Slow Sunday Stitching

 Mr Fox this past week got his full body and 2/3rds of his tail. I should be able this week to make good time and get his tail finished and then the last couple of trees. Who knows, I might even get a start on doing the grids for the swans section. I discovered that I’m running low on the white thread that I will need to finish the swans, so I decided to go ahead and order that, plus the linen for the next 3 critters to be stitched. And then since I was on a roll, I decided to go through my  threads and see what I had and what needed to be ordered and get them at the same time. Sometimes I can be organized and efficient, especially when it comes to ordering fabrics and threads of any kind. (grin) Now housework and cooking and cleaning and all that nasty takes away from quilting and stitching stuff... there I’m not so organized. (also grin).

Anyhow, it’s a lovely day here in Muskoka. The trees are turning colour, about 20% now. Which means it’s much too nice of a day to be indoors. I’m going to link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then head out onto the deck with my stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m a day late posting my weekly slow stitching report. I have a good reason for it, though. I was digging around looking for an old abandoned project from 2016. It’s a McKenna Ryan design called Aurora Ridge. Back in 2016 I bought the patterns and the fabric kits to make the blocks and started on making them right away. But then as often happens, other things interceded and the project got packed way and, if not forgotten, then certainly out of sight and out of mind. Fast forward to this year and it has pushed its way back into my consciousness, mostly because of the similarity between the subject matter of the quilt and the surroundings we live in here in Muskoka. The thing that has been holding me back on it is how to procede with finishing it without a long arm quilting machine. There is no way I could afford to have someone else do it, not could I afford to rent a machine to do it. The only other options were to either leave it unfinished or to figure out how to finish it here. Then the thought arrived that I could finish it as a quilt as you go on my domestic machine. I’ve been playing around a little bit with free motion on it and I think I have figured out what to do. Here’s hoping it works. In the meantime, I’ve been world building and playing with the fabrics and the blocks. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy these. There is one with an Aurora Borealis above a moose family. Then there is a cabin in the woods in front of a waterfall. I’ve just started putting this one together, doing the layers on a teflon pressing sheet. The fabrics that came with these patterns are just so beautiful. 

Anyhow, all that to say that I got distracted from writing a post yesterday. I have made great progress on my slow stitching of the Fox. His body is done and I’ve started the fill in for his tail. Another week or two of working on this in the evenings should do it. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What We’re Working On

 We’ve got more quilts coming down the line as we continue to meet weekly for Prayers and Squares. One went out this week to a recipient and another 2 are now finished tops. This one made from three panel squares is the one that was prayed over on Sunday and will be going to its new home this week. There are 3 animal squares left from the original panel, so they are going into the centre of 3 more quilts. One of them is now a finished top. And then we have a fun pink and aqua top that is also finished.Both this pink and aqua top and the animal panel top need layering. That will likely happen this week. 

 Here at home, I’ve dug into the bin of 3 1/2 inch strips for bricks and then dug up some odds and ends of white muslins and black prints to make four patches for a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Bricks and Stepping Stones. I don’t have photos for that one yet. By this time next week it should be at the stage for photos. And lastly, we are working on a top using these beautiful pictures in this panel. I’ll get a progress photo tomorrow on where that quilt top is at. For all of these quilts that use panels for the central theme, the Electric Quilt software is an invaluable tool for doing the designing. It makes layout and colour selections and which blocks work and which don’t so easy to figure out.

I’ll link up to Mid Week Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Mr. Fox is starting to show his personality as this stitchery continues to progress. According to my calculations, he is 50% finished. There are 130 squares in the grid and I’ve counted almost 65 squares as finished. I’m thinking that, if I want to start the next set of 3 critters after I finish this, I’ll need to order the supplies when I start the swans. If all goes as quickly as it has so far, that should be in the next 2 or 3 weeks. 

I’ll link up now to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

On a totally different topic, we had a visitor to our front yard this morning. I was only able to get a picture of its tail end as it headed off into the trees after walking across our front yard.

This is the first time in my life I can ever say that I had a black bear in our front yard. Quite strange and surreal.