Welcome to the weekly online gathering of the hand stitchers! You are welcome to make your favourite beverage, get out your stitching, and see what everyone is working on this week.I recently attended a quilt retreat and you know what that means?!? To me it means tons of inspiration, too much delicious food, soothing conversations with friends, and lots of time to start and complete stitching projects!
This week I plan to write a couple of blog posts about the retreat, but today I will focus on the hand stitching that was enjoyed. Sandy does beautiful hand work and I will show two of her projects. The first is a Kathy Schmitz embroidery pattern that Sandy stitched using a valdani variegated thread. She made it into a wallhanging and it was gorgeous!
Sandy was working on her fabulous yo yo quilt from Kim Diehl's book Simple Graces. Everyone was drooling over this project and talking about starting their own yoyo collection.
Some of the retreaters bought the Clover Yo Yo maker and believed Sandy when she said "it's so easy"! Well, the instructions might as well have been written in another language because I couldn't make any sense of them! My first attempt was dismal and discouraging, but I will might keep at it!
I started a couple new projects, and here is one of them - a Mill Hill Christmas ornament kit from 2022. It is a small project with cross stitch and beading and I enjoyed getting this started. I had planned to make an ornament each month this year, but January is already over and February is coming to a close, so my new realistic goal is to make an ornament every other month!
I also did lots of hand stitching on quilt bindings. I brought 3 quilts to finish, and only 1 got completed, but I have continued on while watching the olympics and hope to finish another one today. It was wonderful when the sun came out (mostly it was foggy and icy weather) and I enjoy catching some rays!
I'll write more about the retreat this week, but that's the hand stitching update for today. Please link your blog post below and share your update with us!
Oh dear, careful when one says "it's so easy". =) Some lovely stitching to be seen at the retreat. The yo-yo quilt is lovely. Enjoy binding those quilts.
ReplyDeleteRetreats are wonderful for conversations with friends, inspiration, good food, and stitching! That embroidery is gorgeous and Sandy is obviously a yo-yo expert! I hope you show us the completed quilts…. Happy slow stitching day!
ReplyDeleteMy sister has a yoyo maker and loves it. I've never tried one. I'm sure you'll catch on soon. Happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteI've never made a yo-yo quilt. I really like the background in the one pictured. Glad you got the binding on one quilt. A finish is a finish. Congrats.
ReplyDeleteI used to make a lot of those Mill Hill bead kits! Haven't done one in years.
ReplyDeleteThe retreat sounds like it was a nice sanity reset and a chance hang out with friends. Looking forward to seeing your finishes. I'm hoping for one of my own in the next couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteYour retreat sounds like a lot of fun! I do hope you stick with the yo-yos and are successful at making that amazing quilt. Enjoy your stitching today, Kathy!
ReplyDeleteI think your yoyos look good!
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