing group meeting that was all about trauma and self-indulgence. I get it, the genre can be trauma laden and many best selling titles lean this way. I tend to stick to the lighter side of life in my writing. I’ve found that you don’t have to have lived an extraordinary life or write about traumatic experiences to pull in an audience. I think within the CNF genre there’s a place for everyday experiences and honest emotions that connect us as humans, stories that people can relate to, or think about, or laugh along with. (Like transitioning out of a lifelong career, or experiencing a not-so-perfect vacation.)

So what do I write? The short answer is…I write true stories, well told.

Moments bloom into words.

Thanks for asking….( you can find my words here! )

Threads of Thought

If you’re a writer, what genre(s) do you work in?

If you are a reader, what genre(s) do you read

July 7, 2025July 7, 2025

How to Make a Reading Pillow

…and why you need one!

A green and white book pillow with a book titled Until Italy in the pocket

I was browsing through a gift shop recently, when something caught my eye. A Reading Pillow? I’ll admit, I don’t get out to gift shops very often, and I might be way late to the game here, but I’d never heard of such a thing. What is a reading pillow? How do you use it? I pulled the pillow off the shelf for a closer look.

Huh…the card in the pocket said to put the pillow on your lap and rest your book or tablet on it while reading. This helps to elevate the reading material to a more ergonomic height. As a bonus, you can stow your current read in the pocket, and with the handy carrying strap, transport it to your favorite reading spot. So clever and beautiful! I’m a writer and an avid reader. I had to have it, but alas…it was pricey.

Wait a minute! I There’s a reason I named this blog Seams Like a Story. I own a sewing machine (three actually) and have some basic sewing skills. All I needed was a pattern. After posting about this on FB, my friend Becky sent me a link to a step by step tutorial and I got to work. (see link below)

Three types of fabric to make a reading pillow, and a rotary cutter on a cutting mat

The beauty of this project was that I could use leftover fabric I had from previous projects. All I needed to purchase was a pillow form. Once the fabric was cut (I used by rotary cutter for this) the sewing was quick and easy– all straight seams!

the author with her book Until Italy on the reading pillow

2 Books, Out of the Crayon Box: Thoughts on Teaching, Retirement, and Life...and Until Italy: A traveler's memoir

So happy with my book pillow! It has definitely elevated (pun intended) my reading experience. Make one for yourself! And if you’re looking for something to go with it, my books, Out of the Crayon Box : Thoughts on Teaching , Retirement and Life, and Until Italy: A Traveler’s Memoir, fit perfectly in the pocket! Click here!

Threads of Thought

Ready to make your pillow? There are lots of resourses online. Here’s the link for step by step directions that I used: How to Sew a Book Pillow