Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the Sunday hand stitching party! Make yourself a nice cold (or hot) beverage, take a deep breath, and get out your hand stitching. We hope you will join us in creating hand made items that bring beauty to our world! 

I have been bringing the beauty of spring to life in stitches - the blue birds, the sun, the flowers, the butterflies, the bees - so beautiful!  As soon as I finished stitching the birdhouse block, I had to take a picture beside my real birdhouse. 

This has been a slow and enjoyable project since I started it in April. This is a free mystery pattern from Melisa at Pinker 'n Punkin Quilting. It's not a mystery anymore since all the patterns/stamps have been posted, but when I started it, I had no idea of all the sweet scenes I would be spending time with this summer.

I started this block waiting at the hospital while my dear friend had surgery. It made the time pass faster, and made the wait bearable. We are so thankful that all went well with the surgery, and I will think of that day whenever I look at this birdhouse block.

I don't know why I stitched the blocks/stamps in the order I did - 3, 6, 2, 9, and this week I stitched block #1 with a blue bird on a  watering can. 

I think I wanted to move from top right to bottom left so that I wasn't always holding finished stitcheries in my left hand while stitching the next blocks? I'm not sure what experienced stitchers would do - do you stitch left to right, top to bottom, right to left when you cross stitch? I have no idea what is considered the best method since I am new (again) to cross stitch. Any suggestions are welcome!

In last week's post I offered the slightly used Stitcher pattern by Luminous Fibre Arts as a giveaway.  The random number generator picked #13 which is Terri in B.C. Congratulations Terri - I will email you and get your address to send the pattern to you. I wonder what colour of floss you will enjoy using for this fun project!?

And now it's your turn - what are you hand stitching this week? Link up your instagram or blog post below and share your slow progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

Two yellow blocks have been added to one of my favourite RSC projects. It has been an unnamed project but I have decided to call it "Scraps and Stars". The original (out of print) pattern by Lydia Quigley was called "When this you see", but that didn't fit the quilt. To see the inspiration quilt made by my friend Deanna click here.

I love making the 25 patch blocks from my box of 1.5" squares. So many fun yellow scraps from past projects. 

Then I pick out a couple of larger scraps to make the star block. This is my favourite way to make a quilt - one leisurely, colourful block at a time, stitched over years! Next month will be this project's first birthday and I have made 27 block so far - not quite a crib size yet! That's okay, I have hopefully have a few more years to add more blocks each month! LOL

Linking up to the weekly scrap party at Angela's

Design Wall Monday

It's a holiday Monday here for me and I plan to sew for the entire day! I'm so excited! I will be working on my local quilt guild summer mystery called "Teamwork".  Here is the recycled bedding container that I use to store my mystery quilt parts. All the blocks are  counted and labelled, and either in a baggie or pinned together in sets of 10.

The trimming of the square in a square blocks gave me a chance to try out my new Gypsy Quilter cutting mat cleaner. It's a cute heart shaped scrubber that you put your fingers into and you give your mat a good massage to clean off the fibres. I was surprised what a good job it did - I give this new tool a big thumbs up! 👍

Clue #5 had us make 20 Aunt Dinah blocks. There is always at least one oopsie block when concentration declines late at night!

These are the finished blocks on the design wall from clue #5. 

I love the look of all these blocks on the wall!

And now it's time to sew them into a mystery layout. Mystery clue #6 arrived in my email on Saturday, so that will be my focus for sewing today. 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! It's the middle of the summer here and we have a 3 day (Civic Holiday) weekend, so I have been stitching to my hearts content! 💖

I am excited to share a finished stitchery today! I started this cross stitch on St. Patrick's Day this year.

I used Weeks Dye Works hand dyed threads for the first time and I am disappointed that I didn't love it. I only bought 1 skein of the colour called "Lucky", but I was unlucky because of course I needed a bit more thread from a 2nd skein. The 2nd one that I ordered by mail (from the same store) was quite different from the 1st one, but I used it anyway. My friends say that you can't tell the difference between the 2 skeins, and maybe that is true. It does still bug me slightly, but the lesson was learned - when buying specialty threads, always buy more than you think you might need.

I stitched this with 2 threads of floss over 1 square on 14 count Aida, and added 4 buttons which were given to me by my friend. She let me dig through her white button collection jar and pick the best size for the project.

This pattern is called "Stitcher" and is by Misty Pursel of Luminous Fiber Arts. I would like to have a draw for one of my blog readers to win this pattern (which was originally stitched in red threads).  

It's a nice big 2 page chart, so no magnification was needed for me to stitch this design. Let me know if you'd like to be in the draw by leaving the word "Stitcher" in the comment section and I'll announce the winner next Sunday.

I've also been working on the binding of the quilt I showed last Sunday and should finish it up today. I really enjoy hand stitching outdoors, while watching Flosstube videos on my laptop. Here I am hand stitching the quilt label while I watch Jane and Julie on Running With Scissors. They are my favourites and always make me laugh (and sometimes cry).

Once I'm done the binding, I will put more stitches into Life in Full Bloom. This was a mystery stitchalong that started in May. I am really enjoying stitching the flowers, but have learned that I do not enjoy stitching blocks of solid colour - where the needle is pointing are 4 long blocks of blue that I need to stitch. Boring! But maybe it will be a good takealong project for waiting at appointments?

What are you hand stitching today? Link up your instagram and blog posts below and share your projects with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

It's yellow month for the Rainbow Scrappers, and I have started digging through the 1.5" scrap box for yellow squares to make into 25 patch blocks. It's an interesting task to decide what is actually yellow, and what reads  more as gold or orange.

Sewcialites 2 is also getting some attention this weekend. This is block #17 called Simplicity pattern by Vanessa Goertzen. 

And here are all the Sewcialtes 2 blocks on the design wall. There are 24  blocks in this  collection, so I have 6 more to sew. I think this will definitely need some sashing to be a less busy sampler!

I am motivated to get these blocks sewn because rumour has it that Moda Blockheads #5 is coming this September, and I only like to have one sampler project on the go at a time! 

Linking to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Evergreen on the Design Wall

In July, the Fat Quarter Shop has been hosting a free Christmas stitchalong called Evergreen, sharing both a cross stitch pattern AND quilt pattern. I'm still SLOW stitching my spring cross stitch, so I thought I'd dive into the quilt  mystery and not start a new cross stitch.

I really enjoyed their Christmastime mystery from last year so was eager to start their new one. Because the Fat Quarter Shop gives so much to me/all of us for free, I wanted to support their shop by buying the kit for this project. I just  love these pretty fabrics that are Christmasy looking but don't scream "Christmas"! 

I started cutting as soon as I received the kit in the mail. Of course I use the Alphabitties to keep all the pieces organized when I cut complex blocks.  I enjoyed cutting the fabrics while I watched the tutorial, then paused the lesson while I sewed my sections together.

**Such cute little presents and very easy to construct.

This mystery is a row project, which means instead of sewing blocks or sections, we are sewing rows. 

Here is my design wall today. The Evergreen mystery row #1 is in the middle. The house block was made from a kit from one of the few stores I had time to visit for the July Shop Hop this year. The store (Heart 'n Home) had precut the block for us, so I couldn't resist sewing it!

And on the bottom right corner is a block for my local guild mystery. So many fun things going on, and not enough time to make much progress on anything. But the long weekend in August will bring lots of relaxation and stitching time for me.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching! Today is also World Embroidery Day, so there is a lot to enjoy today! If you haven't heard of this celebration, it was started in 2011 by Swedish stitchers and every year on July 30th, they encourage people to get outside and stitch in public. The goal is "to acknowledge and promote the craft of decorating fabric using a needle to apply thread or yarn".

Because it is World Embroidery Day I will feature some of my embroidery projects and some links to enjoy.

1) Last year Sarah Homfray posted a wonderful "Stitching around the world" video last year showing lovely embroideries from all corners of the globe.  It's about 37 minutes and I promise you it is worth your time to watch! And she just posted the 2023 video and I catch wait to watch it here. Maybe you'll spot me on next year's video?!?😁

2) Nicola at StitchDoodles created a free design last year to celebrate hand embroidery which you can get access to here when you subscribe to her email list. This has been on my to-start list, and maybe today will be the day?!?

3) I have just started the Days Filled With Joy "Tis the Season" stitchalong. And by just started, I mean the first strand of floss has stitched the word "Tis". I have completely finished the Winter stitchalong, and have finished the stitching on the Spring stitchalong but it's not completely finished yet.  

4) One of my favourite embroideries is the word meditation piece (pattern also from Days Filled with Joy). I finished the hand quilting in May 2022. As you can tell, I like to finish my embroideries in a mini quilt format.

5) My other favourite embroidery is The Serenity Prayer. This was a stamped embroidery from JD Needle Art. The embroidery was finished in September 2022 but it isn't a finished project yet because I can't decide how to quilt it. Do you have any ideas for me?

What are you hand stitching today? Are you working on any embroidery projects? Link up your instagram or blog post below and share your progress with us. (The linky party had a delayed opening coding error, but the doors are wide open now - come join us!) 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Teamwork

Most of my quilting time recently has been focused on sewing blocks for a guild summer mystery called 'Teamwork". Our amazing Community Outreach team coordinates fabric kits for those willing to make a comfort quilt to donate. This is the gorgeous kit they gave me to make into a quilt. 

One of the mystery steps had us making these "Mary's blocks" which I know as "shaded 4 patch blocks". We were given the link to an inspiration video by Karen Brown to learn how to sew 8 blocks at the same time. Yes - 8! One of the steps was drawing angle lines and this was fun for me to play with my Olfa angle "Advantage" ruler. This is one of my most frequently used rulers.

This photo shows the lines sewn and the block ready to magically cut into 8 perfect blocks. But you have to read and follow the instructions to get the steps in the correct order. If you do, everything is perfect! If you don't, you will have problems!

Here are my blocks organized in piles of 10.  Using this technique every single block is exactly the right size. No trimming required... that blew my mind.

And here are some blocks on the design wall. I was having fun laying out some arrangements, while I enjoyed how the fabrics look in these blocks.

This week we will be sewing some 9 patch blocks.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We encourage you to pick up your favourite project and put some slow stitches in today!

I will be hand stitching a binding today. I didn't sew or do the swirly machine quilting on this project - I am just the binder. I was delayed in finishing up this quilt because I couldn't find my needle threader, and at this stage of my life, my vision requires help threading a needle.

This week I bought a pretty purple Clover needle threader so I'll probably find the old pink one any day now! These are my required tools for binding. I love these Clover black gold needles which are so thin and sharp that I don't even need to use a thimble when using these for hand stitching.

I have a little treat for my slow stitchers today - a story about generosity and quilty kindness. One of my blog readers - Annie from Washington State - reached out to me after reading the post I wrote about the Home for Good project that my local quilt guild is participating in. Annie was moved by hearing about this project, and not only did she donate to the cause, she also sent a quilt to donate! Annie called this a "gentle bit of shared border-crossing kindness"! 

And send a quilt she did! But not just any quilt!

She sent this amazing double sized quilt, made from the Bonnie Hunter's mystery pattern called Chilhowie (now available as a pattern booklet to purchase). This special goodwill quilt travelled over 4,000 miles from Annie's house in Washington State, to my sister's house in Michigan, to my house in Southern Ontario! 

Annie wrote: "Bonnie’s mystery quilts have a long-standing tradition with me as an integral part of the holidays and so they, unlike other quilt projects, tend to get finished in short order. Part of that tradition is that the quilt is always given away to someone I don’t know.  It pleases me to think the person who ultimately sleeps under this quilt will feel a sense of connection stitched into it."  

I hope so too Annie! In addition to comforting someone without housing/resources, you also restored this burned out social worker's faith in humanity, and for that I cannot thank you enough! You have reminded me that a) we never know the impact we have in this world, and b) there are generous and kind people everywhere! 💖 

And so my dear blog readers, that is my treat for you today! You would probably also like to see the perfectly hand stitched binding and the label I just sewed onto this treasure.

I am embarrassed to say that the last time my version of Chilhowie was seen, we had a falling out and it went into the UFO closet. It's time to get the blocks out, put on my big girl panties, fix my mistakes and try to be more like Annie - finish quilts and spread kindness!

What are you hand stitching today? Are you finishing projects, and/or starting new ones? We love to see what your hands are creating!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Red Happenings

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for July is red. The only red thing I sewed this week was a selvage potholder.

It was fun to dig through the selvage bag (and one box) to find some red pieces to use. Most of these selvages I recognize from previous projects, so it's like a trip down memory lane. Since this was made to replace a very used gift from 2019, I was happy to find a piece that says 'England' on it, since the recipient's family is from England. And also a bit ironic to have a piece that says 'Handmaid' on a kitchen project.

My friend asked if she could exchange the old potholder for a new one. She gave me the old one which has burnt edges and feels/smells like it has been dipped in Crisco! I was delighted that my gift was so well used, and it definitely needed to be replaced.

And in other red happenings this week, I bought this pretty kit of fabrics to make the 4th of July project from Modern Holiday table runner by Cluck Cluck Sew. This kit has more teal fabrics than blue which gives it a more Christmasy vibe.

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Leader-Enders

I have been a fan of Bonnie Hunter's leader-ender concept since I first read about it on her blog. Every July she posts a new free pattern to use up scraps. Many years I have made a full size quilt, one year I made a miniature version, and sometimes I have watched from the sidelines. 

Here is the list of the annual leader-ender pattern with either the instruction link or the link to my version if I made one:

2022 Triple Treat

2021 Fish School - block collection

2020 Easy Breezy - quilt top

2019 Shoo Fly, Shoo  - finished quilt
2018 Jewel Box Stars
2017 Rail Fence
2016 Hourglass - quilt top
2015 Tumblers - my "tiny tumble" version
2014 Lozenges 
2013 Split 9 Patch
2012 Spools - my quilt top
2011 Cheddar BowTies 

12 years of challenges and according to my blog, I have participated in half of them. The decision to participate usually depends on whether I have the required size of scraps, and if I am inspired by the design.

The new 2023 leader-ender project is called Oopsie Daisie which uses 1.5" strips and squares. But I was recently given a neutral jelly roll that I'd like to use up, so I'm excited to give the pattern a try with 2.5" pieces. When these thoughts come to me, I just go with the inspiration!

The first test block is on the design wall today. It was fun to sew and will use up lots of strips and scraps and I'm excited to make more of these.

Do you use the leader-ender (LE) system? I really love being organized enough to have a LE project on the go, and I think I'll enjoy this version.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching! We are stitching enthusiasts who value the slow process of creating unique projects with our own hands. We want to "smell the roses" and enjoy each day, and each project we spend time with. 

I was inspired this week by reading Cheryl Richardson's blog post called "Put the brakes on". She wrote: "There are some days when I still feel like an Arabian horse charging into the day, moving so quickly (and unconsciously) that I miss my life."

Me too! This was the norm when I was a Mom of young children with elderly in-laws to take care of, a household to maintain, and was working 2 part time jobs. It has ebbed and flowed over the years depending on caretaking commitments, finances, and work pressures. 

But mostly, I am just not able to be an Arabian horse anymore even if I wanted to! I'm more of a cranky old donkey!

But not on Sundays! 

I am breathing deeply, looking at my pretty hand stitching projects and deciding which one to give some love and time to today.

I am on a roll with Melisa's cross stitch Spring Stamps and finished stamp #2 this week.  I made a mistake as I was stitching the seed bag, so I put the word on the bottom and the flower on the top of the bag. I love mistakes that are easy to "fix"!

I've already started stamp #9 while waiting with loved ones at medical appointments this week. I just love how this is looking - 3 bluebirds, 3 bees and 4 butterflies!

I also hope to trace "Tis the Season" embroidery stitchalong from Days Filled With Joy. Step #2 has been posted and I want to catch up.

What are you planning to enjoy stitching today? Link up your blog or instagram post below and share you hand stitching with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter