Rayen

I was about twenty pages into The Night Ends with Fire by K.X. Song when I realized the novel was a knockoff. If you're a fan of Disney, the story of Mulan is probably very familiar: girl protects her family by pretending to be a boy and joining the army. This book is about the same character, but her motivations are all dark and negative, and nothing you could really call heroic. She's not protecting her family, she's abandoning them to her drug addict dad to avoid a marriage to a cruel man he arranged. This Mulan is angry and greedy and all about herself, which is fine. That's pretty much the modern lifestory these days. The writing is quite deft, and the pacing is consistent. The author has the skills to write well, and does. I just kept getting sidelined by the knockoff aspects. The main character is not sympathetic or even likeable, and since I am a female who served in the military I should have at least identified with her. Instead I wished she'd...

While I'm brooding on my vintage linen project, I decided to turn this basket of vintage fabric that I used to make the September tote for my calendar project into a small quilt. Back in September I cut half of the fabric into strips, so I pieced the leftovers into blocks. Here's the quilt top arrangement. Stay tuned to see how I make the backing out of the rest of the scrap.

One weekend this month we spent the day in St. Augustine puttering around, getting rained on and admiring houses. To stroll with us, check out my album of photos here .

This is an old Missouri Star video about the quilt as you go method, which illustrates the technique I want to use for my vintage linens quilt. I'll be making mine in panels rather than all one piece, but it gives you the general idea. I will also be using the sewing machine to make this quilt, along with a little hand stitching here and there as my hands allow. The linens and vintage scrap need a bath, mainly for a bit of storage odor that came with them. It isn't always necessary to launder scrap, particularly vintage, but I want everything clean first, and I have a sensitive nose. I sorted them into lights and darks, and I'll run them through the washer in lingerie bags on a delicate setting, dry them, and then I'll get started on the first panel.

I invested in the 2026 issue of a Somerset Halloween to see if that would give my persistent fall apathy a kick in the keister. I will say up front that the issue has a lot of doll and skeleton projects. I'm not really a fan of dolls, but these are not babies or human, so there's that. Skeletons are also not my favorite choice of decor, but I get that they appeal to the folks who put 15 foot versions in their front yards (why? Got me.) There are some different and very creative ideas this year, like Halloween themed journals, little ghost soaps (I'm not a soap maker, but have to admit, they're charming), sachets that are decorated like plague treatments, and even a Halloween version of a gingerbread house. I might have to make one of the journal projects. I like Halloween so much I wouldn't mind writing in a themed journal even after it passes.

To jump start my quilting muse I decided to go back to Ramen Hands , the Etsy seller who sold me the fabric for this challenge quilt, a purchase a couple more bundles: a pound of fabric scraps and the estate sale ina box withe the linen closet option. In the special requests section I just asked for anything that I could make into a quilt. The box arrived last week, so let's see what she sent. My two bundles. I'm so excited. Here is the pound of fabric scraps. I love how neatly she puts these together. Definitely a terrific variety to use for my project. The estate sale linen closet bundle is huge! I'll have to show you everything in two pics. There is a marvelous variety of old linens to use, including pillowcases, handkerchiefs and even an apron. Now I can't wait to make something out of these. I knew she would inspire me. My initial idea is to try something I've never done: a quilt as you go throw. It would be easier on my...

Here's a chore that I do a couple times of year (or I used to, anyway): cleaning out the scraps bag I keep in the sewing room. This time it's overflowing because I've been procrastinating, and there's literally no room left in it for anything else. Pulling out all the scraps and sorting them is like a trip back through time; I get to see snips and trimmings from all my projects. As I did I began seeing scraps from projects I did last year, and checked my journal. Sure enough, I haven't cleaned out the scrap bag since September 2025 . This also made me realize how little I've been sewing over the last 13 months. Back to the sort. I do save all the batting scraps in a big bag which I raid for smaller projects. The tiniest scraps of fabric, all of which are unsuitable for reuse, went into my thread catcher bag, which holds the snips of yarn from my crochet, too. I call this shoddy, and I want to find a way to reuse it, even if it's as stuffi...