Slowly Stitching and NOT Multitasking

Where I walked last Sunday

One of my goals for starting Slow Sunday Stitching was to encourage myself, and other like-minded stitchers, to set aside some time each week to rest, and to make space in a very busy life to enjoy hand stitching. It has been a wonderful slow journey and I am amazed by how much I look forward to each Sunday.  
But as much as I enjoy it, it is shocking how easy it is for me to compromise my relaxation time and/or let it disappear. 


I am frequently tempted to do several things at once and do a little "efficient multitasking". I think I'll just run downstairs and put in a quick load of laundry, and then put some food in the crockpot for supper in between stitches. And maybe I'll watch a little TV, while I allow myself to be constantly interrupted by phone calls, emails, and texts. 

From Interactive123

It is easy to slip into the belief that I am being more efficient if I am doing at least 5 things at once! And even if I'm not doing the multitasking, I am thinking about my 'to-do' list and feeling guilty that I am taking time to stitch.
But multitasking is bad for your brain (read an interesting article here or here or here, or do your own google search in between stitching LOL!) 
I encourage all of my Slow Sunday Stitching Friends to really enjoy stitching today - with no distractions, interruptions, or multitasking. None. Turn off all the devices and enjoy the sound of your stitching. Wouldn't it be great to enjoy some peaceful stitching, even if only for a few minutes? Let it be just you and your stitching, your threads and needles, and your creative thoughts.

Block sampler quilt

Today I will be putting more stitches in my block sampler quilt. You can see where I was quilting last Sunday... the hoop is on the top right of the quilt. I'll pick right up where I left off. 
Ahhhh.... pure relaxation!

I hope you will link up your blog post and tell us about the project you are hand stitching.  We will have a random draw for those who link up. One Slow Sunday Stitcher will win a Fat Quarter of this adorable Riley Blake snail fabric.
Enjoy your stitching with no multitasking today!

Scrappy Saturday

This month the RSC'ers are sewing light blue scraps. I cut up some of the blue scraps that were hanging around my cutting table. Some of them aren't very "light" blue, but  that's okay. It's a start for the month. 
To see what the other scrappers are sewing today, hop over to SoScrappy.



Yesterday's shop hop was lots of fun. I found a few little treasures that needed to come home with me. You can never have enough neutrals, right?!?



I found a few FQ's to add to my QPOM Berenstain Bears blocks.

And look at this great snail fabric that I found! I just love it and plan to have a little giveaway tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching.

QPOM

A little bit of progress was made this week on my QPOM ("Quilt Pattern of the Month" through my local guild). I have sewn and trimmed these 25 QST blocks. Love the happy primary colours!
Now I have to start sewing the alternate blocks.

It has been a very stressful week, and as a reward to myself for surviving it (including a 2 hour grueling dental appointment)
I will be spending today with my sister doing a quilt store shop hop. Check back tomorrow to see if I found anything I had to buy!

Treadled Scrappy Strips

I am making slow and steady progress on my treadled scrap quilt. I have several pairs of strips sewn together in pairs with black sashing of various widths added. I keep putting them on the design wall to see what it looks like so far and I am liking it, so I will just keep on doing what I'm doing.
I might sew three strips together and see what that looks like between the black sashing.
There are so many great fabric scraps and memories in this project!

Singer Tins

In her quiltland travels, my friend Barb found these vintage Singer boxes. She thought that my recently acquired 301 machines each needed one. Barb kind of has "shared custody" of these machines, since she was with me when I picked them up, so she was on the look out for accessories for them!

One box is green with a gold interior, and one is black with a purple velvety interior. It has a lot of attachments in it and I have no idea what they are for!

Barb declared that every box needed a seam ripper which she added.

The green box not only has a green seam ripper and  matching scissors, but it also has a pattern for making a sewing machine cover. Hmm... I wonder just who she thinks will be sewing that???!!

November UFO goal - RRCB

I really want to "clear the decks" before the new Bonnie Hunter mystery starts at the end of November. I am bound and determined to finish the Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll quilt top (aka "RRCB") which was the 2010 Quiltville mystery! My first job is completing the sewing of these seminole borders.

 I have sewn 4 long sections and a few smaller sections to fit together where needed. It's a fairly large quilt and I have not make this kind of border before. I think most of my hesitation about this border is that I'm afraid of the math and making them fit to the quilt top. But this month, "come hell or high water" this quilt top is getting done!
To see more finishing goals for this month, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes link up.

Design Wall Monday

On my design wall today is the Marcus Sew Along quilt top. I was pleased with how well the rows went together. I used a black print with directional hearts for the setting triangles and now I am auditioning fabrics for another border or two.

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Today is the perfect day for some hand stitching. The last of the colourful fall leaves are dancing around, Thanksgiving is past (here in Canada anyway), Christmas is not yet on the radar.... it's full out quilting time!


I am enjoying the last bits of pretty fall colour while putting big stitches into my sampler quilt.

Progress is slow but steady and the center quilting is about 1/3 finished now ....

Stars - 6 of 20 quilted  

Sashings - 13 of 31 quilted  

Blocks - 7 of 12 quilted

The block on the right is the one I just finished quilting and the one in the hoop has been started.

What are you working on? Link up your blog post about your own hand stitching project and share what you plan to stitch today.

Scrappy Saturday

The RSC'ers have been busy sewing up their dark scraps in the month of October. I didn't get as much accomplished as I had hoped, but did make some progress.
The week I have been cutting some pumpkin seed blocks to hand applique. I haven't even finished the orange seed blocks yet from last month :)
Oh well, progress is still being made!

This is the Leaves Galore ruler I have been using with this project and it is awesome!
Now that a new month is here it is time to move onto another scrap bin, which this month will be light blue.
Hop over to SoScrappy to see what the scrappers are up to!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween everyone!
I have a finished quilt to show today, and that's no trick... it's a treat!

A long time UFO is done! This was mystery quilt pattern #21 from Quiltaholics from 2007.
It sat in the UFO closet for a lot of years. I didn't like that the quilt was square and doesn't fit a bed. But I finally just decided that I wanted it done... 
and now it is!




I tried a spiral quilting pattern (tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts) for the first time and it went well. For some unexplainable reason, the size of the rings grew as I moved out from the center of the quilt. I am excited about trying something new, and I am happy with how it turned out.
I am linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes to brag about my finish. This finish marks the half way point of finishing my 2014 UFO list - 6 done and 6 to go! 
Happy Halloween!

Remaining Mystery Blocks

Over at Jo's Junction there is a Bonnie Hunter Challenge going on - click here to read about it.
In writing my mystery review post last week I realized that I only have 2 1/2 Bonnie mysteries to finish up, which is pretty darn awesome! I want to work on these in the month of November. One project (RRCB) needs a border and quilting, one quilt top (Easy Street) is just waiting for quilting, and then ...
there is one other "problem child" - Carolina Christmas mystery. 

There were two sets of blocks to make for this quilt, but with my colour selections (which were way way "off the beaten path"!) the finished blocks did not play well together. So I separated the blocks and used half of them in the green and pink quilt, which was finished in 2011. 



This week I went in search of (and happily located) the other half of the blocks.
Here they are on the design wall. Are you seeing the problem?
These blocks just didn't fit together in the same quilt as the other half.
Now... what can I do with these?
Any ideas?!?
Wouldn't it be great if I finished this quilt in November before the new mystery started?!?
Linking up to the Challenge Checkin....

Sew Along Update

The Temecula sew along is rolling right along. They have posted 15 letter patterns and I have been able to keep up so far. Here are my rainbow letters.

Won't these blocks make a great baby quilt?
All the block patterns are posted on their blog, so you can join in and make your own quilt at any time.

UFO deadline approaches

My October (and September!) UFO project is being worked on, but I haven't posted about it recently. 

The backing was pieced, the pin basting was done and the quilting was started.






I decided since I didn't really love this old UFO and therefore didn't feel at all worried about quilting it, that I would try a new (to me) quilting idea - a spiral design. I first saw this on Crazy Mom Quilts - tutorial is here. The center rings went well using the free motion foot and then I changed to the walking foot as recommended in the tutorial. And the quality of the curves went down hill!



I was okay with that since I was enjoying the process. I continued to try to make the starts/stops smoother and make the repositioning of the quilt less dramatic ( a little bit at a time) so the curves would be smoother. 

I am not marking the lines, just guesstimating where the next line might be. For some unknown reason the rings keep getting wider? It's kind of fun, but I'm not sure how it will look when it's done. Stay tuned. I plan to finish it by Friday if all goes well.

Design Wall Monday - Marcus Sew-Along

I have finally finished sewing the alternate blocks for the Marcus Fabrics sew-along. They should have been easy blocks but I kept making cutting errors, which made sewing the blocks together much harder than it needed to be. The problem was that some of the pieces are 2" and some are 2.5", and I repeatedly forgot which was which!

And here on the design wall is the recommended layout with the blocks on point. I'll definitely be moving the blocks around to balance the greens and red a bit more.
What do you think?
I think it's not terrible, but it won't be my favorite quilt.
The next step will be to decide which colours to use for the setting triangles and borders. 
To see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I have made a bit of slow progress on hand quilting my block sampler quilt. The autumn colours of this quilt make it the perfect project to work on at this time of year.
I took some photos of the back of the quilt this week just for something different to share. The backing is a mottled gold and the red stitches show up well.




