Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly celebration of hand stitching! Why not join us as we make time to enjoy the benefits of relaxation with our favourite projects?

Recently I have been obsessed with the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery year long SAL called Arctic Animals. I am stitching this on the recommended 28 count Cashel linen called "Nocturne" by Picture This Plus. I was happily stitching the top of the design and working along the top on the Aurora Borealis, but made a mistake which resulted in part of the design being a half stitch off! Can you see where the circle is showing my mistake?

So I abandoned the top (while I think of a solution) and went to the bottom of the design to start a new animal pattern released this week - a Narwhal! 💖

I became  obsessed - started stitching him on Friday and finished on Saturday! I have 3 more animals to stitch on this - an arctic hare, a polar bear and a harp seal. 

Does this happen to you? You become so engrossed in a project that you forget all the other things you wanted to do and can only think of finishing some stitching? I wish I would become obsessed with finishing some things, but that doesn't seem to happen! LOL

It has been too cold and snowy here to do anything but stitching! This is a picture of my car before heading to work one morning this week. First you have to start the car and get it warmed up, then you have to clean the snow off the car, and then you hope the snow plow hasn't come by in the night and dumped all the snow from the road into your driveway!! If that happened, you have to shovel the end of the driveway to get onto the street. And by then if you're not too tired, you go to work!

What are you stitching this week? Are you obsessed with a project that you are really enjoying? Link up your blog post below and share your hand stitching with us!

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Slow Sunday Stitching - 5 Finishes

Welcome stitchy friends! We are so happy to see what your hands are creating and to encourage you in your creative journey!

I was very happy to finish 5 cross stitches this year and show them on my new flosstube video. None of them are fully finished and my ideas are still  percolating to figure out what these stitcheries should become. You can see them on the video link below.

One of my most enjoyable hand stitching tasks this past week was attaching the beads to the Vintage Angel. These are the supplies I used, including my favourite NYMO thread. It was so fun to dig around in the bead box and find just the right colours and sizes of beads to add. Then I had to search for a needle with a small enough eye that it could fit through the beads I had chosen!

I don't know if you can see the NYMO thread here in this photo? The goal is for the thread to be strong enough to hold the beads on forever, but also invisible on the finished piece. Oh she looks so pretty and I wish you could see her sparkly beads, but I just couldn't capture it with my camera.

Here are 4 of the finishes that I show in the video. 

And now it's time to start Valentine's stitching! First up is a wonderful design called the Red Heart Mini Sampler by Pinker 'n Punkin, and I can't wait to pull out my red and pink flosses! 💖💖

Are you stitching for Valentine's Day? Link up your blog post below and share the projects you are stitching on this week!

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching link up! We celebrate all types of hand work and enjoy seeing what is being created by hands around the world. Where I live in Ontario, Canada we are in the middle of winter and we have survived a cold and dark January. But we did see the sun yesterday and I am looking forward to hearing what the groundhog will predict for the weather in the next 2 months - an early spring, or 6 more weeks of winter?!

I have worked on 2 cross stitch pieces this week.

The first one is the Arctic Animals SAL with Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I am already a couple of steps behind, but keep working away - slow and steady wins the race! The iceberg with all that white stitching was tough, but I am loving the Aurora Borealis at the top!

And the second project is my Vintage Angel. I have enjoyed stitching her and am almost finished her skirt. The only other thing to stitch will be her shoes and she will be done!

What are you hand stitching today? We hope you will link up your instagram or blog post today and share your projects with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! It's hard to believe it's already the last link up for January, but the sooner the winter passes, the better! Thank you for your kind messages last week about the loss of my Dad. I really appreciate your thoughts and condolences.

I have been doing a bit of stitching here and there, but can't seem to focus on anything for too long at this time. Yesterday I tried my "4 thread day" idea and it has really taken hold. It's fun to pick 4 projects at random and just put in 1 thread. 

Benefits:

*It keeps the energy going for long term projects that are bogged down with "this is taking forever" negative energy. Of course it's taking forever, it's a hand stitched project!

*Putting in 1 thread alleviates the guilt that comes with not working on a project you have loved. You can feel good about making a bit of progress with each thread.

*You don't have to solve any problems. Just pick an area that you know you can put a thread in, and then put the project away. Often times I find that my brain is working away quietly in the background solving a project's problem while I put in some stitches.

*It is a great feeling of accomplishment ("a stitcher's high") when you have touched 4 projects! I feel like a stitching star who deserves applause when I've made all that progress! LOL

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I also have made a lot of progress on my Vintage Angel. This is a Tiny Modernist pattern that I purchased at Jingle Ball in December and started stitching on New Year's Eve. Today I hope to finish the second wing and start her gown. This design does not call for beads, but I'm starting to think she definitely will need some added.

What are you hand stitching today? Please share your progress with us and link up your blog below!

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello slow stitchers!

I'm so sorry to not have a blog post today. My Dad died suddenly yesterday so I am in a bit of a grief fog.  I will post the link up party below and then will be off the computer for a bit while we make arrangements. And I will use my stitching to keep myself together...one stitch at a time.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly link up celebrating the art of hand stitching! We are interested in anything you are stitching with your very own hands including knitting, tatting, applique, hand piecing, rug making, english paper piecing, quilting, embroidery, cross stitch, and beading. 

This past week I have had tunnel vision on my 2025 Blessings Sampler start. I heard that starting a blessing sampler at the beginning of the year will bring blessings to your needle/stitching and/or to your home/family. I don't know if this folklore is true, but I fully embraced it and started stitching my sampler on New Year's Eve.

The pattern is designed by Chris on Etsy (and on Youtube) at "The Camping Stitcher". I loved working on this and finished the stitching in 11 days from start to finish. (This is actually her 2024 pattern, and she also has a new 2025 design if you are interested.)

I dug through my fabric stash and have picked out a backing and a binding to make this into a little wallhanging. I just need to buy some kind of stabilizer so I can complete it.

One of the things I thought about while stitching this sampler is what I would like to hand stitch in 2025. I have made a little list which I may or may not follow and I will share 3 of them here:

1) Do more finishing! I have so many UFO's waiting either for finishing or problem solving to more toward a finish.

2) Toward that same end - no more online purchasing!

The mess at the Canadian postal service has resulted in too much stress and wasted money for me. I have 5 outstanding deliveries (since November) that have not yet appeared.

So maybe that is a good decision to stop any further impulse buying? The order that I am saddest about is not getting a 2025 Book of Days. I ordered it from 2 different companies just in case and they have both disappeared. All of the orders are apparently "in transit" and one even says it was delivered... which it was not. 

3) Finish my "Life is Beautiful" quilt. All of the embroidery and hand quilting is done, and the blocks just need to be sewn together in quilt-as-you-go fashion, which I enjoy to do. I have brought the box out of storage and will "set myself up for success" by getting everything ready for when stitching moments happen.

Do you have any hand stitching goals for 2025? Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Slow Sunday Stitching 2025

Welcome to the first hand stitching party of 2025! I'm so happy to see you here!  This is one of the few parties you can enjoy in the comfort of your own home, wearing your pyjamas, drinking tea or coffee, eating snacks you like and stitching on your favourite projects - perfection!

I'm so happy to be your host after all these years! Thank you for coming back, for reading my posts, for linking up your posts, and most especially... thank you for all the words of encouragement that you leave for all the slow stitchers! Because stitching is mostly a solitary activity, we do enjoy connecting with others who share our wonderful hobby!

I made a New Year's Eve video to share my plans for a 12 x 12 day, which means you pick 12 projects and stitch each of them for only 1 hour. You can watch that video here. And if you want to see the results of the day, you can watch the progress video here.

Also, here is my last big finish in 2024 which was the Nordic Christmas Countdown project from Evertote, Modern Folk Embroidery and Roxy Floss. 

I was obsessed with this advent box in December and stitched on this project every day. 

It used 25 different floss colours and contains so many different motifs. The birds and the reindeer are my favourites, but I loved stitching it all! Total number of stitches = 5,465!

For yesterday afternoon's sewing I tried something new - a "4 thread day". My idea was to stitch one thread on 4 different projects. Does that sound like a good idea or a bad one? Maybe it's a little too frenetic for some people, but it did give me a chance to work on 4 completely different stitches. I stitched one thread of red, one of white, one blue, and one purple! 

What are your hand stitching today? Are you working on old projects or new ones? Do you have any new starts for 2025? I love the feeling of a new start and did have a couple on New Year's Eve. Please link up your blog post below and share with us what you are up to in your stitching room!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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