About an hour after I wrote the Slow Sunday Stitching blog post about stitching as medicine, I fell down some stairs, got a good crack on the back of my head, and injured my back. So now I really need that medicinal sewing, plus a whole lot of other medicines!
I'm going to take a little blogging break, since I won't be able to sew until I can sit.
Hope to be back soon!
Happy Quilting!
It's Sunday... which means it's time to visit with your slow stitching friends around blog land!
I don't have much to share since I've been so busy this week. I was so optimistic last weekend that I prepped a few blocks thinking I'd have them all quilted by today.
But I didn't even finish one of these. I had so many other fun things to do, and now I am exhausted.
I need some slow stitching medicine to help me recuperate. It helps me to feel stitched back together after a difficult day. It helps me to feel grounded and to get back in my body in the present moment.
So that's what I'm doing today. I hope you will join me in making time for some slow stitching and give yourself a big spoon full of medicine!
An InLinkz Link-up
I got a little behind in the Marvellous Mini Monday quiltalong, so had some catch-up sewing to do.
This is the adorable "half square" block with HSTs that finish at half an inch!!
This mini quiltalong is so fun for crazy quilters like me who love to make blocks with tiny pieces. This is the centre of the churn dash block that fits in the palm of my hand.
Then we were to sew scrappy 4" patchwork blocks made of 25 tiny squares.
I thought I was doing well until I put the newly made churn dash block on the design wall with the patchwork blocks and discovered that they were not the right size. Oh no! Perhaps the Best Press spray that I used to flatten the blocks with all those seams resulted in some shrinkage?
Well, I'm not sure what to do about that... maybe try to stretch the 25 patch blocks to fit? I'm definitely not making 5 more!
Maybe I will be able to cut the other blocks a little smaller to make them all equal?
This is a 12 week quiltalong, and this is week #11 so the layout reveal will be coming soon. So glad that I'm caught up and will be ready to put it all together!
In Southern Ontario, Canada some of our quilt stores host a "July Shop Hop". There were 15 stores this year and although it's a lot of driving, it is the only time I get around to visiting some of these shops. It's amazing how each store sells different products and has their own unique personality.
Each store gives you a package with a block pattern and the fabric to make that block. That's right... it's a free event and you get the fabrics and patterns to 15 blocks if you visit all the stores. I only had time in July to visit 10 of the 15 stores.
Each store makes a unique quilt from the shop hop blocks, so you get to see 15 different sampler quilt layouts.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love sampler quilts?!?!
The one drawback about the event (for me) is that they do not want any photos of this event posted on social media, thereby keeping all the projects a mystery for the participants for the month of July. I did ask for permission to take photos so that I could remember layouts and be inspired by the creative quilting ideas. I must admit that I don't really understand the whole "top secret" philosophy! But they do have a huge response to this event and perhaps don't want the increased participation that social media exposure might bring.
I wasn't going to participate this year since both of the previous year's projects are in my UFO closet, but once I saw the finished quilt at Creative Sisters, I was ALL IN! Their shop hop quilt was wonderful and thankfully they recently posted photos on line, so now you can see that quilt (and all the 2017 sampler layouts) at the shop hop photo page here.
At the same time as the July Shop Hop was going on, there was also the popular Row By Row event. I have not yet become enamoured with this concept (thankfully!) but I do get a kick out of the creative fabric license plates at some of the stores.
Do you participate in shop hops or the row by row?
Block #16 for the Clarissa quilt is finished. Because this is a leader-ender project, some blocks are made quickly and others take a while depending on how much piecing I'm doing. This block progressed faster once the machine quilting on the Bear quilt was finished. This block has a darker pinwheel centre, with a light teal and white inner border, followed by a darker outside border. I think the outside border has 4 different brown scraps... plus my favourite plaid.
Here are all the blocks on the design wall.
Yummalicious!
Total number of pieces in this quilt so far = 2,304!!
It is so exciting to have another quiltmaker inspired by the original Clarissa quilt. Cathy who blogs at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting is making these hourglass blocks too - click here to see her blocks.
Linking up to Design Wall Monday over at Small Quilts.
Welcome to the Slow Sunday Stitching party!
This weekly link up celebrates all types of hand stitching including cross stitch, embroidery, hand piecing, knitting, crochet, rug making, english paper piecing, applique, hand quilting, etc. We enjoyed seeing examples of each these activities in the link ups last week.
Last week we had a draw for a little kit to make the Bee' Lieve in Yourself mini quilt. The winner of the link up draw was #22 (of 37) which is Jayne, and the winner of the commenter draw was #28 (of 45) who is Nancy. Send me your snail mail addresses and I'll get these in the mail to you. Thanks to everyone who contributes by linking up, and by taking the time to leave encouraging comments.
This is what I'm working on this week... more Life is Beautiful blocks.
I finished the applique on the last alternate block. I used silk thread which makes lovely stitches that sink into the fabric, but it also frays easily and the needle constantly becomes unthreaded. It's not my favourite thread to use.
After the circle is appliqued, I cut away the foundation fabric behind it. Last year when I started cutting away the circles on these blocks, I wondered if I needed special duck billed scissors for this task. But I persevered carefully using regular scissors, and never once accidentally cut the appliqued fabric on any of 63 blocks. So I saved myself some money in not buying those!
Here is finished alternate block #31, and the piece that is cut away from behind the centre circle. That cutaway piece will eventually be appliqued over the final block joins to cover all my mismatched seams!
And now back to quilting the embroidered blocks...
here are the first 9 quilted blocks on the design wall.
9 done and 23 of these blocks to go. And then there will be the 31 alternate blocks to quilt. I'll be busy with this project for a while!
What are you hand stitching today? Share your progress by linking up your blog post below.
An InLinkz Link-up
Are you making the Sapphire Stars mystery quilt that Kevin is hosting? Step #2 has been posted. For this step we need blue, red and yellow strips. But for my version of the quilt I am using green instead of blue, some old red scraps, and some gold yardage instead of yellow. My version is called "Emerald Stars" because I'm sewing with green scraps.
Just look at this pile of old red scraps. There are leftovers here from Celtic Solstice, BeAttitudes, and Journey of a Quilter. It's time for these pieces to get into a quilt. They've been cut up and sewn together and are happy to be part of my Emerald Stars quilt!
Here are my blocks for step #2 all sewn and pressed. Wow that light green is really bright... kind of like a night light!!
I'm waiting "patiently" for step #3 Kevin!
About an hour after I wrote the Slow Sunday Stitching blog post about stitching as medicine, I fell down some stairs, got a good crack on the back of my head, and injured my back. So now I really need that medicinal sewing, plus a whole lot of other medicines!
Each store gives you a package with a block pattern and the fabric to make that block. That's right... it's a free event and you get the fabrics and patterns to 15 blocks if you visit all the stores. I only had time in July to visit 10 of the 15 stores.
I finished the applique on the last alternate block. I used silk thread which makes lovely stitches that sink into the fabric, but it also frays easily and the needle constantly becomes unthreaded. It's not my favourite thread to use.
