Slow Sunday Stitching

Two Fridays ago at the Chatham quilt show I started a Mariner’s Compass. This past Friday I finished it. Had I to do it again I would have used a solid in the same shade of grey for the large background piece. I’m not 100% happy with the directionality of the white. But the purpose behind this was to choose unusual for me fabrics and to make the piece. So, challenge complete.

Once I finished the compass I got back to working on Friendship Chain. I’m at the point where I am comfortable enough with what I’m doing to be able to break it down into steps for pattern purposes. So I’ve chosen all my fabrics for the remaining rows and have started at the other end so I can take pictures of the beginning row and explain the process. This is obviously slowing things down a bit. But I’m still hoping for my finish date of the end of September. The next few pictures show part of the organizing process: Numbering the fabrics, starting the stitching process with the fabrics numbered. Adding in more colours and more pieces. As I’m doing this I’m also writing myself reminder notes for when I actually sit down to write this up. Now that I have the pictures of the process that I need, I can go ahead and start sewing this row together.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then I’m going to do some Stitching on this.

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.