.

[cyrnelle]

Finally finished piecing this quilt top!

[cyrnelle]

I've decided to concentrate on this EPP project and get it done and out of the way. As much as I love tiny hexagons, it takes forever to reach a substantial size.

I started this one years ago, and it has been in the WIP box for ages. I wanted to try something that wasn't hexagons and was quicker to complete, so I chose larger diamonds for this project. It stalled, like so many of my projects in the years gone by.

Compare the diamonds (three inches on each side) with the tiny half-inch hexies.

I've planned out how many stars and hexagons I need to make to get a decent-sized quilt. I can't remember what my original plan was, but it was probably something similar. I want to get all the blocks done before stitching them together.

English paper piecing with 3'' hexagons.

I generate and download my grid paper from this site: https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/. Useful for EPP and journaling!

[cyrnelle]

Yet another old EPP project. I have so many WIPs lying around, it's ridiculous.

English paper piecing with 3'' diamonds.

[cyrnelle]

Books read in January 2026.

[cyrnelle]

Added another section. And I have one page of the hexagon grid in the M5 ring binder filled.

English paper piecing with half-inch hexagons.

[cyrnelle]

And here are all the books I read in 2025. (Also available on The StoryGraph for anyone who wants to scrutinise the list, since my handwriting isn't the most legible.)

I got this notebook a long time ago ... ten years back? Maybe even further back? I couldn't figure out what to use it for, especially after I started using fountain pens, since the paper is not fp-friendly at all. A few years ago I began to use it to list books — what I was currently reading, upcoming book club reads, books I read that year. It's a completely redundant notebook, honestly. Everything I recorded here is already tracked on StoryGraph (and previously on Goodreads), but I like writing things down.

[cyrnelle]

Books read in December 2025.

[cyrnelle]

Yet another EPP project. These are two-inch hexagons. The projects I've been posting here aren't new — not a single one was started this year, even. I have no idea when I started this quilt top, but it's definitely been in that WIP box for years. I just finished sewing the last piece today. I'll have to add a wide border to make it large enough to snuggle under.

These are mostly lightweight garment fabrics. They're slippery and fray easily, even with the paper stabilising them.

[cyrnelle]

Another notebook filled up! Instead of worrying about the many empty notebooks I have, I'm keeping track of the ones I've used.

This one has notes from Qur'an translation/tafseer lessons. This is the Dreamday Pattern Journal; I have all the notebooks in the set.

Fountain pens used: Moonman M2, TWSBI Eco, Platinum Preppy, all of them with fine nibs. The mechanical pencil is a Pentel Sharplet-2 in 0.9 mm. (I make too many mistakes in Arabic to use a pen.)

I don't know the grammage of the paper, but it's thick enough that there's no ghosting when I use my fountain pens. It's rather absorbent, so ink properties like shading and sheen don't show up well on it.

There are patterns inside the book, which I mostly ignore. My handwriting in both the Latin and Arabic scripts isn't the greatest, but it's legible enough with some squinting.

[cyrnelle]

English paper piecing with half-inch hexagons.

[cyrnelle]

Some pages from a recently filled notebook:

It's an A6 Kokuyo Campus notebook. I hesitate to call it a bullet journal — it's more of an excuse to use use my fountain pens and inks and washi tape and stickers than a productivity tool. The paper handles fountain pen inks pretty well; most inks I use in my medium nib TWSBI Eco don't bleed through. (I use the dalek postcard as a pencil board.)

A list of unread ebooks I keep at the back:

I made the cover myself. It's an early prototype; excuse the crooked stitching.

[cyrnelle]

I've read this book before, but I can't remember most of the details. So I was listening to the audiobook and went 'I'm sorry, who?' when Eachamarcach was mentioned, and had to go dig out the paperback. Obviously I had no idea how most of the names were pronounced, but I also had not expected to be that far off.

I don't even remember much of Shakespeare's Macbeth, to be honest. The broad strokes, sure, but not the details. And I read this book mostly because Dorothy Dunnett wrote it, not because I was particularly interested in this period of history, or Macbeth, or Orkney, so most of the politics go over my head even though this is my second time reading it. 

(We're almost 30% in and Groa and Thorfinn are still sniping at each other. I find their interactions hilarious, and I wonder when it is that it turns into the more tender feelings that I remember from my first read.)

King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett, read by David Rintoul

[cyrnelle]

It's not completely improv — I draw overlapping hexagons on a grid and colour them in as I add more pieces to the quilt. There's a bigger sheet I have pinned to a corkboard, but I keep the portion I'm working on in this M5 ring binder.

I also keep notes and reminders and to-do lists in the M5. It's small enough to carry everywhere and I don't care if it gets messy.

[cyrnelle]

Another work in progress. At least this one is machine-pieced — most of the other WIPs are EPP.

Most of the half-hexagons were pieced ages ago, but I used some of them for a smaller quilt for my niece. I had to make more blocks for this quilt. It's pretty quick to assemble: sew two strips together, then cut equilateral triangles to get two sets of hexagons.

[cyrnelle]

Books read in November 2025.

TWSBI Eco (medium nib) inked with KWZ Baltic Memories, in a Kokuyo Campus A6 notebook.

[cyrnelle]

Is it a quilt if it's barely quilted? I sewed a few straight lines to tack down the backing, and that's it. I didn't bother with batting. The blocks don't quite align properly at some corners, but it was my first large project with triangles. Also probably my last. So much ironing and trimming; not my favourite activities.

This is another piece that has been sitting in the WIP box forever! I think that will be the theme for the rest of the year — getting as many WIPs as possible out of the way.

[cyrnelle]

Still working on this! It's taking forever, but it's moving along.

English paper piecing with half-inch hexagons.