A Contemplative Life

The end of one round and the beginning of the next! From teal to medium green, decreasing by four squares, woo hoo! Usually I enjoy the Peace Round the World quilt on Wednesdays. With only seven of fifty-six squares left to add, I retrieved it this evening, thinking I'd do three. Well, four. Then on Wednesday, I could easily finish, as I get about four squares added in one Wednesday sitting. Well, tonight I went all out, which this quilt kinda calls for; seven teal squares DONE. Added one of the next round, just because. (Green, in case you're wondering.) Now it's after eight p.m., but I wanted to document this, especially since tomorrow the grandsons are coming for a week, and I don't think I'll be 1) sewing much or 2) blogging much. Lol. (And if you're wondering why it's called swan solstice it's because from here to the end, no more round the perimeter rows. The decrease begins.) Such a labour of love! So tonight was the night, the last of July, and n...

Rainbow side first, sunny and crinkly! Whew, finally wrapped up the last of this cozy! And I'm SO PLEASED with it, I wish it was mine, LOL. Instead it's going to not the original recipient, but someone else much beloved. Still, I do wish it was staying at my house. Next is autumn in shade. Most of these prints are from Stephanie Sliwinski's Foraged, Found, & Hand Me Down collection by Moda.  What does that mean, aching to gift a quilt while desiring its presence close? I guess it means I really like it, both for the fabrics and weight, for the size and stitches inserted, for all it has meant to me since early this year. It's meant: Throw fabrics on the design wall because blank space is boring, then fall in love with what you see, super-excited to hand-sew it together. Use it to make a tutorial, then find the extra layer of batting, consisting of a worn-out flannel sheet, actually makes the hand-quilting a little on the tricky side, but you persevere despite a tired...

Quilt is coming along and Ruthie wasn't still in a nesting box tonight! I had wanted to title this post Almost done , but that's just not applicable. I can't sew for hours like previously, and not every night either. I'll sit with this again on Thursday, then put it away for a few days, as family is visiting for Easter! Yet, this beautiful rainbow quilt has definitely turned a corner. One of the perks of going round and round from the perimeter inwards is that every row gets shorter and shorter and shorter. Slowly, of course, but little by little.... I've been threading six needles per session, but this evening I probably used eight or nine, and my shoulder feels it, lol. Thankfully my right thumb is fine; it's been bothering me in addition to my shoulder. As sixty years old gets closer, I'm truly starting to notice changes in my body that weren't there previously. Moving on from that, Ruthie the broody hen also made progress tonight, putting herself on ...

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...

I was fooling myself last week, assuming I could have the rainbow quilt on the living room sofa, all ready for me to hand-quilt. Conveniently I forgot about securing the perimeter, that I prefer to do in our guest room, with said quilt spread out on the bed. That imperative fact somehow slipped my mind, or I blocked it. Either way, for the next few days that precious quilt will loiter in its own space, and eventually it will meander to where I am currently seated, typing this post. One reason I didn't make the quilt sandwich until today was that yesterday I attended a protest/rally to denounce the murders taking place in Minneapolis, as well to honor Keith Porter, killed by ICE in Northridge on New Year's Eve, 2025, and others harmed and slain by ICE in the last year. This protest was announced in our local news and on Reddit late on Saturday afternoon. Less than eighteen hours later over one thousand people stood in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse seeking justice, peac...

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...

From yesterday afternoon once I attached the last two rows to the lower section. However, I am itching to write about this quilt, maybe because I've been silent concerning the surprise cozy. So despite having to sew together the first seven rows and the last six rows, here's a post about a saturated colour quilt that has captured my heart in a very intense manner, as though it's the last quilt I'll ever make. Hmm, that's a bit of an overstatement. I glance around, searching for Future Me. No sign of her, which is for the best. Because this post isn't about Past Me or that all-knowing aspect of myself, ahem. Nope, this is about a highly beloved bunch of rainbow squares that were arranged with barely a second thought nearly two weeks ago. Before Renee Good was murdered. Which I mention because her death certainly impacted how much I adore this quilt, yet not in a melancholy way. More in a how vibrant was her existence, how meaningful. How lively and warm and how c...

Eight-inch squares full of rainbow joy alongside some batik jelly roll scraps and Kaffe Fassett magic make for one happy quilter! Last night I completed the hand quilting on this beauty. I had already bound it and after trimming the strings on the back, I tossed it in the washer this morning, then into the dryer and voila! Another finish of a quilt I would LOVE to keep, but it has an awesome home already in place. This happens often; I'll sew up something that truly strikes my very own fancy, yet with the full awareness it won't remain in my possession. Yeah, I could design something similar, but it wouldn't be the very same, in that many of the skinny pieces were scrap and I used them all, ha ha! Also those exact solids aren't part of my stash, but boy I was pleased working with them. And of course the backing fabrics can't be replicated easily, neither can the binding, and, and, and.... The fish are courtesy of Violet Craft's Fisherman's Bend collection a...