Boxed Journals

I have a large collection of artisan journals, and these two are a couple of my favorites. Both came in these tins.

The idea I had for making some fabric journals this summer includes finding and recycling some old tins to hold them like these two.

I use old tins all the time to hold thread and trims, but I've only decorated this one with a little crazy quilt I made from some fabric scraps. It was once a tin of nuts that my guy got as a Christmas gift. So that's the idea -- making fabric journals and store them in decorated tins. Before I make the journals I'll need the tins so I can size them appropriately.

Cobbling

I've been saving three triangles of a beautiful watercolor print fabric that came in a recycled bundle for a time when I needed some inspiration. Thing is, what can you make out of three triangles? So I added a swatch of hand dyed recycled fabric that I thought went nicely with it, and pulled a lavender silk ribbon I've also had squirreled away.

I needed a project bag for myself, so I decided to cobble everything together to quilt and embroider with some holographic Sulky and some variegated perle thread.

The bag turned out really pretty, and just the right size for a small summer project I'm planning to do this month.

Since I give away almost everything I make I do not feel guilty putting this together for me. :)

Sorting Out Summer Side Projects

I decided to look at everything I want to do this summer besides work on the linen quilt (which I will probably need another four or five months to complete.) This is (almost) everything, clockwise from the bottom left: repairing some crazy quilt pieces, making some cutwork pieces into a bag, quilting a small wedding ring quilt top, working to refine and better execute my first original embroidery design on some cut quilt pieces, making another slow-stitched beach bag, repairing an embroidered tablecloth, and of course my annual art quilt.

I'd like to make some fabric journals as well, but I need to collect some more materials for those. I'm also aware that I'll be lucky if I get half of these projects finished before fall arrives, but I like to challenge myself.

Each summer I've been making an art quilt, which arguably could be the linen quilt I've been working on, but I had another idea I want to try out. These are me at my most innovative, and completely of my own design. This is just the pile of materials I sorted out for this one project; I may add or take away from it as I keep thinking through the idea.

While sorting I found three pieces of beautiful watercolor fabric remnants and a hand-dyed swatch that I've wanted to make into a bag for a while now. Since I'm taking a long break from the linen quilt, this is where I'll start.

Designing

These little wildflowers grow by the fence in my backyard every spring. I always like seeing them bloom, and they were on my mind as I started a little embroidery design project.

My idea was to make a pretty bookmark, so I took a cutter quilt strip piece and started embroidering a simple design.

My lettering needs work, and I might straighten the wildflower stems a bit and eliminate the bloomless one on the right side, but I'm pretty happy with the overall design. I'll make it again with some changes, and then draft the embroidery design into a stitch map and write up instructions to go with it.

So Good

I had some overripe bananas to use up, so I decided to try another recipe from the vegan cookbook a dear friend gave me, and baked this utterly scrumptious chocolate chip peanut butter banana bread.

This is the banana bread for people who aren't terribly fond of bananas, as it's got all the chocolate and peanut buttery goodness of a cookie combined with the wholesome banana breadness. The recipe calls for a quarter cup of sugar, but as I can't have sugar I left that out. Frankly it was plenty sweet enough from the bananas and the stevia dark chocolate chips I used.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it.

Break Time

I'm going to take a two-week break from working on the linen quilt, mainly because I'm on the brink of creative burnout again. There are some smaller projects I can do that will refill my idea well, and I have an original embroidery design I want to draft. I did okay this week, however, and finished another row of blocks.

I'm at the same point I was with my first linen quilt, where I've made some mistakes I really don't like (two smaller patches, which are easily fixed once I enter the editing phase of the project.)

I also feel as if I'm running out of steam, creatively-speaking. That's why I'm going to set it aside for a longer break, so I can get over myself.

I also know I'm not a particularly spontaneous person, so all the improv and in-the-moment work becomes a bit tiring, especially when I'm working on a bed-size project. I start doubting myself.

I've finished embroidering about a third of the quilt, which is very good progress considering how busy I am with the day job right now. I also still love the project; it's just time for a major break before I stop feeling the love. :)

The back of the quilt may be my favorite part of the project. Anyway, that's it on the linen quilt for the next couple of weeks.

Crazy Love

The Japanese drama series In Time with You is probably the best low-key, slow-burn romance I've ever watched, and possibly the most infuriating. There were several times as the storyline progressed that I became so absorbed by the craziness and poor choices of the characters that I actually yelled at my laptop. That said, this series had one of the most satisfying wrap-ups of all time, I think, which made up for all my frustration.

Since high school Yo Mitarai (Rika Adachi) and Ren Ishida (Jin Shirasu) have been best friends -- the real deal, too, as they confide everything in each other, laugh and enjoy themselves like pals in every way, and otherwise support each other's ambitions and dreams. Long-term, genuine male/female friendships are rare in Asian cultures, but Yo and Ren make it work.

In the present Yo works as a section chief at a luxury shoe brand (she has a thing for shoes, too) while Ren is a rising star at a property management company. They seem very happy with their lives and their friendship. As Yo turns 29 and is still unmarried, however, she freaks out a little, which leads to her making a bet with Ren. Whoever gets married first will get a very nice cash wedding gift from the other friend. What she doesn't realize is that Ren has secretly been in love with her since high school. Things only get worse when a conniving temp at Ren's workplace decides she wants to marry him, and then Yo's heartbreaker ex shows up to try to make ammends for the terrible things he did to her and get her back.

If it wasn't for the friendship between Yo and Ren I probably wouldn't have finished watching this drama, as Conniving Temp annoyed me terribly, and Heartbreaker Ex was beyond manipulative and patronizing. Both Ren and Yo also seemed incapable of resisting their traps (Yo especially -- how could such a smart woman be so blind?) Yet I realized both main characters were handling too much (emotionally speaking), so I hung in. It was worth it, too, as the resolution of the drama is realistic, wildly romantic, and wonderfully touching. Jin Shirasu just became my new favorite Japanese actor as well. :) Available to watch on Viki.com.

Birthday Boy Quilt

I don't have anything update-wise to post today, so we'll take a trip down memory lane with pics of this quilt, which I made as a birthday gift for a baby boy two years ago.

The prints and colors appealed to me as beachy rather than boyish, but I thought he would like it anyway.

And he did. :)

Smaller

This is the smallest quilt I've ever made (with a penny to give you scale.) It's a bargello, made from tiny scraps from a much larger quilt that I made five years ago. What I remember most was wrestling with my lack of skill and how hard it was to piece with 1/8" seams. The quilting was also a challenge because every stitch I took looked huge.

While I've been working on my linen quilt I'm struggling with my execution and quilting limitations, so in a sense size really doesn't matter. I also have a house filled with the quilts I've made over the years. Since I live a stone's throw away from the tropics we don't need even the quilts I've already made.

Subconsciously I've been working toward smaller projects, I think, for all those reasons. This may have to be the last year that I make a traditional quilt for myself or art's sake. From now on I might limit myself to gift-only quilts and scale down my art projects.

Linen Quilt Update

Slow going this week working on my linen quilt. I'm trying to avoid repeating designs that I've already done, so I slowed down and tried experimenting a bit, with mixed results.

I like to stitch very densely in complicated patterns with perle cotton thread, but I need to rein that in and do some lighter stitching or this quilt is going to weigh a ton. This block was me indulging myself a little, and then going airy and simple around the densely stitched area.

I'm doing a little better with creating even French knots, so I added rows of them between my feather stitching on this patch. It's only so-so. If I don't use this stitch because I'm afraid of it I'll never master it, but it still makes me very anxious.

Ridiculous

If you click on the link to my blog on my Twitter account, this warning page now pops up. I write about quilting and textile art, gardening, cooking, my dogs and recycling. Occasionally I review movies, television series and food products. Evidently Twitter regards that as unsafe, and has called me a thief or a spammer.

I don't have time right now to deal with this as I'm finishing up a work project, but please be assured that my blog is safe, I am not stealing your information, nor am I trying to convince you to buy anything.

Solo Meals

I'm trying to eat vegan or at least meatless three days a week now, which means I can pretty much eat whatever I like versus having to make meals to suit my guy's tastes (he doesn't suffer; I cook a separate meal for him.) I like these days so much I may increase them to four or five in the future. Anyway, here is everything I ate on a typical meals-for-me-only day:

Breakfast: 16 ozs. of sugarfree cranberry juice, a banana and a toasted everything bagel thin (about 1/3 the size of a regular bagel) with vegan cream cheese substitute. I usually just have juice and fruit, but I needed to use up these bagels before they go stale.

Lunch: Orange sugarfree sparkling water, four vegetable egg rolls and a cup of organic microwave white rice.

Dinner: Cherry sugarfree sparkling water, a bowl of my homemade veggie bean soup, a small romaine salad, and another toasted everything bagel thin with plant-based butter spread (normally I would bake some rolls to go with the soup.)

It's not very exciting, I admit, but it's fairly healthy and light. I'm going to make and freeze some more veggie bean soup once I clear some space in the freezer, as it's nice to have for my solo meal days.

A Tiny Rant

"The most spectacular thing about the quilt though, is that it is ENTIRELY HANDMADE!"

This was a line from a daily quilting newsletter I receive, regarding an award-winning quilt that was quite interesting (I subscribe to the newsletter just so I can look at quilts, as I can't attend quilt shows at present.) The colors of the winning quilt were unusual, the applique was impressive, and I thought it was quite an achievement for the maker. Yet the thing about it that the writer thought was most spectacular was something that sounded like snobbery to me, so I need to rant a little.

I get it, you know. Hand stitching is both time-consuming and labor intensive, so I've always understood why most quilters choose to use machine stitching. I envy them, honestly, as I could probably make many more quilts if I would learn machine quilting. Also, I regard many machine-made quilts as spectacular; one of my quilting friends on Twitter just blows me away with her work, which is nearly 100% by machine. Finally -- and this may sound a little crazy, but there you go -- I regard machine-stitched quilts as handmade because you still need hands on them to guide them through the machine.

I have always chosen to quilt and embroider my textile art and quilts by hand because that makes me happy. It slows me down, too, and helps me to appreciate the journey rather than the destination. The clatter of a sewing machine frankly makes me nervous, and I'm always anxious when I use it as well. There is practically no noise when you hand stitch; just the very faint whisper of thread through fabric.

This choice doesn't make me or my quilts special, or different, or superior in any way to makers who use machines to do the same work, or vice-versa. We all do what we love. So why do some constantly have to compare our efforts like this, even passive-aggressively as this newsletter did? Being happy with what you choose to do, and respecting the choices of others is such an easy thing. Let's strive to do that, okay?

Frozen

I've been trying to find some meatless options for my lunches, as I would rather not eat almond butter sandwiches forever. So I decided to try some frozen food products this week, and took pics of the product and what it actually looks like after preparation.

I've tried several of Amy's brand products, with mixed results. I do like broccoli and pasta, and while I can't have a lot of dairy a little portion of cheese sauce won't hurt me, so I thought this might be good.

The cheese sauce is actually very strong, and the whole dish was quite heavy; although a reasonably-sized portion I almost couldn't finish it. I don't understand why cheese-sauced pasta has to be topped with breadcrumbs. Not bad, just very filling.

I grew up eating a lot of Cuban and islander foods so this vegan burrito bowl appealed to me right away.

The actual dish is a little unsightly, but tasted quite good. The level of spiciness, which I would put at 7 on a 1 to 10 scale, was surprising in that it didn't overwhelm the flavors of the veggies and rice. I finished it with no problem and I'll probably buy this one again, although I may add some of my own white rice to it next time.

Asian food is my favorite, so I had to indulge in these veggie egg rolls. The pack came with eight; I made four and used my own gochujang sauce for dipping, as I'm not a fan of sweet and sour sauces.

These were my favorite of the three lunches; they were delicious, crispy and light. Four was just enough for one portion for me so I can make two lunches out of one box.

Baggy

During my long break from working on the linen quilt this week I recycled these estate sale patchwork blocks and turned them into gift bags.

Here are the finished bags. They're also made with all recycled or reused materials, as I used scrap muslin for the back fabric and handles, scrap batting, and vintage thread for the embroidery.

This is the back of the largest bag, also made from scrap muslin and vintage perle thread.

Love's End

Amor is an interesting if sometimes confusing Korean film that tells the story of a man whose lover is dying of a terminal illness. The story is told from the man's perspective as he copes with the responsibilities of supporting his girlfriend during her final days, fulfilling her wishes, making the necessary practical arrangements and trying to cope with the loss.

The man, Tae-Woo (Jung Kyoung-Ho), seems almost detached in the beginning as he deals with the impending death of his lover, Hee-Yeon (Jung Yoon-Sun), but through the actors' lowkey yet excellent portrayals you soon realize just how much they love each other. They're also orphans, so they have no families to help them get through this (something that deeply resonated with me, too.) Just as Hee-Yeon is growing sicker, Tae-Woo finds a mysterious mute woman (Mina Fujii) who seems to have collapsed at his workplace, and does what he can to help her.

This movie was short (less than 90 minutes) but it felt much longer. I didn't understand the role of the mute woman until the end, and my interpretation is a still a bit fuzzy. I'm not even sure if I want to recommend it to others because it is so sad, and we have to cope with enough sadness in the real world right now. I did think it was very touching and rather reassuring in that kindness and love are never wasted on anyone. Available on Viki-com.

2 Books & a Surprise

I want to make some fabric journals this summer, so I invested in Tilly Rose's Daydream Journals. I'll do a proper write-up once I've read the whole book but I can already assure you that it's wonderful.

I've fallen into a rut with my journaling, too, so I invested in 52 Lists for Calm by Moorea Seal, a guided journal that I think will help me.

Finally, the two vintage linen pieces my textile haul seller included as thank-you gifts for me in my last order have a tiny, odd cutwork design on them that I couldn't place until I put something dark behind them.

Surprise -- they're little birds. :)

Makers

I had only one of these unfinished applique patchwork blocks in my estate sale lot, and no other blocks of the same size or with matching fabrics, so to make it into a bag I needed a back panel. Those I usually make out of scrap muslin.

I used the same green perle thread that I used to embroider the front panel to feather stitch the back panel. Circles and circular shapes are one of my favorite things to stitch, so it adds my style to the original maker's without masking or marring their work.

Working on these orphanned blocks has made me wonder about the person who made them. I think a lot of these are practice pieces or just to try out ideas with colors and shapes. Some of the patchwork in this lot is very sophisticated and polished, and yet others have obvious mistakes. The handstitching used for some of the piecing is very small and neat, which I admire as mine isn't.

Quilting is one of those creative arts that can be addictive, frustrating, enlightening and heartbreaking. There are so many talented quilters out there that it can be very intimidating, too, and chase away the lesser skilled. I think as makers this person and I share the same kind of love for stitching, and perhaps some of the same flaws. I can't know what they intended to make of these blocks, if anything, but I think they would be glad to know someone is quite happy making use of them. After all, isn't that we quilt -- to bring joy to others as well as ourselves?