Design Wall Monday

The big reveal of the Quiltville mystery was on Friday and I enjoyed playing with my beautiful blocks on the design wall . 

I put the sashing fabric I had chosen on the bottom right and hated that! Although it has all the colours of the fabrics, it's too much green. I auditioned a couple of other possible sashing fabrics and decided I liked my blocks best being side by side with no sashing (blocks on the bottom left). The diagonal chain that is formed by the purple QST blocks makes me happy.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly link up that celebrates the art of hand stitching! 

Why not get your project out and enjoy some relaxation?  Try not to think about your "to-do" list, or ruminate about your worries. Just take a stitching break and focus on pulling thread through fabric, or knitting stitches with yarn. 

I started yet another hand embroidery project this week. I found a design that I had printed a while ago from Days Filled With Joy blog. It's a free design she shares with folks who subscribe to her newsletter. I started with a little HOPE... who doesn't need some of that in our second winter of covid?!?

And then I moved on to stitch a little health, purpose, and calm.

Ahhhh... that feels a bit better now! 

For some unknown reason I am tracing only a couple of words at a time instead of drawing the whole design before I start. I think I might add 'love' or 'peace' as my next word. Thanks to Joy for this embroidery design that is perfect for me today!

What are you hand stitching today? We love to see your projects, so link up your blog or instagram post below and share your progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

We are digging into the red scraps this month over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have an abundance of red scraps and am having so much fun cutting and sewing them. 

For the first time I used the Alphabitties that I got in my Jolly Box. They are great! 

If you like to make complex blocks with many little pieces, you need these! The Alphabitties come in many colours, and I have the red ones, so they are perfect to use with this month's blocks!

The Alphabitties help to keep all the tiny block pieces organized which makes the sewing much easier. Did you notice that the 'F' Alphabitty is the same size as the pieces underneath!?

6" sewing machine

If you would like to try sewing this block, the free pattern is still available from Fat Quarter Shop. I have made the pattern in 3" and 6" sizes and they are so darn cute. This is going to be one of my ongoing 2022 RSC projects.

Next I cut pieces for the Riley Blake block challenge. I skipped right to block 2 and you will notice one small problem with the alphabitties... I am missing 'J' already! They are small, so you have to be careful you don't lose them!

Linking up to the weekly scrap party at the RSC

**Addendum - I was sewing mystery blocks  today and the lost 'J' has been found... woohoo!

Quiltville Mystery

It's Friday once again! It's so fun to have a Quiltville mystery step reveal each Friday and I'll be sad when this is finished. 

I've kept up with each step so far and here are some of my blocks from part 7. Sorry for the dark photo taken at night, but you get the general idea. These blocks were enjoyable to sew and I like how they look on the design wall on their own.

I'm excited to see what Bonnie is posting for us this morning!

Design Wall Monday

One of the mysteries I started on New Year's day is the Merry Mayhem mystery (which has already been removed from the website). I have tried a few  different block layouts to see what I like.

I like this one, but I would like it more with a scrappy version where the pieces are all scrambled.

I know this layout by the name "delectable mountains". It was an okay layout too and I like it better than the one above.

There are so many options with this block... but this one is my favourite. I made enough blocks for a lap quilt, but I want to make it larger, so this week I will make more neutral and navy blocks and add a couple more rows.

It seems like an easy block to sew, but there are so many ways to make it wrong. I made 2 mistakes with this block - a cutting error on the right and a sewing error on the left! 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the international weekly hand stitching party!

Why not get a project out and enjoy some relaxation?  Try not to think about your "to-do" list, or ruminate about your worries. Just take a stitching break and focus on pulling thread through fabric or knitting stitches with yarn. 

This week I traced out a new hand embroidery design and I am excited to start stitching it today.

 

I have long admired this Gail Pan pattern that a few other slow stitchers have made. You can find the free pattern here if you want to make one too.

I would like to make this for myself as a souvenir of trudging through yet another Covid modified lockdown phase (with schools going virtual again) until the end of January - is it the 4th or 5th wave now? I will stay safe at home today as I hand stitch away my worries.

Are you starting 2022 with a new hand stitching project? Or finishing ones from last year? Link up your blog or instagram post below and share your projects with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

Usually by this point in January I have a clear sense of what scrap projects I will be working on for the year ahead. But this year I have not followed the process I usually do and I am more unorganized than usual... and oddly, I am not worried about it at all!

Playing with the scraps!

It seems that all I want to do right now is sew mystery blocks and have fun with scraps! 

So I'm just living in the moment and going with the flow, and maybe sometime I'll get myself more organized for 2022... or maybe not!

I have been drawn back to working on my RSC Bitcoin variation (pattern by Bonnie Hunter). I have done blue, purple and aqua, and some short ladders of orange. This week I sewed my light green strips together that I started back in November, which made 3 1/2  ladders. Then I started cutting and sewing some red ladders for this month's colour. The red ladders look more interesting than the green ones don't you think?!

I don't know what I'll be sewing next week... I'll see where the scraps lead! 

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Party