Design Wall Tuesday

Finally this Super Bowl Sunday mystery has become a quilt top!

This design was the mystery from Scrapdash called Dancing in the Stars. The inside of the quilt was finished mid February, but I just couldn't decide on the borders. 

I finally added a 4" border on the top and bottom of the quilt, with 3 pieced stars on each side. I really like it now and hope it doesn't stay too long on the "to be quilted" pile.

Linking up at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly linkup that celebrates the art of hand stitching! We are all about pure relaxation, and taking one s l o w stitch at a time. 

It has been a very long winter and we are anxiously waiting for spring to arrive. It has been a busy week here hosting  March Break camp for wayward Granddogs! Max loves long walks and cuddles, and if you can believe it, my sewing machine has not been turned on at all this week! Yes we had this much snow on my street on Wednesday and this great Canadian dog loved it. His Grandma... not so much!

I have been obsessed with finishing my cross stitched Alphabet Hearts Sampler by JBW Designs.  It is stitched on 32 count Parisian Linen using 3 strands (for better coverage) over 2 threads using the called for green and pink threads.

I love how it turned out and am thinking about how to finish it. I'm wondering about making it into a long pillow? What would you do?

I also finished my Winter Mystery embroidery wallhanging from
Days Filled With Joy. It has minimal hand quilting along the blue stitched lines. For some unknown reason the top left corner of the binding went wonky. Oh well, I'm not redoing it since I'm already onto several other new projects! LOL

Finished Size: 7.75" square

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

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! If you enjoy needles, threads, yarn, and hand made delights, you have found your tribe!

I finished a couple of hand stitched sympathy cards this week. This heart design by Little Lion Stitchery (free pattern when you subscribe) is fun to cross stitch, easy enough to complete quickly, yet challenging enough to keep your interest. I love to stitch with variegated threads. I painted a bit of pink around the centre cutout to make the card less stark white.

Great progress has been made on my Alphabet Sampler. I stitched from right to left on this project, and only have 2 more letters to go. The letter 'B' is almost done, and then there is only 'A' and 'C' to stitch. It has been a vision challenge to stitch on 36 count linen (3 threads over 2). One day I realized I had 3 pairs of glasses in my work space - plus my magnifier lamp! But I forgive it for being so hard to see because it looks absolutely beautiful, and I am very proud of this stitching! 

One more bit of progress - I found a backing, a piece of batting and pin basted my Winter Mystery Stitchalong. The hand quilting has been started around these adorable mittens. I am motivated to finish this miniature quilt before Joy starts her Spring mystery. 

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Scrappy Saturday

The green scraps have had my full attention this week. It has been so fun to dig through the scrap bins and cut little green bits into useable 1.5" squares for my scrappy stars project. These 25 patch blocks are a 10 out of 10 on the fun sewing scale for scrappy sewers! I used up such a wide variety of greens.

Then I made 4 star blocks and although they don't use up as many scraps, they are still very fun to sew. I enjoy looking in the scraps for a neutral background to go with the scraps. My favourite is the Tula block on the top left with the whale in the centre square. 

And here is my block collection so far. I love how it's coming together! 

Apparently I only made 1 of each of the blocks in January and February, but green month inspired me to make more! There are just so many lovely variations of green - how can you resist?!?

Linking up to the weekly scrap party at Angela's

International Women's Day

I have finished cross stitching a project from the book "Really Cross Stitch". I love everything about this project, from the fancy lettering that clashes with the harsh message, to the asymmetrical design... I love it.

Love, love, super love it!

In the world of cross stitching most people tend to frame their finished pieces or turn them into pillows. But I am a quilter, so I'm not sure what this will become.

Here is the description about this design in the book. Because I have worked most of my career as a social worker in the front line trenches of treating victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, I know first hand that some things have not changed much in the past 100 years.

From the United Nations report in 2021:

 • Globally, an estimated 81,100 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2021. The overall number of female homicides has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. 

• Most killings of women and girls are gender motivated. In 2021, around 45,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members. This means that, on average, more than five women or girls are killed every hour by someone in their own family.

And that is my inspiration for stitching this cross stitch!

I want to wish you a Happy International Women's Day!

Design Wall Monday

For some unknown reason I had a desire to work on my version of the 2022 BOM from A Quilting Life. I worked on it at the beginning of February and had a lot of design decisions to make. That is the point at which a quilt can easily start inching into the UFO closet.

But not this time!

Here are the 12 blocks sewn together with the sashing and the square in a square cornerstones.

I like how it turned out so far and am wondering if I should quilt and bind it with black. Or if it needs a black border first to give it more of an outside frame? What are your thoughts?

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching link up party! We encourage you to join us by putting some stitches into your project today. Hand stitching can provide numerous health benefits - click here to read an interesting article about 3 of the major benefits of hand sewing.

I have been faithfully wearing my custom made hand brace/orthosis when stitching and have noticed a surprising decrease in pain in just one week. Very good news!

And that means more stitching of course! Uh oh - don't tell the OT I said that! Apparently pain = time to stop!

I made a lot of progress on Joy's Winter Mystery Stitchalong. It is now ready to become an FFO (fully finished object) as they say on Flosstube. Of course I will turn it into a miniature quilt because that is what I enjoy to do. 

And I traced out Joy's next embroidery pattern called Tea Cup Critters of the month which can become part of a 36" quilt. 

I have also made progress on my Really Cross Stitch project. This one is going so fast and I love stitching with variegated thread to give the stitching more interest.

What are you hand stitching today? Share your progress with us and link up your photo, instagram or blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Scrappy Saturday

It's green month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, which is perfect for celebrating St. Patrick's Day and also for those of us who are longing for signs of spring. Today my world is covered in white as we had a huge snowfall last night.

I am snug in my sewing room with my little green scraps spread around, and I am cutting them into 1.5" squares for my Scrappy Stars project. 

Here is the first green star block - so darn pretty! I hope to make some alternate 25 patch blocks today. There are already enough squares cut to enjoy some mindless sewing.

This is an early RSC project and there aren't many blocks made yet. it's too early to tell if this will be a small quilt or a large bed quilt. It depends on how much I like it over time.

Linking up to the RSC party 

Design Wall Monday

The Super Bowl mystery project is still on the design wall. I want to extend the quilt and change it from a square to a rectangle by adding borders on the top and bottom. 

I made some pinwheel blocks to add as a border, and realized that the pinwheels in the quilt that are on the right spin the opposite way to the pinwheels on the left. So... half and half it is! Oh wait... that isn't exactly even. I'll fix one of those to make it even.

I'm thinking something like this. Three blocks on each side seems like a good balance. This will extend the quilt length by 8" to make it a rectangle. Perfect!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Take some time today to power down your brain and enjoy the benefits of relaxation with your favourite hand work. 

I can hardly wait to get my hand stitching bag out today. I haven't had enough stitching time this week, and we all know what that means... my sanity is hanging by a very thin thread!  Everyone knows that I must stitch to restore my sanity! 

As I have shared previously on my blog, I have been experiencing pain when hand stitching and usually just power through with Voltaren and pain meds. I first started complaining about this in 2019 and wrote more about it in January. I have used these assistive items to help me, but truthfully it has been getting worse. It's a real problem since as I already mentioned... stitching = sanity!

This week I was so thankful to be assessed by an Occupational Therapy hand specialist. She made me a specially designed orthosis to try to relieve the arthritis pain in my thumb. She also created a fancy doodad to help align my thumb joint. It's all feeling very awkward when I'm stitching now, but I'll definitely use all these if it allows more stitching to occur! And apparently I will get used to this, just like I am now accustomed to using a thimble.

I have been adding embroidery stitches to my Winter Mystery Stitchalong from Days Filled with Joy. This is the clue from week #4.

I am highly motivated to stitch clue #5 to finish this project since there is now another free SAL posted on Days Filled with Joy called Tea Cup Critters. This will be an adorable embroidered BOM quilt design. But I will NOT allow myself to start this until I finish the Winter stitching. I must have some self control!

Slow progress has also been made on my Alphabet Sampler by JBW Designs. Some stitchers have emailed asking me where I found this project. I originally saw the project on the JBW Designs Flosstube and I ordered my chart and fabric at Stoney Creek. (I have no affiliation, just a very happy customer!)

What are you hand stitching this week? Linking up your blog post, or photo, or instagram post below and share what you are working on.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

A Christmas Finish on the Design Wall!

The Fat Quarter Shop provided a free Christmastime mystery quilt pattern last fall. I really enjoyed sewing the 4 blocks - Christmas cards, a mug, candies, and presents. (There was also a mystery cross stitch pattern that was adorable but I didn't stitch that.)

My quilt was made totally from stash fabrics and the quilt top was finished in October. The machine quilting is very simple stitch-in-the-ditch (or in close proximity to the ditch!) straight lines. Nothing fancy, but finished!

I love having little projects like this around the house during the holidays. I sewed a hanging sleeve so this could be a wallhanging. Or it could be an outdoor decoration. 

The cardinals backing fabric piece that I found in my stash was just the perfect size for this project! You can see the split hanging sleeve that I sewed into the binding.

Finished size: 23" x 27"

I don't know why I was so interested in finishing this Christmas quilt in February when my OMG was to work on a Valentine's quilt ?!? 

There is no logic to creativity! 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Grab a beverage and your favourite hand work project and enjoy some time with like-minded stitchers. 

I finished a quilt last week and enjoyed stitching down the binding late at night. It was so relaxing.  I love the cardinal backing fabric and the striped binding! I'll post more about this quilt tomorrow.

And of course I had to start a new cross stitch project this week because of Flosstube. And also because of this beautiful alphabet sampler design, and the  pretty DMC floss. 

Resistance is futile!

Here is my start. 

I am stitching on 32 count Parisian Linen using 3 strands (for better coverage) over 2 threads. Look at me using the cross stitch lingo that I have recently learned! I started with the letter 'K' of course!

And we are not talking about all the other cross stitch projects I have in progress since I re-discovered my oldest UFO from 1991! I may soon need an addiction intervention!

What are you hand stitching today? Have you started too many projects in 2023? In the comment section, please add your tips for managing a severe case of Startitis!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Pinkness

February is pink month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I worked with some pink scraps to  make blocks for my Scrappy Stars quilt. I have the January and February blocks finished for this project. 

My sewing room is full of pinkness since I opened my 2023 Limited Edition Cupid Box from the Fat Quarter Shop. I unboxed this treasure with 2 of my quilting friends. Click here to watch our unboxing zoom video.

The box is full of quilty treasures, new products, and 2 projects. It's always a treat to receive one of the Fat Quarter boxes!

And just look at these fabric strips OMG I love them so much! The fabric line is XOXO by Heatherlee Chan. Florals, hearts, hugs and kisses, and look at that bicycle with a puppy in the basket, the red truck full of flowers, the sweet dalmation  - adorable! 

And here is the empty Cupid box which I will keep for re-gifting - so sweet!

I hope you are enjoying Valentine's month and all the pinkness in your sewing room.

Linking up to the RSC party at Angela's

Design Wall Wednesday

For many years my little group of mystery quilt loving friends has been sewing the Super bowl mystery provided by Kris at Scrapdash. Every year we gather to enjoy food, laughter, and sewing while the rest of the world watches a football game.

Here are some of her previous mysteries that we have sewn:

2014  Apian Way Log Cabin

2015 Neighbourhood Garden

2016 Peekaboo

2017 Ghosts and Mosts

2018 Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue

2019 Garden Party

2020 I don't know what happened that year to my blogging, but we did meet and I sewed this mystery quilt.

2021 Princess Charlotte

2022 Tag Sale

And last year's mystery event held on zoom was the best so far! Mystery designer Kris joined us on zoom as we were sewing! We had the opportunity to show her some of the past mysteries that we have sewn with her. It was very exciting! 

This year, we had a hybrid event with some of us meeting in person and some joining on zoom. We worked on the Scrapdash mystery called Dancing in the Stars. Labelling every step was crucial since making this quilt was like a big fabric jigsaw puzzle.

Here is the wrong way to sew the quilt top together. UGH! Only one wrong seam, but it was a long one!

Here is the correct way to sew the design. I love it!

I want to add some pinwheels to the top and bottom to make it more rectangular.

What a fun day and a pretty quilt design! You can see more variations of this design on the Scrapdash blog picture page.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We hope you will get out one of your own projects and put a few stitches in today.

Apparently February is National Embroidery Month, so it's only fitting that I started Joy's mystery Winter Stitchalong project. This combines 2 of my favourite things - a mystery adventure, and embroidery!  I just had to take a photo of the Winter embroidery project in the snow! We have had some snow this year, but not nearly as much in previous years.

Here is where I am at week 3, and the week 4 pattern has just been posted on her blog, so I will work on that today. I am using whatever floss colours I can find in my floss tin. I only used 2 strands of DMC floss for the word WINTER and it's too thin for my liking. So then I used 3 strands for the other stitching and like it much better. 

I seem to have experienced  a flare-up of my chronic condition of Startitis, and took a photo of the hand stitching projects on my desk. 

Uh oh!

And some projects are noticeably absent (I'm looking for you DUDE)!

Well, Startitis can't be helped and there is no known cure. I'm confident it will settle down soon and the symptoms will subside. I'm blaming Flosstube where everybody brags about their UFOs and WIPs! 

What are you stitching today? Do you have a case of Winter Startitis (or Summer Startitis if you live in the Southern hemisphere)? Link up your projects below with a photo, instagram link or blog link.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter