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