April 1, 2022 by princesshotflash

Patches and Stitching

I love Hawaiian-style patchwork blankets. This blanket style is made up of many different prints and is lightweight for the weather in Hawaii. My Grandma Kiyo (my dad’s mom) sewed many of these blankets. We only have a few of these blankets left as time has taken its toll on them. They are well-loved.

Grandma Kiyo’s blanket was a masterwork of patterns. She used many patterns within the blanket. I assume most of the fabric used on the blanket was scraps or old clothing. Most of her blankets had a red backing with a self-binding.

My Grandma Kiyo’s blanket needs repair of all the fraying from being older than me.

At the Kuakini thrift shop where I volunteer, we have started to sell these Hawaiian-style blankets. The blankets were made by the hospital craft group. They would make craft items for use in the hospital and for sale at their rummage sale. This rummage sale turned into a Kuakini thrift shop, and now we are selling some of the blanket inventory. All of the fabric is donated and created by this craft group.

Here are a few shots of the blankets that I liked. Many of them are full of prints; they are just so fun.

These are from the latest batch of the quilt in the shop. They were full of prints, lots of them vintage from the 60s.

I finally finished my stitching sampler on a pillowcase I made a long while ago. Oh well, I think I decided to put my needle down. I added fabric patches to where there were holes and added the stiches to blend the patches into the pillow. I’m enjoying the stitching, it gets me out of my head and it’s quite meditative.

Looks a little crazy, but I was trying out the stitches.

And now . . . my aloha shirt blanket. I finally finished it. I learned a lot. I know there needs to be bit more planning for my next quilt. As you can see, I have a lot of inspiration. I most definitely will be doing some hand stitching.

I figured out how to hide the know midway through working on the blanket. Next time, hopefully they will be hidden.

January 24, 2022January 24, 2022 by princesshotflash

Quietly Stitching

The holidays were a cold (in Hawaii temps) and wet one. I made use of being inside by hand stitching projects that were waiting for their patiently.

This current wave of hand stitching was brought on by the book covers I stitched in my post; I forgot to add a cover. I started stitching more patches with the same fabric as the book covers and added more stitching. But now I’m stuck about what to do next and what I should become.

**I feel like it needs some kind of separation between the patches**

I decided to let the patches sit while I figured out what it needed. I picked up my aloha shirt patchwork quilt. I needed to finish the rest of the interior stitching (diagonal lines) then work on the border. The half triangles are machine stitched with interior quilting and border handstitched.

**I reworked some of the stitching to be more consistent overall.**

The quilt looked a bit empty; it needed more than the diagonal lines. I decided to add some stitching around the white flowers on the green triangles. Slightly smaller stitching than the diagonal lines makes it stand out a bit. More in the style of the book covers.

Working in tandem with the patchwork quilt, I picked up an ancient project sitting in my project pile, a Hawaiian quilt kit I started. I don’t even know when or where I got it or created it.

I did a really crap job attaching the applique. My Quilting Yoda would not have been happy. I restitched the applique, adding many more stitches to lay flat. Some of the corners were pretty awful; the turn-over edges were coming apart. The stitching was close enough. Ugh!! But the more I worked on it, I got into a rhythm, and my stitches were more consistent. So satisfying. I like it now.

**I’m quilting around the applique now.**

All the while, as I hand stitch, I’ve been binging Silent Witness on Prime Video. It’s like a CSI, UK version, focusing more on the pathologist up to the season 16 when they combined department with forensic. It has 24 seasons, more than enough to keep me company while I stitched away.

**I finished this while I was writing this post. I’m so proud of it.**

Oh, by the way, I finished the my Hawaiian Quilt Patch. What began as forgotten project, turned out looking better than I expected. I’ve decided to turn it into a pillow. Now I need to find the perfect backing for it. I’m hoping I have it in my stash.

December 21, 2021 by princesshotflash

I forgot to add a cover . . .

Back in August, I posted about my staycation with my girlfriends, and I had everyone send me their photos, and I would put together a book for everyone. I forgot to add a cover in my excitement to submit the book.

**Ugh! I’m so sad. The interior turned out so fun.**

I had 11 coverless books and was not sure what to do. Many ideas ran through my head, and none of them sounded like a solution. And I decided to put it away till something came to me. Fast forward four months, and I have an idea. I would make patchwork covers that could be slipped on. I got the idea because I was getting together with the girls the coming Sunday, two days away! Yes, I procrastinated. I feel like I’m still in high school.

The Prototype

I wanted to make the cover colorful and fun, like the interior. I thought a vintage flower print and purple Hawaiian print would make a great combination. The vintage print was large triangular scraps. That drove the layout of the fabric. I needed to make sure I had enough for all the covers, and I was trying to keep them similar to keep the production time done.

**Left: laying out the fabric; Right: the plan**

Once the covers were cut, I decided to sashiko stitch (Japanese embroidery) to attach the two fabrics only on the pink fabric. I came up with a pattern to do two rows of stitching around the pink shapes. I decided the front cover would slip into the book cover pockets. I made pockets for both spine and the right edge of the cover. I initially wanted to glue the covers to the book, but I didn’t know how the paper would react to the glue, and I had no time to test. I stitched the sides of the pocket with kind of a wrapping stitch (not sure what it is really called) that I’ve seen on Instagram.

**Left: sashiko style stitching. Middle: wrapping stitch edge of pockets**. **Right: backside of the cover, showing spine’s pocket.**

Well, I didn’t make my deadline of having it done by our brunch. I had two done for the girls who live in town, and the rest would get it delivered. But we ended up spending the afternoon on my girlfriend’s patio talking, and I was able to make up six more.

**The last three are done and out for hand delivery today.**

I enjoyed the hand stitching patchwork part of this project and have started another stitching project with leftover scraps. I will post when I’m done with what I made.

May 20, 2021 by princesshotflash

A project from my queue

I started this a while ago, sometime during the pandemic. It’s this pillowcase I made with vintage Japanese fabric a long time back. It has begun to fray. I took off with the intent to patch the fraying pieces with some new material. Then I happened upon several articles and videos on boro.

Boro in Japanese means ragged or tattered. I grew up with the term boro-boro when you wore clothing that was falling apart. Boro is a style of patchwork using old cloth and sashiko (running stitch). Here’s a link to an article I found on boro. That goes into more detail. I love that some of these boro pieces are generational and turn into something new again. The graphical quality and direction that the stitches add to the patches are what I like about boro.

I decide to use this pillowcase as a sampler of different stitches and applique to find something I like. Maybe come up with my style. I also wanted to test out if I like hand-stitching.

I started off doing the basic running stitch, learning how to get my length consistent and find a size I like. I purchase sashiko thread and needles (sidebar: I’m a sucker great packaging and the packaging on these needle are great)from Amazon. I got the traditional off-white color. I do have a bunch of different embroidery threads that I could use also.

This is where I started. Working it as a sampler to teach me about boro and sashiko.

I stopped and hung it on the wall for a long while as I worked on my many other project sitting in my queue. I think I got tried of stitching and not sure where I was going. Then just this week I picked it up wanting to start stitching again. I think I’m seeing it more than a sampler. I might have to make a new pillowcase.