Slow Sunday Stitching

 I finished doing the edging on my Connections quilt. It is officially finished and now being used. It’s not a great picture, unfortunately, but space to lay out quilts is in short supply here. We are expecting some nasty winter weather today and into tomorrow. The warning says freezing rain. So far, the radar is showing snow approaching rather than the freezing rain. Either way, it is a great day to stay in and keep warm and do hand stitching. Since connections is finished, I’m back to working on the Raccoon from The Year in the Woods series. One more thread length should finish the greenery up the right hand side.

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

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I finally finished our granddaughter’s stocking on Friday. It was her last day of school before the Christmas holidays, so I thought I’d better get it done while I knew she couldn’t walk in on me. Since then, I’ve set my cross stitching aside just for a little while in order to work on finishing the edges of my Connections lap quilt. I wanted to keep the irregular edges, so I’m trimming and sewing a little bit at a time. It’s slow and a bit tedious, but I like the look. It is also having the added bonus, which is why I picked it up now, of keeping my feet warm while I work on it. 

I have more baking to do for our Christmas dinner, so I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get to the baking. I’m thinking of doing up some pie crust today that can go into the fridge to cool and then make up the actual tarts later this week.

What We Are Working On

 This will be a short post today. We had 2 finishes this week. The log cabin, called Tea Biscuit by Laundry Basket quilts. And a Carpenters Star variation that Janet has been working on for quite a while, in between other quilts. The Tea Biscuit quilt has already gone to its new home. Our final count of quilts given out in 2025 is 44. For a small group of 7 ladies year round and  3 or 4 more during the summer, that is an astounding number of quilts finished and given away. I’m looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do through us next year. 

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m steadily working on the Raccoon from The Year in the Woods series. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy these. It is such a relaxing stitch. I love the texture in the animals. And, I have discovered that there is a second series of these animals. But, I will resist, other than maybe substituting something for the eagle that will be coming up for maybe something a bit more Canadian. But I have lots of time before I have to decide that. The Eagle is #7 and the Raccoon is #4 in this series.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching. Then I have a quilt that needs to have the quilting finished by Tuesday, so I think I’ll get at it after posting this.

What We’re Working On

 We worked on getting a few things finished this week. Marg is almost finished her blues/greys sampler.. And here at home I cut a bunch of reds and beiges into 6 7/8 inch squares to make a 48x60 quilt. It is fairly fast sewing. The layout, on the other hand, is challenging, but I like the final effect. I can hopefully get started on sewing it together next week. We also managed to make 3 quilt backs and then layer the 3 quilts. I think we have 5 or 6 now that are waiting on quilting. I brought one home that needs to go to a recipient by next Thursday, so I’ll work on getting it quilted over the next couple of days. I’ll get a picture of it before it goes out.

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Cross stitching has again grabbed my attention, to the exclusion of all other hand stitching, at the moment at least. I did lots on the Raccoon. The tail is complete and I’m working my way across the bottom in an attempt to get all the green stitched. However, I’m getting a little tired of the green, so I may start on the pink for the flowers and the brown for the stems just for a little variety.

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

What We Are Working On

 We finished all four of the quilts for the young boys who lost their home to a fire. One of our members, Marg, is a speed whiz when it comes to attaching bindings. She did 3 of them yesterday afternoon. We do our bindings completely by machine. Our group is called Prayers and Squares because, after we finish the quilts, we put ties into each quilt and then we pray for the recipients as we tie the knots. Then we tell the person receiving the quilts that, wherever they see a knot, they can know that someone prayed for them. After all these quilts were bound, Susan put in the ties and we prayed for these 4 boys. There are forest animal silhouettes, 

black bears, 

moose in a pond 

and fun bright camping trailers. I was able yesterday to get back to sewing on the log cabin blocks I made ages ago. Just one more row to add and it can get a back made and be layered. It is from a pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts called Tea Biscuits. I altered the size of the blocks to use up the scraps we had. 

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

Slow Sunday Stitching

 In my slow stitching this week I was able to complete a couple of things. All the stitching for our grand-daughter’s stocking is finished. I still need to sew it all together, but that can all be accomplished on the sewing machine. The other thing I finished is the Jack Rabbit for The Year in the Woods stitchery. I’ve gridded out the next section and gotten a small start which will be the Raccoon.

We received almost a foot of snow over night and it is still coming down, so we decided to stay home from church. That gave a good opportunity to cut, bake and decorate some gingerbread cookies, the inspiration for the stocking. Every year since our grand-daughter was about 3 we’ve done gingerbread cookies. It’s a favourite thing to do every year. She’ll be 10 in January. I’m hoping the stocking will stay with her and remind her always of the fun making and decorating cookies with Grammy. There are more cookies yet to decorate, so we might end up doing that after school for the next day or two.

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

What We Are Working On

 There were only 3 of us at Prayers and Squares yesterday, but in spite of that we got a lot accomplished. We were able to finish the 4 quilt tops that we started last week. If you ever need a fast but effective quilt top, the BQ designs from Maple Island quilts will do it. These were very close to being quilt in a day. And if we had a full day, rather than an afternoon, they would be a quilt in a day. We were also able to get backings made for them and get them all layered. I brought 2 home to quilt, probably with either wavy lines or a straight grid of some sort. This one has a gorgeous scenery print with moose. Then there are some fun bright trailers. There are the black bears that were finished last week. And then animals silhouettes in a forest. We might be able to get these into the hands of those 4 young boys before Christmas.

Circle of Friends Progress

 I am exclusively working on Circle of Friends here at home in an effort to get it done and off my UFO list. It is now 2/3 put together. I need to assemble the last border, add it to the already assembled blocks section and then add the section to the whole. Maybe this afternoon will finish it. It has waited long enough. I need to have some lunch and then I’ll get back to it. 

I’m linking up to Wednesday Wait Loss

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’ve been very lazy in my slow stitching for the past week. Nothing was appealing to me. I didn’t want to sew on little pieces, and I didn’t want to knit, or do much of anything. However, last evening as I was sitting here, I saw my much neglected cross stitching sitting beside my chair, so I picked it up and I did a bunch on it last evening and again today. It’s my Year in the Woods project. I think it has been months since I did anything on it. According to the last post about it on this blog, it’s been since last January. Looking back, that makes sense. Hand quilting and then hand piecing on different quilts took over. I’m not sure how long I’ll keep this up, but I seem to have forgotten how much I like cross stitching, so it might take over some of the other projects, for a while at least. I’d also forgotten how much I like these designs, so it’s a good thing to get back to it. It’s like saying hello to an old friend.

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

What We Are Working On

We started four new quilts yesterday at Prayers and Squares. We’ve had a request for 4 young boys who lost their home due to a fire. We are doing a variation of the BQ pattern put out by Maple Island Quilts We’ve changed the size of the main square in the quilt to 10 1/2 inches in order to fully use all the fabric. Marg actually finished the quilt top in one afternoon. This one has black bears as the focus fabric. Then there are moose in the one Tammy is working on and different animals in the one I am doing. Barbara started one with fun camping trailers on it, but I didn’t get a picture of that one. This seems like it will be a great pattern to use for all kinds of different themes. I would love to be able to do a few more of these to have in reserve. We have enough of the bears and moose to be able to do one more of each. They have the added bonus of being fast to cut. Between Marg and I we cut four quilts in about an hour. 

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

Circle of Friends Progress

 I’m making good progress on getting my Circle of Friends project quilted and sewn together. I am doing it quilt as I go style to minimize the bulkiness of the quilt. The centre section is now finished. Next are the top and bottom sections, which will be quilted on their own before being attached to the middle.

I’ll link up to Wait loss Wednesday

Slow Sunday Stitching

 A Slow Sunday report on Monday. Last week was pretty much a write off. I got my flu and covid vaccines last week and they knocked me off my feet for a bit. Aching and very tired. Today is the first day I’ve felt like I had any energy. So that means there isn’t a lot to show for my week last week. I did a little bit on our Grand-daughter’s stocking. I have one of the last 2 gingerbread people finished and almost fully sewn into place. One more person to do and then I can focus on finishing it. And I did 3 Inner City blocks. That was it. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching while there still a few hours left.

Card Shuffle Progress

 I went to pick up the next batch of Kona Solids from the subscription I’ve signed up for. This was number 5 out of 6. So I was able to do a few more colour combinations for Card Shuffle. It is past the halfway point now and there are a few more combinations that can go into further rows. I also pulled out the paper pieced blocks for Circle of Friends, which was a block of the month put out by Carol Doak in 2024. I’m working on this one as a quilt as I go project, since it will end up too big to quilt all at once on my domestic machine. Each block has eight quadrants. I’m doing a very simple straight line 1/4 inch away from the seams of each quadrant. I’ve been playing in the Electric Quilt software for a layout and I think I have finalized what I am doing. This is what I’m aiming for. I wanted something different from the usual 12 block sampler sets. 

I’ll link up to Wednesday Wait Loss

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I devoted a lot of time this past week to working on our Grand-daughter’s Christmas stocking. Another day or two should get it to the front of the stocking being finished. There are 2 more gingerbread people to make. After that, I’ll need to sew it to a backing piece of felt and then get a backing and lining for it so that it can become a functional stocking, ready to be filled. I’ve also done a few more of the Inner City blocks. I have no idea how many of these I will finally make, but I’m enjoying the process. I had originally thought that I’d just use solids for this, but I’ve changed my mind a bit. If it works with the theme of light , medium and dark within a colour range, I’ll use it. I’m finding the stitching these without the English Paper Piecing shapes is much easier on my hands. It is also much faster. 

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

What We Are Working On

 We had a couple of quilt top finishes yesterday at our Prayers and Squares group. Janet finished putting borders on this lovely quilt made out of sherbet type colours. I put a couple of borders onto a quilt I’ve been working on here at home in a vain attempt to use up the blue fabrics. There are still some left. But I decided to take the leftovers from all the leftovers to the church and store them there. I’m awfully tired of using nothing but blue, so I brought some reds home instead. Barbara decided to get a bit adventurous in doing the quilting on her quilt. So she was using some frixon pens to mark curved quilting lines. And finally, Sharon was able to finish her block for our Northern Wilderness Renewed fundraiser quilt. This makes all 16 blocks now finished. Let the quilting of them, quilt as you go style, commence.

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

A New Start

 I’ve had to put my Card Shuffle quilt into pause while I wait for the next delivery of the Kona Solids subscription I’m in to give a new variety of colour combinations. In the meantime on the weekend, I started a new project, to no one’s great surprise. This one is called Capistrano and is a design by Judy Martin found in her Stellar Quilts book. It has lots of construction challenges, from inset seams to partial seams. I love a challenge, so it’s lots of fun.

I’ll link up to Wednesday Wait Loss.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I have done very little slow stitching this past week. Just enough to say I did start that new project called Inner City, no surprises there. The challenge has been getting the fabrics sorted into like fabrics ranging from very light to very dark. I finally did that yesterday and cut the pieces for the mint green to dark green. I stitched up one green piece and one peach piece and started in on another in greens. But when I wasn’t paying attention and therefore stitched it wrong late last evening I decided to call it quits. I’m not using papers, but instead I’m drawing the sewing lines on the wrong side of the fabric. No removing stubborn papers due to not using the paper piecing glue because I’m too cheap and lazy to buy more. I’ve been making do with Elmers school glue sticks, but it is fiddly to apply and difficult to get the papers out.

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

What We’re Working On

 We had a few finishes yesterday at Prayers and Squares. And in between layering quilts I was able to lay out some finished blocks to start in on getting the top done. The basket quilt I’ve been working on got its borders. And it was layered as well. Janet has been working on a Carpenters Star quilt for the past couple of months. She says she is done with doing triangles for a long time. But it is lovely and worth it. This one was layered as well. And then the blocks I was talking about are the log cabin blocks I was working on at home a while back. I have no place to lay them out here at home, so we move a room divider and covered it with a flannel sheet and converted it into a design wall. I managed to sew 2 rows together yesterday. I’m hoping to get the last 4 rows done in the next week or 2.

I’ll link up to finish, or not, Friday.

Card Shuffle Progress.

 I worked on my Judy Martin design Card Shuffle, from her book Stellar Quilts, this past weekend. I got quite a big chunk of it done. It is almost halfway finished. I might put it aside for a bit and wait for my next batch of Kona cottons from the subscription I’m in. My lovely husband acted as quilt holder. I’ve run out of floor space to lay it out. I need a greater variety of colours, so this one is going back into the waiting box. I have lots of greens and lots of blues, but I don’t want too many repeats in it. I can see from looking at it that it could use more red. And I have a rust and gold set aside for it as well. Until I get the new colours, I may get out my paper pieced Circle of Friends this coming weekend and start the quilting. 

I’ll link up to Wednesday Wait loss

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I tried to stay focused this past week and work on getting my octagons finished. It is almost there. Just one more corner to add and it can be sewn together and put aside. I’m not 100% sure what I am going to tackle next. I should get out something that is already started and continue with finishing things. However, there is a squirrel that is loudly calling my name. It will use half hexagons and graduated colours. I have lots of Kona solids to use up that would work wonderfully with it. I also found some acrylic templates that I made back when we had our laser cutter. So I can hand piece them rather than needing to get papers for them. It’s a pattern called Inner City, found here. I’ll make a definitive decision about what I am going to do sometime this week. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What We’re Working On

 Another productive day was spent yesterday at our Prayers and Squares group. We were all concentrating so hard that it was even uncharacteristically quiet in the room, aside from the hum of the sewing machines. Barbara finished the charm quilt she’s been working on. She is planning a skinny border in brown to completely finish it. Tammy has been working on sampler blocks from a kit. We finally laid out the finished blocks for a picture. The original design for these blocks was a queen sized quilt. We will be making 2 lap quilts from them. I finally finished sewing together the basket blocks that I’ve been working on during some of our Thursday sewing times. They will be getting a couple of borders. I brought it home with me in hopes of getting them sewn on sometime this week. Here at home this past week I finished the blue flying geese pinwheel blocks and got them sewn together and 2 borders added. It needed a third border in a dark blue, which I didn’t have here. We found one in the P&S fabric stash at the church and Elizabeth sewed it on. It may get layered next week. And finally, and best of all, we have 15 out of 16 blocks of Northern Wilderness Renewed finished. We will be heading out on a shopping trip next week to get the fabric for backing and sashing.

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday