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.
Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching where we celebrate the wonderful world of hand stitching. We encourage you to take a big deep breath, pick up your needles and threads, and enjoy some relaxing moments today.
I have started my full coverage stitching project (for the 3rd time!) and am really enjoying it. You can hear more about it in my February recap video if you missed that. It is restarted using 1 DMC thread over 1 stitch on 25 count easy grid lugana. As of yesterday I have stitched 0.85% of the project which is 649 stitches!
It is very slow going but the process really appeals to me. You can stitch for hours and not notice any progress. You can't even tell what this blob of stitches is going to become.
For me this process feels similar to parenting. You pour in resources and love and time, day after day, not seeing any noticeable benefit (often feeling worried and discouraged) and then all of a sudden you stand back and see that your efforts have indeed made a difference! One step/stitch at a time!
But I need more instant gratification than long term projects provide, so I also have lots of little projects to keep me inspired. I finished 2 of those this week and they are now hanging on the wall. Part of the fun for me is digging around in the fabric stash looking for a perfect scrap for the backing and binding! The top one is a design by Darling and Whimsey Designs, stitched on 14 count tea dyed aida. The bottom one is byPrimrose Cottage on 18 count white aida.
Now it's your turn to update us on your slow progress. Link up your blog post below and share what you are hand stitching this week.
Every Sunday we roll out the welcome mat for like-minded hand stitchers to gather for a party. Thank you for joining us! We encourage you to get out your hand stitching project and put in a few stitches. Then make yourself a cup of your favourite beverage and visit other hand stitchers around the world to see what they are working on today.
This week I finished another older cross stitch called Matryoshka Doll. This is still a free pattern on the Tiny Modernist website. I loved stitching on this, especially using the brightly coloured threads. I changed the colour of the bird on the left so the baby birds would be slightly different. The plan is to turn this stitchery into a project bag. Wish me luck!
One of the things I don't talk much about is what kind of hand stitching needles I use. Basically I use whatever needle I can find and am unaware of any preference.
This is the adorable chicken that my friend Debby uses to store her wonderful needle collection. I was surprised to see how many brands of needles she has and what stitching tasks they are considered to be best for.
Do you have a needle preference? A particular brand or size you recommend? I'd loved to hear about it! Link up your blog post below and share your projects and needle preferences with us!
Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching! It's the day of resting, moving slowly, breathing deeply, and hand stitching.
I have been making a mess in my stitching room, moving things around, looking at projects, and thinking about why I am not accomplishing as much as I used to?
One of the reasons for sure is this little stinker who doesn't like to sleep in the night! This photo of me rocking my grandbaby was taken at 4:20 am - he prefers snuggling to sleeping and who could blame him?!?! However, his parents are exhausted and I am so happy to rock a baby - night or day! So that takes up a lot of stitching (or sleeping time)! They have threatened to hire a "sleep consultant" so my night time snuggles may soon be coming to an end!
Another reason for my lack of progress is due to having too many starts, and not enough finishes. I have little piles of projects everywhere with all the fabrics, threads and supplies.
Here is an example. This week I started a St. Patrick's Day stitchery.
It was a free pattern that came to my inbox from Primrose Cottage. If you are a newsletter subscriber, you receive free patterns once a month. How could I resist that? I couldn't! I grabbed some greens, a gold, and a black floss and started stitching on 18 count aida fabric. I got obsessed and forgot everything else I wanted to work on this week. And then I decided it had to be finished by St. Patrick's Day, which is tomorrow. So ridiculous!
So today I will be finishing this little stitchery into a wallhanging and am excited about meeting my self imposed deadline. And then I will try to get back on track with what I had planned to work on last week.
What are you obsessed with lately? Are you madly trying to finish any St. Patrick's Day projects before tomorrow?
Welcome to the weekly Slow Sunday Stitchinglink up! Did you turn your clock ahead one hour last night to adjust to "daylight saving time"? Although it's not as stressful of an event as it was when my kids were young (and the adjustment was simply miserable), it is still a change that takes some getting used to.
Lately I have been inspired to stitch on my Canadian Sampler by Erin Elizabeth Designs. I finished all the letters and the border across the top. Stitching the roof of the house is going well, although it is boring to stitch.
And late last night I stitched the leaf motif on the top left of the top border. So fun to make some progress on this sampler!
I also have been stitching a bit on my version of Arctic Animals by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. This is a partial Harp Seal which has a lot of boring neutral threads, so when I picked it up to add more stitches, I realized I had left 4 of them just dangling! So today I'll work on finishing off those threads.
What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share the projects you are working on this week.
Welcome to the weekly hand stitching link up party! We encourage you to join us by putting some stitches into one of your projects today. Just a few moment of stitching can provide numerous health benefits - click here to learn 14 benefits of hand stitching and why you are so wise to invest your time and energy in hand work!
I have had a lot of productive stitching time when I went to a retreat last week. It was lovely to get away from the regular routine and be able to focus on finishing some things. Here is the fall tablerunner I finished from the Modern Holiday Tablerunner book by Cluck Cluck Sew.
This was a kit project purchased from the Creekbank Sewing Centre at the May shop hop last year. It is simply quilted by machine and then I enjoyed hand stitching the binding using scraps from the pumpkin blocks. What a fun backing I found in the stash! It is ready to use for fall 2025!
I also put 2 cross stitch projects into a hoop finish. The top is Cardinal Wreath by Tiny Modernist, and the bottom is Festive Cardinal by Pigeon Coop Designs. These are very rudimentary finishes and I would like to learn how to make hoop finishes look nicer on the back. But they are finished and we all know that finished is better than perfect!
I also did some unstitching on an older project. I detest ripping out stitches, but I forced myself. Even using this lovely seam ripper made by my friend Sue's husband, it was still challenging. But now it's done and I am ready to restitch the bird.
To hear more about my February stitching, I just uploaded a new Flosstube episode.
One of the exciting things I have done in preparation for Stitch North in April, is commissioned one of my talented friends to design a sticker for me to give out to stitching friends. If you would like one, just email me with your address and I'll pop one in the mail to you. You're a Stitching Star!
What exciting things are you hand stitching today? We love to see your projects, so please link up your blog post below and tell us all about your stitching this week.
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 share my most recent finish with you today! This pattern is one of the Blessings Samplers from Chris the Camping Stitcher's etsy shop. I started it on New Year's Eve and now it is a finished wall hanging! I used a 25 count pewter lugana and 3 different blue Roxy floss threads to make this piece. It measures 7" x 9".
I finished this cross stitch like I do all of my miniature quilts. I ironed a stabilizer on the back of the stitching since it's a bit larger than a "mini". The single binding is cut at 1 3/8", attached on the front using a 1/4" seam allowance, folded to the back and hand stitched down. I added the split handing sleeve at the top, and the triangle label at the bottom. I usually write the name and designer of the pattern, and my name as the maker. Sometimes I add the year or other pertinent information on the label.
It has been a while since I have experienced the joy of finishing a project and it has inspired me to look at what else I can finish in my sewing room!
Do you have any finishes to share with us this week? Are you longing to have a finish? We understand! Keep stitching and eventually you will get there!
Welcome to the weekly celebration of hand stitching! Why not join us as we make time to enjoy the benefits of relaxation with our favourite projects?
Recently I have been obsessed with the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery year long SAL called Arctic Animals. I am stitching this on the recommended 28 count Cashel linen called "Nocturne" by Picture This Plus. I was happily stitching the top of the design and working along the top on the Aurora Borealis, but made a mistake which resulted in part of the design being a half stitch off! Can you see where the circle is showing my mistake?
So I abandoned the top (while I think of a solution) and went to the bottom of the design to start a new animal pattern released this week - a Narwhal! 💖
I became obsessed - started stitching him on Friday and finished on Saturday! I have 3 more animals to stitch on this - an arctic hare, a polar bear and a harp seal.
Does this happen to you? You become so engrossed in a project that you forget all the other things you wanted to do and can only think of finishing some stitching? I wish I would become obsessed with finishing some things, but that doesn't seem to happen! LOL
It has been too cold and snowy here to do anything but stitching! This is a picture of my car before heading to work one morning this week. First you have to start the car and get it warmed up, then you have to clean the snow off the car, and then you hope the snow plow hasn't come by in the night and dumped all the snow from the road into your driveway!! If that happened, you have to shovel the end of the driveway to get onto the street. And by then if you're not too tired, you go to work!
What are you stitching this week? Are you obsessed with a project that you are really enjoying? Link up your blog post below and share your hand stitching with us!
Welcome stitchy friends! We are so happy to see what your hands are creating and to encourage you in your creative journey!
I was very happy to finish 5 cross stitches this year and show them on my new flosstube video. None of them are fully finished and my ideas are still percolating to figure out what these stitcheries should become. You can see them on the video link below.
One of my most enjoyable hand stitching tasks this past week was attaching the beads to the Vintage Angel. These are the supplies I used, including my favourite NYMO thread. It was so fun to dig around in the bead box and find just the right colours and sizes of beads to add. Then I had to search for a needle with a small enough eye that it could fit through the beads I had chosen!
I don't know if you can see the NYMO thread here in this photo? The goal is for the thread to be strong enough to hold the beads on forever, but also invisible on the finished piece. Oh she looks so pretty and I wish you could see her sparkly beads, but I just couldn't capture it with my camera.
Here are 4 of the finishes that I show in the video.
And now it's time to start Valentine's stitching! First up is a wonderful design called the Red Heart Mini Sampler by Pinker 'n Punkin, and I can't wait to pull out my red and pink flosses! 💖💖
Are you stitching for Valentine's Day? Link up your blog post below and share the projects you are stitching on this week!
Welcome to the weekly hand stitching link up! We celebrate all types of hand work and enjoy seeing what is being created by hands around the world. Where I live in Ontario, Canada we are in the middle of winter and we have survived a cold and dark January. But we did see the sun yesterday and I am looking forward to hearing what the groundhog will predict for the weather in the next 2 months - an early spring, or 6 more weeks of winter?!
I have worked on 2 cross stitch pieces this week.
The first one is the Arctic Animals SAL with Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I am already a couple of steps behind, but keep working away - slow and steady wins the race! The iceberg with all that white stitching was tough, but I am loving the Aurora Borealis at the top!
And the second project is my Vintage Angel. I have enjoyed stitching her and am almost finished her skirt. The only other thing to stitch will be her shoes and she will be done!
What are you hand stitching today? We hope you will link up your instagram or blog post today and share your projects with us.
Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! It's hard to believe it's already the last link up for January, but the sooner the winter passes, the better! Thank you for your kind messages last week about the loss of my Dad. I really appreciate your thoughts and condolences.
I have been doing a bit of stitching here and there, but can't seem to focus on anything for too long at this time. Yesterday I tried my "4 thread day" idea and it has really taken hold. It's fun to pick 4 projects at random and just put in 1 thread.
Benefits:
*It keeps the energy going for long term projects that are bogged down with "this is taking forever" negative energy. Of course it's taking forever, it's a hand stitched project!
*Putting in 1 thread alleviates the guilt that comes with not working on a project you have loved. You can feel good about making a bit of progress with each thread.
*You don't have to solve any problems. Just pick an area that you know you can put a thread in, and then put the project away. Often times I find that my brain is working away quietly in the background solving a project's problem while I put in some stitches.
*It is a great feeling of accomplishment ("a stitcher's high") when you have touched 4 projects! I feel like a stitching star who deserves applause when I've made all that progress! LOL
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I also have made a lot of progress on my Vintage Angel. This is a Tiny Modernist pattern that I purchased at Jingle Ball in December and started stitching on New Year's Eve. Today I hope to finish the second wing and start her gown. This design does not call for beads, but I'm starting to think she definitely will need some added.
What are you hand stitching today? Please share your progress with us and link up your blog below!
I'm so sorry to not have a blog post today. My Dad died suddenly yesterday so I am in a bit of a grief fog. I will post the link up party below and then will be off the computer for a bit while we make arrangements. And I will use my stitching to keep myself together...one stitch at a time.
Welcome to the weekly link up celebrating the art of hand stitching! We are interested in anything you are stitching with your very own hands including knitting, tatting, applique, hand piecing, rug making, english paper piecing, quilting, embroidery, cross stitch, and beading.
This past week I have had tunnel vision on my 2025 Blessings Sampler start. I heard that starting a blessing sampler at the beginning of the year will bring blessings to your needle/stitching and/or to your home/family. I don't know if this folklore is true, but I fully embraced it and started stitching my sampler on New Year's Eve.
The pattern is designed by Chris on Etsy (and on Youtube) at "The Camping Stitcher". I loved working on this and finished the stitching in 11 days from start to finish. (This is actually her 2024 pattern, and she also has a new 2025 design if you are interested.)
I dug through my fabric stash and have picked out a backing and a binding to make this into a little wallhanging. I just need to buy some kind of stabilizer so I can complete it.
One of the things I thought about while stitching this sampler is what I would like to hand stitch in 2025. I have made a little list which I may or may not follow and I will share 3 of them here:
1) Do more finishing! I have so many UFO's waiting either for finishing or problem solving to more toward a finish.
2) Toward that same end - no more online purchasing!
The mess at the Canadian postal service has resulted in too much stress and wasted money for me. I have 5 outstanding deliveries (since November) that have not yet appeared.
So maybe that is a good decision to stop any further impulse buying? The order that I am saddest about is not getting a 2025 Book of Days. I ordered it from 2 different companies just in case and they have both disappeared. All of the orders are apparently "in transit" and one even says it was delivered... which it was not.
3) Finish my "Life is Beautiful" quilt. All of the embroidery and hand quilting is done, and the blocks just need to be sewn together in quilt-as-you-go fashion, which I enjoy to do. I have brought the box out of storage and will "set myself up for success" by getting everything ready for when stitching moments happen.
Do you have any hand stitching goals for 2025? Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us!
