Design Wall Monday

Can you believe I am writing a Monday blog post?

I have been so busy this summer I hardly have had time to blog at all! I have been able to stick to my Sunday routine, but my other fun stitching has not had any blog attention!

I am working on a secret wedding quilt that I want the bride and groom to see first and haven't posted about it yet. It has been on the design wall for way too long while I fret about the math!

And I have started 2 mystery quilts this month - one through the Fat Quarter Shop and one through my local quilt guild.

I ordered the fabric kit for the Fat Quarter Shop mystery and paid for it mid June, but it never arrived. After the mystery started I contacted them and they sent out another package to me, which arrived on July 16th. And wouldn't you know it, the original parcel posted on June 14th magically arrived the next day?!? So I will send the second one back to them since I only paid for one.

So now I am scrambling to catch up with the mystery and they have posted the first 3 parts. I have only finished part 1 which is this pretty block. I have step #2 cut and ready to sew and hope to catch up this week.

And here are some blocks for the guild mystery quilt that I am making from a fabric kit coordinated by the outreach committee at my quilt. There are billions of HST blocks, so I'm trying to catch up with that also.

(The wedding quilt is underneath the mystery quilt blocks! LOL)

Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday party

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We hope you will pick up a needle and some threads, and join us as we relax and make some progress on our hand stitched treasures.

As you all know my favourite hand stitching project is binding a quilt. It's so relaxing, no thought required, it's a portable task, and it's the completion stage of a quilt! I had my super bowl mystery quilt called "Dancing in the Stars" machine quilted by guild friend Roxanne and she did a fabulous job. 

This week I finally got the binding made using some of the leftover pieces of the gold fabrics used to make the star blocks in the quilt. The binding is now attached to the quilt and today I will enjoy finishing the stitching on it. Can you see that pretty 8 pointed star in the quilting design? I think I might love this quilt too much to donate to the guild's comfort quilt collection!

There is also some cross stitch going on here. I have started my project for the "Stitches and Pages" group hosted by Katie the Novel Stitcher. The novel we are reading is "Funny Story" by Emily Henry, and we are choosing our own stitching project to work on that fits with the theme. I have started a design from the "Really Cross Stitch" book by Rayna Fahey. I enjoy so many of the designs in this book that it was hard to choose one. I am almost done stitching the 2nd rat. The next thing to stitch will be the words "Thanks Science". I guess my humour is a little bit sarcastic or maybe "tongue in cheek". 

My second project getting some attention is the Mini Strawberry Sampler by Pinker 'n Punkin quilting. Oh so sweet! I love the varigated red floss (called "Cayenne" by Weeks Dye Works) that I found in my stash for the berries .

So that's what my needles are working on here.

What are your needles making this week? Share you projects with us below!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching link up! 

We are in the middle of summer here, and it has been a comfortably warm summer, with a few really hot days to keep the heat lovers happy, but also enough rain to keep the grass green which makes me happy.

I did get the baby quilt binding done in time for the shower. I loved the flannel backing picturing various dogs... it was so fun to stitch on by these sweet faces!

I had just finished cross stitching my goofy looking walrus from step 2 when the 3rd step was sent out for the Frosted Pumpkin's Arctic Animals SAL. 

I'm now ready to start stitching the caribou and am delighted that I haven't fallen behind in this SAL yet. I'm really looking forward to the puffins arriving and I wonder what step they will be? But the other creatures are welcome too and this has been such a fun project to work on.

What are you hand stitching this week? Are you participating in any stitch alongs? I would like to start the embroidery Christmas in July SAL with Joy this week, so I hope to fit that into my stitching schedule.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the first hand stitching party in July!

Pick up your favourite stitching project and join us today for some fun and relaxation!

I posted a video on my Youtube channel of all the projects I stitched on in the month of June. Life goes by so fast sometimes and I enjoy the process of reviewing the accomplishments of the month. You can see the video below...

To start off the first week of July I finished the binding on this comfort quilt (52" x 60"). It is made from a cacophony of scraps and is very cheerful. I don't know who pieced the quilt or who machine quilted it, but I put on the binding and now it is ready for the community outreach program to distribute.

I also started Melisa's mini strawberry sampler and am enjoying that so much! It is a free pattern to her blog readers - thank you Melisa! Click here to see her version and to get the pattern. I am stitching on the beet juice dyed fabric I made last month and using some fancy floss that I have collected.

This is the quilt I will be working on today. My sister pieced the attic windows quilt top and I have to pin baste, quilt and bind the quilt, and have it finished in time for my niece's baby shower next Saturday. Nothing like leaving things until the last minute!

What are you stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share your slow progress with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Quilting Adventures

It's time for the July Shop Hop in southern Ontario, Canada. There are 13 stores to visit this year and there are great prizes to be won if you get your passport stamped at each of the stores.

Also...at each shop you get a free block pattern and the fabric to make their block. Just look at the effort that went into making this sweet package! I greyed out the colours so I don't ruin the surprise of the theme for this year's project. But wow I am so impressed with this event and have visited 5 shops so far. Great summer fun! 

Of course I am making a few purchases along the way! I bought 2 of these fun kits to make a Canada Day pillow at Ye Olde Fabric Shoppe. A friend has a red Adirondack chair on her porch that needs one of these pillows, so I'll make one for her and one for me! At the end of the month I will share more about this adventure.

One of my favourite things to do on shop hop is to notice all the vintage machines they have on display. Look at this "Peerless" from New White  seen at  Heart 'n Home Creations! The decals are so beautiful! 

Are you going on a shop hop this summer?

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Get out your needles and threads and join us... the more the merrier!

I have enjoy participating in the "Strawberry Moon SAL" on instagram this month and have stitched on 4 different strawberry projects during June. You saw my Strawberry Jam in last week's blog post, and I wanted to show you that my friend Debby is also stitching this design, but on a much smaller count of fabric. Look at the difference in our projects! Her 'Stitch North' needleminder is the same width as her stitching design!

I also wanted to show you Debby's new floss organization idea. Isn't this so cute? I don't have the patience to organize this kind of thing, but I sure do enjoy looking at it!

Tomorrow is Canada Day here and I plan to celebrate by starting my guild's annual summer mystery quilt because that's the best way (for me) to celebrate! I have all the fabrics cut and ready to start sewing as soon as the clue arrives in my inbox! 

And also in celebration of Canada Day, I stitched a miniature wallhanging. This is a free design by Tiny Modernist  and I used 4 different red DMC flosses to make my version. I added a little maple leaf charm and a 2024 charm. Finished size is 4.5" square.

What are you hand stitching today? Are you making something for Canada Day or for the 4th of July celebrations? Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I haven't written an RSC post for a while and it is long overdue! I have been playing in my scraps and setting the world to rights by organizing little rectangles!

My blocks are inspired by a friend's quilt with one light round, and the other rounds will be medium or dark fabric. I have 6 light rectangles clipped together for each block (2 yellow, 3 light blue/teal and 1 pink). I'm also cutting random scraps in other sizes to use up the small bits.

Here are my first 2 blocks on the design wall today - one with a yellow contrast round, and one with a light blue contrast round. 

Yes! It is working well! I will need 20 blocks for a useable sized quilt and each block uses 32 rectangles, for a grand total of 640 scraps! That should make a big dent in the scrap bin don't you think?!? 

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge