Design Wall Monday

Look at me posting a design wall photo 2 weeks in a row! Life has slowed down a bit and I am able to get to my sewing machine sometimes. And the Laundry Basket mystery has piqued my interest, so I am sewing along with Edyta Sitar.

We are on step #3 this week, and I did my flying geese blocks in 6 different blue fabrics just for fun. Here are all the centre blocks on my design wall. 

I sewed the geese blocks into sets of 2 instead of 3 so that I could get the seams going the way I wanted. Then I decided to go ahead and sew the centre rows together.

This is how it looks now. Rows 6 to 10 are sewn together and the seams pressed in opposite directions. I pin a little note to each row (on the right hand side) and indicate which direction the seams are pressed on that row. We have made 4 other square in a square blocks that are in the outside corner areas, so they are set aside on the bottom right corner and also labelled with a paper tag.

I know where the blocks for each step go because Edyta shows us a block layout at each step. I hope I don't regret my decision to jump ahead and start sewing rows! 

I made the Laundry Basket 2021 mystery quilt completely from scraps and loved how it turned out, so I am semi confident that it is going to be a good decision to sew the rows as we go along. It will make the quilt construction easier at the end if all goes well. Fingers crossed!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the mid September hand stitching party! Today we are relaxing with our colourful threads and yarns, and adding stitches to the beautiful creations we are bringing into to the world!

I am very excited to be close to finishing 2 quilts! You know how it feels when you're putting the final stitches in something you have worked on for a long time? 

Yesterday I was visiting my sister at her cottage and did a lot of binding while watching the Blue Jays baseball game. It is challenging to stitch a black binding, onto a black Fireside backing, using black thread. But it went well and I am almost to the last side.

I also finished a block on the Spooky Night mystery cross stitch SAL by Tiny Modernist. I am way behind, but hope to stitch at least one block per week until Halloween. This week was a pumpkin, and it still needs some back stitching to bring it to life.

What are you hand stitching this week? Are you starting any Halloween or fall projects?

Link up your blog post below and share our progress with us.

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! It's time to slow down and find one of your projects to put some stitches into.

I'll be adding a few stitches to my full coverage project today, which is a Heaven and Earth Design pattern called Mini Treasure Hunt Bookshelf. I love getting lost in the threads and stitching on this project. There is a lot of confetti stitching, which means one stitch here and another stitch far away. But I'll keep at it and I because I enjoy the process so much, even confetti stitching doesn't deter me!

I made a video to show the projects I worked on in August - you can see the update here.

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you have some progress to share on your projects. You can link up your blogpost below.

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Design Wall Monday

How shocking to be writing a design wall blog post! It has been a while since I have done that - maybe about a year?! 

My design wall had been covered by pieces of a quilt that my dear friend Diane started before she passed away, and I just couldn't get going on it. I guess the timing wasn't right and maybe I had some grieving to do first?

This is how far I got on the project while at retreat. 

Diane had all the background fabrics cut, and there were no more of those in the bag, so it will become as big as those beige squares allow.

I got working on it again this weekend and am close to finishing this lovely scrappy version of Bonnie Hunter's free pattern for Smokey Mountain Stars. I know this pattern as "Stretch Stars".

It's so bright and scrap happy, and has been fun to work on, while I pour over my memories of Diane.

I love that this quilt is something we have worked on together - my scraps mingled with hers, just as our lives and quilting adventures were mingled together over the years. Here we are visiting Ben and Jerry's in Vermont 15 years ago!

I plan to finish this quilt in her honour and donate it to one of the charities that she enthusiastically supported.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the end of August hand stitching party! You are most welcome to join us - gather up your stitching supplies and enjoy some relaxing hand work today.

Here in Canada this is a 3 day weekend which signals the end of the summer. This  cannot come soon enough for me as it has been a very hot summer this year. I celebrated by finishing the stitching on my Anti-Summer Club! I plan to make this into a wallhanging to enjoy every summer and will work on finishing it today.

I also plan to sew some blocks for the Edyta Sitar mystery quilt and work on a quilt binding. 

What are your plans for today? Please share your hand stitching projects with us!

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching celebration! If you enjoy creating hand made projects with needles and threads, you have come to the right place!

This week I have been stitching on my Extraordinary Birds SAL by Lola Crow and I am enjoying it very much. I worked on the peacock which is feat #9 (feat #13 was just posted, so I am behind) and it was very challenging. There was a lot of backstitching which felt like I was doing embroidery, because it was done over a couple of stitches on top of the cross stitches.

Instead of the recommended 2 strands, I used only 1 for the green embroidery because there was so much of it, and it just took over the design. But wow the overall effect is just stunning and totally worth all the time, counting, and effort. I just can't believe I stitched something so complicated!

I am excited to start the next feat/step and it will be the romantic birds with some quite interesting mating rituals! That should be fun!

What are you hand stitching this week? We love to see your projects, so please link up your blog post below.

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello stitcher! Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party where we hope you will get lots of inspiration and encouragement to help you on your stitching journey!

I had been making great progress on the project that I picked for Colorado Cross Stitcher's Summer Camp - the Anti-Summer Club pattern. It has been such a hot summer that this design suited my experience perfectly.

When I messed up stitching the umbrella, I transferred the pattern to Pattern Keeper and all of a sudden realized that I had chosen a project (to finish in August) that has 8,691 stitches! I had no idea looking at the paper chart that it was so intense. And here we are passed the middle of the month, and although I have made a valiant effort with 1,567 stitches done, it's still only 18% of the required stitches.

That realization took all the wind out of my sails for this project! I still like it, but realizing I wouldn't meet the deadline meant that I was going to start a couple of other projects! I know it's crazy, but that's what happened!

So I started a Silver Creek pattern called "The Miracle of You" on Roxy Floss Co.aida using 2 strands of thread.

And then I watched Sarah's Stitchy Spot flosstube video and started a project that she was working on called "Determined Woman" by Sew Be Stitchery.

As I watched the video, I searched for the pattern online, purchased the pdf, picked a scrap of fabric and some threads from my stash, and started stitching this new project before the video was over! What on earth!?!? I was a determined stitcher!

My WIPs are out of control and yet I keep starting new projects! Maybe I can blame it on the hot, hot weather? But I am having so much fun and soaking up the joy of each new start! 

What are you stitching this week? Do you have a case of startitis, or are you meeting your goals and finishing projects?

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