Slow Sunday Stitching

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!

I have another finished project to share today. I started this stitching as a St. Patrick's day gift to myself last year.  It was such a fun project, and I finished the cross stitch in the summer, but didn't know what I wanted to do with it. I finally put it together with a batting and backing, and put a binding on it to be a wallhanging for a gift exchange.  I made a little split hanging sleeve (stitched into the binding) on the back and put a wooden skewer through the sleeve to easily hang it. 

This is a pattern called "Stitcher" by Misty Pursel of Luminous Fiber Arts. I love how it turned out with the variegated Weeks Dye Works threads in the green colour called "Lucky".

Finished size: 10.5" x 5.5"

Today I'll be happily working on a quilt binding. What are you hand stitching today? We hope you will link up your blog/instagram post and share your projects below.

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello stitchers and welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! 

It's that time of year again when we have to be diligent about the societal, cultural, family, and self imposed pressures to be in a frenetic and overextended state during the holiday season. How about we don't put any pressure on ourselves, and just do what we have the energy, finances, and desire to do??

I have started my December cross stitch (Free Little Quaker Christmas) project and I put in some stitches every night before bedtime. This is the right side length of the project completed, which allowed me to trim to fabric on the bottom. I was very pleased with this progress and stitched the gold bell.

 

And as soon as the bell was finished and I started those little pink stars, I realized the bell was the wrong size, and I had to remove most of those stitches! Maybe stitching at bedtime is not always a good choice!!?? LOL

So I abandoned the right side and I moved to the top for some fresh energy and am really enjoying this project once again.

I also finally finished hand stitching the binding on my Christmas Bargello tablerunner. Isn't this backing fabric fun?

This was pieced at a class I took with my sister in the summer at Cherished Pieces. I machine quilted it through the rectangles following the bargello pattern using black, green, white and red threads.

Finished size: 15.5" x 45.5"

Now it's your turn... what are you hand stitching this time of year? Are you finding moments to relax and enjoy your pretty threads and projects? Link up your blog post below and share your slow progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly linkup that celebrates the art of hand stitching! We are all about pure relaxation, and taking one s l o w stitch at a time. 

It has been a very long winter and we are anxiously waiting for spring to arrive. It has been a busy week here hosting  March Break camp for wayward Granddogs! Max loves long walks and cuddles, and if you can believe it, my sewing machine has not been turned on at all this week! Yes we had this much snow on my street on Wednesday and this great Canadian dog loved it. His Grandma... not so much!

I have been obsessed with finishing my cross stitched Alphabet Hearts Sampler by JBW Designs.  It is stitched on 32 count Parisian Linen using 3 strands (for better coverage) over 2 threads using the called for green and pink threads.

I love how it turned out and am thinking about how to finish it. I'm wondering about making it into a long pillow? What would you do?

I also finished my Winter Mystery embroidery wallhanging from
Days Filled With Joy. It has minimal hand quilting along the blue stitched lines. For some unknown reason the top left corner of the binding went wonky. Oh well, I'm not redoing it since I'm already onto several other new projects! LOL

Finished Size: 7.75" square

What are you have stitching today? Link up your photo, instagram or blog post below and share your progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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A Christmas Finish on the Design Wall!

The Fat Quarter Shop provided a free Christmastime mystery quilt pattern last fall. I really enjoyed sewing the 4 blocks - Christmas cards, a mug, candies, and presents. (There was also a mystery cross stitch pattern that was adorable but I didn't stitch that.)

My quilt was made totally from stash fabrics and the quilt top was finished in October. The machine quilting is very simple stitch-in-the-ditch (or in close proximity to the ditch!) straight lines. Nothing fancy, but finished!

I love having little projects like this around the house during the holidays. I sewed a hanging sleeve so this could be a wallhanging. Or it could be an outdoor decoration. 

The cardinals backing fabric piece that I found in my stash was just the perfect size for this project! You can see the split hanging sleeve that I sewed into the binding.

Finished size: 23" x 27"

I don't know why I was so interested in finishing this Christmas quilt in February when my OMG was to work on a Valentine's quilt ?!? 

There is no logic to creativity! 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the hand stitching tribe! I just love Sunday mornings with my hand stitching friends! The link ups are so wonderful - I always see such a great variety of projects, techniques, and colours. Delicious!

I have a little hand stitching finish to share this week! 

This is a variation of Melisa's Family Portrait. I took it outside on a snowy afternoon to get a photo. 

I hand quilted in white thread around the snowfigures and around the edge of the block. And quilted one line in blue thread in the border.  I just love it! 💙 Thank you for the design Melisa! 

Finished size: 8" x 9"

If you would like to make your own version, you can download this free pattern (and many others) on Melisa's blog Pinker n Punkin Quilting and Stitching. 

I also had a mending day this week where I sewed a button on my son's coat, re-hemmed a blouse for my Mom (it was too long to wear under her sweater) and did some repairs on my 2 favourite winter gloves (sewed the bow back on, and secured the buttons which were almost falling off).

I know I should be trying to finish my son's Christmas/Birthday stitching project, but I just needed a break from that. So I turned my attention to my oldest cross stitch project and worked on the words at the bottom of the design. It turns out I really enjoy this kind of stitching!

The only thing left to do on this is to finish the grass area. I feel renewed love for this project and a desire to finish it into a pillow for my Mom for her April birthday. 

What are your hands creating this week? Please link up your photo, instagram or blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Finished Quilt

My sister and I joined forces to make a baby quilt for our nephew's baby who will be born in February.  My sister sewed the quilt top from a kit from Cherished Pieces and did a great job. When I did the pin basting it laid completely flat which doesn't often happen with my quilt tops!

I free motion quilted vertical strings of hearts in the centre panel. The stitch length was an issue since I was quilting too fast (as usual) because it was fun!

I quilted simple straight line Xs through the border squares. The fabric was so adorable and I had warm fuzzy feelings the whole time I worked on this quilt.

We were pretty excited that the quilt was actually finished in time for the baby shower! We also put the book that inspired this fabric line into the gift bag with the quilt.  We are all so excited for this baby to come and I am predicting it will be born on my brother's birthday in February. We shall see!

This is my first finish of 2023! Woohoo! 

Finished size: 40" x 50"

Linking up to Alycia's Finished (or not) Friday