Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to Slow Stitching Sunday where we make time to slow down our lives, to breathe deeply, to pick up a needle and thread, and take some slow stitches. 

Today I am sharing a start and a finish! 

This is another one of Melisa of Pinker 'n Punkin's mini sampler projects. It is called Mini Apple Sampler and is a free pattern on her blog. 

I had so much fun digging around in my floss stash to  select just the right red flosses for the letters and apples. It probably took me longer to make these decisions than it did to put in the stitches!

It's a small little cross stitch sampler that I made into a wall hanging measuring 5.5" across by 4.5" high. I love the fall leaf print I used for the back. It took me way too long to hand stitch the binding, and I have no idea why. I couldn't get the start and finish edges to meet up correctly, even though I've done it hundreds of times before. Some days are just like that!

Here are the 3 mini samplers I have made from free patterns on Melisa's blog. I love these sweet little treasures!

Thank you Melisa for all the stitchy treats that you share with us!💗

I think my next mini sampler start will be the sunflower mini. But first, I have so many other projects on the go that I need some attention before I become obsessed with another mini sampler. I do love stitching those letters!

Now it's your turn! What are you hand stitching today? Do you have any finishes to share with us? We hope you will link up your blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, or pumpkin spice latte to enjoy while visiting the blogs of stitchers around the world. It's so inspiring to see what other people are creating with their own two hands.

I finished a quilt this week! The quilt top was made by my friend Gail, and the machine quilting was done by my friend Roxanne, so I actually just finished up the quilt with the hand stitched binding. Such a beautiful fall quilt for the community comfort quilt collection.

I also started a new cross stitch project called Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage.  I know it's "out of season" to stitch spring in the fall, but this new start just happened!  I am using the variegated thread that the pattern recommended called "Blooming Crocus". It is so beautiful to work with and I am enjoying every stitch... not to mention that I just stitched the sweetest bird - so cute! 

What are you hand stitching today? We enjoy seeing your progress, and hope you will link up your blog below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

It's Sunday and you know what that means... it's time for the weekly hand stitching party! We hope you will pick up your needles and thread or yarn and start putting in some stitches. 

In Canada we are celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend. I know it seems early for those who celebrate in November, but we really appreciate the earlier time of the year to enjoy a 3 day weekend to spend time outdoors with family and friends while the weather is still good.

We are mostly giving thanks today for the newest addition to our family! My grandbaby met his great grandparents this week and we are all over the moon with gratitude for this new life! He slept a long time in his great grandfather's arms - so sweet! 💗

Today I will be relaxing and hand stitching the binding that I am still working on. The quilt top was made by my friend Gail, quilted by my friend Roxanne, and will be finished by me - a great team effort for a charity donation.

This week I finished the project for the Stitches and Pages book club hosted by Katie the Novel Stitcher. We read The Violin Conspiracy, which was a very enjoyable novel for me. The pattern I chose is  "Music and Books" by Little House Needleworks. It is finished as a little wallhanging and measures 5 3/4" square.

Here is a nice grouping of some of the cross stitch projects that I have finished into little wall hangings over the past year. They are now hanging in various areas around my home - making me feel happy as I walk past them!

What projects are you hand stitching today? Please link up your 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 Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts! 
Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee (or maybe a pumpkin spice latte) and join us to celebrate the experience of slowly stitching your way through life!

I have been savouring the experience of becoming a Grandma and did have time to do some stitching while watching the baby nap. Here I am doing my two favourite things at the same time! 

I started this project for the Stitches and Pages book club hosted by Katie the Novel Stitcher. We were reading The Violin Conspiracy, which was a very enjoyable novel for me. I chose the "Music and Books" pattern by Little House Needleworks to stitch while reading this book. 

Here is the finished stitchery which measures 4 3/8" square. I am pondering how to fully finish this. I might find the perfect frame, but if not, it will likely become a little quilted wallhanging.

I also sewed the binding onto a quilt this week. One side is stitched down and I will be enjoying some hand stitching on this today.

This week I made a video of the progress on my September projects - you can view it here.

What have you been hand stitching this week? Do you have a project to share with us? Link up your blog below and give us an update!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly celebration of all hand stitched crafts! We hope you will join us in setting aside a few moments each Sunday for some relaxing stitching on your favourite project. Pick up a needle and thread, breathe deeply, and enjoy a little vacation from the responsibilities of your life. 

