Skip to main content

Simple & Mindful

I first spotted Elli Beaven's Quilting ~ 20 Mindful Makes to Reconnect Head, Heart & Hands while browsing around the thrift sites. While I prefer to buy reading for pleasure books used, I buy sewing and quilting books new to show support for other textile artists. No one ever gets rich writing these, honestly, and I admire the authors for teaching others what they do.

The book is compact and well-written, and the projects are largely small and practical, like this cushion. There are some quilts, one of which I'm seriously tempted to make, but none that I think are too hard for a confident sewist.

The author talks about mindfulness in quilting, and encourages the reader to repurpose fabrics, collect and reuse textile waste, and try their own variations and ideas with the projects, all of which I love. Elli also gives a nice crash course in the basic techniques of quilting (including hand stitching) before getting into the projects.

I'm going to try a few of the smaller projects once my hands are in better shape (and maybe that quilt, too.) I think Elli Beaven is the perfect guide if you want to embrace mindfulness, slow stitch and enjoy more the journey of quilting.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Better than Fried

I cut some chives from the kitchen garden to make garlic-chive baked fries for dinner. This is a great side dish for veggie burgers. Click here for the recipe from Taste of Home.com.
Post a Comment
Read more

Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mercantile

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!
Post a Comment
Read more