Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the Slow Sunday Stitching party where we celebrate all types of hand stitching including cross stitch, embroidery, hand piecing, knitting, crochet, rug making, english paper piecing, applique, hand quilting, etc. If you are creating something with your hands using needles and threads/yarns, we want to see what you're making!

I have finally finished a knitted cloth that says "Let's go campin". This photo shows the true colour of the yarn... I knit it in green for summer use in the great outdoors. I will be sending the cloth (with a thank you note) to my sister-in-law who hosted a family camping weekend on her property at the beginning of the summer. 

This photo is side lit to try to show the pattern better.  Pattern is by KnitWits and I would rate this pattern as "challenging" - or maybe it was me?! But with almost every row being different, it required lots of concentration.

I immediately started another (easier) cloth and  learned a new stitch called "knit 1 below". It looks lacy and pretty, and there are only 4 different rows to repeat. This is the first pattern in a Leisure Arts book given to me by my friend Gail and I hope to work my way through the book to learn many new stitches. 

I am feeling much better this weekend and hope to  enjoy more knitting and some embroidery today. Apparently yesterday was "World Embroidery Day" and I shall celebrate today by stitching outdoors. If you would like to watch a video of embroidery projects from around the world, do treat yourself to this World Embroidery Day video. 

** And Nicola at StitchDoodles is offering a free pattern to celebrate!

What will you be hand stitching? Link up your blog or instagram post and share your projects with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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On The Mend

After laying in bed for well over a week with covid symptoms, I am up and about. The coughing is only occasional but the headaches, congestion, brain fog, and lack of taste/smell is continuing. I'm sitting upright for periods of time, which means I'm able to sit at a sewing machine... which is a major improvement. I am forcing myself to convalesce, which means "to begin to grow strong".

It's counter culture to rest and to take time to recover. I am thankful that I do not work for a company that has 1) a prescribed number of sick days, 2) pressure (overt and covert) to return to work before full recovery has occurred, and 3) a patriarchal requirement to produce a doctor's note to verify an illness. My body tells me how long I need to be off and it is the boss of me, so I override the messages at my own peril! Resting and sleeping and some TV watching is all I can do.

While convalescing I have enjoyed watching life in the 19th century series Lark Rise to Candleford, and also life in the 1950's watching Call the Midwife.  Both are british series and completely different communities, but have the same challenges as we all still do in 2022!

In season 9 (episode 3) of Call The Midwife  Sister Francis starts sewing on a beautiful hand crank Lotus. I watched that section over several times due to sewing machine coveting!

Then half way through the episode she is sewing on an electric Singer! That was a quick change! I do not covet these types of machines, although I do have one.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. I'll head back to the recovery bed and  watch the women hand stitching in Candleford!

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party!

Unfortunately your host is under the weather this week and won't be much fun. I succumbed to Covid early in the week with the usual symptoms (sore throat, cough, headache, fever, exhaustion, loss of taste and smell) and haven't been able to do any stitching at all. You know I'm really sick when there is NO stitching going on!

I have been catching up on reading quilting blogs which has been a real treat. I haven't been leaving many comments mostly because it has been too taxing, but know that I appreciate YOU and all your stitching, writing, photography and blogging skills!

Somehow I had previously missed seeing a beautiful summer sewalong project that Aurifil threads is hosting called "Stitching Kindness".  I discovered this project on Anorina's blog called Samelia's Mum where she is beautifully stitching her words in a variety of thread colours to match 30's prints. I am dreaming of starting this project and many others as soon as I can sit up in bed!

In spite of a bedridden host, the party goes on, stitching continues and we look forward to seeing your slow progress - here's the link...

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Design Wall Monday

One more block has been added to my Quilting Life BOM. 

Guess how many HST's this block needed?

If you guessed 20, you are right! 

It's a fun project with one block pattern per month. I am a bit behind since this is the May block I just finished, but I'm loving the look of the 5 blocks together. 

I have 3 guild friends sewing along also, and the colour of their frames are dark blue (Dana), red (Lorelei) and grey (Diane). I can't wait to see our 4 quilts together when the year is finished.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

It's time for the weekly Slow Stitching Stitching party!  Sometimes the weeks just seem to fly by don't they? It's already time to get your hand stitching project out of it's bag/closet/storage cabinet/drawer and put in some stitches.

Thank you for all the feedback shared last week for how to deal with my long lost cross stitch project. I was amazed at the variety of creative ideas and I have a tentative plan in mind. But first I must finish a few current projects kicking around here.

1) I read about an embroidery project when Barbara posted on her blog Cat Patches that she was participating in. I hopped on board because it sounded like a fun collaboration and took me less than an hour. 

I had an immediate idea, made some scribbles on paper and started stitching. I can't share my block until the big reveal, but I can say that my envelope has been posted and is in the hands of the postal service, to hopefully arrive on the west coast of the USA before the deadline of August 1st. The big reveal will be in September, and the project reveal is scheduled for November. 

If this sounds like a fun challenge and you would like to participate, there is still time if you hurry. Here is the link to sign up - Collaborative Embroidery.

2) Meanwhile, my meditative embroidery project is making some slow progress. I'm ready for stitching  something other than letters in the same colour of floss, but I'm making myself finish the letters first and do the fun stitching last. Kind of like eating your main course first and having dessert once the nutritious food is consumed! 

3) My cloth knitting project is slow going because I made a mistake and had to rip out several rows. It required great concentration to get back on track again, but I think it's correct now. It's supposed to say "Let's go camping" but it's not very clear with this green yarn (which seemed like a good idea at the time).

That's my update for this week - what are you hand stitching today? Link up your instagram or blog post below and share your progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Summer Sewing

This week's sewing time was spent working on my guild's summer mystery. 

I used the EZ angle Tri Recs rulers to cut these pieces and that worked well. I have certainly got my money's worth from using these rulers over the years. The next step is to trim the blocks, although they are pretty close to perfect and only sliver trimming is needed. Some people would skip this step, but I'll do it anyway (compulsively!)

But first... I jumped ahead and worked on the next step and
made a handful of 4 pretty patch units.

Now I'll go back and do that sliver trimming.

I store all the mystery blocks in an old ziploc bag that I have used for years. It's a great way to keep all the parts together and organized.

Next I'll catch up on the Quilting Life BOM...watch for that next week!

Blockheads Update

 A couple more blocks have been created to add to my 4.5" Blockheads collection. 

A traditional bow tie is still one of my favourite blocks, and this version is called Sharply Dressed. It is posted as an "bonus block".

Lisa Bongean posted an alternate block (for those that did not want to applique a bird for block #14). This block is called "Star Turn" so I used a star fabric.

And here are all my Blockheads on the design wall. I have block 15 and 16 to finish and I'll be caught up!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

It's finally Sunday - a day of rest, reflection, renewal, and slow stitching! Why not join us as we get out our hand stitching projects and put in a few relaxing stitches?

I have an interesting dilemma for you to ponder today. While cleaning a closet I found this old cross stitch. It was stored with the magazine pattern from 1991. It's so close to finishing. What would you do with this project dilemma? Force yourself to finish it? Donate it to a thrift shop? 

I don't know what to do. I still love the pattern, and my completed stitching is so pretty. But truthfully...

 1) I'd rather be quilting than cross stitching and 

2) it's been waiting for 20 years!

Maybe I'll just toss it back into the closet? What would you do?

This week I have been slowly stitching my meditative embroidery project. There are so many things I/we cannot change. While serenity and acceptance feels elusive most of the time, I do have moments when I am stitching that I experience glimpses of my serenity goal. 

What are you learning and hand stitching this week? Do you have UFO's that you have rediscovered and don't know what to do? Let's commiserate together!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sewing Machine Blocks

Two more sewing machines were added to the herd this week. Not the actual herd, but the quilt block herd. 

I cut out all the pieces for 2 blocks and labelled them with my Alphabitties (which I love). The dark purple pieces will make a 3" block and the lighter purple with make a 6" block.

I am using the Fat Quarter Shop's free pattern.

I sewed the 3" block first since smaller is usually more challenging but it went together easily and turned out so darn cute.

I also made a sweet 6" block and it was fun to sew.

The problem came when I put the whole herd of machines on the design wall.

Can you spot the problem?

I have so many scraps and cannot believe I chose the exact same purple fabric twice! Apparently I really like it!

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge party

Mystery Updates

Tomorrow is my guild's mystery quilters zoom sewalong and we will be sharing our mystery quilting updates, so I thought it was a good idea to share my mystery update with my blog readers too.

1) Border Creek Station has started a new free mystery called A Day At The Beach. It looks like fun, but I simply do not have enough hours in the day so I am going to download the pattern and "maybe" start it later. I have a friend who is making it and I will vicariously enjoy following her progress.

2) Step #4 of "Oh Say Can You Sew" mystery quilt by Lisa Bongean has been posted.  I used gold/cheddar fabrics for these 9 patches. I'm quite pleased with myself for keeping up with the steps in this mystery. I look forward to the August step which will have us sewing something that includes 1" triangles - yippee!

3) The Fat Quarter Shop has started their Halloween mystery called "Boo Crew". They are offering a quilt and a cross stitch mystery. They also offer a video of how to sew the blocks which shows many helpful tips. I really want to make this quilt but am trying so hard to resist! 

Will I be successful?!?! Any guesses???

4) I have also started a summer mystery quilt through my local guild. I received a package of coordinated fabrics from the community outreach committee and these are my pieces cut for step #1. 

Let's get sewing!

Happy Friday everyone!

July Goal

Last month was a huge finish for me, so I had a bit of trouble narrowing down the choices for this month's UFO project. SO many choices. I had my head into Unity for soooo long that it was hard to move on!

Okay. I finally settled on Bitcoin for July because I already have all the threads chosen and it will be delicious colour fun!

I am trying to incorporate some of the ideas shared in the comments section when I posted the quilt top and am excited to see how it goes. 

Linking up to One Monthly Goal

Fish School on the Design Wall

The concept of continuous sewing by always having blocks ready to put through the machine at the beginning and end of everything you sew was revolutionary for me. I learned this way of sewing from Bonnie Hunter's book Adventures With Leader & Enders. For several years she has issued a challenge and she has just listed the July 2022 project called Triple Treat.

Meanwhile in my sewing room, there are still unfinished previous challenges to be finished! The 2021 Fish School challenge has seen periodic additions and it is time to corral these fish and see where this project is at. 

Some colours are sparsely represented in this school and more fish need to be added to make this big enough for a standard quilt. Looks like this project will need to continue before I jump into another leader-ender challenge. 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the Slow Stitching party where we celebrate all types of hand stitching including cross stitch, embroidery, hand piecing, knitting, crochet, rug making, english paper piecing, applique, hand quilting, etc. If you are creating something with your hands using needles and threads, we want to see what you're making!

I finished two quilts recently and hand stitched a lot of binding. First was a bed sized quilt called Unity which had over 300" of binding, and then a  miniature strawberry which was 16" of binding. I really enjoyed hand stitching the french knots on the berry.

I have also been dragging my embroidery around with me and hoping for a few minutes of peaceful stitching, which I enjoyed at this lovely stopping place on a hike. It was so quiet and relaxing by the stream. Not much stitching was done since there was a lot to see here - frogs, fish, and birds. But every stitch counts!

What are you stitching today? Link up your blog or instagram post below and share your slow progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter