My very first quilt, 1992

Patching up my great-grandma Two's nine-patch (below) made me realize that my very first quilt must have been inspired by that very same quilt.  I do remember thinking I wanted to do it all by hand like Two.   

This little nine patch took ages, and was such a learning experience.  I didn't have gear.  I cut patches out, sitting on the floor, pieced by hand, quilted by hand.  I was pregnant with my first baby, Noelle.  And now she's going to have a baby in December with the same due date I had with her.  Massively full circle!

I pieced a top for new baby girl:  

... and then a second, darker top, from the scraps.   Quilting will happen after our family vacation.  

This week I also made some basic little "quiet" photo books for my three little grand daughters - nothing fancy and so fun to make. 

My sour dough journey continues...  I ordered some local NC rye flour, and it is wonderful. 

And, I snapped up this itty-bitty sweet machine from Facebook marketplace.  Bernina Activa 220, circa 2010.  Super basic and perfect for travel, and/or for granddaughters who might want to learn to sew someday.  Bonus was that I met a lovely quilter in the process!  She was upgrading to the same machine I have already.  Fellow Bernina folks... well we do love talking "Bernina" ! 

In the evenings I'm really enjoying my EPP hexie flower project - no deadline.  Lots of "warm" colors, all Liberty.  Eventually to be made into a small throw quilt as a twin to my first hexie quilt. 

That's all for now... summer flying by. 

x 

Cynthia   

Liberty Hexies Quilt finished!

 

Happy Monday!  

At long last, my Liberty Hexies quilt is finished.  Woo hoo!  And, sigh of relief!  I think I started it in June or July of last year.  My first and probably last EPP project.  My goal was to finish by the first day of spring!  

The colors are somewhat truer in the diffused light of our building "atrium." 

The hexies were my traveling companion, and Netflix companion, during the Covid year.   My "rule" was to use a lot of teals and greens. 

I thought about my beautiful children while I pieced it and included bits that reminded me of each of them.  

I was new to EPP and used an excellent tutorial from The Strawberry Thief to get going.  She has papers, templates, and precut hexies in a wide variety of Liberty fabrics on her website, and terrific Instagram content.  

There's also a small shop in Nippori that sells Liberty and they will cut widths as small as 10 cm,  so I've been indulging now and then.  Thus I was able to get a great variety going for this scrappy quilt.   

See this swimmer fabric?  It was part of a small line of Olympics themed Liberty fabrics I saw last year (kinda sad - and yet, Olympians must be some of the most resilient people on the planet, right?). 

Sewing the hexie flowers into "rows" and then all together, was sort of a slog, but what did I have in 2020 besides TIME? 

I used Dream Cotton batting, Request loft (very low loft), and a Liberty botanical print on the back: 

I machine quilted it very simply, in hanging diamonds, with monofilament in the needle and cotton thread in the bobbin. 

It's interesting - in the bright sunlight it has a pinkish glow - which I like - 

Really it's my second "soft quilt for hard times"  -  

gratefully xo

Cynthia 

Hexie progress, this and that

 This is my world right now. 

Making progress on my Liberty Hexie quilt.  All of the remaining flowers are prepared.  This would make good travel handwork, but, we (of course) canceled our Christmas trip to the U.S.  Instead, this is handwork for the endless hours of television we watch in the evenings: 

The rows take some time to sew together.  I'm enjoying this but I also suspect it will be my first and last hexie quilt!  It's hard on my hands. 

It's peak leaf time, so pretty in our nearby park.  I'm really trying to leave the apartment once a day for some kind of errand or walk.  Sometimes it's a struggle but I'm always glad I did.  

Streets aren't crowded, which is kind of nice and while walking, I really appreciate my Spotify music, books on Audible, and podcasts.   I just finished listening to a really informative book called The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran. 

Now and then we get these "health alerts" from the State Department.  Common sense "Five Keeps" guidelines from the Governor of Tokyo, although keeping voices down is a challenge for some Americans, ha ha.   

Cases are rising in Japan, but it's not out of control.  

A word about blog comments.   I enjoy getting to know you and hearing what you have to say.  I really appreciate the connections with other bloggers that get formed over time, with the back and forth emails that happen spontaneously.  For some reason now though I am just not getting most comments delivered to my email, which is frustrating because it makes replying via email in our usual way, more difficult.  And in fact sometimes I get lost in all the emails anyway!  

Last post, I answered comments directly on the post.  I've seen it done that way by a couple of other bloggers and I like how all of us can see answers to questions, etc.  Pros and cons.  Either way please know I really appreciate your comments.  

xo

Cynthia 

Soft Quilt Finished... election sigh of relief ... hexie update

 

Ahhhhh the election is over, and wow, what a slog that was. 
David and I are so happy with this outcome.  A decent human being in the Oval Office again, with Kamala Harris by his side!  Empathy, science, social justice, inclusion, cooperation, and did I mention decency.   And, hopefully a return to greater respect for the U.S. around the world? 

In the weeks leading up to the election, I got serious about finishing the hand quilting on my "Soft Quilt for Hard Times".  I put the last stitches in on Saturday.  And Sunday morning middle of the night (our time in Japan) we awoke to the good news.  

My whole point with this quilt was to make something easy and straightforward - a "spring palette" log cabin variation - a quilt I've made many times.   I guess the challenge with this was staying engaged and finishing it!  Lots of news, and Netflix.  I can recommend the limited series "The Queen's Gambit" - it was excellent.  

I'm not sure this quilt feels like "mine" (is it the lack of indigo?) - I will tuck it away and decide that later. 

Meanwhile, I am going gangbusters on my ongoing handwork project - Liberty Hexies.  These are large, two-inch hexies.  It is so fun to sew them into flowers.  I'm trying to include a lot of green and aqua.  Super scrappy. 

Two, almost three rows finished: 

This is (usually) my TV watching spot: 

Can I just say.... what would I do without quilting???  I am so grateful for it!!  

xo

Cynthia 

Hexies and Okinawan glass

 Oh it is hot hot hot these days in Tokyo.  Hot and humid.  Indoor time.  I continue to work on geneology every single day, and also try to quilt at least a bit every day. 

My random Liberty hexies are coming along.  Two inch hexies make big flowers! 

While we were in Okinawa, one day we walked about half a kilometer down the road, to a glass factory, known for letting people experience glass blowing.  

Here's David in the "sample" section - believe it or not, we could browse this area and pick out *anything* we wanted to make ourselves. 

I say that loosely, because obviously it was more like we helped a little.  It was so fun. 

And a few days ago our pieces arrived in the mail.  Here's David's little cup, with ocean blue - to hold these shells he collected (rocks are from his fly fishing trips): 

 

And my chunky little vase or votive candle holder... 

Meanwhile our lives are just so pared down.  I am trying to stay positive, but I am so frustrated that Japan won't allow non-Japanese people to travel back and forth from abroad.  I can see not allowing tourists (although I wish our college age son could come over), but visa holders and even permanent residents (even people who have lived here for decades and are married to Japanese people) are impacted.  There are over 2000 people on the "Return to Japan Support Group" on Facebook.  

Anyway, I really can't make a move until I know I can return to Japan, because I would never want to leave David here alone "indefinitely." 

So, for now, it's lots and lots of texting and FaceTime with our kids, who are all doing well in the U.S.  I just can't get enough of baby Charlotte Jane!  I am trying to let go of expectations on the timing of when I will be able to travel to see her.  Please tell me I won't miss her whole first year.  

xo

Cynthia 

New Hexie project... and a few days in Okinawa

 

A few weeks ago while on Instagram, some scrappy hexies caught my eye - and now I'm just hooked.  I'm just going to take my time making these random hexie flowers and then sew them all together.  They are BIG.  It shouldn't take years.  Maybe one year;).  

I've collected bits of Liberty for years and I use it here and there in my quilts.  For this project I ordered some 2" hexies, some precuts, as well as a couple "lucky dip" bundles of green and teal,  from The Strawberry Thief in Australia.  My "rules" for this quilt (and rules can be broken) is that each hexie flower contain some green and/or teal somewhere.   Here is a good tutorial from Strawberry Thief.  

Apples have nothing to do with hexies.... 

.... except for the fact that the cardboard basket they come in, makes a great organizer for my prepped hexies.  I sort of geeked out about that! 

I even brought some hexies to work on during our little getaway earlier this week to Okinawa: 

With cases of COVID rising somewhat in Tokyo we had mixed feelings about going, but we did it.  The hotel/resort took really good social distancing measures.  We were insanely careful the whole time and so was everyone around us.   

Airport was all but empty: 

We were the only two passengers on our little glass-bottom boat tour, so off came our masks: 

Everywhere else, masks on, except when literally eating food (which was amazing).  This seaweed called umibudo - sea grapes - was something new to me (the other item is prosciutto wrapped pineapple):  

Each morning the hotel brought our breakfast to our room (including green salad with cabbage and corn; dried soybeans in the cereal; unsweetened yogurt, fruit, juice, rolls): 

A nice getaway to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary which is later this month.  We had been looking forward to gathering our kids and new grand baby Charlotte in New Hampshire for a week but of course those plans blew up.  Sigh.  So this was Plan B and I think really important for David to get *out of Tokyo* for a few days.  

Farewell Okinawa, hello again Tokyo.   Grateful for health, employment, each other, our faraway family.  

x

Cynthia