Slow Sunday Stitching

 That was such a fast week. It seems like just hours ago that I wrote last weeks’ post. How can it have been a week already? We had a little bit of excitement happen here on Wednesday. A rather bad storm with lots of wind blew through between 5:30 or 6:00 pm. It brought a tree down, right on top of the back end of our car, It smashed in the back of the roof and the back side window. No persons were harmed, and it is only a thing, albeit an expensive thing, and the insurance will pay for it. But it is excitement that we could have done without. 

I have gotten in more stitching time and could perhaps be done with the words this coming week. 

I won’t bother with a photo from last week since I can say that this weeks accomplishment is the words in aqua under the black lettering. I will link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching in the morning.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m getting lots of cross stitching time in this week. If I keep going at this rate I might actually finish this hymn piece soon. And that will create a need to make a decision... do I go back to my quilters cross stitch sampler or do I start something new. But I’ve got lots of time before I need to decide. Last week I was here: This week I’ve finished the big letters and the flowers beside the big letters and can get a start on the rest of the lettering. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, none of these plans to finish the stitching are taking into account all of the tomatoes that are in the freezer and still growing in the garden that need processing..... sigh....

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

What we’re working on

 Our prayers and squares group are working on an Economy Block quilt for a wedding gift. We are doing it as a quilt as you go, assembling the blocks into rows and then quilting the row before sewing the rows together. It is turning out to be quite striking. I love the secondary design of the stars that is starting to show up now that we have a few more rows laid out. We were able to get all 11 rows of blocks sewn together yesterday. So now we are working on finishing quilting the rows and then sewing them together and getting the seams on the back covered with the cover strips. A few more weeks should see this one finished.

Gardening experimenting

 Way back in the late winter and early spring I was watching a bunch of how-to gardening videos on you-tube. What a rabbit hole that is!! Anyhow, some of them were about planting potatoes in pots rather than garden beds. We have a Kawartha dairy place that does a huge business selling ice cream and they give their empty 3 gallon tubs away for free, so I thought, why not try it. Today is harvesting day. The plant tops are yellow and dying back, which according to all those videos I watched, means that the potatoes are ready. The buckets have been sitting on the upstairs deck all summer where they got lots of sun and lots of rain. Back in the spring I bought a bag of seed potatoes. I think it may have been a 1 kg bag. Anyhow, after all the pots were emptied, this is our results. I weighed them and it came out to 10 pounds. I’d previously emptied a few more buckets which gave us enough for a meal. So our total yield was perhaps 12-15 pounds. Not that great for all the work that went into it. Each bucket was planted with a seed potato with 2 or 3 eyes on it, as recommended in the videos. Out of each bucket we averaged 2-3 good sized potatoes. So we maybe tripled what we planted. It was a fun experiment and fun to watch the plants grow. We didn’t have enough space in the raised beds to do potatoes, so the buckets were the only option. There is talk of building a few more raised beds next spring, so maybe next year we can try them in a garden bed and see if the yield is better. On the very up side, they do taste way better than store bought.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’ve gotten a little bit more done on my hymn cross stitch piece. I think I would actually have done more on it today, except that the light faded and my temporary seating place while our renovations continue doesn’t have a good lamp. And I’m too lazy to get my lamp and set it up. So daylight stitching it is.

Our local grocery store had a great deal on Roma tomatoes, 25 pounds for $8.99. We picked up 50 pounds. So far all I’ve done with them is wash them, cut the stem ends off and put them into bags into the freezer. I’ll process them into pasta sauce and salsa once we have a functioning kitchen again. In the meantime, they will be fine in the freezer. The tomato plants in our raised beds are just starting to show red on some of the tomatoes, which will get added to the freezer stash. The pasta sauce recipe I used last year was really good and has the added bonus of using 25 pounds of tomatoes at a crack. This is it here.

There isn’t anything else exciting happening here. I’ll sign off and link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching in the morning.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’ve made a bit more progress on my hymn cross stitch. Last time I wrote I was here.

 I still have the last word which is “tree” to finish on the second line. But I wanted to move my hoop back to the left side of the piece in order to work on the bigger letters.

 I’ll finish that last word on the second line when I move the hoop over to the right again.

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

What we’re working on

 The wedding quilt that our prayers and squares group was working on is finished. We decided to have it quilted by a long armer. It turned out beautifully. We will gift it to the newly weds’ family tomorrow. There is another couple associated with our group getting married, so we have started another wedding quilt. The colours requested for this one are neutrals and burnt orange. We’ve gotten a good start on it. All of the squares with orange around the outside are done.... 49 of them. There are 50 of the squares with the grey around the outside to do. So I think there are 10 or 11 done. Once again, by insisting everyone pay close attention to their 1/4 inch seam, all the blocks are coming together nicely. We will be quilting this one in a quilt as you go fashion in rows.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 My stitching time and quilting time has been in short supply lately. Mostly due to renovations still happening and also grandchild minding, both of which I am truly grateful for, so it is all good. But that means an absence of things to talk about here on the blog. However, yesterday I managed to find my cross stitch stuff and get it all gathered together and take a few stitches in my hymn piece. Last I showed it I was here. 

I put in a few more lengths of threads and got another couple of words done. 

I have the word “tree” left in this line and then I can do a colour change and bigger letters for the next couple of lines. That should make reading the chart a bit easier. The best thing about doing this piece is that the words and the tune are stuck in my head which is most definitely a good thing. And apparently it is World Embroidery Day. Who knew there was such a thing? So I will have to make the attempt to put in at least a few more stitches to acknowledge this.

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

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m making good progress on my cross stitch piece. Here’s where I was last week. 

And where I am now. 

This is such a relaxing and enjoyable stitch, with the added bonus of having the hymn in my brain while stitching it. And I didn’t realize until I took this picture that the mottling colour in the fabric and the thread colour for the lettering match. Not bad for matching the colour to an online picture of the thread. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching in the morning

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’ve been able to get more slow stitching done this week. Between it being too rainy to be outside or too smokey from the northern fires to be outside, there has been a lot of inside stitching time available. I have the top border of my current piece almost finished.

 

I can get to the beginning of the lettering next. I’m enjoying working on this one. There is enough of a challenge to keep my brain occupied without feeling like my brain is frying. It is all regular cross stitch, no fancy stitches involved. This is what the finished piece will look like. It is a design from a company called My Big Toe.

I’ll link up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching in the morning.

What we are working on

 I’ve been missing in action the last couple of weeks here on the blog. Life has been busy with the renovations continuing here and also summer days with our grand daughter now that she is out of school for the summer. So there hasn’t been a lot to show and share here. However, today there is progress. Our quilting group is making a quilt for a wedding gift. We started on the cutting and the sewing last week. The very first thing we did was to make sure that everyone was sewing with an accurate 1/4 inch seam. Once that was established we were able to get down to the sewing. Last week all the strip sets were sewn together, cut into pieces and then sewn back together into four patches. This is the quilt we are aiming for. The colours are very soft and light. Here is an actual block. Also very soft and light. The bride is decorating with the colour cream and eucalyptus branches for her wedding. There are five ladies sewing on this and all the obsessing over the 1/4 inch seam allowance for everyone is paying off big time. The blocks are fitting together beautifully. By this time next week we should have it to the point of the quilt all together and ready for the final borders.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I started a new cross stitch project this week. I needed a break from all that fussy hardanger. I found a new design publisher called My Big Toe designs. They do a lot of scriptural and hymn based pieces. There were a lot to choose from but I finally decided on this one. I changed out all the thread colours because I was using a linen I bought at the quilt show a couple of weeks ago and it is no where near the colour of the sample piece. It’s quite a challenge choosing colours online based on the picture of the thread colour while holding the linen up to the computer screen to see if it will maybe work. The good news is that it worked and all the thread colours are good. This piece is going to take enough concentration to keep my mind and hands occupied without the complexities of the hardanger. With the renovations going on around us and our grand daughter home for the summer something a little less intense was necessary. Having the words of the hymn cycle through my head while working on it is a big added bonus.

I am going to post this and link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then I may make an attempt at sitting outside in the hopes that the bugs won’t be too bad.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I managed to get all the satin stitching done for the pulled thread work necessary on the third last band of my Quilters Bee cross stitch sampler. And then, I was able to spend a few evenings doing the cutting and tread removal for the Hardanger Lace section. What a slow process that is, to make sure to only cut the correct number and location of threads. Whew! Am I ever glad to have that done. I have set it aside again for a few days while I refresh my memory as to how to do the specialty stitches in the empty spaces and around the remaining threads. 

We looked after our grand daughter the last couple of days, as well as having an electrician come in and do some work in our living space. Between those 2 things there were a couple of early mornings with another one happening tomorrow when the electrician comes back to finish the work. That all means that concentrating enough to figure out these stitches is going to have to wait a while. So in the meantime I will post this to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and get on with the onerous task of doing next to nothing while I rest.

What we are working on

 Our Prayers and Squares group needed a quilt done quickly with an emphasis on purples. I had some blocks here that I have been working on that were intended for this group. They all use 3 1/2 inch strips. I switched out some colours and made up some purple blocks. We started the meeting with 19 different blocks to choose from. We narrowed it down to 12 and the began the task of deciding on sashing and border fabrics to get it up to a size we needed. By the end of the afternoon the blocks were a finished quilt top. I am so impressed with how much our small group of ladies can accomplish in an afternoon. Hopefully we will have the backing fabric for this by next week. Then we can get it layered and quilted

I am going to continue on here using up some more of my dot print fabrics and continue making blocks to go with the 7 that are left.

I’m linking up to Mid Week Makers.

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.

What we are working on

 For the past month or two our little prayers and squares group has been working together on a project. It is going to be a silent auction fund raiser for us once it is finished. It is using some of the seemingly bottomless boxes of scraps and strips. This is called a Scrappy Lattice. Someone sent me the youtube video instruction for it found here. Anyhow, at the last minute before we left today, I remembered to get a picture. Next week we sew it together and put the borders on.

What I’m working on

Our prayers and squares group is working on a quilt that we are planning to use as a fund raiser. It is a string pieced crossed X. It has been a lot of fun getting together with a small group of friends to work on this every week. All of the blocks that require groups of 4 are now sewn together and the quilting on the blocks can begin before sewing them all together. This is just a small selection of the blocks. It was lots of fun digging deep into various boxes and bins to put together the string units. Some of us went random... whatever came to hand that was long enough to cover the space was sewn in. Others went more matchy and coordinated. When it is all together I think it is going to be quite striking. 

I’m linking to Mid week makers

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Spring has finally arrived in our neck of the woods so there has been lots of time spent outdoors in the last few days. Unfortunately, it is May in Muskoka, which means black fly season and they are out in force. So far the non-deet bug spray we are using is keeping them from biting. But it doesn’t stop them from swarming around our heads. It might be time to get out the bug jackets.

Since I have my hand quilting project finished I’ve brought my cross stitching back out. The quilt section is almost finished. Then it is on to the border bands under the quilt section. This is going to keep me occupied for the next month or two. And after this is done, I may either go on to hand piecing some quilt squares or pull out another cross stitch sampler. I’ll decide much later.

I’ll link 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

What I’m working on

 In my continuing quest to use up my fabric stash..... we all know the futility of that, but it’s fun..... I started some new blocks using 3 1/2 inch strips. I’m using the EasyAngle ruler to cut the triangles. Each block is using a 42 inch wide strip of fabrics for the lights and darks. I am aiming for 20 blocks since that is the limit of the polka dot background fabric. So far there are 8. These sew up quite quickly. And I just noticed that there is something wrong with the lime green square. One of the corner triangles is turned the wrong way. Time to get out the seam ripper. It remains cold and wet outside which means it is a good day for ripping and then sewing. The weekend forecast looks fabulous and I’m looking forward to working in the garden.

I’m linking to Mid week makers. 

What I’m working on

 I have finished off the Twirling at the Disco quilt, pattern found here. Since this photo was taken, the binding has been applied as well. All it needs is to have the hand stitching to the back finished and it is done and done. While I was doing the binding I had a very helpful..... not......visitor who seemed to think this was the perfect place to sit and rest. If you look carefully out that window, it was snowing!!!! This seems to have been a very long winter this year. We had to go out this morning and it was snow pelleting. I am so ready to be done with winter!

I’m linking to Mid Week Makers after which I’m heading back to my bin of 2 1/2 inch strips to finish piecing another quilt.

What I’m working on

 I have the blocks to another quilt finished and am starting the quilt as you go process on them. The quilt is called Twirling at the Disco found here. It’s a fun and easy quilt to do with so many different options for layout. I took the easy route to avoid having to match a lot of seams and to also avoid having to pay attention to fabrics being next to each other. There are 6 more blocks to go. I’ve run out of batting however, so the last 6 will have to wait until I can pick up some more. The coloured sections of this quilt came from my bin of 2 1/2 inch strips.

So in the meantime today I worked on April’s blocks for the sampler Atlanta Garden. I got both the floral and the earth tone blocks done.

I’m linking to Mid week Makers

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

What I’m working on

 I’ve got the starts of a new quilt going in my continuing quest to use up my bin of 2 1/2 inch strips. I don’t know the name or source of this. I saw a picture of it and am doing a variation of it. It will have a solid or tone on tone fabric in between each of these finished rows with a row of 2 inch squares. It will look something like this drawing from Electric Quilt when it is done.

The border fabric ribbon triangle quilt that I’ve been working on for the past month or so is finished and almost ready to be gifted from our Prayers and Squares group. The hand stitching on the binding needs to be finished and a label added. I really enjoy working with these border prints. They go together fairly quickly and end up looking quite pretty. I have another scrappy quilt going too, but I don’t have any pictures of it yet so writing about it will have to wait until next week.

I’m linking up to Mid Week Makers

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.

What I’m working on

 I’m slowly making my way through putting this quilt together. It doesn’t have a name. It’s made up from leftover border fabric and a really cool ribbon like block made from triangle squares. There are two more border fabric rows to add and one more pieced row. 
As all the other quilts I’ve done recently, it is quilt as I go. The border rows aren’t getting any added quilting to them other than what happens when they are sewn on. The triangle rows are getting stitch in the ditch on either side of the long centre row of triangles. I hope to get another couple of sections added to this today. 

We finished the binding on one of the quilts for the Prayers and Squares group last week. This one also used this border print fabric, but the butterfly section rather than the floral section. We are slowly getting the bindings done. 

I’m linking to Mid Week Makers.