In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

  I did try to hang the quilt outside to photograph it, but it was too heavy and fell to the ground. Today my husband held it aloft, and while not the perfect photo, it's good enough. This quilt seems to have had two lives; the English paper piecing blocks have been around a LONG time. Many were done, the fabrics not my faves, then I fully finished them earlier this year or late last year after a big PUSH when I had Covid last summer. While quarantining in my bedroom so said husband wouldn't get sick (not that it worked, but....), I sewed Lucy Boston (LB) blocks because I didn't want to touch/contaminate anything I truly adored, haha! Come to find out, these at times obnoxious, at other times sweet blocks from my early EPP days have wormed their ways into my Kawandi heart. And what's especially precious (not in a sickly sweet manner) is that this quilt is WHOLLY HAND SEWN. No machine was employed in its creation. The back is a flannel twin-size sheet, the front i...

Yes, Past Me, there were four blocks remaining. And now the Lucy Boston quilt is completed. WOO HOO! Meanwhile, another hen has joined the Layers Club; my husband found an egg when he removed their feed late this afternoon. I had done some coop cleaning mid-afternoon and had checked all the boxes, and the hubby checked my checking, LOL. It was dark when he removed the egg, but once he brought it inside, we found it was Nadia-coloured, so probably a Barnevelder. I wondered if Cami the Welsummer had laid it because on the field trip this morning, Cami submissively squatted when my husband tried to pet her and she had NEVER squatted for either of us. Cami detests being touched, maybe she'll be the fourth member of the Layers Club in the near future. From left; mystery chicken's egg, Camilla's egg, Nadia's egg. My poor Quilt of Grace, wholly usurped by CHICKENS! Or rather eggs, lol. So, back to the quilt, under which I am cozily seated at this very moment in time. I'll ...

One of the four alleged blocks left to hand-quilt. And one of the four safety pins left to remove.... Last night I did a little hand-sewing on the Quilt of Grace. I'd already made a hexie flower, it was well past my usual time to pick up a new evening project, but something within me said, "You're not that exhausted." Which was true, though I was tired, lol. I ran a lot of errands early that morning, but not before Nadia presented us with her second egg! Nadia's second egg! Which is still thrilling, let me say. And this morning, when my husband was giving them breakfast, Camilla was scoping out the nesting boxes (Update: Camilla laid egg #3 today, bless her!). I'm also pleased they are upping their laying times to a.m. and not p.m. And I'm still gobsmacked they are laying at all! But back to last night and that Lucy Boston/Kawandi mash-up: So I loaded some needles with light blue Coates and Clarks hand-quilting thread, then completed maybe three blocks? It...

What is Nadia doing in that nesting box? As I read today's novel installment, I kept waiting for the scene to end; surely this was merely a scene within the chapter. Because once the scene ended, I was going to plop it here, but first mention that in the last two days we've received THREE EGGS! Camilla went first, then Nadia, then again Camilla; DUDE! And while that revelation deserved its own post , so does Chapter 98 of Nothing More Complicated: The Hawk Book Four . I can't link to it because it won't be released until early next year, but if this chapter piques your interest, start with Give Her My Love , then Brave the Skies , then Straight to the Heart . Because that's what my writing is about, getting straight to the heart . Character-driven fiction, that's me! As well as the owner of LAYING HENS, woo hoo! More about that soon....   Chapter 98   On the third morning of Stanford’s vacation, he woke alone. The previous two days he and Laurie had stirred ...

Advent is a time of waiting, of preparation for the Christmas miracle. Of being mindful of the great gift God presented humanity in the form of a helpless baby destined to die thirty-some years later on a cross. My husband and I appreciate the season of Advent, and this afternoon I arranged four candles on our coffee table. Then it was time to attend to chicken maintenance; I needed to add sand and wood ash to the dustbathing box, change out the waterers both in the coop and run. And then clean out poop. Because even if today is the first Sunday of Advent, those chickens aren't going to do any of those tasks for me. In letting the hens out of the run, I guided them into the garden. A couple wanted to poke around freely, but I had things to do and fortunately the chickens acquiesced. In counting them, I was down one, and saw no one loitering in the run. My hubby headed to the coop to see who was dithering. Observing the hens, I realized Camilla was missing, which seemed odd; she...

Formerly titled Giving thanks 2025 , but I didn't get around to writing this yesterday, so.... Sew buttons. Or Ah so !  as Brynn, Mirella, and Finny might say. So on and sew forth, or myriad takes on so and sew and when am I going to make any sense? Maybe I'll never be perfectly clear, but Saint Paul does write that currently we see through a glass dimly (1 Corinthians 13.12), and I believe he knew what he was on about. Cami calculates the distance to the ground, or something like that. Last night I didn't have much in the way of clarity, but usually the road is darkest before the dawn. Today is cloudy, yet the chickens had an outing, and in her haste to join her sisters, Cami launched, then landed atop our aged greenhouse. It's not like Eric's , and Cami certainly isn't a hawk . She squawked LOUDLY, trying to figure out how to reach the ground, then finally edging her way to the end of the roof, she flew somewhat gracefully, reaching terra firma. She's a fu...