Slow Sunday Stitching

I took a little break last week from both blogging and  hand stitching to do some intensive knitting. I’m working on a blanket called Sweet Spot.



It takes hand dyed yarn and makes it into a really neat looking design taking advantage of the long colour repeats.
  

The Sweet Spot refers to the number of stitches required to make the yarn pool and pattern the way it does. It’s rather hypnotic, watching the design unfold from the needles.

But I did finally pick up a hand stitching project again - my Connections quilt. I have one section of it done now which currently measures 23 x26 inches.



I’d like to do three more in order to get it up to a usable size for a lap quilt. I’m a good way into the first row of the second section.

But I’ve had to stop and cut more dark grey triangles. So after I finish this post it will be time to get those triangles basted to the papers so I can continue on.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Taking it slowly

We are on vacation at the moment, camping at Wheatly Provincial Park. What a surprise this park has been. I grew up in Windsor Ontario many many years ago, back in the days when Lake Erie was extremely polluted and a place to be avoided. So it became an ingrained thing in my thinking even after the pollution was cleaned up, that we don’t go to anything on Lake Erie but head up to Lake Huron instead. However this time round we wanted to check out Peelee Island since we’d never been there so we elected to use Wheatly Provincial Park as our home base for exploration. I am sure we’ll be coming back. It is a small park with some lovely campsites and overall has been very quiet even over the weekend. The campsite we are in is very private and large but it had the downside of being in the full sun. So we got creative with a tarp at the back of our trailer and rigged up a sun porch of sorts. It’s been a lovely place to rest and read and stitch.
I’ve been able to get lots of hand stitching and knitting done. I don’t have a picture of the knitting but do have pictures of the hand stitching.All the ten pointed stars that go around the centre of my Battle of the Stars by Willyne Hammerstein are done. I had these finished before we left last Sunday. 

The last three have been done this week.



 Now I can start to add them all around the centre. Some of them as you can see, already have their setting dark blue pieces in place. The rest of them I’ll do as I get to them. I laid the whole thing out on the grass in our shady spot to get an idea of where they will all go and what it looks like.


I can reference this picture as I go to remind me of which star goes where.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching. Then I think it will be time for some lunch and some more stitching outside. We head home tomorrow, so I want to enjoy as much of this day outside as I can.

Slow Stitching

I’ve pulled my Battle of the Stars found in Willyne Hammerstein’s Millefiori 3 book back out. I went over to Gail’s Thursday evening for a stitching evening and got a star surrounded by the navy pieces and then got to work on a couple more. One regular cut and another fussy cut. I think I have two more stars to do. Although they still need their navy setting pieces before it can start assembling around the centre.
I’ve also been doing some knitting. I found this pattern when looking for a project for Eat Sleep Knit’s 3rd quarter challenge which is to make something by a Canadian designer that was published before 2010. This pattern is called Sweet Spot and uses hand died yarn that has the potential to pool. The pattern caused a really unique and interesting stripe to form. I really like it. It will, some day, be big enough for a blanket or at least a small lap throw.
We are heading out today for a 5 day camping break. These projects are coming along with me. I hope to get lots of relaxing and stitching done.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.