You won't believe it, but I have not taken one single stitch since last Sunday. Not one! 

But I have a good reason!

I have a new responsibility now... I have become a Grandma! This little bundle of joy weighed in at 8 lbs 1 oz and has brought so much love and joy to the world! I am soaking up every minute of being part of his sweet life, especially since I never thought I would have this privilege of being a grandparent!

I must get working on his birth sampler and his quilt. I have lots of plans, patterns and fabrics but haven't settled down to start anything. I was waiting to make sure he arrived safely and was well, and he is! My friend Louise crocheted the beautiful blanket (behind us on the chair) and little guy's great grandma has already made him a baby quilt. But every baby needs lots of quilts don't you think?

I do hope I can tear my eyes away from this amazing creation, and get back to some stitching. I have a comfort quilt to bind, and some samplers that I wanted to start in September but it's almost over! 

Have you met your September goals? Share with us your slow progress by linking up your blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the regular weekly practice of relaxing with some hand stitching! We encourage you to join us... all you have to do is take a deep breath, find your hand stitching project and put in some stitches. 

I am finishing yet another baby quilt for the baby boom we are having in my family. This one is for my niece's baby and it turned out so cute. It has a pretty flannel backing and will be very cuddly.

I also finished another cross stitch design - pattern by Lizzy Kate. I love the message on this little project and plan to finish it into a mini wallhanging for my office.

What are you hand stitching today? Are you making any progress that you can share? Link up your blog post below and tell us about your hand work.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly celebration of all hand stitched crafts! We hope you will join us in setting aside a few moments each Sunday for some relaxing stitching on your favourite project. Pick up a needle and thread, breathe deeply, and enjoy a little vacation from the responsibilities of your life.

In a year that has had way more starts than finishes, I am so delighted to be able to share a finished quilt called "5 Cats and Scraps". This is a mystery quilt from Laundry Basket Quilts from the spring of 2021.

Every day for 2 weeks Edyta Sitar posted a different block pattern and by the end of the time we had 225 blocks ready to sew together into a quilt top. 

This quilt was made completely from my scrap stash (except for the backing). There are 5 fussy cut cat blocks that wanted to be in the quilt (hence the name) and they just blend into all the other scraps that are florals, geometrics, plaids, mottled, and reproductions. Every day of the mystery I just grabbed a hand full of scraps and started cutting and sewing. It was one of my most fun to make quilts ever and I am delighted that it is finished!

The finished size is 61" square and it was machine quilted by Roxanne Caughill using the Handiquilter design called "Field of Flowers".

Because this quilt is so scrappy, I was unprepared to love it as much as I do! This was going to be a donation quilt but I have fallen in love with it, so am uncertain now!!

I have no idea what I will be stitching on today. My sewing room is a disaster and I will need to do a big tidy up before I can even find some projects to work on! LOL

What are you stitching today? Do you have some September starts? Any finishes to share? Link up your blog post below and show us your slow progress.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the second September hand stitching party!  It's time to slow down and find one of your projects to stitch. Also maybe make a cup of your favourite beverage to enjoy while you visit with other stitchers and work on your own stitching.

This week I spent a lot of hours on a quilt repair project. This is a large queen size sampler quilt that my sister made as a gift to a special friend. It has been loved and well used by a family, and was showing wear and tear at some of the seam lines. My brother-in-law took this photo of me working intently on hand stitching all the open seams.

This is an example of some seams that needed repair on a square within a square block. It was very interesting to see which seams did not hold up over time. I used many ideas that I learned in an online class that Carole (From My Carolina Home) taught me... thank you Carole! The quilt is restored to working order and is back on the family bed. Mission accomplished.

I have also been putzing along on finishing the scrappy binding on my own quilt. I am on the 3rd side now and hope to finish it tomorrow.

In cross stitch news, I finally finished the August Square Dance block of bee skeps. The September block of little chickens has been started and I hope to finish it before the end of the month.

What are you hand stitching this week? We hope you will link up your blog post below and share your updates with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the first September hand stitching party!  It's time to slow down and find one of your projects to stitch.

I'm making headway on my knitted dishcloth. I think I've got the "bee" stitch figured out now.  And I am enjoying this yarn so much that I bought a much bigger ball of it. 

Another little cross stitch project has also been finished. This is "Summer Sucks" by The Witchy Stitcher. I enjoyed this project so much I couldn't put it down! I do hope those hot humid days of summer are done and that September brings us cooler more comfortable weather to enjoy.

I am gathering some new threads to start a sampler for "Sampler September". Isn't this collection of DMC floss so pretty? The pattern is called the Garden Cherry Sampler and I would like it to be my next new start. I can't seem to figure out what fabric to stitch it on because there are a few light colours that won't show up well on a light background fabric. This is my first floss conversion from Weeks Dye Works recommended threads to DMC, so maybe I didn't get all the colours correct? 

And lastly I am still working on the binding of the quilt I wrote about last week. I am "lollygagging and dillydallying" as my friend Barb would say!

What are you stitching this week? Are you being productive, or are you lollygagging? Dillydallying?

Link up your blog post below and share your slow progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello stitcher! Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party where we hope you will get lots of inspiration and encouragement to help you on your stitching journey!

I started a new knitting project this week and challenged myself to try a new stitch from the Leisure Arts Kitchen Bright Dishcloths booklet. 

I was desperate for a distraction while at the hospital with my Mom this week. It was not an ideal learning environment, in fact is was quite  stressful - the long waiting hallway in the local ER where the elderly and sick wait for hours on end for health care while lying on uncomfortable stretchers . (**Sorry I should have mentioned that Mom is home now and feeling much better!) But I started this project anyway and couldn't know for certain if I was knitting the pattern correctly or not! But I do love the Estelle Sudz 100% cotton yarn and it did help to pass the time.

Many cross stitch projects were worked on this past month and I especially love the caribou I finished. This guy is part of the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery SAL called Arctic Animals. The next step is stitching puffins, so I'm excited to start on that this week.

I recorded a video to share the projects I hand stitched in August. To see the video on my youtube channel click here. After I filmed the video, I realized I actually had quite a bit of  progress on many projects, so that felt great!

Today I will be hand stitching the binding on my Laundry Basket mystery quilt from 2021. It always feel so good to be nearing a finish!

What are you planning to hand stitch today? Are you starting new projects? Finishing some treasures? We hope you will link up your blog below and share your journey with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello stitcher! Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party where we hope you will get lots of inspiration and encouragement to help you on your stitching journey!

Last week I was delighted to sit around a frame with friends and hand quilt a special project at the Fergus Scottish Festival. I am on the left side of the frame behind the lamp and loving every minute of stitching the day away!

There were so many wonderful moments in conversation, visiting with friends new and old, and just putting in the stitches. It was so relaxing and it was my privilege to be there with the other quilters again this year.

We also had many other hand crafters set up in the heritage tent. 

This is my friend Pat who is a lace maker. She had one project for the morning, and a different one for the afternoon. I enjoyed watching her make gorgeous lace and told her about the show I have enjoyed watching on Britbox called "Larkrise to Candleford" which features a lacemaker named Queenie, and shows how the industrial revolution changed the lives of the lacemakers at the end of the 19th century. Now I want to watch the whole series again!

We also had spinners and weavers in the crafting tent. I just had to snap a photo when the historical re-enactors visited us! I felt like I was in an episode of Outlander for a minute!

What a glorious day of hand crafting! The weather was a disaster, with periods of rain pouring down, followed by intense sun, heat and humidity. It was a day of putting a jacket on, taking it off and putting it back on again... over and over. And we won't talk about how I wore 2 different shoes to the event!! LOL It was quite the memorable day!

And since then I have finished a baby quilt for my cousin's miracle baby they named  Faythann.  My sister pieced the top in pastel flannels, and chose the backing with a variety of animals, and I did the machine quilting and the hand binding. It's always such a relief when the quilt is finished before the shower!

Here is my 94 year old Auntie and her glorious grandbaby. We are just so thankful and celebrating this new life after my cousin and his wife experienced so many miscarriages previously. She truly is a miracle!

I have also been stitching on some cross stitching projects, but the energy of those projects pale in comparison to all the exciting events of the past week, so I will maybe show those another time.

What are you hand stitching this week? Do you have any special projects to finish for upcoming special events? Link up your blog 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 link up that celebrates all types of hand stitching! 

Do you enjoy applique, hand quilting, knitting, embroidery, cross stitch, EPP, crochet, rug making or beading? If so, we are your tribe! We hope you will visit the links below and sprinkle encouraging comments everywhere you go. And of course we hope you will link up your current hand stitching progress to share with us.

I am so glad the olympics are over today because I am exhausted from all this TV watching! LOL 

I have been cross stitching every evening for at least a bit of time and have made progress on several projects, but finished nothing! Here are some fish for the July Square Dance block, but there is so much more to stitch.

I have just been putzing around here and there, and it seems like I don't have much to show for my efforts. That's okay... it's been fun!

Also fun was going to quilt judging school yesterday, learning a lot, and seeing this gorgeous field of sunflowers on the way home! It was so beautiful I could hardly take it in! Until it started raining and then I was done admiring the beauty and scurried to the car.

What are you hand stitching this week? Are you having summer adventures and accomplishing less stitching, or is it only me??

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Slow Sunday Stitching - Olympics

Welcome to the hand stitching olympics! 

You get a bronze medal if you take out your project today and put some stitches in!

You earn a silver medal if you stitch on more than 1 project!

And you get a gold medal if you actually finish a project!

Congratulations to everyone who is a hand stitcher in 2024 - you all get participation awards! 🤗🤗

I finished a couple of things this week - gold medal for me! 

The hand stitched binding is completed on my Dancing in the Stars quilt. This was the 2023 Scrapdash mystery quilt project for the February Super bowl. I added a top and bottom border to make it a rectangular quilt, instead of a square as the pattern called for.  

Finished size: 48" x 57"

It was made all from stash and scraps and I am so delighted with how it turned out! Yah me!

Well, and also yah for Roxanne who quilted it for me! Can you see the lovely quilting pattern she created?!? It perfectly matches the theme of the quilt.

This week I have also  enjoyed participating in an instagram challenge organized by Katie @thenaptimestitcher. The challenge is called #Stitchthesummerolympics and a different stitching challenge is issued for each day. 

During the first week I have finished 3 cross stitched pieces!

1) First I completed Mini Strawberry Sampler (a lovely free pattern given to us by Melisa at  Pinker'nPunking Quilting and Stitching). It measures 5" x 3.5" on 14 count (beet dyed) Aida cloth. I will fully finish this in the same way as I have finished the squirrel sampler, and the pumpkin sampler. I just adore these little wallhanging projects, and can't decide which one to start next! It will be apple season soon, so maybe I'll start the mini apple sampler? Or maybe the sunflower sampler?

2) My second project was started for the "Stitches and Pages" group hosted by Katie the Novel Stitcher. The novel we read was "Funny Story" by Emily Henry, and we always pick our own stitching project to work on. 

I stitched a design from the "Really Cross Stitch" book by Rayna Fahey. This one is already framed and sitting in my office tea room as a tribute to our infectious disease experts who brilliantly navigated covid days and helped us to survive the covid era. Some of our clients did not make it, and it was tough going for us for a couple of years. 

The Stitches and Pages zoom meeting was lots of fun as we discussed the book and our projects. The next book will be posted next week - click here to see the possible choices if you are interested.

3) This Wild Whimsy Bear pattern was started on our annual family camping trip and was finished during the first week of the olympics. It was stitched mostly with Classic Colorworks threads on 14 count tea dyed Aida cloth. I plan to finish this for a Christmas gift.  It measures 4" x 3".

I also wanted to mention in case you missed the World Embroidery Day celebration for July 30th on Sarah Homfray's Youtube video. I enjoyed seeing the video clips submitted by stitchers around the world showing their embroidery.

(And P.S. If you are interested in having your name in the draw for the Fat Quarter Shop mystery quilt kit, you need to leave a comment on my youtube channel and I will pick a winner at the end of August)

And that's what I've been up to. I'm a tiny bit obsessed with the olympics and plan to be in my stitchy chair every evening this week watching the highlights of the day. Are you watching the olympics? Are you hand stitching so much your hands are sore like mine?!? Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter