tiny happy

Kia ora. How are you? I'm sending some hexagon-shaped hearts to you today, wherever you are.

A couple of weekends ago I finished a long-term project: my hand-stitched hexagon quilt. I've documented this piece of work here from time to time, so it might look familiar if you've been visiting here for a while. After two and a half years in the making, I sewed the last stitches of the binding, took a few quick photos before it got too dark, and threw it over our bed! It's a great feeling to finally sleep under it, and I love it.

To sew the patches I used the English Paper Piecing method and completely recycled or scrap cotton fabrics. Some of these were cut from pillowcases and old duvet covers but most were cotton clothing that had worn out in places, such as shirts and blouses. A few pieces were leftover scraps from other projects.

I did purchase some new fabric for the borders of the quilt, because I didn't have anything quite big enough. I also wanted to be sure the the border fabric would be strong and long-lasting. I bought a couple of metres of pale grey linen for that job, and hand-appliqued the finished hexagon edges to the border all the way around. I used a lightweight cotton/wool blend batting for the inside layer.

For the backing fabric, I sewed together some of my most previous and long-hoarded fabric pieces together. The piece with tiny coral flowers on a cream background is actually a fine wool fabric that I bought from Cloth House in London the last time I was there – 10 years ago! It's so good to have all my favourite fabrics gathered together in one finished piece. To quilt, I just hand-stitched some horizontal lines at various intervals.

For the quilt binding, I used one of Tom's favourite work shirts that had mostly worn out and found that I was able to make nearly enough binding for the whole quilt by sewing carefully-cut strips together. I used some leftover border fabric o make up the required length of binding.

One concern I had about this project was the longevity of the quilt top, considering it's constructed entirely from pre-used and washed fabrics. I am worried that they could tear or wear out over time. I could probably replace any damaged hexagons easily enough, though. And the softness of the finished quilt makes up for it!

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The sunset photo was taken at 5pm the other day, shortly after meeting some friends for an evening drink. Isn't the sky at Lyall Bay a beauty? What you can't see in my photo is what seemed like 100 surfers bravely waiting in the water for the perfect wave. 

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I'm sure I'm the last person in the world to come around to making bliss balls. There's probably nothing new about this quick improvised recipe I came up with yesterday, but they're quite delicious and very easy to make, so I thought I'd share my method here:

Quick energy balls

1 heaped cup dates
1/2 cup dried coconut
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa
pinch of sea salt

Soak the dates in boiling water for about 20 minutes. Then remove them from the water and place in a food processor with the other ingredients. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
Roll into small balls, roll again in desiccated coconut and refrigerate until firm. 

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What are you reading or watching at the moment? I haven't watched anything for a few weeks, but have just started re-reading Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and have also downloaded Angela Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) to read this week. (You can find a copy here). I need to keep reading and thinking about oppression. Even though it's hard.

It's been wonderful to see so many book lists (such as this one) being shared during this time, which feels a bit hopeful, and like some real change might be coming soon. I hope so.

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