In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

One finished side block, another underway. Despite beginning to stitch edge pieces to Mandolin blocks, other edge pieces remain left to hew together. Sometimes it feels like hewing, lol, but I am grateful to have underway the joining process for said quilt! Which, as these things occasionally go, might not take as long as I thought because when sewing blocks, be they half or quarter-sized, all those little and large pieces need to be attached in a whole, of sorts, half or quarter element notwithstanding. But drawing all those blocks into a WHOLE is merely stitching edges to one another. And yeah, that's some hefty handsewing, but not quite as much as I thought previously. So that means this Mandolin quilt top *could* be completed before the end of the year. Which if you'd asked me a few days ago, I'd have shaken my head, smirking. Next year fer shure, I'd have smiled. Future Me is smiling, I see her almost breaking into giggles. Not sure over what, but something has her...

Yesterday's block is now firmly adhered in place. Considered as I hand-applique Lucy Boston blocks early in the morning. (Or, lol, raising chickens.) I always wanted to write fiction. From my early teens that consideration never wavered. I proclaim that because this post is about enjoying things I hadn't previously pondered, hoped for, pined over. These things are very different. Like quilting, lol. And of course those chicks, who conveniently posed in a makeshift group yesterday afternoon for my husband. Owning chickens was NOT on my list of Wanna Do's, let me make that perfectly clear. Owl in the forefront, Camilla to the left behind her, the rest of the pullets poking about the grass. But the sewing, oh my goodness! I can't fathom my life without that treat, as dear to me as crafting novels. Initially I started sewing by machine, then came English paper piecing, and now Kawandi-inspired projects. Like treasure from heaven are these methods of fashioning various items...

The original albeit augmented quilt laid out as I affixed the back, the first part of the Kawandi process! Notable tears and rips are visible, why this quilt required a complete overhaul. This is heavy on pictures as I want to illustrate my Kawandi process. Because once I decided how to upcycle Dorothy's quilt, I got right to work as visiting summer beloveds allowed, hehehe. The outer perimeter is attached! I had to be careful NOT to stitch the quilt to the bed, hahaha. I write that due to the fact I started refurbishing this quilt in early May, then it lay dormant for nearly all of June and part of July. When I returned from keeping an eye on the grandsons on this sixth of this month, I dedicated most of my sewing hours to this effort, although the project feels more drawn out than those few months suggest. Rounds accumulate to the point I could sew in the living room, always a pleasure! Especially fun is watching the changing nature of the quilt, although I was slightly aggrieved...

27 January 2018; two patches already applied by machine. Yet the interior remains untouched, albeit compromised. Amid reading aloud Straight to the Heart: The Hawk Book Three , I did a little photographic research to discuss my latest quilt finish. To my surprise, I found I've had this quilt, pictured above in January of 2018, since the previous summer. That's eight years, my goodness! Where has the time gone? The quilt was already in need of repair when I received it. Yet to cloak the gorgeous stitching took time for me to admit. (Future Me was probably rolling her eyes, fully aware of what awaited this quilt, lol!) Yet this post isn't about time's fickleness, lol. It's about a beautiful English paper-pieced quilt made by a woman named Dorothy, her last name starting with S, inked on the back of the quilt in two places. She deserved such recognition because this diamond star pattern is GORGEOUS. Well, it was gorgeous. Now it remains as one snippet of what has beco...

Most of these scraps were added previously. Under the pink and purple flower is all that remains of the original English paper pieced quilt (white and black stripes and green floral prints). A couple of days ago I bought the necessary groceries for green bean and sausage soup. I was going to fix it yesterday, but better tasks emerged, and I put it off until today. Which was the perfect day because we started out with lots of marine layer unlike yesterday which was sunny from the get-go. Yes it's August, but in Humboldt County, most days are good to have soup. Most days are also good for a heavy-ish lap quilt. Well, many days are right for such a cozy. Last night, with a window behind me open, was the perfect temperature to hand-stitch, and hand-sew I did until I was too tired to stitch further. I really wanted to finish the quilt last night. It simply didn't happen. The yellow-headed pin marks my stopping place. This quilt has been taking up sofa space for...months. Not sure ho...

My patches amid what's left of an EPP masterpiece. All that dwells under the re-quilting.... Now back in my stitchy-novelistic realm, I spent late yesterday afternoon and early evening adding another round to the Kawandi-style lap quilt. It's hard, in one way, re-covering this particular cozy because its original design is a gorgeous EPP diamond star pattern. However it's been in disrepair for a long time, sporting patches adding by yours truly, and in desperate need of an overhaul. Kawandi is the perfect vehicle to upcycle it; even if the beautiful English paper piecing is obscured, the quilt itself remains a viable (if not weighty) blanket for many years to come. Decisions about what patches to save, as well as if I choose to salvage any of the EPP, make for slow work in adding new inner rounds. I did half of the current round, then required a break to gather the mental acuity to move forward. Sounds like an apt metaphor for life in general, lol, which is why this post ex...

Some GORGEOUS Anna Maria Parry fabric that HAD to be included. How it fits is shown below, past the chicken photo. Hard to believe it's already the eighth day of the eighth month of the freakin' year! I don't mean to malign 2025, but dude it feels (at times) like a year from, well, some back and beyond era that I thought was over. And then there's chickens.... Thankfully they remembered me after a five-day absence while I hung out at my daughter's residence, keeping an eye on those grandsons. My husband had chick duty, but yes I came back to pullets who still respond to my chicken voice, admittedly not as cute as my youngest grandson's chicken voice, but certainly familiar enough that last night one jumped from half a hay bale onto my shoulder! And it was a chicken that doesn't even like being picked up, whoa! Chicks this morning in the run.  It was sunny here today, in the mid-seventies Fahrenheit in our neck of the North Coast, and I soaked up some of thos...

Chicks we call The Clones as it's a little hard to tell them apart, lol. Slow quilt stitching, baby chicks, and a new book distributor.... Where has the first half of 2025 gone? I thought this year would slog along, stuck in a lousy government situation, but no. 2025 is speeding past as quickly, if not more so, than the last ten years have zoomed by. Like sand slipping through my fingers is each day, as though I wake, then suddenly it's four p.m., time to do my stretches! I won't ponder that element of my existence, but I can mull over the changes to my life that certainly has NOT remained as it was previously. Like chickens! LOL. The chicks have had outdoor time the last two days in what will eventually be their run. The first day they practically clung to one another for a good twenty minutes before finally stepping a few inches in their own directions. Today they seemed to recall the grass, the shade (oddly enough they weren't keen on going into the sun), and how muc...

Not the heart quilt but what I worked on last night for my medallion quilt also known as Alexandria. Pics of heart quilt coming soon! Kind of like life without grandkids around, or being on the other side of the solstice. It's an emptiness or loss that you knew couldn't be avoided. Eventually one quilt top is completed, and even if you make the pattern again, different fabrics proffer an altered vibe. And IF the same fabrics in exactly the same placement were used, the manner of application cannot be duplicated. Life isn't static. Everything changes. Yesterday after lunch our daughter and her crew departed for their home. Items were left behind, nothing essential, merely a way to remind us that a return trip is desired, or how I interpret it, lol. I threw some things in the wash, collected scattered toys and scraps of paper from art projects off the floor. I still need to toss their milk, as we drink lactose free and have no use for regular two percent. Last night as I sat ...

Row B 6 upside down. The final row of this quilt! I have yet to snap a photo of the Mr. Carter Heart EPP quilt top, but I will. In a few days. After our youngest daughter and her boys have visited. They are on their way, but I have time to wax a little poetically. Or something like that. Finishing that quilt top happened last night, kind of by accident. I was tired. The San Francisco Giants were losing to the Cleveland Guardians. While sewing, I realized I was nearly done with the project, but constant yawns made me wonder if I'd have the gumption to complete it. Plus all the needles I had threaded were running out, and while it wasn't dark where I was sitting, the light was growing dim. Even so close to the solstice, eventually evening wins out. The Giants didn't win, but that was after I went to bed. After I threaded ONE MORE NEEDLE (using my reading glasses, which are stronger than my prescription lenses, ahem), I sewed the final side of a heart block, then stared at the...

Done! And so much fun in the doing. I finished the Lego rainbow puzzle. Another puzzle is on the table, edge pieces accumulated. It's more monotone, not sure how it's going to be. I am SO PLEASED to have these in my stash and cannot WAIT to use them! In fabric news, I've accumulated several prints from Guicy Guice's Entwine collection from 2021(???). I'd wanted to EPP these beauties into a quilt, then considered machine-piecing them instead. Then today I stacked up what I've gathered, some extra wovens included for good measure, and in doing so realized machine piecing is probably not the correct manner, or at least in stitching squares that would have measured three and a half inches once sewn. Instead I'm back to hand-sewing, or planning to hand-stitch once I've chosen an appropriate fabric for the center X, in white/light cream. As I was telling my husband, English paper piecing with low volume fabrics is tricky, as often the folded-in seam allowance ...

Having turned fifty-nine recently (AHEM), I'm stitching left-handed when I can, or as long as I have the patience to do so. My right shoulder is still niggly despite ibuprofen and being iced several times a day. Although I think it's getting better, but as I use a mouse with my left hand, perhaps sewing will also morph the same. Aging is better than not, and other than that wonky shoulder I have few complaints. Daylight increases in a marvelous way, and the ground has dried out from our very wet winter. Marigold seeds sown over ten days ago didn't germinate, but the green beans and peas my husband planted are doing well. I have new fabric to use, and have decided it's time to turn a thrift store lap quilt my sister-in-law let me have become the filler for a new Kawandi quilt. That's a decision that needed to be made, because that poor EEP beauty just requires too many repairs, front and back. Now it will form the batting for something NEW, and that's not a bad t...

Appliqued block 1/30, hah! The Quilt of Grace has traveled from my office/sewing room to the living room sofa. That's a BIG MOVE. That means it is ready for all the hand-quilting, as well as applique, I can proffer for its completion. That means it's Kawandi-time! I SO LOVE not needing a binding strip. I SO ADORE how crinkly is Kawandi stitching. I SO LOVE knowing that once I finish securing the last stitch I am truly DONE. No binding, um, I've already said that. Anyway.... Although, let me mention that I never detested making or hand-sewing bindings. What troubled me was wrestling a large or lap quilt under the presser foot to first secure that binding onto the quilt. I am SO OVER using my sewing machine, LOLOL! I'm so over a lot of things, but as my dad used to say, cry in one hand and want in the other and see which is filled the fastest. (Took me AGES to understand that, which I never admonished to my own kids....) Anyway again.... Sorting the top of this quilt wasn...

How can I NOT finish this quilt? Mandolin musings.... So a couple days ago, probably right after I wrote the previous entry, I considered using six-point diamond papers from my Mandolin pattern for Alexandria, which is in desperate need of diamonds. I've been pondering the Mandolin EPP quilt-in-progress, as well as the Myrtle design, Lavender, Ice Cream Soda, ummm... Lots of English paper piecing WIPs, and sometimes I rob Peter to pay Paul, so to speak, to keep them all supplied as I don't have exact kits for each. The Mandolin quilt, blocks pictured above, is my second version of this pattern, and the first one I actually use the proper kit to construct, lol. Why not steal some diamonds for Alexandria, then get to work on that, I blithely considered. Until I found I had finished eight Mandolin blocks! I thought I had maybe five, six tops. But eight, out of the dozen I had planned, wow! Slight guilt crept over me as I examined them, all made from autumnal Art Gallery fabrics, ...