Last Slow Sunday Stitching for 2013

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching - a celebration of all kinds of hand stitching! 2013 was a great year for slow stitching - 52 weeks have passed in which we could enjoy our own hand stitching, and be inspired by the projects of quilty friends. Thank you to each of you that linked up your blog posts on Sundays and shared your stitching with us. Last year, we had a total of 641 blog posts that were linked up to Slow Sunday Stitching! That's a lot of s l o w stitches!
At last week's link up, there was a draw for an applique pattern, and the winner was comment #12 which is Deb in Florida. Congratulations to Deb and thanks for being such a regular contributor to the Slow Sunday Stitching party!

Over the past year I have shared my progress on various projects including binding quilts, hand quilting two projects (Journey of a Quilter and The Accidental Quilt), making a scrap rug, stitching some tiny hexagons, hand piecing some blocks, improving my applique stitch,  and I did a bit of hand embroidery. And I enjoyed every single stitch - the perfect, consistent stitches, and the crazy, messy ones too! 

This week I am so proud to tell you that put the final stitches in my "Up, Up and Away" quilt! This quilt was impulsively started at quilt retreat in February, hence it became named The Accidental Quilt. Amazingly, it was pieced and hand quilted, and finished in the same calendar year!
My quilt model Max was totally uncooperative... this puppy needs some training since he has a Grandma who is a quilter!

I was able to get a nice photo of my finished quilt hanging outside before the sun went down. Can I say again that I just love everything about this quilt!?!
The pattern is from the book called Sunday Morning Quilts by Cheryl Arkison and Amanda Jean Nyberg.  

And then I had an amazing synchronistic experience. Just as I was finishing the stitches in this quilt, a gift arrived in the mail for me - 
 "A Month of Sundays". It is hot off the press, and I can't believe that I won a copy in a draw on Cheryl's blog called Dining Room Empire. I love this blog (go read her wonderful post about the reality of Christmas, which reminds me to say "Thank You" to my Mom for years of fun and memorable Christmases past!)

And just look at the card Cheryl put inside the book! She even autographed the book for me! 

What a wonderful Christmas gift - thank you Cheryl!  And what a great book this is, full of patterns and tips, and amazing photography. 
So now that this quilt is finished ("out with the old") I am I wondering which of the projects in the new book I will be tempted to start next ("in with the new")?!?
For today, I'm back to hand quilting my Journey of a Quilter. I am really close to finishing that one too, so will start to think about which hand quilting project is going to be next in my hoop. 
And I have a new hand embroidery project to start in the new year that I can't wait to show you!

2014 holds 52 more weeks of hand stitching link ups at Kathy's Quilts. Grab my button (code is on the right sidebar) to put on your blog, and make a commitment to yourself to enjoy some relaxing hand stitching with us on Sundays throughout next year.  What are you proud of accomplishing with your hand work last year?  Link up your blog post below and share your current project or ideas for what you plan to work on next year.