Welcome to the Slow Sunday Stitching party! Take some time today to power down your brain and enjoy the benefits of relaxation with your favourite hand work.
Last week when I was visiting the Oxford County Guild in Ingersoll, I had a lovely visit with Jean Hillis who is a past president of the guild and is a very inspiring hand stitcher. I wish you could see her wonderful quilts! She invited me to stay overnight and we enjoyed some relaxing hand stitching as we had tea and visited. Just look at this gorgeous quilt she is hand quilting! I'm telling you, I was drooling over this amazing scrap quilt with pieced blocks in the centre and a complex appliqued border around the edges. This photo doesn't show the appliqued border very well, but maybe you can see it a bit better in the next close up photo.
Can you see that Jean is outline stitching all the little leaves and flower shapes and is also cross hatching the yellow background? She is running several needles at once to do the crosshatching but you can't see them since they are to the right of the hoop. I started to feel relaxed just watching Jean. However, as with many things that are good for you, you don't get the full benefit from watching the activity ... you have to actually DO it yourself!
So of course I was hand stitching too!
What are you hand stitching today? Don't just think about putting in some stitches... get out your project and start relaxing! Then write a blog post, tell us about your progress and join in the link up below.
An InLinkz Link-up
The colours jean used in her quilt are beautiful. It sounds as if you had a lovely and inspiring visit!
ReplyDeleteJean's quilt is beautiful. Of course, I immediately noticed the square/square border. It really looks lovely. I hope next winter I'll be hand quilting my applique quilt. How many total embroidered blocks are there in your Life is Beautiful project? Blessings. villacrestfarm@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful quilt she is working on! :)
ReplyDeleteSuch pretty applique on Jean's quilt. Has she made a lot of quilts?
ReplyDeleteWhat a pleasant stay you experienced when visiting the quilt guild to share a pot of tea and watch a beautiful quilt being quilted.
ReplyDeletebeautiful quilt - I was doing hand quilting on the hoop last night too and although I love quilting I so prefer to do mine on my floor stand which I miss so much - well be glad when my sewing room is finished and I can sit back at the frame.
ReplyDeleteJean certainly knew how to plan a perfect evening with you...tea and slow stitching...what could be better?
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely picture of Jean quilting....it just embodies the word "peaceful"
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a lovely time at the guild and visiting last week. That is a gorgeous quilt...and thanks for the reminder to slow down and stitch.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your Life is Beautiful block! I really like that tree for some reason. Your stitching is perfect. Jean's quilt is absolutely scrapdelicious! LOVE those scraps. That border is amazing. I never even considered using more than one needle. Someday I'll be pondering how to quilt my Kim Diehl table topper. I will have to refer back to this post and then wonder if it could be done... After all, it is a "learning" quilt for me.
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful quilt. So nice that you could spend time together stitching.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun evening!
ReplyDeleteWow Jean's quilt is fabulous. I have enough problems keeping track of one needle and I'm filled with admiration at Jean's abilities. That must have been a really fun evening.
ReplyDeleteI cross hatched a quilt for my parents, many years ago, and I had about 20+ needles going at once. I use a frame, not a hoop. I've been hand stitching the last several Sundays, but, I've been working on some 'secret' projects that I can't show till the end of the month (sneak peeks will give them away). I did finish one of them this morning (binding).
ReplyDeleteJean's quilt is beautiful and I can just imagine what the hand quilting does for it! Your embroidery is great too and I love the idea of "recycling" the cutaway by stitching them onto four patches as well. Very clever!
ReplyDeleteYou have such wonderful projects! Off to do some hand quilting.
ReplyDeleteJean's quilt is gorgeous! Hope you got in lots of relaxation time yesterday.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a perfect visit. Let Jean know I think her quilt is lovely!
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