Slow Stitching

 I’m continuing the rotation of projects. I must confess that I really enjoy doing my projects this way. Each one gets its assigned day and none get left behind. I finished this month’s blocks for Noah’s Journey. Finishing that means I get more time to work on my Mandala Millefiori and more excitingly, my Family Sampler. 

Here are the sheep and the goats from this month’s Noah’s Journey.

The Millefiori Mandala step 5 is up in the top left corner of the finished design. I worked on it a bit last night after my eyes started going all wonky. And here is the Family Sampler.

 I worked on it quite a bit yesterday until I finally had to stop due to the previously mentioned wonky eyes. I’m working on another pulled thread section and looking back and forth between the fabric and the stitching instruction diagrams were the cause of those wonky eyes. The pulled thread section is at the bottom of this picture. I have to say that before I did this piece I had never done pulled thread work before. There are some really good youtube videos put out by the Victoria Sampler ladies which were a huge help in doing this. This is currently section 18 out of 29.  Not bad considering I started this at the beginning of February. 

I’m going to post this and link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.Then it will be time for lunch and more stitching. I suspect having fresh eyes and daylight will help with finishing that section of pulled thread work. 

Slow Stitching All Week Long

 I’m back to rotating my projects again and it continues to work well. I have two more circles done on the Millefiori Mandala. I’m really enjoying seeing the different designs and details form inside each circle. I’d never done anything quite like it before, which was the original attraction of this piece.

I’m working on the goats for Noah’s Journey. It’s fun that one of the goats has spots that are heart shaped.

My favourite project though, is this Family Sampler. I am loving every minute and every stitch. I’m learning so many new stitches in it. That makes it fun and challenging to do and not a bit boring. I’m sad when the end of the day comes and I have to set it aside. But I’m determined to not let anything turn into a UFO and sit unfinished so I will continue to rotate through them. 

I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get to my own stitching. Today is the family sampler day. I’m looking forward to seeing how much further I can get on it. The next section is #9 out of 29. Yes I freely and willingly admit to being insane.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’ve worked almost exclusively on cross stitch and embroidery this past week. I have four projects going now, one embroidery and three cross stitch. It’s a good thing I never committed to only doing one at a time because I would have broken that commitment by now. But I know myself well enough not to say that sort of thing.

The seventh release of Noah’s Journey came out at the beginning of the week. So I got it traced out and coloured. This is a two block section. I have one of them almost finished. I just have to do the flowers and leaves on the top of the sheep’s head.

I’ve also made progress on the Millefiori Mandala cross stitch project. I’m keeping up with this, so far. Part 4 was released a week ago and I am part way through that.

The Victoria Sampler Facebook group is doing a monthly sampler type thing. A small portion of the monthly design is released weekly on Fridays for the first 3 weeks of each month. I finished February’s yesterday.

And then there is the new project, also from Victoria Sampler. One of our slow stitchers is also working on this and when I saw the picture of hers I sort of fell in love. It is a challenge to do. Lots of new stitches and also lots of different type threads from what I’ve used before. But I am loving doing it. There are nine little tiny birds in the tree. They are done with a single strand of silk thread over a single thread of fabric. I have never done anything that delicate before. I have one more bird left to do before I can move on to the next element. I am finding the instructions with this sampler very good and am planning on doing it step by step as it is presented in the instructions. 

And now for our big news that has been going on in our lives. We live with our daughter and son-in-law in a granny flat type apartment. Our son-in-law started a new job in January. The job is in the Muskoka region of Ontario. So we are all going to be moving. The house we are in now sold this past week, so there is a new adventure in our future. It’s very exciting, especially since we all love that area of our province. They are now on the search for a new home for all of us up there. 

I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.