Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly meeting of the hand stitching enthusiasts! 

It is fall fair season here and I have been busy judging at various local fairs, mostly in the leisure arts divisions. It is a great work out for my brain, and I enjoy seeing what people are crafting these days.

Here are a couple of examples...

First is the category of Christmas Trees smaller than 16". My job is to examine the items submitted and award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons.

There are 4 items in this category, which always makes me feel bad because one will not get a ribbon. Sometimes if the items are really equal in quality, I ask if I may award two 3rd place ribbons and most fairs will let me. Here we have a crochet tree, a yoyo tree, a shell tree, and a wood shaving tree. It is like comparing apples and oranges! Mostly I look for indicators of good workmanship, any concerning issues with the  construction, and visual appeal. 

Here is the "Mason jar lantern" category with 3 entries, all of which were well done. We have a decoupage with dried flowers, a painted jar, and a crochet jar cover. All were very clever and pretty, and if they are equal in workmanship I consider the time spent in creating the item and the talent and experience required to create the art piece. 

Just look at this knitted dress! So adorable and unique!
It is mostly very fun, and so invigorating to see such beautiful creations. Sometimes the larger fairs have 8 or 10 items in the category and that can be harder to judge if all the items are well made.

It is also interesting to notice which category of items are empty - no tablerunners were entered in one fair, and no mittens in another! 

And of course, there is great food! Here I am testing the lunch pies with little portions of deliciousness! My fave was the lemon meringue!

So you enter any fall fairs? Do you visit them with your friends or family?

You can share you hand stitching update in the linkup below.

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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 projects and put in some stitches. 

This week I finished the cross stitch on the Fast Frisian pattern by Jacob of Modern Folk Embroidery. This is a sampler based on traditional vintage stitcheries from Netherlands and included motifs such as birds, little animals, and household items.  It is stitched on 18 count aida called "Beige and Confused" (purchased from Stitch Man Darcy).

I like how it has the year of the finish, and the stitchers initials in the design. It was very fun to work on using a limited palette of 5 colours of threads. I have enjoyed looking at the wide range of finishes on instagram - from those using many colours to some that are juusing just one colour of thread. You can see them using the hashtag #fastfrisian.

This month I have so many projects on the go that I really enjoy working on. I have no idea what I will stitch on today. It is sometimes hard to decide! What are you stitching today and how do you decide what to work on? 

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the first September hand stitching party! Fall is almost here and I couldn't be happier! I'm getting out my autumnal and halloween projects and seeing what can be finished this year.

This week I filmed a flosstube video of the projects I stitched on in August and was proud of the finishes I accomplished. 

Here are 2 of the little wallhangings I completed this week. The red blessings sampler that I stitched in January is a pattern from The Camping Stitcher and I am sending it to friends who have recently married. The green sampler is the Quick Quaker from Modern Folk Embroidery that I stitched in April. A 3rd finish has already gone to hang in my office!

I really enjoy making these little wall hangings and putting them up around my home and office, and sharing with others.

It has been very busy with fall fair judging this week, and that will continue for me until October. I do enjoy it, and the decision fatigue that sets in after you make 200 + decisions in a couple of hours is something I have learned to deal with over the years. But the process of judging is visually overstimulating and it does take a day or two for my brain to settle down to do anything creative.

Hence I'm a bit scattered in my stitching these days. But I will put some stitching in something today because it's Slow Sunday Stitching! And it's the labour day long weekend here which means we get Monday off work, so that's more stitching time for me!

What are you hand stitching this week? Do you get an extra day of stitching with a holiday on Monday?

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Slow Sunday Stitching

 Hello Slow Stitching friends! Welcome to the last August hand stitching party! 

I have been on a finishing bender lately and have a few donation quilts ready to drop off.

There has been a lot of hand binding over the summer when it wasn't too hot to have a quilt on my lap. The bottom 3 quilts are donations and the top is one that I have fallen in love with and can't part with... for now at least. I will do a blog post about each finish asap.

I have also finished a few little cross stitch pieces into wall hangings... while eating my favourite snack of course! I thought this photo was cute since the snack bag is almost as big as the project I was stitching! 

I have also started a couple of new things because fall is coming!  Are you starting to think about Halloween yet?  This will be a Prairie Schooler Halloween project. I had a difficult time picking the threads for this, even though it just needs a black and an orange. 

Who knew there were so many oranges in my stash? What on earth!??!

I don't even like orange!

Where did all of these come from?

What are you hand stitching this week? Do you have any new starts or finishes? Link up your blog post below and share your progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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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 enjoyed a lovely hand stitching get together yesterday with 4 friends, and most of us stitched on bindings for at least part of the time. 

These are Pat's hands finishing a baby quilt that had 2 batts in it, so it was really soft and puffy, but the binding was a little more challenging.

Here are Gayle's hands working on some placemats for a fall fair entry.

Marg was working on a guild donation quilt which was a "R.O.M." - a row of the month quilt project.

And Joanne was finishing a table runner with a lovely print that looked great for a  binding. 

And lastly these are my hands working on a brown BOM (block of the month) quilt. I'm so excited to be almost finished this one because it is 15 years old!

We each brought other projects to stitch as well, but finishing projects seemed to be front of mind this weekend... likely because it's fall fair season right around the corner. 

What are you hand stitching as August is coming to an end? Are you any finishing items to submit in fairs? Please 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

Welcome to all the hand stitchers and to the "wannabees! Whether you are a lurker or a daily stitcher, everyone is welcome to celebrate at the weekly party!

I was a "wannabee" for a long time before I met a quilter who invited me to a quilt guild meeting in 1994. And since then I have been smitten by all the beautiful things that hands can create.

Last weekend I attended the Fergus Quilt Guild quilt bee at the Fergus Highland Games. In August they set up a frame to hand quilt together, and they are gracious enough to let me crash the bee/party.

I love this so much and feel like my best self when I'm around a quilt frame. I soak up the visiting, the stitching tips, the stories of the past, and the hilarity of these lovely stitchers. The women around the frame change over time, but the process and the experience is always the same.

This year the quilt was called "Plaidish" and the blocks were made by the guild members. The design is inspired by Scottish plaids, and the double X was quilted in each block to commemorate the Scottish flag.  

I am fascinated by the design, and have been thinking about starting my own version of this quilt - the free pattern and tutorial can be found here. I didn't stay as long around the frame this year because it was soooo hot and humid, and I started to melt. In fact it was so hot that the quilt markings done on Friday by a frixion pen has disappeared by Saturday morning and the quilt had to be re-marked. Those pen marks can be removed by an iron ...or a hot summer inn Ontario in 2026!

And in a bit of synchronicity today I am hand stitching a plaid skirt on the 4th lady on the Flosstube Friends pattern. I am randomly stitching various colours of threads through the skirt to create a feeling of plaid. I seem to be surrounded by the plaid theme!

What are you hand stitching today? Please link up your blog post below and share you slow progress with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Design Wall Monday

I have pulled out a mystery quilt from Scrapdash which was the Super Bowl mystery in 2025 to work on. This is called Ten Speed and it was very tricky to make because there are 2 similar blocks with different orientations, and even now when I return to work on it, I keep making mistakes!

I started piecing this project on my 1952 Featherweight called "Charity" and even though she is 74 years old, she still sews like a champ. 

I have all the block pieces organized and believe I could finish it up quickly since I only have 4 more blocks to sew. Here are some blocks on the design wall. 

The block pattern gives a fun secondary design, but I keep sewing the blocks incorrectly. Can you find the one that needs to be unstitched?!?

It feels good to be working on some of my old projects and I hope to finish this quilt top in August. 

Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday