Dollie quilts

Given the likely crazy few weeks ahead, I am sharing a "mini" of sorts a little early.  These two dollie quilts were cut and finished by my Grandma Mary Lou in the early 90's, from a tiny Grandmother's Flower Garden top she rescued: 

She meander machine quilted the white backgrounds, and tied the centers of each "flower" - 

They are so charming and sweet.  

And now they are packed away.  *All* of my quilting stuff is ready to move over to the "dated-but-new-to-us" townhouse next month: 

This does not even include all the quilting stuff I had in Tokyo, which was part of our "sea shipment."   It's just too much stuff.   Sometimes I daydream about chucking it all and taking up embroidery, watercolor, and knitting - all of which, combined, would take up far less space! 

In other news... David and I have been walloped by Covid.   We had avoided it for SO long that it was sort of a shock to get it.  The worst symptoms for me have been bad headache (like, scary bad) and extreme fatigue.  We are on the upswing I think, and counting the days til we will safely be able to visit with people again.  

With September right around the corner, I've also been considering joining a local quilt guild.  I feel shy about it, but I think it might be a good idea.  What about you... do you participate in a local guild? 

xo

Cynthia 

Potholders for days, a brief word about current events, some appliqué

I've been happily (happily...? not really, not these days, with our country in the state it's in... but you know what I mean) ensconced in my messy sewing room, making potholders from scraps.  

I piece scraps into improv log cabin blocks, about 10" square, layer with batting (four layers of Dream Cotton Select), and backing.  I quilt very simply.  I try to eyeball the center and quilt down and across the center, which helps when it comes to how a potholder is folded when you are using it.  Sometimes I make an additional quilting line once the potholder is finished, to achieve that good symmetrical fold. 

I trim to 9" squares, and bind with double-fold binding cut 1.25" wide.   It's a lot of work to hand tack back the bindings, but I still prefer to bind this way and not all by machine.  

Then I wash them.  In the photo below, the purple-bound potholders on top have already been washed.  

These will make some simple gifts.   They wash up well and shrink to about 8.5": 

I love making potholders - the smallest possible quilt, and something practical and not precious.   I'm totally counting these as a June monthly mini;).  I've been absent for months from the mini scene at Wendy's The Constant Quilter.  Check out the minis on her blog!  I always love seeing what people have been making. 

Binding all these little potholders, I have been watching all of the January 6th hearings.  Today, I was so impressed with young witness Cassidy Hutchinson's courage and poise.   

With the distressing recent events and decisions in our country, I try to stay informed without becoming too overwhelmed and depressed by it all.  One voice I appreciate is Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter "Letters from an American: a newsletter about the history behind today's politics".    She's an historian and professor at Boston College.  You can email me and I will forward you one of her newsletters, or you can find some of her older newsletters here on Bill Moyer's website.  

But back to quilting for a second.  The other project I'm working on is this BOM from Barbara Brackman, Ladies Aid.  The blocks are huge.  I wanted this quilt to have that soft "light blue and dusty pink" feel from the mid 80's.  Just gentle and homey.  I made myself kits, thinking I would finish this up over Christmas vacation.  Ya, no, that didn't happen. 

Getting an idea of what this will look like.  One more block to prep and appliqué. 

x 

Cynthia 

last mini of 2021 - little dog in a big world

I finished this before we flew to the U.S. for Christmas.  Check out Wendy's blog for more minis of all kinds!  

Here is how I think, when I'm working on a little collage quilt.  I really wanted to use that vintage piece of indigo for the flower pot: 

But in the end I didn't like it, or the background.  I switched backgrounds, and couldn't resist using the little doggie (from a tenugui).  I love playing with scale like this. 

Tried a different flower pot:  

Decided the whole thing needed a more substantive background, so I migrated all the pieces over to orange: 

Lightly glued pieces down: 

Quilted, bound, done! 

Meanwhile here in Texas, we are visiting daughter Kaela and family, and our new college graduate Tommy is here too from Utah.  It is so wonderful to be here!  I haven't been online at all.  I'm in the moment here.   Kaela has decided (with me) that we will give "Marmee" a try as my grandma name.  I kinda love it! 

I hope everyone reading my blog will have a lot of hope and peace in your hearts going into 2022.  We all need it!  

xo

Cynthia 

Breezy Day mini

For this month's mini quilt, I did another little collage quilt, using just these scraps from my Hands All Around tenugui quilt, which is just awaiting sashing and borders.

It's a very specific palette, just blue and white tenugui, with a bit of red here and there.   I don't usually work with such a limited palette but I took Rogue Quilter Janet's "baggie of scraps" challenge and had fun with it.   Thanks Wendy the Constant Quilter for hosting us month after month;).  

I had a breezy day on the water in mind: 

Added some sashiko to the little boat and machine quilted it with random diagonal lines: 

It's about 13x13 inches.  I bound it in the darkest of indigo kasuri: 

Meanwhile, the weather has been outstanding.  On Tuesday it was a national holiday so David had the day off, and we walked from our apartment to this spot famous for its beautiful ginkgo trees.  It seemed like everyone else had the same idea!  It's almost back to pre-Covid crowds, and that's with no tourists allowed into the country. 

This is a "Yaki-imo" truck - selling sweet potatoes.  Oh, the heavenly smell and such a sign of autumn.

Meanwhile we put up our little tree and this year decided to move my sewing table over,  in order to put the tree in the window.  We had noticed walking home the other day that the folks living right above us on floor 6,  put a tree in their window so we thought it would be fun to put ours in the window right below theirs.  

I guess the benefits of living in such a small place is that the tree is right there all the time to enjoy.... while preparing little appliqué circles for example ;).

xo

Cynthia 

Flower Power 6, and outings

Another little collage: 

I started with this little piece of vintage indigo.  It's impossible to see on the photo, but it has stitching on it.  I have no idea - maybe this was part of a mend to a futon cover.  In any case, it is beautiful old indigo and kasuri and it just looked like a good little flower vase to me.  I ended up turning it on end and then back again. 

Just playing around with shapes and layout: 

A little flannel board is nice.  The blue check is from one of Tommy's old shirts:  

Please visit Wendy's blog The Constant Quilter to see more minis!  Thank you Wendy! 

In other news, I've finished one week out of quarantine and I made it count!  I had something to do each day, whether it was a trip to the post office, or an outing.  

I went solo to an amazing exhibit of Hokusai sketches just ten minutes from our apartment, at Midtown: 

Even the carpeting was covered in his drawings: 

And I was invited to an English Flower Garden in Yokohama.  It was really small and just lovely.  We could stroll the whole thing in 30 minutes.  Got eaten by mosquitos and it felt like 100 degrees out, so, any longer would have been too long anyway!   There were five people, total, in the garden, from what I could tell.  

These glass "furin" (Japanese wind chimes) were just magical.  They sounded so pretty in the breeze, off and on: 

The gentle swaying of a Weeping Willow: 

I loved the various benches (I'm sure pre-Covid, they would have been occupied):  

Even vaccinated, I'm still being careful (no large group events and I'm not keen on a lot of indoor time outside the apartment) but it was very nice to have an outing with (vaccinated) friends and see something quiet and beautiful.  The world just seems to be blowing up on so many fronts.  It's hard to not be consumed with anxiety about it all.  

On a lighter note, earlier in the week I enjoyed some  kakigori  with another friend.  Kakigori is an old-timey dessert of shaved ice.  Lots of delicious options on a "feels like 100 degrees" day.  Mango and milk for me. 

 

Notice the Dixie-sized cup of water, next to the giant mountain of shaved ice, lol.  

The ice collapses down as you eat it, into a slushy sweet mess.  Yum.  

xo

Cynthia