Everyone is most welcome to join in and stitch with us! All you have to do is prepare your favourite beverage, grab your stitching project, and enjoy the relaxation that hand stitching offers.
I am attending Stitch North in Brampton, Ontario Canada and let me tell you, the room is full of talented and inspiring stitchers here. And everywhere you look, you are surrounded by beauty and finding more treasures to buy!
I purchased the Stitch North kit to start a pattern called Serenity, and here are the pretty threads. The pattern is so lovely to work with and I am really enjoying my stitching.
I was lucky enough to meet the pattern designer Lori Pengelly of Pansy Patch and purchased several more of her patterns for future starts. Here she is holding her framed sample stitch, and below it is my small start.
This is how far I got by last night. I had planned to just stitch the border all around, but I was enticed by the stars and letters (it looks like I didn't finish the letter 'L'!) and got started on stitching the roof. And then I noticed my mistake and shut it down for the day! Can you spot it? Should I take it out?
What a wonderful weekend it has been and we will have a half day together today! It will be very sad to say goodbye to all the lovely, kind, generous people I have met here. I will say more about the experience (and show my purchases) in my next flosstube video, but for now I will say that I am so grateful to be part of the hand stitching community and to have the privilege of meetings so many like minded people!
Like you!
Link up your blog post below and share your hand stitching projects with us!
Welcome to the Slow Sunday Stitching link up where we celebrate all the benefits of hand stitching. It's also Easter, which is a busy time for some families, so I hope you can find even a few minutes in between all the activities to pick up a needle and thread and put some stitches into a project you are working on.
I have been working on a new cross stitch project called "There is room" by The Proper Stitcher. I talked about it in my March video and I am using a variety of pink threads from my stash. The fabric is a hand dyed 18 count aida from Million of Stitches.
I have the fabric rolled up from the bottom and started stitching in the top right corner.
The top row of motifs and the first word is stitched.
This design on the top left was particularly fun to stitch. I'm not really sure what it is, but it looks like easter lilies to me!
Today I hope to put a few more stitches into this beauty. But there will be lots of cooking, visiting, and hunting for Easter eggs, so we shall see if much stitching gets done!
What are your plan for today? What projects might you be working on? Link up your blog post below and share your progress.
Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! It's time to take a deep breath, pick up your needles and threads, and put some stitches into one of your projects.
It has been such a busy week that I haven't had much time or energy for stitching. So today I'll be sitting with my feet up, hand stitching the day away while I watch the Masters golf tournament. I am not a golfer, but I do enjoy the peaceful nature of the Augusta competition, seeing the beautiful green grass and flowers, while spending time stitching.
I am still focused on the Heaven and Earth Design full coverage project called Mini Treasure Hunt Bookshelf. This project is on 25 count easy grid lugana and I have stitched over 2,000 stitches now. It sounds like a lot, but it is only 2.7% of the total number of stitches. This is what it looks like today. Each square of the grid holds 100 stitches.
It's so interesting to look at the photo on the computer screen since it is usually 6" from my face when I am stitching and doesn't look like anything. I will be excited to see some of the book spines appear as I am slowly stitching over time.
I also bought a few pairs of cheap glasses since it seems to be getting harder to see my stitching at some times of the day.
Lastly, thank you for your lovely comments and suggestions on last week's blog post! I have read them over many times and appreciate your encouragement to continue with this full coverage/rabbit hole pursuit for as long as it lasts!
What are you hand stitching today? Is anyone watching the golf tournament? Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us.
Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party, where we value the slow process of creating with our own hands. If you knit, bead, hand quilt, cross stitch, embroider, tat, applique, hook rugs, hand piece quilt blocks, and/or enjoy english paper piecing, you will find other like-minded stitchers here!
I have a true confession this week and hope some of you will understand my predicament and give me some advice. I'm afraid I have fallen down a very deep stitchy rabbit hole. I have become completely smitten with full coverage cross stitching.
After thinking about it for a long time, learning from videos, and having 2 false starts, I have settled into working on the Mini Treasure Hunt Bookshelf pattern (artwork by Aimee Stewart). My fabric base is 25 count gridded Lugana and I am using 1 thread over 1 stitch. There are 88 DMC thread colours in this project. So far I have put in 1,187 stitches, which is a grand total of 1.55% of the total number of the 76,375 stitches needed! This is what it looks like today.
When I look at this project I fear I may have lost my mind! It seems like a ridiculous way to spend time. It's so bizarre that I love it so much, and I feel guilty that I am not making something useful that could be of help to others. Instead I'm just staring at this 2.5" by 1" piece of fabric and threads for hours on end. It doesn't even look like anything, and won't for a few thousand more stitches!
But when I am stitching on it, I am transported to another calm and wonderful existence of simply following a chart (on pattern keeper) and playing with colourful threads.
Carl Holsoe painting 1900
Some people call it "being in the zone" and I could spend hours there and not realize how much time has passed by. I can block out all the chaos and conflict in the world and enjoy a feeling of complete peacefulness. I love this painting of a woman sitting alone at a window, her back to everything, quietly stitching. Maybe women have always used hand stitching as a way to manage life?
But there must be a balance, right? Is there such a thing as spending too much time alone stitching? Perhaps this will pass as quickly as it came upon me?! Has this ever happened to you? What are your thoughts?
This past week I posted a little youtube video to show my March projects.
My April summary video will not be nearly as interesting if I don't snap out of my full coverage reverie! I am planning to attend Stitch North at the end of the month, so I'm sure I will buy new fabrics and threads, and start new projects and be able to share that.
What are you stitching this week? Please link up your blog post below and share your projects with us.
