Unity Sewing

The weekend provided some time for catching up on my version of the Unity mystery. I have been delighted at how easily each round of this medallion mystery has attached to the growing quilt top. The practice of adding so many borders really does help to improve the skills. I don't know why it seemed so hard a few years ago?!? LOL 

another finished cone of Aurifil

I played thread chicken when adding this long border. Can you believe that I used up another large cone of white Auriful thread. That's 5,900 metres of thread (or 6,452 yards if you aren't familiar with metric measurement) which represents A LOT of sewing. Luckily I have another cone of white thread ready to keep on sewing.

Here is the quilt on my too small design wall after adding part 5 to the top and bottom. I can't believe how much I like this quilt considering the fabric was completely unplanned and all from stash.

This week I will sew some letter blocks for the next word in part 7. 

Linking up to Small Quilts

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly linkup where we celebrate the art of hand stitching! 

Make a cup of your favourite beverage to enjoy while you visit the blogs of slow stitchers around the world. It's the perfect way to start your Sunday! 

I have been enjoying lots of outdoor time and doing spring time chores like digging in the dirt, planting seeds, and trimming everything that is growing so quickly this time of year (including weeds). But still, Sunday is dedicated time to slow down with hand stitching. 

Some progress is being made on my Stitcher's Revolution 
embroidered tea towel. The inside of the design is stitched and I'm working on the outside. I like how it all fits inside this perfectly sized hoop.

What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us.

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Scrappy Saturday

For the past 2 months the two primary projects in the sewing room have been the Unity mystery and mask making. 

musician face masks

The requests for face masks is starting to ease up, so that means more quilting time. Yah! For some reason it doesn't feel as "heavy" or emotionally intense to sew the masks as it did in March and April. Are you finding that too? Maybe it's because it appears as though the medical staff have enough of the approved N95 masks at the moment and the worry about their safety and protection has eased a bit?

I am actually starting to enjoy picking fabrics from my stash to match the interests of receivers. I'm seeing about a quarter to a third of shoppers wearing masks around here. And I get compliments every single time I wear mine (the one at the top of this photo) to the grocery store! 

May Mini Arrowheads

And in between those two projects, I am using my mini arrowhead blocks as leader-ender pieces. It's just fun to watch blocks build slowly over time. These are the green blocks made in May so far. If they look familiar it might be because I finished a blue bed size Arrowhead quilt last month. These little blocks will be 3" in the mini RSC version.

Here are the 25  green blocks in the collection so far. You can see more of the block collection here.  

Linking up to the  RSC weekly scrap party.

A whole lot of sewing going on!

Starting the Quiltville Unity quarantine project was such a great idea! It has been a wonderful distraction and a ton of piecing of small scraps which I really enjoy! 

Be adaptable!

I loved sewing these green and blue flying geese blocks for part 5 and think it was my favourite step of this mystery.

The blocks for part 6 HSTs and then part 7 spinning pinwheels were quite labour intensive. But using the bright pink was a great decision. It kept my interest and filled the sewing room with bright energy.


I am almost completely out of neutrals so am looking forward to the time when I can visit all my favourite quilt stores to stock up again.

Having PATiENCE with letters!

For some reason my Unity quilt wanted words added, so I have been sewing letters this week. 

sewing letters

It is a completely different process to sew traditional  pieced blocks vs. letter blocks. When I am sewing letters I get in a "creative zone", just sewing and cutting and not really evaluating or counting, but just playing. 
And then I have to step back and see what I actually made. 

I say to myself "what 3 things would I like to improve?" I do that because I know that the 'evaluation stage' can take forever and cause the project to move into the UFO closet. 
So I give myself a limit to pick 3 things.
Here is the first set of letters for the word 'patience'. I made all capitals except the letter 'i' for some unknown reason, but I like it. 

The 3 things I wanted to change... 
1) make the letter 'p' taller, 2) make the letter 'a' background narrower, and 3) fix the letter 'n' which didn't look right to me.
Once those changes were made, the next step is to figure out the length of the word needed to fit the border space. I needed to sew 2 more pinwheel star blocks and add a piece of white to each side of the word to make the border fit the size of the quilt.

I was very happy with how it was coming along, but then the letter 'G' in COURAGE was still bugging me, so I will make a tiny alteration. 

Next up... flying geese blocks will be flying onto the top and bottom of the quilt!

Midmonth UFO Report

I chose a happy but challenging project for the May UFO project. 

Sweet Sixties layout

Here is the layout of the blocks. Those dark reds really pop out so they needed to be carefully sprinkled around. I have sewn the 2 left columns together.
There are so many bias seams, and angles to sew. Plus about half of these blocks were started 10 years ago, and my piecing has improved considerably over the years. Let's just say... the blocks don't fit together very well! There has been a lot of stretching,  trimming and seam alterations... tuck in a little, let out a little. And I have been saying "that's good enough" over and over to myself.
See the pieces for Frolic at the bottom of the design wall?!?! They are still waiting for attention since the Unity project caused havoc in the sewing room!

I took all the pieces off the design wall and pinned them together to take to the sewing machine. This little pile represents so many hours of sewing and organizing!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly link up of hand stitched projects! I was thinking this week how ironic is it that for years I have encouraged the stitching community to slow down, and now the world has screeched to a halt, and people have been forced to stay home!
We are all on an enforced slow down and it has been hard for some people. While the uncertainty is troubling, I must say that I have enjoyed the slowing down part and am so thankful to have my stitching to keep me sane as the days crawl by. I am farther along in embroidering this Stitcher's Revolution tea towel, but I didn't take a more recent photo of the progress. It has been meditative and relaxing.

rhubarb juice and muffins

It's rhubarb season here and I love all things rhubarb... here you see part of the little patch that was planted by my mother-in-law about 25 years ago and still provides plenty of rhubarb each season. I have already made rhubarb juice, rhubarb muffins, stewed rhubarb and strawberry rhubarb jam.

This is what I'll be doing again today... enjoying the great outdoors, having more rhubarb products for breakfast, and putting in some stitches.

What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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More Unity

Sewing blocks and parts for the Unity quilt continues this week. 
I wish I could produce my blocks in an organized and orderly fashion - cut all the pieces, sew all the pieces, press them all, and trim the HSTs. 
But I can't. Somehow it seems like a lot for my brain to handle these days. So I'm doing it in spurts here and there, randomly cutting and sewing, having no idea how many I still need or have already finished. Just making slow and steady unorganized progress.

part 7 blocks

Blocks are getting made, and I really like them, although it is a lot of pink!
And my sewing time is relaxing and way more fun than sewing masks, so maybe that's the most important thing!



Here are my first blocks for part 7 on the design wall (with the flying geese strips from part 6).

Blocks from parts 6 and 7

I enjoyed this quarantine singalong with the Phoenix Chamber Choir in Vancouver as I sewed... sing along...

Design Wall Monday - Unity

It has been wonderful to watch all the versions of the Quiltville Unity mystery popping up on instagram. I do miss the good old days where we had a link up on the Quiltville blog and could leisurely visit all the mystery quilters, but seeing the photos on instagram is inspiring too.

This is how my version is looking today... almost finished part #4

I want to make another word for the top border, but couldn't decide which word. I don't want to let my indecision hold up the process, so may end up picking a word from a hat!

And so I move on to step #5 which is flying geese blocks.

I rediscovered this awesome Tamara Kate fabric in my stash which was being saved for a special project... and this is it! I used the whole fat quarter and added in other neutrals for these blocks.

Some of these are really old scraps and I'm so happy to use them up. See that blue green fabric on the bottom right... it's from a quilt finished in 2012!

I am sewing the flying geese blocks using 2 different techniques and really do prefer cutting all the pieces from the Essential Triangle tool ruler and having no waste.
I'm also enjoying the wool pressing mat and am saving the dog ears in a jar... for no reasons other than it makes me happy to look at the jar!
Linking up to Small Quilts design wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Slow Sunday Stitching!
We have been meeting here weekly for almost 8 years to encourage each other in our hand stitching endeavours. We hope you will join us by linking up your blog post or by leaving supportive comments on the links below. We all need a little extra loving these days!

In Canada we are celebrating Mother's Day today, so Happy Mother's Day to all our moms... the moms that we miss and wish we could be with today, and the moms who have passed on. Sending you gratitude and love for all you have done to give us a good life and to make the world a better place!

This week I have been hand quilting more Life is Beautiful blocks. I quilt a vertical and horizontal line through the block and then I trace around a dinner plate using my Bohin pencil (which I love) and quilt on that circular line.

Here is the next finished block. I usually hand baste large stitches around the outside of the block to secure the edges to make it easier to add the sashing when it comes time for putting them together (quilt-as-you-go style). Not sure how many blocks to go after 5 years of working on this project. I'm not in a rush... it's hand embroidered and hand quilted, so it takes a while!

I'd like to share another kind of hand work with you today... rock painting.  A thankful woman started a "gratitude garden" at our local hospital and it has grown to be a beautiful display of appreciation and beauty. This is the garden just outside the emergency entrance on the front lawn.

Sometimes after work I go by and admire all the wonderful creativity and the kindness of people who take the time not only to paint the rocks, but also to bring them to the hospital. You can see that some are made by children, some name specific staff, some are amazing works of art.



Also some signs have also been added to the display. So much gratitude and appreciation made visible.





I hope this display of amazing creativity encourages you today! There are so many good people in the world who are loving and kind and generous, and when they decide to make themselves known, the world is changed! 




What wonderful thing are your hands making today to add to the beauty in the world? 
Thank you for all the positive energy you provide to our hand stitching community and to the world... it is so needed and appreciated!
Link your blog post below and share your project with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Life during Covid19

In March I resisted sewing face masks. I just couldn't bear to have the negative energy invade my sacred quilting space. 

face masks, half made with hair elastics

But the reality of the world situation required me to adapt, and so I did some exposure therapy on myself, and by the time April rolled around I was cranking out the protective gear. 

For a while I couldn't get any elastic, and made a few masks with ties but I didn't like those. Then I was using hair elastics and that worked okay, but were hard for my sewing machine to stitch through and I broke a few needles. 
Thanks to my friend Gail who generously shared her elastic with me, I can now keep up with the demand for more masks. 

I made 25 masks for the crew at my daughter's job since they couldn't source any masks to purchase, and I have made many for family and friends, elderly parents of my friends, and anyone who asks me.

I was relieved that my efforts to help my sister with her ear pain were successful. I sewed some surgical caps with buttons on the side to hang the N95 masks on. Her ears are much happier and she doesn't need as much pain medicine to get through a shift. Yes, they wear 2 masks and a face shield to go into COVID patient rooms.

I like this story about a young man who developed ear guards on his 3D printer... creative genius! It would be awesome if all hospitals, nursing homes and funeral homes had a big supply of those.

And here is a sight to be excited about... so much toilet paper on the previously empty shelves! The hoarders must be all full up so now there is some for the rest of us! LOL

And I must say that I feel very thankful to live in a town where the gratitude of the people is more visible than the anger and agitation that is occurring in other places in the world. 

Thankfulness of a neighbourhood family

And although I miss my regular life and my friends very much, I'm content to stay safe at home, sew face masks every day, and await the advice of the experts about what we're going to do next to get through this pandemic as quickly and as safely as possible.

I'll be in my quilt studio today sewing face masks, flying geese for the next Unity border, and making green mini arrowhead blocks. They are all leader-ender projects for each other. Linking up to RSC.

May UFO

This is one of my older UFO's that I found during a stash diving  frenzy while searching for mask fabrics. I bought some cherry themed fabrics, a 60 degree ruler and a pattern book on a trip to Paducah in 2009.
YES 2009... that was not a typo... this fabric is 11 years old and still not sewn into blocks!

I decided to sew lots of strips sets and make wedges from them. It was all very fun until it was time to make a layout decision, and then it wasn't fun anymore. I just couldn't decide what to do since there were so many options in the book. It went into the UFO closet for a few years.

It was on my 2015 UFO list but never received any attention since being labelled a "problem child" all those years ago! It didn't even get on the UFO lists since then, and I'm pretty sure it has never been seen on my blog before.

The pandemic is a perfect time to take on this "problem child" project because the colours are so bright and cheerful.

This is my One Monthly Goal project for May. I intend to decide on a layout and get this collection of pieces sewn into a quilt top this month... finally!

Design Wall Monday

I was hoping to post my updated version of Unity, the ongoing Quiltville mystery. But I did not finish part 4 yet and as of today's new step being posted I will be 3 steps behind.
It's okay ... at least some progress has been made.
Some blocks for part 4 were sewn and I really like how they are turning out. 

part 4 blocks

I'm using green and yellow fabrics for the star blocks with blue floral centres.
Oh for heaven's sake... there is always one in every crowd that doesn't follow the rules! I'll get the seam ripper out, fix the one wayward block and hope to catch up this week. Hopefully the requests for mask making will subside and I'll have more time for fun sewing.
Linking up to Small Quilts.

And for all you Star Wars fans... "May the 4th be with you"!
I just happen to be working on my sixth 1,000 piece pandemic puzzle which is a Star Wars themed puzzle.
Perhaps if I wasn't doing jigsaw puzzles obsessively, I'd get more quilting done!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly linkup where we celebrate of the art of hand stitching! We are an international group of stitchers who believe that the process of creation is just as important as the end product. We hope you will enjoy seeing the projects we are working on, and be inspired to pick up a needle and thread and join us.

late night binding on Anita's Arrowhead quilt

Last Sunday I was suffering from a serious lack of hand stitching energy infusion. I realized from the comments people sent me that I needed to remedy that situation right away. It's strange how I didn't fully acknowledge it before Sunday, but the combination of 1) experiencing social isolation (lack of being with my/any people), 2) being a trauma social worker during a pandemic, and 3) sewing PPE in the evenings, is a stressful combination, and I didn't fully see the toll it was taking on me.

hand binding mini quilt "en plein air"

So/sew... I committed myself to focusing on my hand stitching in a serious way this past week and hand stitched 332" of binding! The binding of my April UFO Anita's Arrowhead was 270 " and 62" of binding was in my Pinwheel Party miniature quilt (stitched outdoors while wearing my winter coat!). Two quilts were finished, while enjoying hours of relaxing hand stitching.

And I have to show you the beautiful shawl my friend Louise made for me. Is this not the most gorgeous thing ever?!? It came in the mail at the perfect time this week and I have been wearing it every day since then. It's the perfect way to wrap myself up in comfort, with such beautiful colours and a hand made treasure from my dear friend. Even though we can't be together indefinitely, and we are missing out on our much anticipated spring shop hop, we can always be together in spirit.
I'm feeling so much better this week 💕💖💗

Today I'm back to working on my tea towel embroidery. If it's not snowing or raining I'll be sitting outside, breathing in some fresh air while I stitch myself back together.

What are you hand stitching this week? How are you holding up in the new COVID reality? Link up your blog post below and cheer us up with your beautiful projects!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter