Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party!

I changed my blog header to reflect the fall season since it's my favourite time of the year and it's finally here! We can actually walk outside and enjoy lovely comfortable weather!

The blog header photo is one of my favourite fall embroideries. You can still get the free pattern by Melisa of Pinker 'n Punkin if you want to enjoy making one for yourself.

This week I made a video of the projects I worked on in September. It's a helpful process to do this kind of review since as a hand stitcher it often feels like I don't make much progress. But when I see my projects all together, it does feel very rewarding!

In September I attended the Harvest Moon Hangout (online event) and was delighted to attend an interview with Amie of Lola Crow. I took a photo of my Extraordinary Birds project I was stitching on while Amie was sharing her original version of this design. It was very exciting for me!

And I finally worked on the Primrose Cottage pattern called 'Hello Summer" project. This pattern was free to their newsletter subscribers and I stitched it on 18 count aida 1 thread over 1 square. Then it became a little pillow filled with walnut shells and a few polly pellets. I couched a bit of red trim around the edge to finish it off.

The finished size is 4" x 5.25" and it is so cute!

The pattern for 'Hello Autumn' was just emailed this week, so I'm ready to get going on that one!

What are you hand stitching today? Are you stitching seasonal projects? Are you finishing anything? Share your progress with us below!

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly celebration of all hand stitched crafts! We hope you will join us in setting aside a few moments each Sunday for some relaxing stitching on your favourite project. Pick up a needle and thread, breathe deeply, and enjoy a little vacation from the responsibilities of your life.

This week I have really enjoyed working on a Halloween project called Spooky House SAL by Tiny Modernist. 

There are so many Halloween blocks to stitch and it has been the perfect project to work on at this time of year. Here is the haunted house, which in spite of all that backstitch, was great fun to stitch! I have had my nose so close to the pattern that until I stand back to see what I've stitched, I have no idea what it really looks like! LOL 

I have finished 3 of the centre blocks, and have started on the 4th block. Although it looks a little wonky, I 99% sure the blocks are straight! 👀 It is so fun when a project grabs your attention, and you just can't put it down! Yesterday I stitched over 600 stitches on the 4th block for this project, and I just love it! 

I am so smitten that I can't even remember what else I should be working on! I think it's the combination of a great pattern and an easy to work on fabric (which is the recommended 28-count Jobelan in “Sage/Summer Khaki” from Wichelt).

Do you have any projects that have grabbed a hold of you and taken all of your attention? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us.

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the regular weekly practice of relaxing with some hand stitching! We encourage you to join us... all you have to do is take a deep breath, find your hand stitching project and put in some stitches.

I have been attending some of the events at the Lindy Stitches Harvest Moon online event. It has been fun to meet new stitching friends and chat with old friends. I did buy a couple of new patterns that were irresistible, and will continue to attend today to see the interview with Amie of Lola Crow Designs.

During the event I was madly trying to finish up the gift I was making for my grandbaby's first birthday party. And I'm very happy to say I finished it in time for the party! I blurred out the personal details, but you can see the lovely design by Silver Creek Samplers. This was the perfect gift for celebrating the the miracle our family has received in this new life!

This is what the back of the tiny wallhanging looks like - little triangles in the top 2 corners to hold the wooden dowel, and a little triangle label with star charm stitched on in the bottom corner. I was hand stitching the binding at the last minute of course!

And here's the birthday boy! He loved eating his little cake made especially for him by his Mom. Everything about his party was delightful, from the gorgeous fall weather, to meeting with friends and family to celebrate the joy of having this wonderful addition to the family. Such a blessing!

This was the best photo I could get of the 3 second cousins together at the party - it was total chaos and so much fun to have them together! We have a red head, a brunette, and a blond - we never mix them up! And of course Max the granddog has to get in the photo too!

So today I will be relaxing, attending Harvest Moon and doing some hand stitching on one of my many ongoing projects!

What are you hand stitching today? Share your slow progress with us and link up your blog post below!

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Design Wall Monday

Look at me posting a design wall photo 2 weeks in a row! Life has slowed down a bit and I am able to get to my sewing machine sometimes. And the Laundry Basket mystery has piqued my interest, so I am sewing along with Edyta Sitar.

We are on step #3 this week, and I did my flying geese blocks in 6 different blue fabrics just for fun. Here are all the centre blocks on my design wall. 

I sewed the geese blocks into sets of 2 instead of 3 so that I could get the seams going the way I wanted. Then I decided to go ahead and sew the centre rows together.

This is how it looks now. Rows 6 to 10 are sewn together and the seams pressed in opposite directions. I pin a little note to each row (on the right hand side) and indicate which direction the seams are pressed on that row. We have made 4 other square in a square blocks that are in the outside corner areas, so they are set aside on the bottom right corner and also labelled with a paper tag.

I know where the blocks for each step go because Edyta shows us a block layout at each step. I hope I don't regret my decision to jump ahead and start sewing rows! 

I made the Laundry Basket 2021 mystery quilt completely from scraps and loved how it turned out, so I am semi confident that it is going to be a good decision to sew the rows as we go along. It will make the quilt construction easier at the end if all goes well. Fingers crossed!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the mid September hand stitching party! Today we are relaxing with our colourful threads and yarns, and adding stitches to the beautiful creations we are bringing into to the world!

I am very excited to be close to finishing 2 quilts! You know how it feels when you're putting the final stitches in something you have worked on for a long time? 

Yesterday I was visiting my sister at her cottage and did a lot of binding while watching the Blue Jays baseball game. It is challenging to stitch a black binding, onto a black Fireside backing, using black thread. But it went well and I am almost to the last side.

I also finished a block on the Spooky Night mystery cross stitch SAL by Tiny Modernist. I am way behind, but hope to stitch at least one block per week until Halloween. This week was a pumpkin, and it still needs some back stitching to bring it to life.

What are you hand stitching this week? Are you starting any Halloween or fall projects?

Link up your blog post below and share our progress with us.

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! It's time to slow down and find one of your projects to put some stitches into.

I'll be adding a few stitches to my full coverage project today, which is a Heaven and Earth Design pattern called Mini Treasure Hunt Bookshelf. I love getting lost in the threads and stitching on this project. There is a lot of confetti stitching, which means one stitch here and another stitch far away. But I'll keep at it and I because I enjoy the process so much, even confetti stitching doesn't deter me!

I made a video to show the projects I worked on in August - you can see the update here.

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you have some progress to share on your projects. You can link up your blogpost below.

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Design Wall Monday

How shocking to be writing a design wall blog post! It has been a while since I have done that - maybe about a year?! 

My design wall had been covered by pieces of a quilt that my dear friend Diane started before she passed away, and I just couldn't get going on it. I guess the timing wasn't right and maybe I had some grieving to do first?

This is how far I got on the project while at retreat. 

Diane had all the background fabrics cut, and there were no more of those in the bag, so it will become as big as those beige squares allow.

I got working on it again this weekend and am close to finishing this lovely scrappy version of Bonnie Hunter's free pattern for Smokey Mountain Stars. I know this pattern as "Stretch Stars".

It's so bright and scrap happy, and has been fun to work on, while I pour over my memories of Diane.

I love that this quilt is something we have worked on together - my scraps mingled with hers, just as our lives and quilting adventures were mingled together over the years. Here we are visiting Ben and Jerry's in Vermont 15 years ago!

I plan to finish this quilt in her honour and donate it to one of the charities that she enthusiastically supported.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday