Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to all the hand stitchers and to the "wannabees! Whether you are a lurker or a daily stitcher, everyone is welcome to celebrate at the weekly party!

I was a "wannabee" for a long time before I met a quilter who invited me to a quilt guild meeting in 1994. And since then I have been smitten by all the beautiful things that hands can create.

Last weekend I attended the Fergus Quilt Guild quilt bee at the Fergus Highland Games. In August they set up a frame to hand quilt together, and they are gracious enough to let me crash the bee/party.

I love this so much and feel like my best self when I'm around a quilt frame. I soak up the visiting, the stitching tips, the stories of the past, and the hilarity of these lovely stitchers. The women around the frame change over time, but the process and the experience is always the same.

This year the quilt was called "Plaidish" and the blocks were made by the guild members. The design is inspired by Scottish plaids, and the double X was quilted in each block to commemorate the Scottish flag.  

I am fascinated by the design, and have been thinking about starting my own version of this quilt - the free pattern and tutorial can be found here. I didn't stay as long around the frame this year because it was soooo hot and humid, and I started to melt. In fact it was so hot that the quilt markings done on Friday by a frixion pen has disappeared by Saturday morning and the quilt had to be re-marked. Those pen marks can be removed by an iron ...or a hot summer inn Ontario in 2026!

And in a bit of synchronicity today I am hand stitching a plaid skirt on the 4th lady on the Flosstube Friends pattern. I am randomly stitching various colours of threads through the skirt to create a feeling of plaid. I seem to be surrounded by the plaid theme!

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

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Design Wall Monday

I have pulled out a mystery quilt from Scrapdash which was the Super Bowl mystery in 2025 to work on. This is called Ten Speed and it was very tricky to make because there are 2 similar blocks with different orientations, and even now when I return to work on it, I keep making mistakes!

I started piecing this project on my 1952 Featherweight called "Charity" and even though she is 74 years old, she still sews like a champ. 

I have all the block pieces organized and believe I could finish it up quickly since I only have 4 more blocks to sew. Here are some blocks on the design wall. 

The block pattern gives a fun secondary design, but I keep sewing the blocks incorrectly. Can you find the one that needs to be unstitched?!?

It feels good to be working on some of my old projects and I hope to finish this quilt top in August. 

Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the Sunday hand stitching party! Make yourself a nice cold (or hot) beverage, take a deep breath, and get out your hand stitching. We hope you will join us in creating hand made items that bring beauty to our world! 

I often hear people ask "What are you going to do with that?" or  "Who are you making that for?" Earlier in my life I usually had an answer - a reason or occasion that I was starting a project. But now I don't seem to as often, and I usually answer "to make me happy" ( or "sane", depending on the day), or "I am making it for myself", or "I want to create something beautiful". For me, that is enough of a reason.

I stitched this Quirky Quaker Pig this week because Deanne from Stitching on the Rock sent the pattern to me. Does anyone "NEED" this lovely little pig?!? Absolutely not! But it made me so happy to stitch her, and the quaker motifs, and the little heart just makes me smile! 

Some people really don't understand this and look at me like I have lost my mind. Maybe I have?!? But it is the reason why after 40 years of quilting and hand stitched crafts I am still working on more projects. 

Society does not "need" the things I make, and my family certainly doesn't "need" more quilts to stay warm. I do these stitching projects  because I can't seem to stop doing it! Truthfully I don't feel well or "like myself" when I don't stitch something. But when I stitched this little wren I was in my own little happy world, using all the colours of thread, wondering how the bird would turn out, and forgetting about all the sadness, trials, disappointments, violence, conflict and loss that humans have to endure. 

And what about this thing?

This is a 30 day venture to join with the stitching  community and to  learn about a small community in Holland called Frisland. Do I need to learn about the women in Holland in the 1800s?!? No, but I want to learn! This is an August stitch along with Jacob of Modern Folk Embroidery called "Fast Frisian" and every day we have a stitching assignment of about 144 stitches. Jacob makes a video each day of the stitch along and has been sharing antique samplers and the lives of the stitchers who created them. Here I have stitched a spinning wheel, a key, a pot of flowers, a comb, and the base of the tree of life image. 

So there you have it - three of the projects my hands have touched this week. Today I will be at the Fergus Scottish Festival sitting around a  quilting frame and putting stitches into a quilt with quilters I only get to visit once a year! 

What are you hand stitching this week? Are you making something useful, or (like me) are you stitching things for relaxing, fun and to make the world a more beautiful place?!?

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party where we celebrate and enjoy a wide variety of stitching options! It is a hot mid summer weekend here, so I'll be staying indoors by the fan and stitching with a minimum of movements!

Yesterday I started the August Fast Frisian stitch along hosted by Jacob at Modern Folk Embroidery. This is a traditional sampler and we will be stitching about 140 stitches every day this month to finish it by the end of August.  

This is a new colour palette for me to enjoy stitching with, and I look forward to working on this for the month ahead. It's interesting that the colours kind of look Christmasy, but somehow not?!? This was the day 1 stitching in the bottom left corner of the design.

Also yesterday I posted a summary video on my Youtube channel to share the projects I worked on in July. You can view that video here.

It has been a very busy summer here so far and I'm looking forward to a quieter month ahead.

What are you stitching on this week? I hope you will have time to enjoy your hand stitching today!

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A Finished Quilt!

Since the pandemic it has taken me longer and longer to finish a quilt. I just seem to move slower, start more projects, and do more crafts. Have you experienced the same thing or is it just me?

Anyway, I finally  finished this quilt while visiting my sister at her cottage this summer. 

The Princess Charlotte quilt top was finished on Feb. 15, 2021.  This might have been the fastest mystery quilt top I have sewn in all the years of doing Super Bowl mysteries with Kris of Scrapdash. And then it sat in the "to be finished" pile.

This is a close up photo that shows the "lazy quilters way" to make faux mitered corners which I like to do.

The long arm quilting was done by Quilting By Design in New Hamburg. They give you a discount if you are donating your quilt to a charity and this quilt will be going to the community outreach program at  my local quilt guild.

Finished size is 50" x 62".

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the Slow Sunday Stitching party! We are stitching enthusiasts who value the slow process of creating unique projects with our own hands. We want to "smell the roses" and enjoy each day, and each project we spend time with whenever possible

This week however, it was not possible for me!

I finished up my Luhu Stitches bookmark and had this great idea to add an adhesive felt backing and then decided to do some blanket stitches around the outside. That was a big mistake!  Apparently you cannot stitch through an adhesive backed piece of felt. 

Well, you can, but the needle gets more gummed up with each stitch. The glue adheres to the needle and gets increasingly difficult to pull through.

And how do you get the glue off the needle? Well, if you wipe it with a tissue, it gets more gummed up with tissue fluff - everything sticks to it! If you try to pull the glue off the needle with your fingers, the glue stays and your fingers get covered in glue!

I hated every single buttonhole stitch around this treasure! That so rarely happens to me when hand stitching that I spent half the time wondering what my problem was. The problem was the glue. I dislike the stickiness of it. The threads were sticking to it, the needle was sticky and my skin was sticking to everything... ugh!

I did finish the bookmark but learned an important lesson - sdhesive backed felt should not be stitched through! But it's finished (although the corners are terrible) and the needle went right in the trash never to be used again.

Did anyone else have a successful finish this week? I'd love to hear about it - link up your blog post below!

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the hand stitching party!

Last week's idea to start a camping stitch that the family could participated in was a total fail! Not one single person could be convinced to put in a stitch!  😞I admit I was disappointed, but I understand that everyone was having a great time being at the beach, playing games together and enjoying campfires. It was so busy I hardly had time to add any stitches myself and I'm not sure what will happen to this start.

When I returned home I immediately re-started a new project called Pink Wren. The photo is odd because the background fabric is actually lime green!

This weekend I am visiting my sister, and there will be some stitching time and maybe some baseball and soccer watching. What are you hand stitching today? Please share your slow progress with us below!

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