Miscellaneous hand stitching

We’ve had a busy week with family, so there hasn’t been a lot of actual sewing done. The knitting needles have been busy since I can do that while talking and not needing a lot of light. On the hand stitching front, there is another corner unit done for the compasses. And a big accomplishment has been finishing the binding on Friendship Chain. I normally do 2 1/2 inch strips folded in half for bindings which I then finish by machine. But this quilt needed a much narrower binding since I didn’t want to cut off any of the many points around the edge. And a narrow binding means hand stitching. I’m alternating between 2 different knitting projects. A pair of socks - one is finished and the second sock is started- 
and a shawl which I just started last night. 

My requested Christmas gift was a set of interchangeable circular knitting needles and the cords. This shawl is the first project I’m doing with them. I also treated myself to an order of new yarn which has yet to arrive. Three different sock weight yarns and some worsted weight yarn for a new sweater. All were on sale for really good prices. For the sweater it’s Malabrigo Rios which is a yarn I’ve used a few times before and really like. It’s this colour here - A really pretty combination of purples and pinks. I’m looking forward to it arriving. I noticed in the last couple of months working so intensely on hand stitching projects that I was missing knitting. So I’m fitting time for that into my days now. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then it’s back to the knitting needles.

Compass quilt

I’m still working on the compasses quilt and making good progress. The decision about the outer curved geese that I thought I could leave till the end wound up being made much sooner than I thought it would. It started out sooner because of trying to fit making the curved geese and sewing them on a couple at a time when doing up that first half compass.



It turned out not to work very well doing it that way because they didn’t line up around the curve as nicely as I wanted. But trying it that way meant that I had to decide on fabric and colour sooner than I thought. I ended up going much darker than I thought I would in the fabric choice and it’s a good thing too. The yellow/gold of the earlier round of curved geese would have gotten lost near the grey of the outer background triangle.



So now all the half compasses are finished and I’m working on the navy curved geese.

It’s a fiddly process, but enjoyable none the less. Once the 16 curved geese are pieced together I will turn under the inner edge of the geese and appliqué them down to the half compass. Then I reverse appliqué the finished half compass unit to the grey triangle. All of this amounts to a lot of very slow stitching by hand. I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.
And since it’s unlikely that I will be posting anything before Christmas day arrives, I want to wish all who read hear a very merry Christmas!

East to West compasses quilt

I met the goal I set last week of finishing up the curved geese units and I also got them sewn onto the centre of the quilt.



Saturday I cut all the papers I need to English Paper Piece the next sections. I’m working on the large points of the half compasses that will go around what is already finished. I’m using the same fabrics for these compass points as what is in the centre compass. Past that point, I don’t know if the final round of curved geese will also be the gold colour or if I will make them brighter. Right now I’m leaning towards not introducing any new fabrics or colours, but I’ll make a final decision once I get there. If they aren’t gold, they would likely be a teal like the medium points. I’ll be linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

I went to a quilt till you wilt day with the guild on Saturday. But I cheated. The day started at 9 am and was to go until 9 pm.  But I didn’t get there until 1:30. We all know my difficulty with mornings. Even so, I got a lot accomplished. I actually finished a quilt top. I started it at the quilt till you wilt day 2 years ago and then it sat untouched for the most part, until today. It’s an I Spy quilt for our grand daughter Abbie. It just might be done in time for her birthday in January. It needs a backing put together for it and quilting and binding.

I also made up 6 Friendship Star blocks for the comfort quilts our guild makes. I don’t have pictures of those. After all that was done, there was still time to do some hand stitching. Two arcs are finished and the third well under way. This is what they look like up against the compass.

 I like it! They are stitching up pretty quickly. The last 2 might be done by next week and then I can start on the outer half compasses which will also have curved geese around the outside which will unify the whole thing. I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.