What We Are Working On

 It was another day yesterday at Prayers and Squares with lots accomplished, but not much that was picture worthy. Janet and Tammy are continuing with their quilt layering marathon. We had at least a dozen tops ready, perhaps more. I’ve lost count. We had such a prolific summer and fall making quilt tops. We now have a stack, also an unknown number, waiting to be quilted and another stack waiting to be bound. It is a wonderful ?problem? to have. I did get a picture of one of the quilt tops that were layered. They used the floral fabric in the large squares also on the back, with some light green added to make it big enough. Here at home I’ve been slowly working on a quilt that will be in our fundraising next summer. It is a Judy Martin design called Capistrano, from her book Stellar quilts. The piecing is intense, with lots of inset seams and is quite challenging, which I love. I fell in love with the design and had to make it. And that’s all I have for this week. I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m slowly making my way down the Woodpecker’s body doing the fill in colours, mostly two different shades of grey with some white added in for contrast. As is appropriate for slow stitching, it is going slowly. I was on a really good roll last evening, happily enjoying my stitching when we were suddenly, quite literally, in the dark. The power went out and stayed out for several hours. Counted cross stitch by flash light tends not to work very well, so that was the end of that. I had a book saved on my phone through one of my reading apps, so all was not totally lost. I can happily add in some more stitches today and perhaps get the Woodpecker finished. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

What We’re Working On

 We had 2 new ladies come out to our Prayers and Squares group yesterday. If they continue to come out, that will make 10 of us meeting year round. What a wonderful gift! Tammy and Janet yesterday continued to layer quilts. Six more are now ready for quilting. I brought 2 of them home with me, both of them tops that I finished here at home. There is the EPP mystery and a Trip Around the World. I neglected to get a picture of the Trip quilt with its final borders. I’ll have to make sure to get a picture after it is finished. Tammy put together a scrappy quilt that we call triplets using some pre-cut 3 1/2 inch squares from our scrap bins. 

Barbara continues to work on our group sampler. It is almost finished. I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m moving along quite nicely now on my Woodpecker from the Year in the Woods series. I think I’m back in the groove for cross stitching again, which feels quite good. The outlining of the wings is almost done, as is the tail. Then I can go back and start filling it in. I have seen lots of people lately talking about the Pattern Keeper app for cross stitching. I’ve never closely investigated it because it wasn’t available for iPad and that is what I had. However, the battery in my iPad won’t hold a charge any more, and I’ve noticed that I can get an android device for the same price as it would cost to put a new battery into my more than 10 year old iPad. So I am closely considering doing that. I used to have my cross stitch patterns kept in a knitting app on my iPad which also worked well. These days I’m very low tech with the printed pattern, keeping track of the line I’m on with an index card held in place with paper clips. I think I’m ready for an upgrade.

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

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m happy to see that the trick of cross stitching is coming back. The Woodpecker is slowly growing. I’ll be moving onto his tail soon. I’ve learned that if I clip a file card under the line I’m working on it is much easier to both see and keep track of where I’m at. In other news, only slightly related to slow stitching, this is what we woke up to Saturday morning... snow on the ground. Thankfully it had melted by mid afternoon. It’s an indication that the time is coming when it is good to stay indoors where it is warm and dry and take the time to slowly stitch. That picture, by the way, is my very lovely view from my stitching chair. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

What We Are Working On

 We had another productive day at Prayers and Squares yesterday. Tammy brought in another finished quilt top. When she first started coming out to our group, she was a newbie quilter. Now, she is cranking out a quilt a week. She looks over the fabrics on our shelves, picks a combination she likes, takes them home and a week later brings in a finished top. Diane took home these Bricks and Stepping Stones blocks last week and brought back a finished top. During the summer of 2025, the members of our group did a bit of a challenge where we each picked a block pattern used the same red print fabric and made a block for a sampler quilt. Barbara is working on putting it together. Here at home I finished the appliqué portion of the loon block for next year’s fundraiser. It is a variation of a McKenna Ryan design. And also here at home I’ve been working on finishing the borders on the centre mystery square.I need to add the dark brown triangle border to the top and then it too can be added to our ever growing pile of quilt tops for our Prayers and Squares group. Hopefully I can get that done today. I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate this weekend here in Canada. It has been a gorgeous weekend here. Yesterday was sunny and warm, for this time in October. And the colours in the trees here in Muskoka have been glorious! I wasn’t actually planning on writing a post this weekend. It has been crazy busy here. We had our Church family dinner at the church yesterday, following the Worship service. It was wonderful to gather with our church family and enjoy a traditional turnkey dinner. And today we are having our family get together. But I’ve got a few spare minutes before everyone gets together today, so I can do a post. Last week I was struggling getting used to doing the cross stitching. Gradually this week it has gotten easier and I’ve made some good progress on the Woodpecker. During the evenings after working on it, I went back to some knitting and have finished, except for grafting the toes, a pair of socks I started back in the summer. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching