Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching celebration! We hope you will join us - get out a project, some needles and thread/yarn and start stitching.

It's the middle of the summer here and the weather has been perfect for outdoor stitching.

July 30th was "World Embroidery Day" and I celebrated by putting some stitches into my new tea towel project. This is another fun pattern from Stitcher's Revolution.

There are 2 concerns with outdoor stitching:

1) Pay attention - you can be so relaxed that you make mistakes! I got carried away with the green banner stitching and stitched the corner of the blue bowl with the green floss. See where the needle is pointing? Ooops... thankfully it was a quick fix.

2) Beware of outdoor wildlife - always look before you stick your hand in the floss box! I always do look first because bees love the bright colours of embroidery thread as much as we do. Luckily no stitcher was stung in taking this photograph! 

I was so delighted to have some stitching time with my daughter this past week. 

Mother and Daughter Embroidery Projects

I have been teaching her how to do various embroidery stitches and have been hoping she would enjoy this wonderful hobby. But so far she doesn't really. Her project has a very tight weave background fabric which is a struggle to stitch through. This is a Dimensions kit, and the fabric they chose is not good for a beginner. She is sticking with it (no pun intended!) and likes how the project is looking, but doesn't enjoy the process. 😒 Oh well, I'm not giving up on her yet! 

What are you hand stitching this week? We would love to see what you are creating with your own two hands. Link up your blog post below and share your slow progress with us.

**Sorry about the coding problem with Inlinkz this morning. It took me a bit of time to solve but I think I've fixed it now.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

July Table Scraps

Blue is the July colour of for the RSC sewers, and lucky me, I received a bag of scrap triangles in the mail this month. These were from Cozy Quilter Gail and they just happened to have lots of blue (and also white and green) which was perfect to make my July placemat!

I started sewing the triangles together not knowing what I was going to make. The HSTs became flying geese and you can see the layout that was starting to emerge. You can also see the Easy Breezy leader-ender block on the sewing table waiting to be finished.

I trimmed the HSTs down to 1.75". 

Yes... every single one. When you are sewing projects with smaller pieces, it really helps to trim off even these tiny slivers to make uniform blocks that will fit together perfectly.

As I was sewing and trimming these triangles I saw a zigzag quilt that Gail posted on her blog and decided it would be fun to sew her scraps into a design that she had just made - that's double the  inspiration from Gail for this project!

I tried to use as many triangles from the bag as possible, and this placemat ended up using 234 triangles. I picked out these 4 thread colours for the machine quilting.

The quilting design is a vertical zigzag using the free motion foot. I have practised many hours to be able to quilt a straight line with this foot. It is easier to get a straight line using a walking foot, but that means you have to twist and turn the entire project at every seam. The free motion foot is quick and efficient for this design as long as you can stitch a straight line.

Here is my July placemat made of 117 HST blocks that measure 1.25".

Linking up to the Table Scraps Challenge on Friday, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday, and Wendy will link me up to the mini quilts challenge at Constant Quilters.

Design Wall Monday

The poor UFO project for July did not get much attention. There was just so much going on this month with other interesting sewing projects. 

It did get squared up (or down?) and one border was sewn on. There is one more border to add and then it will be ready for quilting. That will be the August UFO goal since it wasn't accomplished in July. 

To see the photos of the projects that were finished in July, hop over to One Monthly Goal.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Stitching Sunday

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Here we brag about our slowness, and take pride in the art of relaxing, breathing deeply, and creating projects over long periods of time. We believe in the health benefits of relaxation, so we want to slow down,  and enjoy taking a few stitches here and there.

I will be hand stitching a binding today. This is my July placemat and I'll write a blog post about it when it's finished. I love the pretty floral backing fabric. 

Some slow progress is also being made on my quilt repair project. 

After reading the slow stitching blogs last week I decided to try a back basting applique  technique and I'm loving it! I pin a large patch over the hole, turn the quilt over and from the right side of the quilt I make a line of black stitches around the outside of the hole. Then I turn the quilt over to the back side and needle turn the edge of the patch just beside the black stitches. I trim the patch as I go. It's working out great, so thank you for the ideas.

What are you hand stitching today? We hope you will link up your blog post and share your slow progress with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

Saturday is my weekly Rainbow Scrap Challenge update and the colour for July has been dark blue. Many of my scrappy projects already have enough dark blue so I have added a few blocks to some newer projects.

I added some ladders to my version of Bonnie Hunter's Bitcoin pattern. This is a new project and the pattern was just released in June. It's an awesome way to use up scraps and strips in the RSC colour each month.

And of course I jumped into (or should I say dove head first into) the Fish School leader - ender challenge that was just announced in July. Here are a  half dozen bluefins on the design wall. One fish does appear to be swimming upstream!

Linking up to the RSC party at Angela's

Changes

Rumour has it that Google is removing the old email subscription system (Feedburner) in July, so I'm trying a new (to me) system temporarily to see how it works. The new system is called "follow.it". 

If you have subscribed to my blog in the past and enjoyed receiving the updates in your email, you will need to resubscribe. You can find this on the right sidebar where it says "Get new posts by email". Of course you can always read the posts directly on my blog. I haven't figured out how to transfer the old subscribers over to the new system. I'm sorry if you get lost in the change over! It will take some effort to make sure we continue to stay current with the blogs we have enjoyed in the past (if they have been able to keep up with all the blogging changes in the past year!)

Another thing that has changed recently is how I make face masks. I made another batch from a Riley Blake panel that I bought at Cherished Pieces. The improvements in my mask making 3.0 is 1) the polypropylene filter, 2) the nose bar, and 3) the adjustable elastics around the ears. Very comfy!

Here is Mom with her smiley face mask. The reverse side says "Be Kind". Oh, I just noticed that the wedding photo of my Mom's mom is right over her shoulder.... cool photo!

And here is Dad with his handlebar moustache mask. 

I double dog dare that Delta Covid Variant to pass through  these masks! The fit is snugger than any paper mask I've worn yet.

Are you still making and wearing masks where you live?

Design Wall Monday

We are into step #3 of the summer mystery that my local guild is running. Here is my recycled spinach container full of parts and blocks, all counted and labelled, and ready for the next step.

It has been a fun project and I have learned a few new things. For example, we learned how to magically turn the two blocks at the top into the two "birds in the air" blocks at the bottom.

I have been playing with these "combination units" on the design wall and am intrigued by what we will be making with these blocks.  Maybe they will become a border? Or maybe some kind of pinwheel units? 

Who knows? Not me! It's a mystery!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's 

Slow Sunday Stitching

It's Sunday... time for some relaxation and slow stitches.

This week I have been mending a 10 year old quilt. My granddog Max loves quilts to snuggle in, and to eat. He isn't allowed to be around quilts these days except under strict supervision. He chewed a few holes in some quilts and I have taken an interest recently in doing those repairs. 

I have learned quite a bit about mending quilts from reading Carole's blog posts at From my Carolina Home and felt ready to tackle the repairs.  This is a smaller rectangular patch that I am appliqueing on the backing over a hole that goes right through the quilt.

And here is a fussy cut piece that will fit over a larger sized hole.

Once the holes are patched on the backing, I'll work from the front, add small pieces of new batting and applique a new patch on top.

What are you hand stitching today? We'd love to see your projects, and hope you will link up your blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Full Stop Update

The 2021 RSC sampler quilt is called Full Stop. I am making 4 blocks in the colour of the month for each punctuation mark. Here are July's blue colon blocks. Easy peasy and quick.

Then I tackled the purple Semi-colon blocks from June that I missed. They were a little harder but cute as anything! I will border these blocks closer to the end of the year when I figure out what my layout will be.

Linking up to the weekly RSC linky party

Summer Mystery Sewing

My local quilt guild is providing the members with a mystery project to keep up our sewing skills over the summer. Here are some friendship stars that are part of the design. And of course there is always one or two blocks that want to be unique!

Then we made some QST blocks which might become blocks or perhaps border units? You just never know with a mystery quilt!

It is a refreshing project to sew in small windows of time and I am enjoying it!

Are you sewing any summer projects?

Design Wall Monday

This weekend I sewed up a big block for the Quilts For Survivors project which is making quilts for survivors of residential schools.  I did not have enough time to make a quilt to meet their deadline, so I wanted to make a big block to contribute. I have been inspired by Preeti's Positivity QAL and decided that making positivity blocks would be my contribution. 

I followed the free tutorial at Stitched In Color and made four 8" blocks. The project guidelines request that orange be the predominant block colour, and I made two with orange backgrounds and two with orange pluses. 

This block is now travelling to Timmins, Ontario where it will be joined together with other blocks, and made into a quilt which will be given to a residential school survivor. May it bring comfort and healing 💔 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello and welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We invite you to enjoy a refreshing drink and take out your project and put a few stitches in.

This is exactly what I love to do on a hot summer day... sit in the shade with a strawberry drink,  and do some hand quilting, while visiting with a friend. It is even more special this year as we have been socially isolated for so long due to covid restrictions, and now at long last, we are able to have outdoor visits with friends. 

4 more quilted blocks!

I have been hand  quilting some 8" Life Is Beautiful blocks lately as it's the perfect summer take along project. These are the most recently finished blocks on the design wall.

39 Life is Beautiful blocks waiting!

Here is the stack of 39 blocks in storage. Yes, they patiently wait in an unused refrigerator. If I add this pile to the above 4 quilted blocks, that is a total of 43 blocks, which means I am 20 blocks away from starting to assemble the quilt!

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

It's the weekend and there's plenty of time to sew to my hearts content!

This week I made some blue Bitcoin ladders. In this collection are dancing cats, utensils, and of course the never ending Y2K fabric! Seriously now...it's now 21 years passed Y2K and why do I still have this in my stash?!?

And on the bottom left of the photo is one lonely Mini Arrowhead block. I would like to make more of these blocks, but this project already has too much blue, so I'll wait to sew more Arrowheads until next month.

Next up to sew are my June and July blocks for the Full Stop sampler. Linking up to the RSC party

A Blast From the Past

My friend Judy gifted me with a bag of fabric from cleaning/purging her sewing room. This was a project she started in a class many years ago and over time lost interest in it. I'm guessing it's about 20 years old? For those of you who are local, it dates back to the original Greenwood Quiltery location on Suffolk, so that's a long time ago! 

Judy's piecing has always been meticulous and she is very organized as you can see. She has everything labelled and even stored the pattern with the fabric!

It was easy to pick up right where she left off. However, I didn't want to make the original pattern design which would require a lot of seam matching.  This is an example of a block in the original design.

New block and old pattern

That was way too much seam matching for me. So I made a slight alteration and instead of the flying geese going all the way around the square, the geese are going to be only on 2 sides. See the old graphic for the original design at the bottom of the handout?

Here are the blocks I've sewn so far on the design wall.

So pretty! This is older Robyn Pandolph fabric. Those of you who have been quilting a long time will remember this.

That red square really stands out so I either need to take it out, or add more red in. What would you do?

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Last week I had time to visit all the links and enjoyed seeing your projects that you are working on including hand binding, hand piecing, hexies, crochet, embroidery, beading, applique, hand quilting and knitting.  Thank you for sharing your beautiful work with us!

Last week I had the pleasure of slow stitching by the water, which is my most favourite peaceful place to stitch. I quilted 2 blocks from my Life is Beautiful project. The first block I finished is one of the alternate bullseye blocks. 

The second is one of the embroidered blocks. This cat block says "life is what you make it to be".  Well that day, while stitching by the river with friends, it was easy to make life seem fabulous! I could be with friends and enjoy some outdoor stitching... what more could a person ask for?!?

Today I will be hand quilting another block for this project. What are you hand stitching today? We would love to see what you are working on, so we hope you will link up your blog post below and share your project with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

New Leader/Ender Challenge

Shoo Fly, Shoo quilt

Did you see that Bonnie Hunter has posted the new Leader-Ender project for this year? Every July Bonnie has inspired us with a new scrappy challenge. Some years I have watched from the sidelines, or made a mini version, and sometimes I dive in head first, as I did for the Shoo Fly, Shoo challenge.

Here is the list of projects with the instruction link, followed by the link to my version if I made one:

2020 Easy Breezy - in progress
2019 Shoo Fly, Shoo  - my version
2018 Jewel Box Stars
2017 Rail Fence
2016 Hourglass - my quilt top
2015 Tumblers - my "tiny tumble" version
2014 Lozenges 
2013 Split 9 Patch
2012 Spools - my quilt top
2011 Cheddar BowTies 

And there you have it... 10 years of scrappy inspiration! I participated in 50% of the challenges, actually finished 2 of them, and have 2 fantastic quilt tops to finish... and last year's blocks ready to sew together. So will I start this year's challenge? Of course I will! I like to make these projects as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge and work my way through all the colours of scraps over the course of a year.

Here are my first 4 blocks for Fish School and some leftover blocks from purple month (one more easy breezy and 2 waffles).

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge