Slow Sunday Stitching

Can you believe it's the last link up of the year for the Slow Sunday Stitchers?!? We have put hundreds, perhaps thousands of stitches in our projects this year, and this is traditionally the time when we pause to recognize our achievements from the past year. I did not finish any hand stitched projects this year, but put stitches in several different multi-year projects that I am enjoying. 

Next week I'll write about my slow stitching goals for 2019, but today I'm writing about my big quilting accomplishment this month, which is finishing on my version of En Provence. This was the Quiltville mystery in 2016, and by the end of 2018 it will be a finished quilt. SO excited about that! The binding is attached, the pink threads have been chosen, and I will spend many relaxing hours today and tomorrow hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt. It's my favourite slow stitching activity and I've been looking forward to it!

This will be my view for the next few hours. I plan to be drinking tea, visiting the link ups below, and watching old home videos. That's the perfect way to end the year (for me)!

How are you spending the last Slow Stitching Sunday of 2018? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us. My wish for all of us is to be blessed with many happy creative moments spent with needle and thread as we wrap up another year of living and stitching!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching link party! It's the last Sunday before Christmas and everywhere I go I am being asked the same question...  ARE YOU READY?
Well, I haven't finished my hand made gifts, or my store bought gift shopping, or finished the baking I like to do, and have very few groceries in the fridge. But I know that I always get everything done that NEEDS to get done.

Christmas means a lot of organizing, shopping, cooking, and mountains of dishes. I don't enjoy any of those tasks but I practice mindfulness and remind myself of this Mother Teresa quote.  I do all this work so my family can have lots of fun together, and enjoy great holiday foods. 



And speaking of having fun together, on Friday night I had some friends over to sew and I wanted to share a few more photos (you can see some photos here). This gorgeous needle punch pattern that Sandy made is from the Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher Magazine. She finished it on Friday and we all admired this lovely piece of hand work. It was perfection!

And when she was done that, she worked on hand stitching a binding. I find binding a very relaxing activity and really want to do some over the holidays, but haven't yet finished the machine quilting on En Provence. Hopefully soon. 

My sister gave me a Christmas gift by doing some unstitching for me. She removed the big mistake I made when piecing my "Secret Santa" mystery quilt (read about it here). It was a 16 piece section that had to be ripped out, rotated 180 degrees and restitched.  I greatly appreciated the hand work that she carefully did to help me get this quilt repaired.

What are you hand stitching today? Are you finishing Christmas gifts like I am? I look forward to showing you some of the things I've been making once Christmas is over.

One lucky blogger is going to win these Chickadee Hollow Christmas embroidery designs. The random draw will happen early on Christmas morning, so the link up will be open until then. We hope you will link up your blog post below and share your hand stitched projects with us.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party!

Are you getting all worked up about all the things you have to get done at this time of year? I usually get stressed around mid December and gradually start to scale back my grandiose Christmas projects. Reluctantly, I slowly become more realistic about what can actually be accomplished in the time I have available. 
My gift giving goals this year are:
1) not order anything on line and instead support small local businesses that I want to see continue, and 2) not go into a mall. It makes me happy to have my gift giving plan fit together with my personal values. I am making a few gifts, but can't show them on my blog until after the holidays. 

In the meantime, I am doing a bit of embroidery for relaxation. It's a great take along project, but you can see by the lack of stitches that I haven't had much waiting time this week. I'll put in some stitches today and remind myself to relax and enjoy the gifts of the season.
What are you working on? Are you feverishly trying to finish gifts you are making for the holidays? Share your projects with us below.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to Slow Stitching Sunday where we make time to slow down our lives, to breathe deeply, to pick up a needle and thread, and take some slow stitches. 
I traced another Gail Pan embroidery pattern to stitch this week and then just didn't feel like working on it. It's cold and wintery here and as cute as it is, I just didn't feel like stitching flowers and a birdhouse. All I wanted to do was get out my oldest UFO and do some hand quilting.

This quilt has been in storage since the weather turned too warm to be sitting under a large, heavy quilt. This quilt is about 22 years old and I still really like it!  I have enjoyed every slow stitch over the years and know that one of these days I'm going to be quilting the border, and then putting on the binding. 

But it won't be happening this month, and probably not even this year.
This month I'm going to enjoy sitting under a warm quilt and working on a project that has no deadline. I'm not making it for anyone, or to gift for a special occasion. It's just an old quilt with a long history, with lots of hours of stitching put into it, under the supervision of my granddog Max who loves to snuggle in a quilt. 
Such happy memories!

I've dug out my circular wooden hoop, quilting thread and needles, my favourite scissors and my quilting glasses. I'm ready to start the winter hand quilting season!

What are you hand stitching today? Do you find that your hand stitching preferences change with the seasons?
Link up your blog post below and share your slow progress with us.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Sunday! 
It's a day for rest, renewal, and stitching! 
We hope you will join us as we slowly stitch creative projects using needles and threads.



Here is the embroidery block for Gail Pan's 2018 BOM that I was working on this week. The December patterns have been sent out to us and I'm way behind in keeping up with stitching 3 designs per month. But that's okay, because I will continue working on this next year. 
Gail will be releasing a new BOM in the new year with a Christmas theme, but I am going to exercise great restraint and finish the 2018 BOM first!! 
Really, I am! LOL
I have about half of the blocks stitched (see many of them here) including this little cute heart. 

I put stitches into this heart in 3 different cities, including while waiting for my son's return at Pearson International Airport, at the November quilt guild meeting, and while visiting a friend recovering from surgery. When I was stitching, I was reflecting on the loving relationships with the amazing people in my life who fill up my heart. The world is full of people who are angry, self serving, and destructive. But people who are loving, kind, and generous are hard to find, and I was feeling very grateful as I was stitching, remembering all the relationships that add something special to the design of my life.

And what about you? 
Are you enjoying the benefits of hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us.


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends who are celebrating this week! Where I live here in Canada, this is just the worst time of year. Our Thanksgiving is in October, so there are no happy holidays in November, the beautiful colours of fall are gone, there is less natural light due to "daylight savings",  and the cold winter weather descends.

In the cycle of life, it's the time for hibernation, when we crawl into our caves, try to keep warm, and sleep until better weather returns.

Our modern day life does not allow that cycle, and we have to work just as much in November as in any other month of the year. But we can be sure to follow the healthy practice of having one day of rest each week.

Sunday is our day to rest and be thankful.

And stitch.

This is a terrible photo (taken late last night) of the embroidery block I'll be working on today. You can see that my pink Frixion pen died while I was tracing the design, and I had to finish  with a blue pen.

I look forward to relaxing, stitching and visiting the link ups below to see what you are hand stitching today.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Slow Sunday Stitching

It's time to pick up your hand stitching project and put in some stitches. You will immediately notice the health benefits of breathing more slowly, clearing your mind to focus on a simple task, and feeling more relaxed as you enjoy creating more stitches in a project that you have chosen. Even if you just put in a few stitches, you will benefit, and your project will be closer to completion. 

Slow Down

This is what I'm doing today... reminding myself to smile, breathe, and slow down. I hope to be putting a few stitches in an embroidery block that I have been working on for 2 weeks and have accomplished so little that I can't even bring myself to show you a photo of it! 
Maybe next week!

Please encourage us slow, slow, slow stitchers by sharing your progress on your hand stitched projects.
Happy Slow Sunday Stitching!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! 

hand knit poppy

It's time to take a deep breath, pick up your needle and threads and put some stitches in your project.

It's Remembrance Day here in Canada and we will pause for a moment of silence at 11 am to remember the men and women who have served our country during times of war, conflict, and peace. This is the poppy my friend knit for me. I took around 40 photos of it to show you how intricate the knitting is, but this is the best I could get. I think the black shiny button messes with the camera's focus. Anyway I will wear it proudly to the 11 am service this morning.

For a lovely story on how Canadian soldiers used hand embroidery in their healing following World War 1, hop over to read "Beauty out of pain". It was thought that the  embroidery lessons could serve as a way to improve dexterity and as therapy to overcome symptoms of PTSD.




This is my most recently finished embroidery block for the Gail Pan "I Stitch Club". As I've said many times (hopefully you're not sick of hearing it yet!) I really enjoy these sweet little stitcheries. I have finished 18 blocks so far and I never tire of tracing out another block, selecting some thread colours and putting in the embroidery stitches.






My fancy organizational system for my embroidery floss is as efficient as ever. My quilting friends are aghast at this mess, but I do enjoy digging around in the tin box to find just the right colour :)

What are you hand stitching today?
Link up your blog post below and share your project with us!
And don't forget to enter the draw for the Olfa prize package - the winning name will be drawn tonight!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We invite you to settle in for some relaxation, visit our inspiring stitchers at the links below, and take some time to put a few stitches in one of your favourite projects.



I seem to be alternating between 2 hand stitching projects - the Gail Pan's "I Stitch Club" embroidery BOM, and hand quilting blocks for my Life Is Beautiful quilt. It seems I get bored with one project and switch to the other from time to time. This week I have put stitches in both, so I'll share the "quilt-as-you-go" block I am quilting. This is an alternate block with appliqued circles. I am quilting a straight line horizontally and vertically, then quilting around the centre circle, then quilting on the drawn chalk line (which is traced around a saucer from my kitchen cupboard that happened to be the right size!)


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

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! 
This week I have been thinking about stitching as medicine. The process of taking repetitive stitches, slowing the breath, being only in this moment, and concentrating on a simple task engages the parasympathetic nervous system in a way that nothing else does. It forces the body to relax and to heal. It's called the "rest and digest" or "relaxed and content" state, and for me there is no quicker way to achieve that state than by hand stitching. 

I haven't had much time for hand stitching this week, which is usually when I need it the most. So I spent last evening hand stitching the finishing touches on the fabric bowl I made this week. It was a completely frustrating machine process making this bowl (you can read about the construction here), but adding the hand stitched touches was the best part. I added a key, a wooden heart, and the letters J O Y.

Here is the finished product. It turned out to be a lovely bowl, made from an ugly fabric, created by a frustrated sewist, on a sewing machine with terrible tension. Sometimes you just have to push through the ugliness and frustration and hope for a good result. And then the hand stitching calms you down enough to appreciate what you have created!

What are you hand stitching today? Are you adding some embellishments to something you have made so you will like even more? Share your projects with us by linking your blog post below.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! 
Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee to enjoy while visiting the blog links of stitchers around the world. It's so inspiring to see what other people are creating with their own two hands.

I am slowly making progress on the Gail Pan "I Stitch Club" project. This is the block I finished yesterday while waiting at the urgent care clinic with my Mom. Waiting rooms are the best places to do some stitching... it's a long wait, so what better way to pass the time than to work on a hand stitching project. It's the perfect small, compact take along project. I think I have finished 17 of these little designs. You can see the first 15 here.

Today I will be tracing another embroidery pattern to stitch and maybe even getting out the winter hand quilting project since the weather is cool enough now.
What are you planning to work on today with the hand stitching community? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party!
Last week we had 35 link ups! And because it was Thanksgiving weekend and Monday was a holiday here, I had time to visit everyone. It was a lovely to enjoy a pot of tea and meander through the links and study the shared photographs you take the time to post for our learning and enjoyment... pure delight! 
P.S. Jocelyn... I can't reply to Google plus for some unknown reason, but wanted you to know that I enjoyed seeing and thinking about Jiggs Dinner for Thanksgiving! The leftovers are even more tasty! YUM!

Thank you to each one of you who take the time to share your projects with us. The variety of hand work never ceases to amaze me. 
And if you are ever wondering about how many people drop by to visit... here's the info from my Inlinkz dashboard tally from the hand stitching party last Sunday... 4,714 views so far!

From Gail Pan's I Stitch Club

I had one of those long hard weeks. You know the kind, where everything goes wrong one thing after the other, and the "to-do" list just requires more energy than you have available? 

But in spite of it all I managed to finish stitching Ms Wise Owl. I adore her because in each of the locations where I had time to add a few slow stitches, I was thinking about how hard life can feel sometimes. And although Ms Owl looks a little discombobulated and overwhelmed, she still stands tall, is kind and loving to others, and remains resilient! She's still able to see the stars and stay grounded to the beauty of nature. 
I know I am projecting a lot onto this little stitchery, but she and I just bonded throughout the challenges of this week! 



Hand stitching keeps me mostly sane!

And so ... I'm asking Santa for this mug for Christmas!

What are you hand stitching this week so that you stay mostly sane?
Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly link up for hand stitching enthusiasts! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in Canada and I am thankful for so many things, including this international community of enthusiastic and talented hand stitchers! 

Whether you post your projects in the link ups, or you encourage others in their long term, slow stitching endeavours, or you are stitching along quietly on your own hand stitching projects making your corner of the world calmer and more beautiful, we are thankful for YOU!

Today I am slowing stitching away on another one of Gail Pan's embroidery designs. This week I am stitching a sweet owl design using a size 10 Jeana Kimball Foxglove Cottage Embroidery needle... it's my favourite needle for embroidery with a sharp point and an "easy to thread" eye when you are using thicker threads or floss. This owl is almost finished, and I just have the stars, tree branch, and leaves/flowers to finish today. I will do so while I ponder my thankfulness for each one of YOU! And then I will kick into high gear and cook a Thanksgiving dinner!

If you haven't yet entered the draw to win spools of Aurifil thread, click here to go to the "Save the Bees" hexie block pattern and draw. Good luck everyone... the winning name will be drawn tonight!

Link up your blogpost below and tell us what you are hand stitching today.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Pull up a comfy chair, make yourself a cup of your favourite tea, and join us while we add a few stitches to our multiyear projects!

I put the blocks for my Life Is Beautiful project on the design wall this week to assess where I was with this and how far I had to go.

Here are the project stats: 

*31 embroidered patterns (there should be 32 but 1 appears to be MIA!)

*29 embroidered blocks have been appliqued to a background 4 patch block 

*19 of the embroidered blocks have been quilted

*13 of the alternate blocks (no embroidery) have been pieced and quilted

*14 alternate blocks have the 4 patches sewn and the circle appliqued, and are ready for quilting

So much work has been completed and yet, after 4 years of work, there is still so much to do!
Oh well, what can you do?!?
Just keep swimming stitching (video here). 

I maintain my enthusiasm for long term projects like this by taking occasional breaks from it. I pick up other hand stitching projects, usually embroidery or other small projects. The key to working on these long term projects is to never let it get completely "out of sight" so it doesn't drift toward "out of mind"! 
Today I will put in a few more stitches and focus on this thought: 
Everything is accomplished one slow stitch/step at a time.

Tomorrow I will be posting another little hand stitched project - a hexie block for my Save the Bees project. Hope you can drop by my blog to see it and enter your name in the giveaway draw!

What are you slow stitching today? Are you feeling a tad bit discouraged about your progress? Just keep on stitching... and link up your blog post to share your project with us.


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Slow Sunday Stitching

Fall has arrived on the calendar and the weather here has finally taken a turn for the better. It has been a long hot summer here, and since fall is my favourite season, the drop in daily temperatures is a welcomed relief. We can throw open the windows, enjoy the fresh cooler air, and spend more time outside.
Yippee...quilting weather is on it's way! It's almost cool enough to get out my big hand quilting project... soon.

Gail Pan "I Stitch" blocks

For now I am working on my "I Stitch" embroidery blocks by Gail Pan. I posted my most recently finished block as my blog header photo (scroll up). And here are the blocks I have stitched so far. I am using up small pieces of leftover muslin as a base for these little embroideries which measure about 3" x 4". These blocks will be either appliqued or pieced to fabric some day. I haven't decided what I want to do with them. That's how I do prefer to do things... just start stitching (or driving, or shopping, or chatting, etc) and see what evolves. The best laid plans never work out as you think they will, so developing complex plans and expectations is just a waste of time. It's called the "go with the (creative) flow" approach to life!
Gail has sent out 24 blocks to the project subscribers so far (3 per month) so I am a bit behind. That's okay... I'm loving every slow stitch!  I have traced out a little owl design to work on today.

What are you hand stitching? Is it comfortable weather where you live and are you able to stitch outside? Link up your blog post below and share your hand stitching project with the slow stitching community. We love to see what you are creating!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up