Unraveled Wednesday | Handsewing in February

A big thanks to Kat for hosting a wily group of Unravelers every Wednesday. Today I’m showing my current handsewing piece (which DOES involve unraveling!) as well as a book I started last night.

HANDSEWING THIS WEEK:

One of my 2022 goals is to work on my Mandolin quilt more consistently. I started this in 2018 and there was a hashtag – #mandolinmonday – that I was following on Instagram. I’ve decided to carry that through to 2022 and have been thinking of Mondays as my handsewing evening. That means: progress! Slow, slow progress, but that’s not new around here.

This is where I am with my sixth Mandolin block. I still need to stitch on the final round but I’ve included those shapes in this picture so you can see what it will look like. This is my favorite one yet (I think I say that about all of them.)

I’ve done quite a bit of unraveling with this block. I’ve picked out pieces and resewn to make them a bit straighter. And this week I wasn’t paying attention to where the seam allowance tails were and stitched one so that it was visible on the right side – oops! My seam ripper has gotten a lot of work with this block and that’s okay. It won’t make a huge difference in the long run and I’ll be a lot happier with the quilt if I fix little mistakes as I go.

Here are the other five blocks I’ve completed (unpressed!). Just a reminder: I’m aiming to sew this entire quilt in Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics (my current favorite US source is DuckaDilly). I can’t even. Not only does the fabric feel fabulous, but I’m of the opinion that no one does florals like Liberty. And I love mixing and matching florals all day long! I’m doing the outer ring in darker shades because the joiner blocks are going to be light colors, so the main blocks will really pop next to them.

READING THIS WEEK:

With the Olympics last week, illnesses running through the house, and Matthew’s vacation this week, I haven’t focused on reading much since we last met. But my hold for Matrix by Lauren Groff finally came in and I wanted to listen to it before it expired. I began it last night while cleaning the floors and folding the mountain of laundry that accumulated over the weekend while I was the sickest.

I am loving it. In this story, Marie is an illegitimate royal child. To ensure that she’s no threat to the throne, the queen sends her to be a prioress at a failing monastery. I love nuns and hearing about their grueling daily schedule, full of prayer and hard work. And because it’s set during medieval or early Renaissance times, life is hard and this abbey is full of characters. I’m less than 2 hours into the story and there’s a lot left to uncover, but I cannot wait to slip my earbuds in tonight and hear more of this story while cleaning and stitching.

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Short and sweet today! I hope to be back on Friday with an update on our week and I’m looking forward to catching up with all of you this week. Please stay safe and cozy!