Rayen

After cleaning them I decided to rejoin the two crazy quilt cutter pieces. Since I plan to cover the joining with embroidery or lace or something I whipstitched the two pieces together using thread that matched the colors of the patches. I also added some scrap wool to turn the piece into a rectangle. Here's the end result. Once I add batting and backing to the new patches I added, I'm going to bind the piece and then start the embroidery and embellishment phase.

The front of one cutter quilt piece I wanted to work on had been stained, but the back looked great, so I cut it in half, embroidered both back sides and made it into a tiny tote. I was also able to add a length of beaded ribbon I've been saving because it was too short to use on anything but too pretty to toss. Anyway, it'll be a nice way to present a gift card to someone this year. The back, with different embroidery. The variegated perle thread I used was also leftover scrap. I also successfully hand-washed and dried the bigger piece of the crazy quilt piece -- again, never do this to anything you want to preserve -- so once I piece them back together and turn it into a rectangle by adding a bit to the smaller piece I'll have a nice-size and clean cutter piece to make into a journal cover.

Nine years ago I went through some major work and health issues that changed almost everything in my life. I went to one quilt show that year and realized that my own needlework was changing as well. I don't know that I ever consciously chose to follow an artistic path with my quilting and embroidery. It simply evolved organically, perhaps from a desire to make something beautiful as well as practical. I was often inspired by the work of quilters and artists that I saw at these shows. The energy is always so wonderful when quilters and textile artists gather in one spot to display their work. I miss going to quilt shows, too, which I haven't been able to do for two years now. Maybe this year I'll feel safe enough to get out to one.

In a few weeks I'll be starting my next large quilt project, but for now I'm sticking to little things I can do in a day or two. A lot of these are simply to test threads and stitch ideas like this one, where I'm feather stitching in perle cotton over chenille thread, and wove and chain stitched the base out of some scrap jute twine. I'm using cutter quilt scraps as the foundations for these experiments. Sometimes I try out different colors and weights of thread with the same stitch, as I did here with the French knots, to see which looks best. Right now I'm playing with some old lace to see how best to stitch it down, as I plan to use a couple yards of it on my next big quilt.

In my cutter quilt stash I have two pieces of an old crazy quilt made with heavy fabrics, including a fair amount of wool. They're not exceptional enough to preserve as they are, and I'd like to make them into something else; possibly a journal cover. The only problem is that they're both smelly and maybe soiled. I decided to do what you should never do with a crazy quilt you want to preserve, especially one with wool patchwork: I soaked the smaller piece in cold water and a little bit of mild detergent, and gently pressed on it a few times (versus scrunching or wringing the piece.) The water turned brown, which meant it was soiled. Then I dried it flat on a towel. This could have ruined it by causing wool shrinkage, dye migration, fabric shattering, etc., and I was prepared for all that. Here's the smaller piece after washing it, next to the bigger unwashed piece for comparison: The piece wasn't damaged at all, which means I got very lucky. The sm

Slow stitching on a mini quilt made of two vintage handkerchiefs gave me some time to think this week. The old cotton was like gauze, really, and so fragile I needed to be mindful of where my needle tip was at all times, and how much I could safely tug on the embroidery thread. Mostly I thought about my mom, who always carried handkerchiefs in her purse. As a kid I thought of that as one of the ladylike things a woman was expected to do. I never did the same. Like being regarded as a lady, the thought of carrying around a wad of snotty cloth in my bag never appealed much to me. I wanted a Swiss Army knife, like the one my Dad always carried in his front pocket. I bought myself a cheap one shortly after I left home. I currently carry a very nice Swiss Army knife in my purse. The handkerchief and the utility knife, that's my mom and me in a nutshell. I was never the daughter my mother wanted, and I've always known that. I could never be a church-going teacher

I'm not sure what I want to do with this cutter quilt piece, but I did want to see all the patchwork, so I removed the binding pieces before hand washing it. There was more patchwork hiding under that big skewed piece of binding. We'll see what it looks like once it's clean. For my next practice piece I decided to us two vintage handkerchiefs as my foundation fabric. I don't have a problem with using old hankies (I wash everything before I stitch on it), but if the fact they might have been used bother you just look and see if the piece has tags on it. That will tell you they probably languished unused in someone's drawer for twenty or thirty years. Here's my next practice piece, already started. Heavily printed hankies make great backing fabric; very old/thin cotton is also much like silk for practice purposes.

Babysitting the puppies during our current renovations doesn't allow me to do much, and I needed to think about my new work project and ten thousand other things, so I spent one afternoon just practice stitching on the fabric I harvested from the lumpy cutter piece. This is how much I did in a few hours. I also renewed my suspicion that chenille embroidery thread hates me almost as much as moire satin fabric and viscose thread do. Here's the finished piece. I'm getting slower instead of faster with my needlework, but it takes longer for me to line things up by eye (I don't draw lines or use any markings.) I have some issues with my stitching hand, too. But I'm happy I can still do this; my first practice piece tells me I can tackle embroidering another linen quilt with some confidence. Which is the whole point of practicing.

I did quite a bit of hand stitching on the koi quilt, but I still need to practice my embroidery and work out some designs before I tackle the linen quilt I want to make next. So I decided to make a practice piece out of this old, lumpy cutter quilt piece. Most of the hand quilting on this piece looked like basting, so I snipped through it and separated the plain front from the print backing, and found the cotton batting had migrated into a big ball and lots of bunches, rendering it unusable. This is the little heap of old batting I removed from the piece. I hand washed the remaining fabric after taking the pieces apart (picture here darkened to show the print pattern on the backing.) After it dried it looked much better, and the old cotton is fabulously soft (and very much like the linen I'll be working with on the next quilt), thus perfect for stitch practice. For me practice pieces don't have to be perfect or functional; I just need a foundation to work on.

A dear friend sent me a note saying that I would be getting a little surprise package from her, and it arrived the other day. I thought it might be a book or something for the garden, but it turned out to be this beautiful collection of Gütermann cotton thread! I actually have very little of their cotton thread -- I usually buy their polyester variety when it's on sale -- so I am thrilled. I also feel very blessed, too. I don't have many friends, but those I hold dear know me so well.

This is the old prefab fiberglass shower in our master bathroom. We inherited it with a patch already on the floor, It was dark (no light), cramped and a pain to keep clean. I have disliked it since we moved into the house, so I was not sorry to see it go. Here is the shower after the fiberglass and wood were removed. Our builder found three walls that aren't plumb and a vent pipe in the wrong place. Our hot water pipe (the one on the left) also started dripping from a joint leak sometime in the last couple of months. So as it turns out it was a very good thing we decided to renovate.

I've always loved this painting -- Flaming June by Frederic Leighton -- which also has an interesting origin story behind it. Allegedly it was found hidden in a chimney by a construction worker in 1962, who sold it to a junk shop for about fifty bucks. Sixty years later it's widely considered a masterpiece of Victorian art. The museum that currently owns it turned down an offer of six million pounds to purchase it from one of its famous admirers, Andrew Lloyd Webber. I think I'm drawn to this painting because the gown worn by the lady is orange, a color that not a lot of people really love but I happen to adore, and it reminds me of hibiscus like this one that grew around my house when I was a kid. I also think it's simply beautiful. Those type of connections are what I think about when I'm world-building or creating a character or even choreographing a scene. Am I offering something new and different, will I connect with the reader on some emotio

I'm taking a break from the computer today to finish up my taxes. See you tomorrow. Image Credit: stevepb from Pixabay

Back in 2018 I started making this quilt out of scrap and vintage linen, which was my first attempt to work primarily with this natural fabric. I had a lot of trouble with it, mainly during the piecing stage, as linen tends to shift and move and not behave like cotton. I also made the mistake of including a vintage linen blend fabric that resisted stitching because it was very tightly woven, so I had to fight those patches during the embroidery phase. I did every block with slow stitch, and improvised all the designs, but about halfway through embroidering the quilt I felt frustrated, and my inspiration dwindled, so I set it aside for a few months. Then happily I got over my stitching block, went back and finished it. Linen is wonderful to stitch on; the loose weave and lovely feel of it made every moment I spent embroidering a joy (except for those linen blend patches. Holy Toledo, those were a huge pain.) For that reason I recommend giving it a try. Just maybe start sm

I invested in another crazy or kaleidoscope patchwork block; now that I own two I think I'll make them into shams for the sofa pillows in my home office. I just need to find the right sashing fabric, which may take a while, since I want to pull it from my stash. These antique pieces remind me that zero-waste quilting is not a new idea; our ancestors often had limited access to new fabric, or couldn't afford it, and so saved every scrap from their projects to recycle as patchwork. I want to keep that kind of mindset; I have more fabric in my stash than I know what to do with already. It's just so hard to resist buying new when I see something pretty.

I finished making a gift bag for the koi quilt using leftover scraps of the patchwork and backing fabrics. I slow-stitched this one, quilting it with holographic Sulky for a bit of a different look. I also didn't worry about lining up or measuring the patchwork, so a little of the front spilled over onto the back of the bag. I think that looks neat. The inside is lined with the strip stitch and flip fail, which hides my ineptitude while making practical use of a mistake. The koi quilt fit perfectly inside the bag, and now it's on its way to my favorite person. She currently owns only one blanket (she's living minimally as she moves around for work), so I was quite happy to send it to her.

Now that spring has arrived we're gearing things up in the gardens. To create more space in the raised beds we transplanted the herbs to containers last year, and they're still going strong. We also invested in some bell peppers and tomatoes, the two vegetables I cook with most often. Year two for the strawberry plants got off to a slow start, but they're now making up for that. I have to find some recipes for desserts with strawberries, as they're low in sugar and good for me. More peppers and tomatoes. We're planning to share these with neighbors if they produce more than I can use. The two brussel sprout plants are doing fine, although still growing slower than we expected. Our pole beans have sprouted; we planted four of these as they produce so much we won't need more. More tomatoes and peppers. My guy went a little crazy with these because his favorite dinner is one that combines both, I think. Mom's grapefruit tree s