Slow Sunday Stitching

We just got back home from 5 days away. It wasn’t a vacation though but a working trip. We were at the Plowing Match quilt show in Chatham as vendors. We took our trailer and went down Wednesday evening and stayed at a conservation area near Chatham so that we wouldn’t have the 1 1/2 hour one way drive to do 3 days in a row. It was a kinda slow day on Friday for activity in our booth, so I decided I needed something new and fun to play with. I grabbed one of our Mariner’s Compass English Paper Piecing kits and went fabric shopping at Michaelanne’s MyStache booth. She has some fun and modern fabrics which are totally outside my usual fabric styles. I started cutting and basting and sewing right away. Here’s how much I have done since Friday. It’s going to be 16 inches across from point to point. I bought 2 fat quarters of the dark grey. One to use for the outside pieces and the other to use as the background square into which I plan to reverse appliqué the finished compass. I haven’t a clue what it will be when it is finished, but that’s ok because I’m having fun. Sometimes it is necessary to put aside the large complex projects and do one that is small and fast. In the slow hand stitching process there is no such thing as instant gratification, but this is coming pretty close.
We still have lots of stuff left that we need to unpack and organize back into the places where it usually lives. But for the rest of today, I am going to relax, slow down after the busy-ness of the last 5 days and stitch more on this compass.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

This past week has been crazy busy. We are vending our English Paper Piecing supplies at a quilt show in Chatham next weekend. Now you would think that because we knew this was coming we’d slowly and gradually build up the stock we want to take, or at least that’s what organized people would do. But no, that’s not what we did, so now this past week we’ve been scrambling to get everything cut. And of course, I keep adding to the list of things I want to take. That means there hasn’t been nearly as much time for slow stitching as I would like. Some days I wasn’t sitting down until after 9 pm. But I’ve still managed to get some progress made on Friendship Chain, but not a lot. I’m hoping to do more today since other than going to church, I have no other plans for doing anything else other than slowing right down, letting my hands keep busy while my brain roams freely dreaming of my next project or 6.

I’m also planning pattern writing for this one while I stitch and I think I have it figured out how to write it up in an organized manner that will make sense. After this row is finished, which is number 6 out of 10,  I’m going to try and pull the fabrics for the rest of the quilt. Then I’ll start the process of taking pictures while I work on it for the pattern. The pictures serve a couple of functions. Obviously they are very helpful in the pattern so that there is a visual representation of what I am trying to explain. But it also serves as a reminder to me of the various steps since there is often a lag time between doing the steps in the quilt and writing it down. But first, row six needs to be finished.
I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching happened every evening this week. I really want to move this project on to a quick finish. Or as quick a finish as hand piecing using English Paper Piecing can get. I had someone ask last week where to get the pattern. I couldn’t answer as I have yet to get my comments thing fixed. Someone sent me instructions on how to do it. But I didn’t have the time to do it then and now I’ve lost those instructions. But to answer that question, this is one of my own designs, adapted from an Electric Quit block. So, as of yet, there isn’t a pattern. As I’m working on the blocks and the quilt  I’m taking notes on what would be the best and most understandable way to write up instructions. It might be finished and ready for release by the end of September. If I can do one row a week, that time line might be doable. If not, it will be October.
In the meantime, the process seems to be speeding up. I starter row 5 last Saturday and finished it  today, which is Saturday evening. I have all the fabrics selected and cut for row 6. This evenings task is to start glue basting them. I’ll finish writing this post tomorrow.

I finished most of the glue basting last night. So today I can start the process of organizing the diamond pieces together with the fabrics they go with and start in more stitching.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching. Then  I’ll finish up my morning coffee and get to stitching. It’s a glorious day, so some if it might actually happen outside.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’m continuing to make really good progress on Friendship Chain. I have the first four rows completely finished and sewn together.



I’m now working on the diamond parts of the fifth row.



One of the bonuses of keeping track of projects like this on the blog is that I can see at a glance when they were first started. The first post about this project was June 10th of this year - 7 weeks ago. That gives me an average of about 1 row every 1 1/2 weeks. Maybe even less than that because I was sick for part of those 7 weeks and didn’t do any stitching at all. However, using that the line I can estimate the finish of this project. I have 6 more rows to do for a total of 9 weeks. That takes me to the middle of October, maybe sooner. It will be interesting to look back and see if this turns out to be accurate.

I laid the pieces of this quilt down on a sheet of flannel out on our patio. The light is better for accurate colours. While I was out there I had a very curious visitor wanting to see what I was up to. My husband enjoys feeding the resident neighbourhood squirrels and chipmunks. I think this little creature thought I might have something for it.
It’s kinda cute, but I can’t help thinking that in spite of its cuteness it’s really just a mouse in disguise. My husband has them trained to the point where they will come up to him on the chair or the swing and take the peanuts right out of his hand. They seem to think that I have stuff for them also, so they also jump up onto the swing when I’m out there too, something I’m not keen about at all.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’ve just noticed something lately. I seem to have put aside the tendency to be working on more than one thing at a time. In spite of having all kinds of ideas bouncing round in my head, I’m continuing to focus on working on Friendship Chain. I do have a wall hanging that needs binding though. Maybe I’ll get out the sewing machine this week and get that done.
In the meantime, Friendship Chain is growing. I’ve gotten half of the fourth row done.
I love how it is turning out now that I can see more of it. The colours in this photo are almost completely accurate. I think it’s going to end up a nice twin bed size when it’s finished.  I think it may need a border or two, but I’ll decide that later.

It’s raining today, which we badly need, so it’s going to be a quiet indoor day. We’ll be going to church and a fellowship supper this afternoon, but the rest of the day is set up for visiting with our sweet Abbie and maybe a little bit of stitching. She’s 2 1/2 years old now and talking up a storm. She’s such a delight and a joy. She was away for a week visiting with cousins, so it’s great to spend some time with her again.
I’m linking up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’m almost finished the third full row of Friendship Chain. So I’m now in the process of choosing the fabrics for the next row and glue basting them for stitching together. You can see the next set of fabrics cut and clipped to the bottom row. The colours are much more vibrant in real life. It’s hard to get an accurate photo at 7:30 in the evening.

This is going to be a very short post. I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get back to glue basting.

A little bit of stitching...

Once again I’ve been absent from the blog world because of a virus, not a computer virus but a cold virus. I’ve been sick...... again. I think this might be the fourth time in the last 6 months. It is getting just a tad tiresome...... But as of today I’m starting to feel a bit more like myself again. The cement inside my sinuses is starting to soften up and at least I can put one or two coherent thoughts together at the same time. I’ve been doing some work on Friendship Chain. The second full row is finished and stitched in place and the third all row is halfway done. I’m starting to get into a rhythm of how to do it.


When I started this project, I thought I was going to have to cut everything first and then decide where the colours would go. Then it dawned on me that I could choose the fabrics first and where they would go and then do the cutting. That was a huge step forward in the process since it saves me a lot of cutting for fabrics that may or may not get used. It is a challenge to get the fabrics contrasting with each other side by side, as well as the one that is above it. Ultimately each fabric will be touching four others. But this is one of the things I love about designing my own quilts and choosing my own colours.... the challenge.

I hope to get this row finished this week and move onto selecting the fabrics for the next one.

I’m linking up to Let’s Bee Social and to the Canadian Needle and Thread Network and also to Esther’s WOW on Wednesday.