Sunday, August 05, 2012

Slow Sunday Stitching - August

The summer is half over, and I haven't finished nearly half of the projects I had hoped to this summer. Not just stitching projects, but gardening, canning, cleaning, oh yah...and there was supposed to be some time for relaxing in there. I took my daughter and niece blueberry picking, and we put a few bags into the freezer, but most of the berries were immediately eaten! I definitely will go to the berry patch again this week and hope to get some blueberry jam made.
All leisure time this week was spent watching the olympics, during which I enjoyed a lot of hand quilting. I have been focused on finishing my Capricorn Quilts "Quilter's Blessings" which I started in 2008 and am making great progress this month.  "Much Sewing" is one of my favorite blocks in this quilt, and it is now quilted!
While I have been quilting and watching olympic accomplishments, I have been thinking about an inspiring blogpost I read by Kathy Doughty at Material Obsession. She wrote: "The choices we make become our body of work. They shape us into the quilter that we are."  To that I would add, that our life choices shape us into the person we want to be. I want to be a calm, gentle, loving, positive, focused, creative person, so I need to make choices accordingly. And quilting is such a huge part of how I try to accomplish that. 
That is one of my reasons for creating this Sunday hand stitching link up...to encourage myself to slow down, to spend some time each week stitching, to relax and breathe deeply, and to connect with others in the blogland community of like mind.
A big thank you to those who linked up and shared your hand stitching projects in June and July. Carla was the winner of the draw for the previous linky prize.  Link up your blogpost about hand stitching and get your name in the draw for the next giveaway. 
What stitching choices have you made this week to reach your goals?? 

11 comments:

scraphappy said...

Your quilting is progressing so nicely. I've done lots of binding this week, but I would love to pull my hand quilting out today.

Amy said...

Great quilting! Wish I would have prepared some handwork for this trip!, but oh well. At least I can read blogs via phone technology :)

Love the weekly mr linky. Gives us more blog readers to meet.

Pokey said...

The red hand work is so nice, Kathy, but I was blessed by your writings today. Sewing does bring a peace of mind to the soul. It is meant to be shared, and I'm impressed with the life choices I've received by other like-minded people like you. Thank you for that ~
:-}pokey

Carrie P. said...

love the photo of your hand quilting.

Teresa in Music City said...

Kathy, I so enjoy your posts where you go deeper than just "this is what I'm working on." I think that all of us are expressing who we are through the creation of our quilts. I have learned a lot about who I am from my quilting experience - some things I was surprised to learn, some I was not so happy to learn.

You have helped me step back and take a good look at where my focus happens to be, and where I might rather it be instead. I have definitely slowed down and reminded myself to enjoy the process of each quilt rather than just rush through to a finish. And I'm trying to start new habits that will help me slow down, such as a little stitchery each morning as I sit quietly with my cup of tea and discuss the day's plans with the Lord. And taking a little while to straighten up my sewing area after each project so that I have a neat, orderly environment for creating the next masterpiece :*)

Of course, the first week I decide to begin the day with stitchery, my husband blows out his knee and is home every day! Oh well, there's always next week - hopefully I'll have something to share then :*)

Angie said...

My stitching choice for the coming week is to try harder to make time for sewing (preferably handwork) no matter how tired I am in the evening.

Yvette said...

I love that quilt. I wish I could learn how to hand quilt. You are right, we need to enjoy and slow down.

I remember getting that pattern a few years ago, I think I sent the author a couple of fat quarters for it. LOL I need to dig it out and give it a try.

Teresa Rawson said...

Nice hand quilting and T-shirt quilt! Very inspiring post to motivate us to get more DONE!!

In stitches,
Teresa :o)

Janet O. said...

You are doing a beautiful job on this quilt!

audrey said...

Your stitching is coming along very well. Beautiful work!

Ellen said...

Lovely post! I did do some handwork - I have been working on a Dear Jane block but is not finished and I didn't blog about it. Maybe next week1