Design Wall Monday

I haven't written a design wall post for a while but am happy today to share a new project I have started.

I was inspired by seeing this scrappy quilt made by a quilting friend (Nellie), and being hand bound by another quilting friend (Barb). I love this scrap pattern! Barb called it a "potato chip" quilt which I researched on line and found a good tutorial on the Alamosa Quilter blog. 

I studied how Nellie made her  blocks, noticing that she made one light round of rectangles in each block. Then I dug into the scrap bin, and started cutting and sewing. It was so much fun!

Here is my first block on the design wall. I used yellow as a light contrast round because there were not many light neutrals in the bin I was working from. I also would like to find some brighter colours to add into future blocks and will pull from another scrap bin for the next one.

I have many more rectangles cut and am ready to start sewing more blocks! I am enjoying the energy that a new project brings!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Welcome to the hand stitching party!

Our first link up was June 24, 2012 so this weekend we are celebrating 12 years of Slow Sunday Stitching adventures! The goal was to encourage people to slow down, to take a deep breath, to dedicate precious time to the healing process of hand work, and to connect with other creative like-minded stitchers. Thank you for helping me to achieve that goal! 🥰

I am doing just as much hand stitching as I ever have including knitting, cross stitch, embroidery, quilting and beading. And I still adore binding quilts. Look at this pile of quilts to finish! The bottom two are comfort quilts made by other guild members, the middle gold and black quilt was pieced by my friend Gail, and the top two are quilts that I pieced and sent to a long armer (Roxanne) to machine quilt for me. I will post more photos next month as I finish these bindings, but this is one lovely pile of happiness waiting for me!

I also love the monthly series of patterns called Square Dance from Heart in Hand that I am making this year. They are perfect little take along projects for my hand work bag. The May flower block is finished and the June block is finally started. 

I also finished the adorable Strawberry Jam pattern by Cheryl of Tiny Modernist (who is my favourite Canadian cross stitch pattern designer).

This mouse is so darn adorable, I was smiling the whole time I stitched her. Her little boots, her curly tail, and holding a strawberry. 🍓🍓🍓 I stitched on a black bead for her eye so she could see well. I'm disappointed that my white flowers don't show up very well on my beet dyed aida cloth (which is pinker in real life).

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I dunked a piece of cloth in beet juice - it was a crazy experiment to try to make pink fabric! You can see the piece I cut out to stitch the Strawberry Jam mouse on. I don't know why some of it came out really dark pink? I'm sure I will try an experiment like this again some day. Maybe with walnut shells, or onion skins, or pomegranates, or ???

So that's my stitching update for this week. Now it's your turn - what are you hand stitching this week? Link up your blog post below and share your slow progress with us! 

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Slow Sunday Stitching Strawberries #2

 Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Slow stitching is good for your health, so give yourself a little boost and pick up your stitching project today!

This is one of my favourite embroidery blocks for my Life is Beautiful project and still needs to be appliqued, sandwiched and hand quilted.

I have been obsessed with strawberries lately and finished the "Sweet Strawberry" stitching this week. I found a strawberry fabric for the backing and binding.

And then I stitched down a string of plastic beads around the inside of the binding. It just adds a bit more sweetness to the sweetness! 🍓🍓🍓

Tada... here is the finished wallhanging which measures 7" square. Do I "need" another little wallhanging?

Absolutely not!

But do I love it?

I sure do!

And that's what hand stitching is all about for me! 💖

I did a fun photo shoot yesterday and put a couple of strawberry miniatures together... so so cute!

Acckkkkk... wait!

One of them is upside down!  

I'll try to redo this and make it my photo header!

I hope you are enjoying strawberry season if you live in the part of the world where they are plentiful now! And I hope you are stitching what you love!

Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Slow Sunday Stitching Strawberries

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Our goal is to encourage you to pick up your project, put a few stitches in, take some deep breaths, and enjoy the happy feelings that will result (and the subsequent improved health)!

🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓 🍓

You may have noticed on instagram that there is a Strawberry Moon SAL (SAL means 'stitch along') happening this month, and I am very 'gung ho' about this theme! I have been dreaming of making a new photo for my blog header, and planning some projects to start stitching this month... way too many!

My first start was "Sweet Strawberry" which is a free pattern by Cosmic Handmade.  I am stitching it on a 25 count evenweave called "Shadow".  The top part of the design is done (wait... I see the top left strawberry is not quite finished!) and this week I will work on the bottom part. 

Also... don't you think the birds need stitched or beaded eyes?!

The second start is going to be "In the good old summer time" a pattern by Stitching with the Housewives. I am not going to stitch it on a black background because that is too hard for me to see. So I'm switching it to a grey background and will use the green "weeping willow" for the letters (instead of white).

The third start will be Pinker 'n Punkin's Mini Strawberry Sampler but first I got a wild hair to dye some background fabric with beets. Yes, beets, because I think it might make the fabric slightly pink which would make a great background for strawberries... and it might be fun! I did some internet research and it sounds possible, and once I get a creative idea in my head, I'm probably going to go ahead and try it!

I finished knitting my "Big Heart" washcloth this week. It's so cute! There are lots of wobbles, uneven edges, and some random holes, but I am ridiculously proud that I could figure out this pattern! It was a challenge for me and I am working up my confidence to knit a baby sweater next.

What are you creating with your hands this week? Are you planning any new starts for June?

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the hand stitching party! This is where the hand stitchers gather to share the projects they are working on. When you create something with your own hands (not with a machine) it takes so much longer to finish. You learn to develop patience and perseverance while you make small bits of progress. And we are here to celebrate with you and encourage you in your efforts!

I have been working on one of my oldest WIPs (work in progress) called "Life is Beautiful". Have you been reading my blog long enough to remember this one?

I started this in February 2015 and have worked on it in spurts over the years. Sometimes it disappears for a while until my friend Sandy asks "How's your Life is Beautiful project coming along"? So I go in search of it and fall in love with it again! Sandy has already finished her blue version of this quilt, and it is my dream to get photos of the two quilts together. But that won't happen unless I get going on mine!

I figure out where I am in the project, what the next step is, and I wonder why I put it away for so long. This time I know why! I started to put the 8.5" blocks together quilt-as-you-go style, and then realized i didn't have enough of that dark sashing fabric to complete the quilt. I'll just have to do the sashings in a scrappy style, adding in other similar fabrics and be okay with that. Today I will be cutting more sashing strips and putting in some more stitches to move this project forward. 

This week I posted a 12 mintue video of the stitching projects that I worked on in May - you can watch it at Kathy's Quilts and Stitching.

In the video I showed a little finish and am thinking about how to fully finish this piece of spring stitching. This is a free downloadable pattern from Silver Creek Samplers (thank you Diane). It is stitched on 14 count aida (2 DMC threads over 1 square) and the finished size is 2.5" x 4.5". So cute!

What are you working on in June?? Are you working on old UFOs or new starts...or both!? We hope you will share your blog post below...

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