Another quilt finished

Finally it all came together and I could finish this quilt.

I started with the dark blue blocks. I used Susan Briscoe's books as a guide to fill the dark blocks with hitomezaski sashiko patterns (one stich sashiko). In the 4 corners are designs I have made before. All the sashiko is done by hand. It takes a while, but I love sitting down and working by hand.

 

The 2 fabrics in the other blocks are doby cloth I bought from Michelle at Kallisti quilts.

 

A few years ago we went for dinner to the Mandarin Restaurant during Chinese New Year and each of us received a coin. I had saved them and they would give a nice touch to this quilt. But I had 2 problems. First of all I did not have quite enough coins. All it took was one phone call to the restaurant and I was told I could pick up as many coins as I needed.  The next problem was the large square hole in the center of the coin. I could not find the right button to either fill the hole go over the top.

 

When I found out that my friends Elizabeth and Elizabeth (or as I call them the dynamic duo) were going to the show in Houston I asked them to look for something suitable. And they delivered! They found beautiful round, Japanese buttons, large enough and the right color. For the back,they brought back small square pearl shell buttons.

 

By that time I had machine quilted the piece and was ready for the final step. It worked like a charm. I sewed the binding on and it hangs as it should, nice and straight.

This is one more project done.

 

I'm working on some new applique blocks, but it is going slow.

 

We still spend a fair amount of time with my mother-in-law in town. We also have a visitor again. Abner the basset is back for a few days and he is making himself at home. His favorite spot is Laurence 's chair.

One of these days I will have to start thinking about Christmas. Right now it is all white outside and that at least gets us in the mood.

More work in the future

It has been a while, but I have been under the weather for over a week now. At about this time of the year I will get problems with my throat. Some years it is very sore, but I can talk normally; other years I will get laryngitis. And this was a bad year. Needless to say that it has been a very quiet week around here. But we did have some company. Abner, the Basset, spend a few days at our place, He must be the easiest dog to have around. Here he takes a peak into my quilt room through the glass. I'm working on my crazy quilt block and as you can see,  there is stuff all over the place. I just did not want him to get a needle or pin in his paw. And he did not mind, although it is not quite as good as sitting on Laurence's lap, watching t.v.

 

The block is coming along. Right now I'm at the place, where it is not fun anymore. The easiest would be to put it all away, but I know from experience that it will change one of these days and the rest will come along just fine.

I do have some ideas of what to do next, but that will not happen till next year.

Last Sunday I found a small parcel in our mail box at church. In it was a short note , a pattern in Dutch and a few typical Dutch hankies. The pattern was of a small kimono, just up my alley. My friend had received it as a gift, but did not speak Dutch, so could not interpret the instructions, which were not all that good anyway. It will make a nice quick project at some point.

 

The same day Jenny and Tony were here and they came with a parcel from Japan. They had placed an order for me, since I don’t have PayPal, for a sashiko book and some wrapping cloths. I'm planning to make small quilts with these cloths, using selvages and sashiko. And this also will happen some time in the future.

 

Grandma is slowly getting used to her new place. We had to clean out her room in the retirement home as quickly as possible and all those things are in our garage, waiting for me or her to go through.

I hope to have her here for lunch on a regular basis and then she can decide what has to be done to her things.

 

Our harvest has been over for a few weeks now. All Laurence has to do is combine for one more neighbour.Then all the equipment can be washed and put away.