Slow Sunday Stitching....

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 7 years now that Kathy has been hosting this Slow Sunday Stitching link up party every week. Just out of curiosity I went looking in my blog archives to see when I first linked up with Kathy. It was July 15, 2012. So I’ve been with her almost from the beginning. One of the big bonuses of doing a blog is to be able to look back and find information like that.
This week I’m working on a new project. I know, the last thing I need is yet another new hand work project, but hang on a second while I explain.... I have a good reason, really I do. I’ve been approached by a guild to do a trunk show and a workshop for them in the fall. I sent them information on the workshops I already have organized, but they wanted something a little different. What they asked for was something that in the morning would be a good beginner introduction to English Paper Piecing and then in the afternoon something more advanced. I don’t have anything in my repertoire like that so I did some thinking and came up with an idea. And of course, since it’s a new workshop, it needs a sample for people to see, therefore a new project. The whole thing will be based on Lemoyne Stars which a lot of people find very intimidating to sew, especially by machine with those inset seams. With EPP they are very easy to do. I’m not 100 percent sure just where this is going to go, whether it will be a sampler or what. I’ll decide that later. Right now I’m just making blocks. I accomplished the pieces in the picture last evening, so it shouldn’t take too long to get it done.
Kathy asked us to show our favourite hand stitching project. Mine hands down has to be my La Passacaglia which was the start of this crazy English Paper Piecing addiction.

It was so much fun to do. I had a blast doing all the fussy cutting for it and it resulted in my never looking at a piece of fabric in quite the same way ever again. I still look for fussy cutting possibilities even now when purchasing fabric. 

I’m linking up now with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching as I have been doing for the last 7 years. Thank you Kathy for all the years of hosting and inspirations.

Connections progress

I haven’t done a Slow Sunday Stitching post in a couple of weeks since I wasn’t making a whole lot of progress and there wasn’t much change in any of my projects. But now I can show a section of the Connections quilt is finished. It measures about 22 inches square right now. I’m planning on working on it in sections this size and see where it goes and how big it gets. The scrappy squares were all gifted to me by friends at the London Friendship Quilters Guild. Here’s a close up of some of the fun squares.

I’ve also finished a sweater in the last week. It is one of the fade projects. It’s a pattern called Spectre by Joji Locatelli. I’ve made a few of her designs now and really like them.  Here’s a close up of the yarns and how they fade together. There are three different coloured yarns in here. I did 3/4 length sleeves on this project. First because I’m always pushing up my sweater sleeves and also because I was running short on the yarns and didn’t want to run out before the second sleeve was finished. I have another of this sweater pattern almost finished, that’s how much I liked it.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching before going back to making more Connections blocks.

Itching to get to machine sewing

For the first time in a very long time I’m itching to get to machine sewing on a large quilt project. In fact, there are 2 that I want to do, both from my favourite designer, Judy Martin. I’ve been browsing through one of her books that is devoted entirely to Log Cabin quilts Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts.  The first is one called Pioneer Log Cabin. 
And the second is called Aspen Log Cabin. 
I  grabbed both of these photos from the page on her website that shows sneak peak pictures of the quilts in this book found at the link here
However, there is a very large problem preventing me from working on either of them. I’m posting a “let’s be real” photo here of the current state of my crafting/knitting/sewing area.
It’s gotten to the point where just about everything has chugged to a halt because I can’t get near the table and am having a hard time finding anything in the mess. It is time to do something about it. But I have this slight problem of other work to get done. What to do, what to do as Winnie the Pooh would say? Little bits at a time is my answer. So my goal for today is to get the customer quilt that is currently on the long arm finished. And then I’ll spend some time tackling the mess and think about how to organize this almost total chaos. I think I need some boxes or totes or laundry baskets or some sort of containers, If you don’t hear from me you’ll know I’ve gotten drowned in the mess.........