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...

It's been a summer of chickens, of guests and revisions. And a summer of the marine layer. I nearly added marine layer to the previous post of things which you never dream . Lol. I certainly didn't anticipate a marine layer figuring so significantly in my life. Mostly due to not realizing that living along the California coast would occur, nor how some summers that heavy cloud bank claims said coast without thought to those who call the coastal area home. But yeah, the marine layer wins again this morning. It's just about time to feed the chickens, 6.20 a.m. currently. If the marine layer wasn't so pushy, I'd get up from the sofa, put on sweats and a hoodie, then collect their feeder, walking to the coop, admiring planets still visible; Venus and Jupiter have decorated the morning sky most of the month, Mercury appearing along the eastern edge, thrilling me completely. Today the marine layer barged in before I spotted the smallest planet in our solar system, blottin...

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 quilt I was working on perhaps at the time the excerpt below was written, May 2015. On a day when sixty-two years ago Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, as well as the day after two young children were murdered in yet another horrific shooting, I sat to read aloud chapters of a novel first written perhaps a decade previously. I've said many prayers for those killed and wounded in Minneapolis, their beloveds and caregivers too. I've pondered the state of Dr. King's dream, how far away we seem from such solidarity and freedom. And I've smiled at words gifted to me by grace, gathered in a manuscript , and now close to being released for whatever purpose God has in mind. Here's the chapter I just read. Set in October 1962 at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an Oregon artist and a Polish pastor hint toward the truths of their pasts and how life works in such mysterious manners.   Chapter 77   When Marek woke that m...

Where I left off yesterday with Straight to the Heart .... Pondered while languidly cutting fabrics for another quilt (while listening to the soundtrack for Life Stories: The Enran Chronicles Book Two , see here for that playlist ).... Well, yeah, slow revisions. Past Me is probably wondering what the hey I'm on about while Future Me nods in appreciation. Yup, slow revisions, uh-huh. SLOW REVISIONS. How slow? Well, I'd planned to publish Straight to the Heart: The Hawk Book Three ten days ago. If I can finish the revisions by the end of this week I'll be thrilled. Then there's a cover to fashion, blurbs to craft.... Plenty to do when releasing a novel but first the novel needs to have all the i's dotted and t's crossed. And while Past Me could do all that by the twinkle of her nose, Present Me just doesn't have it all that together. Such is aging, such is life. Makes me grateful I only answer to me, myself, and I when it comes to the writing, let me also s...

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...