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   

New grand daughter on the way! And I finished patching Two's nine-patch

 

First our big news is that our oldest daughter Noelle, who lives not too far from us here in NC, is due with a baby girl in December!  We are all so thrilled.  I can hardly believe it - this will make four grand daughters!  And this little one will be local to us, not far away, in Raleigh.  Noelle and Keenan are all smiles (pictured here with my niece Megan).  

 

Meanwhile I have finished patching up my great-grandma's nine-patch.  

I cuddled with it for a day, and then took it back to my sister-in-law Janette.  She's pleased with it. 

My first step was adding a single-fold binding over the old shattered one. 

And now I'm thinking about making my own soft nine-patch, sort of replicating this one.  Just one more quilt in my mind, happily occupying my thoughts;). 

xo

Cynthia 

Mending my great-grandmother's nine patch quilt

 Hello!  It is blazing hot outside these days, normal for North Carolina this time of year.  This means plenty of indoor time, lol. 

I am in the process of doing some mending on this old well-loved nine patch, made by my great-grandmother Una Fisher (we called her "Two").  

Una pieced it and her sister Fannie Fisher quilted it, in West Virginia, sometime in the 1960's I think.  It was passed to my Grandma Mary Lou, and then to my Mom, who may or may not have used it as a beach blanket (!) for many years, and then at some point it passed to my sister-in-law Janette.

First step, binding. 

I'm doing single-fold, right over the old binding. 

Whereever this light purple shows up, it is shattered.  So, I'm appliqueing some nine-patches onto a few of the original blocks: 

I marked the worst places with pins, and I will just do one patch at a time: 

It is such a pleasure to spend some good time with this quilt!  I love geneology and pondering about my ancestors, and so this is just that sweet intersection of quilting and family history. 

x

Cynthia 

Twin baby nine-patch quilts finished!

Hurray, I finished the simple nine-patch quilts for Kaela's twin baby girls, due late August.   

Baby A's Nine Patch: 

And, Baby B's Nine Patch: 

I see that the creamy white (Kona Snow) I used as background and alternate blocks, is really too creamy for the cooler white of the borders (especially with Baby B's quilt).   

It's not really so noticeable indoors.  

Simple and spare machine quilting (this time with cotton thread instead of my usual monofilament in the needle): 

I am just all smiles these days, contemplating the happy busy time ahead as they move to North Carolina with babies soon on the way. 

Narrow single-fold binding: 

The quilts washed up so well.  I love the moment of taking a new quilt out of the dryer.   

So happy with the borders/backings:

In other news, it is starting to get hot here in N.C. and I hardly notice, because I'm happy to be inside with the air conditioning going.   

Today as I did housework I finished listening to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn  by Betty Smith, on Audible.  The narration by Kate Burton was absolutely brilliant and if it's been awhile since you've read this classic, I highly recommend it as a listen!   

xo

Cynthia 

David's last week in Tokyo, and May already!

David is finally with me in North Carolina and it is wonderful to have him home-home.  He snapped this photo from our nearly empty apartment on his last day "camping out" there.  I admit it makes me wistful! 

Sayonara to this apartment which will always hold memories of almost two years of Covid times.   Before those quiet two years, a wonderful year filled with many visits from family and friends. 

Neighbors took almost all our furniture and leftover household goods, which was a big help to David because rehoming things and discarding things is a challenge in Japan.  

Then the movers made quick and quiet work of packing up our things.  We are bringing back the TV, David's favorite chair, and lots of dishes and books that we accumulated over three years.  Plus, all my sewing stuff of course and probably a lifetime supply of indigo.   

We have four large boxes coming by air, to arrive in a few weeks.  And 50+ more boxes (what?!) will be shipped by sea, to arrive who knows when, could be months?  

David's last Saturday in Japan was spent fly fishing with a friend and his young son, near Mt. Fuji. 

Colorful carp streamers in the park, to anticipate Children's Day on May 5th: 

He had a great last week but he was ready to leave.  His job is shifting somewhat as he transitions back to the American arm of his company.  What a blessing that he can work from home.  This is what allows us to live near family.   He is all set up in his home office on the first floor of our rental, and I'm in nine-patch mode upstairs in the sewing room on the third floor.  We meet in the middle (second floor kitchen and living room) for meals, lol.   

I finished Baby A's top yesterday: 

Working on Baby B's top.  I like assembling a quilt in chunks, not rows.   (Baby A and Baby B refer to Kaela's twins, due in August;).  

Having David home means we are sort of back to our routine of watching some TV after dinner.  We are really enjoying the show Julia on HBOMax.  Delightful, highly recommend it.   Also my favorite show, This is Us, which is in its final season.  

TV time in the evening means I'm back to appliqué.  Slowly making progress on this free BOM from Sentimental Stitches.  The quilt is called Poppy's Polka Dot Garden .  I had kept up with it in Japan but with the move, I fell way behind.  

Today I need to pack for our trip to Colorado and Utah.  A quick trip to see family including my step mother, David's folks, and our son Tommy!  Much as I dread travel, it will be wonderful to see folks we haven't seen in so long. 

xo

Cynthia 

9-patch with indigo top, and lost in translation

 When you take photos throughout your week, are you thinking of your blog?  Or, when you sit down to write a post, do you just reference whatever photos you happen to have taken.  I do the latter.   This week there isn't much but here we go. 

By request I need to make some more masks to take to my kids, and in typical procrastination mode, I assembled this "leader/ender" top instead: 

I made the nine patches, and then double nine patches, while I was making David's log cabin.  I think it might be the very first time I'd deliberately had a leader/ender project.  

I've also been distracted because our college age son Tommy tested positive for COVID.  He's just finished his quarantine and is feeling OK, maybe a little tired.  He got a call from a contact tracer, can feel good about (hopefully) not infecting anyone.  Not certain how he got it.  Glad his symptoms were so mild.  Wish I wasn't so far away!  

In other news, as I mentioned last time, Japan is finally allowing permanent residents and visa holders to return to Japan.  Woo hoo!  This means I can finally go visit baby Charlotte in Austin. I'm not going to do any other travel whatsoever, sadly, but I really think that's best under the circumstances.  

Yes I am quite nervous about travel, especially for the trip back into Japan, but, will think more about that next month.   I think I'm just dealing with rising anxiety over so much.  Which leads me to plead - VOTE!  "When women vote, we win." 

David and I prepared our absentee ballots which I can mail from Texas (alternately the embassy here would mail them for us).  As overseas voters, we vote in the last place we'd registered to vote, so that's New Hampshire.  

A sort-of funny "lost in translation" story.  Every now and then we get something official looking in the mail.  David told me it was an electrical inspection and in my mind I mixed that up with the fire detector inspection, or I thought it was all the same inspection.  When the inspector arrived, I had JUST heated up a skillet on the stove to make pancakes and the skillet was piping hot.  There is a smoke detector right there on the ceiling, so, from the entryway, I motioned him into the kitchen and in my rudimentary Japanese pointed to the pan and said "hot!" and "please be careful!" and "so sorry!".  Those were the only relevant words and phrases I could think of in Japanese.  He just sort of looked at me politely but blankly, and asked me where the electrical breaker box was.  That's in the bathroom.  He spent about 30 seconds inspecting the breaker box and then gave me a piece of paper, and left.  Ha ha ha.  

I have to admit I laughed out loud just wondering what he possibly thought of the American woman randomly warning him about the hot pan on the stove, which was nowhere near the breaker box in the bathroom.  

Lastly, thank you to those of you who commented last time to share your recommendations for hand quilting!  I really do love the Mettler, but I've used Gutterman before and could go back to that, and I ordered some Aurifil to try as well.  

If you are being affected by the wildfires, my heart goes out to you! 

xo

Cynthia