Slow Sunday Stitching.

 I’ve missed a couple of weeks posting on my slow stitching progress, mostly because there hadn’t been any progress. It is renovation and gardening time, so not much stitching was happening. I tried to change that last evening only to have to take out most of the stitches I’d put in due to not looking closely at the instructions. There are stair step type satin stitches at the bottom the piece that were supposed to have five stitches in each group. I had only put in four stitches per group. I am hoping to change that today. It is a glorious summer day today and I am planning on spending it sitting beside the window and enjoying the breeze and the sound of the birds. I would love to be actually outdoors enjoying it but this has turned into a nasty year for mosquitoes and that most horrible of creatures...... the black fly.... tiny little critters that take out chunks and leave large intensely itchy welts in their place. So I will concede defeat and stay indoors until they are no longer a threat.

Last September I joined the Pinetree Quilt Guild, fully planning on attending as many meetings as I could. It turns out I got to one.....  the first one in September. After that something always came up that prevented attendance and then they went to zoom meetings for the winter. I dislike zoom meetings. However, this was their quilt show year, so in spite of not going to a lot of meetings, I was still able to enter a couple of quilts. Noah’s Journey was one of them. I was able to get a really good full shot picture of it hanging. 
Not quite bang on square in front of it, but pretty close.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Noah’s Journey is completely finished, including hanging sleeve and label. Here it is. It is so lovely to have this finished!! I still have no idea what it is going to end up doing or being, but the whole process of making it was fun, so that will have to be its purpose for now. It is getting entered into a quilt show along with another quilt which still needs a label and sleeve, so that will have to be my slow stitching for the next week or so. There isn’t going to be a lot of time for any other stitching for the next while. We are entering gardening season and also renovation season for our main living and kitchen area. There is packing up and organizing to do which is going to take up what stitching/sewing time I usually have. But it will be lovely to have it finished.

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 The quilting on Noah’s Journey is so close to being finished.

 Just the bottom corner star and the four squares are left. Then I can trim it down and get the binding on and I can declare it done. I have no idea past that what is going to become of it, but I sure enjoyed the process of making it and that seems to me to be the whole point of slow stitching. The plan at the moment is to use a green binding which will pull together all the green grass in the embroideries.

In the meantime I have a little grand daughter here waiting for help with putting together a costume for her super hero day at school, so I will post this and link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I want to wish everyone who celebrates it a very happy Easter! Christ the Lord is risen today! Alleluia!!!

 I’ve been absent for the last couple of weeks. I didn’t really have any interesting progress photos or reports on hand stitching for last Sunday. After a while all the hand quilting starts to look the same. And then Wednesday we woke up to no hydroid our region due to the freezing rain during the night. It was out for maybe 18 hours total before coming back on right at supper time. So no blog post Wednesday either. I don’t really have any interesting progress photos to show of the hand quilting today either, but I don’t want to fall out of the habit of writing in the blog, so here are a couple of shots. I had to alter the lighting in a couple of them. We have some of our plants for the vegetable garden started and growing under lights. The lights throw a very red tinted light, which I didn’t realize was reflecting onto my photos until I went to upload them here. So the ones showing the embroidered blocks are quite blanched due to removing the red tints. They are still quite pink.  I’m down into the bottom third of this quilt now. Another couple of weeks should see it finished. 

I am linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m still working on the big stitch quilting on Noah’s Journey. I think I’m almost halfway done. If I can keep going at this rate I will be able to enter it into the quilt show in June. I’ve got until the end of April to register quilts into the show, so I’ll know more then. 

These are the three sections I’ve finished this week.

 I’m not doing any detail quilting in the animals. I’m going around the outside of the bigger animals and then going under the grass embroidery. That seems to be  enough to give the right amount of quilting density and also give it a bit of depth. With the big stitches and thicker thread I wouldn’t be able to get around the smaller areas, for example the bunnies. 

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 For my slow stitching I’m exclusively working on my Noah’s Journey hand quilting. Looking at this laid out on the floor makes me think I just might be up to the 1/3rd finished mark. I tried to get a picture of the whole thing, but all it showed was tons of wrinkles and no detail, so I took pictures of the sections instead. Here are the blocks on the top left. This is the ark. I’m so glad I went with the whimsical clouds in the background. And here’s the right side of the top section. I’m currently working on the hippos and moose block. That cloud on the right might be a bit too big.

I finished up another Prayers and Squares quilt this week. This is the most up to date picture of it. After this picture was taken it got top and bottom borders. Since this is done, I’m able to add it to my stash used numbers.

Fabric in:   0 yards               

Fabric out: 5.7 yards            

Balance: 31.25 yards used year to date.

We got a good amount of snow yesterday, in spite of it being 2 days away from the beginning of spring. I think there is another 4 or 5 inches of new snow out there. I ordered my spring supply of seeds last week and I’m itching to get some of them started. We will be setting up some grow lights and starting the tomatoes and peppers once they get here. I suspect I ordered way more seeds than our 2   4 foot x 8 foot raised beds can accommodate, so we may have to get creative about where to put it all. Anyhow, I am going to link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get my second cup of coffee. Our grand daughter is coming down after lunch to make pumpkin cookies. A good activity for a cold winter day.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m continuing with the big stitch hand quilting on the Noah’s Journey quilt. Most of the big ark block is done. I really like the depth and definition the quilting is giving. I decided to go with the idea of quilting clouds into the background. I have one cloud finished on the left hand side.I like the concept, but I’m not sure I like the way the actual cloud quilting looks. I’ve been doing a lot of the quilting in hand, without a hoop and for the most part it works well. But the cloud isn’t laying properly so I may end up taking it out and using a hoop for it.

I’m also working on hand stitching down the binding on this flying geese quilt. It’s destined for the Prayers and Squares group that I belong to. I usually leave the hand binding to one of the other ladies who like doing it. But on Thursday there were only 2 of us available to meet and the other lady doesn’t do machine sewing. So we decided to have a quiet afternoon of hand stitching on bindings and chatting. It was lovely. All that’s left is the corner to finish. I do love the bias printed stripes for bindings. And I still have a fairly significant stash of them.

I am going back now to keeping track of stash numbers. Back when the pandemic started and we assumed more responsibility for looking after our grand daughter my quilting time was vastly diminished and I stopped tracking my numbers. Now that I seem to be back at it significantly, I’ve started to track those numbers again. These numbers here reflect finishes and additions since the beginning of January. After this I will start back to weekly. 

Fabric In: 4 yards        Fabric Out: 29.55           Balance:        25.55

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and to Sunday Stash

Slow Sunday Stitching

 And now for something completely different from my usual slow stitching. I’ve started the big stitch hand quilting for the Noah’s Journey quilt. Being big stitch quilting, it’s going fairly quickly. Doing the pieced sections is quite easy, actually. The sections that I thought might give me trouble are the embroidered blocks. There is an extra layer of thickness in them due to the fusible backing that prevents the embroidery floss from showing through the fabric. And it is in fact a bit more difficult to quilt through. The big stitches are going to be bigger there and so far I’ve only been able to get one stitch at a time on the needle, so these big white areas of embroidered blocks are going to go slower. I may have to take it out of the hoop to get a bit more movement of the fabric which might help. In fact, I just tried that, and it does work much better. I am planning on quilting around the bigger elements and then perhaps doing a cross hatch in the backgrounds. I’ll decide on that once I get a bit further into this first big block. Stylistically, I’m not sure the cross hatching will work with the whimsical nature of the embroideries. The other alternative, for this large block at least, is to add in some whimsical clouds to the background. I will likely have made a decision on that by this time next week. I’ll do the grass under the bunnies but likely won’t be able to do around the bunnies. They are quite small and the quilting stitches too big to go around the bunnies smoothly.

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 When doing Slow Stitching it is always so exciting to have a finish. And I have one. Noah’s Journey is done..... or at least the assembling of the top is done. This is a design by Crabapple Hill Studios It still needs to be layered and quilted. But all the embroidery and all the piecing of it is done!! According to this blog I started this project in September of 2020, 3 years and 5 months ago. For such an intensely coloured and stitched and pieced project, that’s not bad, especially since it sat in it’s box for almost a year, untouched. It was so much fun to do!! A photo....  you want a photo? Here you go... It can be clicked on for a biggie sized look.

So since that is done and the layering and quilting of it have yet to begin, I’m back to my cross stitch and knitting. I’ve finished 9 of the 25 “quilt blocks” in the sampler. These take quite a bit of time each as they all have intense stitching and designs in them. And then my knitting with the new yarn, The socks are turning out more rainbow than striped and I’m not sure how I feel about that. But I’ll keep going on them. I much prefer the fun stripes I get out of sock yarn than this melding of colours.

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I am down to the last of the Noah’s Journey stitcheries and also down to the last of the sections that need to be assembled. All I have left to do is finish the body of the rooster. So the embroidery should be done today and the actual quilt top just might be finished this week. I am finding this so exciting!! I can get it layered and ready for starting the big stitch hand quilting. Here is the latest section I have finished.

I received some yarn in the mail this week for some fun socks. I cast on for the first sock and got the first row of ribbing done. I’ll be back to doing my cross stitch in the evenings from here on, so I’m going to need something to give my eyes and concentration a break, hence the new pair of socks.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What I’m working on

 The disappearing nine patch that I started a couple of weeks ago is now a finished top. I love how fast this pattern goes together. I can take it with me tomorrow to our sewing group, weather permitting, and get it pin basted and ready for quilting. I need to stay stitch around the edges to make sure none of the seams pop open before that. I’ve also finished another section of the Noah’s Journey quilt. It’s cold and blustery and snowy outside today, so it’s a good day to do some more work on Noah. I’m hoping to get the piecing done in the next week or so. I’m halfway through the last of the embroidered blocks, so if I can get lots of quality sewing time that goal of having this finished by the end of next week should be more than do-able. I’m linking up to Mid Week Makers and then I’m heading back to my machine.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 It’s amazing how much I can accomplish when I focus on one single project at a time rather than multitasking. Last week I had just started the embroidery on the cows and flamingos for Noah’s Journey. I finished them in less than a week.

This is a quilt designed by Crabapple Hill Studios, by the way, found here. It came out as a block of the month a few years ago and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to do it. Never mind that I had no idea what I was going to do with it once it was finished, and still don’t for that matter.

Anyhow, here are the cows sewn into their section of the quilt. Then I went ahead a made up another section using the sheep and camels and goats. I’ve moved on to the second last of the stitcheries that need to be finished, tigers and hedgehogs and cranes. I have ordered threads and needles for the quilting as well as fabric for the backing. I am going to attempt big stitch hand quilting on this. It remains to be seen how that will go. This is certainly a good time of year to cuddle up under a quilt and do the hand quilting. It’s currently snowing and blustery outside today. A good day to stitch and visit the blogs of other slow stitchers at Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Back at the beginning of January I articulated a goal to spend time on various hand projects in an attempt to get work done on them. I was going to alternate between projects. And here we have an example of why I don’t make resolutions. I have decided, for now at least, to continue with working on the Noah’s Journey blocks on an attempt to get them finished and sewn into their places in the quilt. The quilt is sewn together in segments with the piecing and the embroideries in very specific places. I have the biggest segment sewn together.

 I finished the zebras I was working on last week and am now down to 3 embroideries left to do.

I started the cows and flamingos last night. But I am wresting with a couple of things. As I said, the quilt is constructed in segments, 8 in all. I have 3 done. Each of the remaining segments are made up of multiple embroideries and the three that I have left to do are in separate segments. I can do the piecing, but there are gaps where the embroideries should go. The other bigger issue is that I need to be able to lay it all out so I can make sure the colours are balanced. But I don’t have a space big enough to do that. I haven’t figured that out yet, but I will push forward in the hopes that a solution will present itself. The current thought is a flannel backed vinyl table cloth that I can hang somewhere..... not sure where..... and roll up when I’m not using it to get it out of the way from wherever it is hanging...... yet to be determined.

I suspect I am going to end up hand quilting this, which is why I am pushing forward with it. I’ve been watching some youtube ideas for big stitch quilting and I’ve ordered some perle cotton threads in colours to match. Past that point, I’m again unsure about how to procede but I’m sure an answer will present itself before then.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

 

Quilty Workings

 I finished off the quilt as you go piece. It has its binding on and has gone off to other hands which enjoy the hand stitching binding down process. It will then get added to the inventory of Prayers and Squares quilts for giving away to needy people. 

Since that is finished I’ve given myself permission to start a couple of new projects. They are the same pattern just done in different colours. I love Barbara Brackman’s Civil War blog and the block of the month designs she does, especially since she always has a history lesson along with them. I am starting a floral version and an earthy version of this years BOM. I am trying to work entirely from stash fabric I have on hand and see if I can’t get some of these bins and boxes tamed down a little. So with the floral version, I’m doing the alternate blocks with the darks as the squares and the lights as the rectangles. This gives that large scale floral a place to shine.The alternate blocks will all be the same. I’ve reversed the placement of the lights and darks for the earthy version. I haven’t done any sewing on this one yet. I got the alternate blocks cut yesterday.

 I’ll take it with me tomorrow to the prayers and squares meeting. I suggested that perhaps we might want to each do a version of these and work on them together. 

The other big project I’m working on is getting the pieced blocks done and sewn in place for My Noah’s Journey quilt. The animal blocks are all coloured with Prisma coloured pencils and then embroidered. It’s a pattern from Crabapple Hill that I’ve been working on for 3 years now, I think.

 I’m trying to keep the colours in the pieced blocks rather muted so that the star of the quilt is the embroidery. I have 4 more blocks to finish the embroidery on, 2 of which still need to be coloured, and then it will be full steam ahead on getting this one put together. I think it is going to be hand quilted, something I haven’t done in many years.

I’m linking up to Midweek Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I seem to be on a roll with the Noah’s Journey stitcheries. I’d forgotten how fast these work up. The bears I started a couple of weeks ago are finished. I decided to keep going since I was in the mood to do these and finished up the block with the rhinos. And because I was still on a roll, last night I picked up the block with the zebras and just barely got it started. These will all eventually end up in a quilt that has quite a lot of pieced units in it, so last week I also got a small start on doing that. While rummaging in the Noah’s Journey storage box I found a couple more stitcheries for it that were traced but don’t have the colouring done on them yet. I use prismacolour pencils and then add a fixative solution over the colouring that is supposed to make it permanent. The patterns suggest what colours to use and where, almost like a colour by number. I might get to that in the next week or two. I have the zebras to finish and one more block that is already coloured before I need the last two.

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I left off last week with a goal for my slow stitching projects. I was going to finish an element in my cross-stitching before I charged projects so that I wouldn’t forget how to do it. I met that goal yesterday. All the quilt blocks are now outlined and the basket bases that were a challenge to do are finished. That meant I could pick up my Noah’s Journey block - bears and ducks. These are fairly quick to do. I did most of the outline stitching on the bear in the back last evening. I think I’ll keep going until this block is done. It shouldn’t take long. After the bears are finished I’m going to look at the assembly instructions for this quilt and start working on putting it together and doing the blocks that are left as they come up in the assembly, if that makes sense. In between these blocks I will go back and add elements into my cross stitch quilt. This should enable me to keep both projects moving forward.

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted, so I have some progress to show. I’m still working on the Harbour Village cross stitch. The harbour front picnic scene is starting to take shape. I’ve recently discovered a way to import the cross stitch chart into my iPad. I can keep it open beside me and zoom into the sections I’m working on which makes it much easier to see what I’m doing. Before this I had been using the chart on my computer and zooming in that way. But that was limited to times I wasn’t using my computer for other things, like watching movies while stitching. There’s an added bonus that I can take the iPad outside so I can now sit out on the porch and stitch.

My sweater is on a time out while I wait for an opportunity to wind up the last 2 skeins of yarn I need for it. Plus it’s a bit too warm these days to be working on a lap full of wool and mohair. In the meantime, I’ve started another pair of socks. 

And lastly, I’ve purchased the last 4 instalments of the Noah’s Journey embroidery quilt from Crabapple Hill Studios, found here. I’ve got the stitcheries traced and a few of them coloured and I’ve started stitching on one of them, brown bears and ducks. This is going to take a while to finish, but that’s the fun part of slow stitching, seeing the gradual progress towards finishing and enjoying the process on the way.

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching before going out to the porch with my cross stitching and iPad to enjoy the day.

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.