In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

I had planned to use pictures from the Winnie the Pooh quilt for this tutorial, but as I prepped the rainbow quilt, I snapped shots of that process for this post. Heads-up: This is long, lots of photos, and probably more words than you need, but I don't often (if ever because I use tried and true methods borrowed from quilters long before me) write tutorials, so please bear with me on this. However, might I add, not merely in my defense, but to strengthen my belief that if one isn't averse to hand-stitching, that this method, heavily borrowed from Kawandi quilting, is a marvelous manner in which to throw quilting bindings out the window. Okay, having said ALL THAT, here's how I go about securing the perimeter of a quilt! First, make a quilt sandwich just as you normally would, however, the extreme excess backing and batting can be eliminated for this method! Less waste = more materials for future projects, lol. Now, I like to sit for the rest of this procedure, but if you p...

A finished, no longer mystery cozy! Looks rather charming, if I say so myself. There's laundry to fold and dishes to wash, but first! A post about a quilt now received, beloved, and of which it's time to share. Thus, here's a Winnie the Pooh cozy for my BFF who ADORES all things Pooh. Adorable images and cheery colours! Eeyore is her fave character; she has Birkenstocks with Eeyore on them, lol! When I saw the Echo Park Paper Co. Winnie the Pooh collection , my heart leaped thinking of one person so dear to me who would LOVE a cozy made from these gorgeous prints. I ordered a layer cake (ten-inch precut squares) late last fall, and even with the bustle of Advent, a quilt top emerged, assisted by Liberty Fabrics by Riley Blake from the Autumn Woodland line. The border is from that collection, which gussies up this rather simple array of large squares. Yet I wanted the prints to shine, no need to cut them into smaller squares. This allows one to admire the 100 Aker Wood, a g...

A top is finished. Photographed a couple of days ago when the sun shone brightly, lol. Now it covers a guest bed as the wall harbors what will be the back. I'm not writing more than these posts, but the sewing is going full tilt! I don't have much more to say about this rainbow quilt top, other than I will add a border because it's a tad smaller than the back, and when using the Kawandi method, both top and back are about the same size. And this way the rainbow perimeter squares won't be smaller than the rest; with Kawandi, you fold in the back and top edges about half an inch, the batting tucked under the back fold, if that makes sense. When I begin that process, I'll include some photos, or maybe in a few days, when the mystery quilt reaches its destination, I'll yammer about it in that post. I truly LOVE not dealing with quilt bindings anymore, and I don't mind at all the slower, hand-stitching manner which Kawandi promotes. Something very old-school and...

Title emerged as I was *SLOWLY* peeling day-old hard cooked eggs. Then came the ruminations.... Those hard-cooked eggs are now deviled eggs, and pretty tasty too! A New Year's treat that I sampled today, lol. But first! I had to attend to chicken maintenance. Like dumping the dregs from the feeder into the run, hence luring said chickens into the run, as they've been free ranging much of the day, and most of that unsupervised. Oh, you know what, this might be a long post, so heads-up. (It IS a long post, with lots of links to entries from this year about various pastimes.) Anyway, back to sorting out the chicken feed for the rest of the day; the feeder was quite low, and best to let them have the spoils as though an actual treat, HAHA! Into the run went all but one, and upon a quick glance I noticed Owl was missing. What is up with that gal, I wondered, as my husband went to check the coop. Sure enough she was curled in a nesting box, bless her poultry heart. But I digress, y...

  Good and evil and Christmas coasters in the making.... And chickens. It's the third week of Advent, which I didn't mention on the last post, over which I then inwardly chided myself, but sometimes not everything lands in an entry. The Bondi Beach shooting had occurred, that didn't get into the last post either. Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were murdered, allegedly by their son. The list of awful incidents seems unending, and yet, a miracle is nearly due. How to slot waiting for the birth of Christ into my daily, and mostly mundane, activities; we're getting three to four eggs a day, Camilla still the star, but then her Barnevelder sisters are pretty cool too, laying eggs a good two months before the average Barnevelder hen. Fussy the Chicken raised HECK yesterday when she emerged from the coop, all her sisters out free ranging. Cluck cluck CLUCK brought me to find Fussy in the run, and it took five minutes of crooning/cajoling her to where her coop-mates were forag...

  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...

I'd forgotten I had titled this project a quilt of grace. Stitching on it doesn't bother my right shoulder, and it has been an ABSOLUTE PLEASURE to construct, especially when I remove a safety pin. Every one that goes makes me feel, 'Yup, I'm that much closer to being done.' Not that I want to hurry the process, only it's a big friggin' quilt and there's HEAPS left to stitch, and well.... I've had grace on my mind recently, and this quilt on my lap the last several evenings. The previous two I have been SUPER SNIFFLY, so today my husband moved the sofa, then I dusted the windows, then he dusted above them, then he hoovered the living room. The afternoon was sunny and pleasant, so we left open the windows, hoping to air out the space. I just closed them, and have returned to complete this post. Which was originally going to be about Nadia Chicken jumping the run door, cheeky gal! But instead I thought about this quilt, the only cloth item that lives o...

New fabrics are on the right, and they back all the coasters. Those on the left were made a year or two ago, waiting for this exact moment to be pulled from the tote and turned into something wonderful. Thanks Past Me! Kawandi-style stitching doesn't aggravate my shoulder. Good thing too, because I really wanted to sew some mug rugs and not deal with bindings. Bindings might be the biggest reason I now avoid making things with my machine. Or finishing things with a machine. I don't want the noise of a walking foot or the hassle of negotiating even a small coaster under a presser foot. Instead I'd rather hand-sew whenever possible, and once I get the perimeter of the coaster done (the only part that makes my shoulder shout), the rest is easy-peasy. I haven't done any serious evening sewing for maybe a month? Maybe. It was so lovely to sit the last few nights and stitch; how funny when something is removed from one's routine, then reinserted, as if the missing moments...

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...