Disappearing Pinwheel

This weekend I started playing with some disappearing pinwheel blocks. I had made a few sample blocks back in 2020 and always wanted to make more. You never know when inspiration is going to strike, and it suddenly did. Sometimes you just have to play in the sewing room! Here's a green Kaffe block. Love it!

I also made a blue one. It's a fun process - you make a pinwheel using 4 HSTs, cut the pinwheel into 9 equal pieces and rearrange the pieces. You can see a video tutorial here (with 16 ways to arrange the pieces).

And here is my design wall today. Two blocks are sewn with my recently finished cross stitch above them. I look forward to sewing more blocks to go with these 2!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching! It's the day of resting, moving slowly, breathing deeply, and hand stitching. To rest means to "cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength" (Mirriam-Webster Dictionary). This is a hard thing for me to do - resting is hard work LOL! Which is one of my motivations to keep this linky party going - to encourage others to make rest a priority.

I have even been trying to stitch less to rest my sore thumb, to listen to the pain and stitch accordingly.  Believe me, this is hard for me! I need "busy work" and am learning the hard way that my body is the boss of me!

And after saying all that, I bought a new project! *snort*

It was a St. Patrick's day gift to myself. I went shopping at a new (to me) store called Pastime Pieces and saw this cross stitch chart that had my name on it. The pattern and the sample were stitched in red, but I chose a variegated green because it was St. Patrick's day, and I really liked the Weeks Dye Works thread colour (named "lucky").

We are not talking about all the stitching UFOs around here! We are focusing on new life for Spring, new energy, new starts! 
I made a small start on 14 count aida cloth and love love love stitching it! Oh this bird is so sweet! But I am pacing myself - 2 threads per day. Slow and steady heals the thumb! 

What are you hand stitching today? We'd love to see the slow progress your hands are making with needles and threads.

What are you hand stitching today?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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!

Click here to enter

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!

Click here to enter

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