Stars - quilted 5 of 20  
These are fun and quick to quilt.








Blocks - quilted 5 of 12
These are more challenging and time consuming, and each one is different depending on the block pattern, so I make myself finish quilting a block before I quilt a star.


Sashings - quilted 7 of 31
Very boring, but easy to complete. After I finish quilting a block, I would like to quilt the sashings around it, so I don't have a lot of sashings to finish at the end.

From Red Brolly

What are you hand stitching today?
Enjoy the relaxation that making each stitch can bring!
And link up your blog post below so we can be inspired by your slow stitching.

Scrappy Saturday

The RSC'ers are working on the "dark side" this month to use up brown and black scraps.  I have been cutting and sewing some batik scraps for Alamo Star blocks, which I have been sewing in between other seams (aka "leaders/enders"). 




These are tiny blocks, as you can see by the size of the squares under the presser foot. The squares are 1.25", so the star blocks will be 2.25" finished.


You can see that the Alamo Star collection definitely needs more blocks with dark backgrounds. But this is the last week for dark scraps, so I will finish up the blocks I have cut and then see what the next colour will be for November.
To see more RSC postings, hop over to SoScrappy.

TGIF - Let's start something new!

It's Friday and you know what that means! 
Time to sew!
I started my October QPOM (Quilt Project of the Month) for my local guild. I decided to use some Berenstain bears fabrics that I have been hoarding saving for a couple of years. 


I am adding lots of dotty scraps and hoping it will not be too wild of a combination. I am using the Companion Angle ruler to make the QST blocks. The blocks on the top left were the tester blocks which were too small. Now I have my math right, and just need to make hundreds more.

Tracking the Mysteries

Bonnie Hunter is gifting her loyal fans a new mystery quilt! I love Bonnie's patterns with thousands of little pieces, and I love sewing mystery quilts, so I really look forward to her annual mysteries.
I decided for my own entertainment to go back through my blog posts and review the Bonnie Hunter mysteries I have made.




Carolina Crossroads 
2008 - 2010

This was my first Bonnie mystery quilt. Her version was red, white, and blue so you can see I went totally out of the box on my first one! I love it and it's still one of my favorite quilts and is a cuddle quilt for TV watching.







Orange Crush
2008 -2009

This is another of my favorite Bonnie mystery quilts! I stuck pretty much to Bonnie's colours for this one although at first I was nervous about so much orange!
I did change the border on my version and used up leftover blocks.
This quilt lives on my son's bed.

Carolina Christmas 2009 - ??

I didn't like the huge size of this quilt, so I divided the blocks - 

half were made into this quilt in 2011 and given to the comfort quilt collection at the guild. The other half of the blocks feel sad to be still sitting in a UFO box!

Double Delight

2009 (yep - started and finished in the same year!)

I started with a border print that I liked and picked colours for the mystery from that print. It was a fun way to organize a mystery quilt.

I changed the border and really like my version. 

This is a large quilt which I machine quilted myself and was very happy with how it turned out. This quilt lives on my daughter's bed.

Roll Roll Cotton Boll 
2010 - ??

This quilt is still just a top.
I didn't have enough neutral scraps to make the alternate string pieced blocks for this quilt, so I changed the layout completely. It has been stalled for a long time because I am working through my fear of fitting seminole pieced borders onto a large quilt!!


Orca Bay 
2011 - 2013

I went totally rogue on this one and used only one fabric line called "3 Sisters Grace", and that is what I call this quilt.
It is completely different from Bonnie's quilt, and you can see her quilt here. I made my version smaller and put the border on backwards creatively.

Easy Street 

2012 - ??

I kept to Bonnie's recommended colours for this one since I had a lot in my stash. I wish my version had a bit more contrast, but it's okay. 

It is really big and I don't even have a photo of all of it, but here is the right half! This quilt is still a flimsy because I keep debating about whether or not I want to quilt it myself. It will likely be on next year's UFO list to finish.

Celtic Solstice 2013

I changed up the colours on this one (you can see lots of variations on this post) and used a lot of angel themed fabrics. It was quilted for me by Cathy with an angel design. This is one of my all time favorite quilts and it lives on my bed.

And what will the 2014 mystery be? Bonnie is calling it "Grand Illusion" and the fabric requirements have been posted here.  After years of making Bonnie Hunter mysteries, I do know that the new mystery will be: 
1) a challenge and I will learn new things, 
2) a lot of fun to sew, 
3) a well written quilt pattern with great instructions, and
4) a well-kept mystery right up until the end! 
I better get digging through the stash and see what colours I will use this year. Can't wait to get started on November 28th!