Battle of the Stars.

I’ve made real progress on this project in the past week. The centre section is now finished.



I’m starting on the corners and the sides now.

I haven’t 100 percent decided on all the fabrics yet, but this is a start for one of the corners. I’ll need to do some stash diving to decide on what else to use. There are some five point stars and some setting diamonds that go in between these 10 point stars, I’ll get these 3 large 10 point stars done and then I’ll lay out some colours and fabrics with them to determine what is going to work. I should know what I’m doing with it by the end of the week. So my job for today, after I link up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching will be to finish off these large stars.

Battle of the Stars

I’ve retired the appliqué project for a bit and gone back to one of my english paper pieced quilts instead. The last time I had this one out was back in July, going by what I was writing about here on the blog. (At that time it was the middle of the summer and we were in the middle of a wonderful camping trip. Now, it’s cold and snowy out..... sigh.... I want summer back..... Anyhow, I got a bit distracted there for a moment.) And that sounds about right because I started the appliqué project in early August. The bonus of having so may different things on the go is the lack of opportunity for boredom..... not that I’m ever bored. But  I needed a bit of a change. I added two more of the ten point stars to the centre section today. And since I took those pictures I’ve added on a thin green diamond unit to the right of the yellow star. The next one is aqua coloured. But this is what it looks like so far. Another of the bonuses of having multiple projects going is the ability to rediscover the enjoyment from one to another.  I love doing EPP and also love doing appliqué. So it seems only fair to do both. Or at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Battle of the Stars and Connections

Things have been very slow here in the hand stitching realms. I’ve been doing a lot of knitting.. mindless and repetitive and relaxing. Just what my overwhelmed mind needed this past month. I have made a bit of progress on Battle of the Stars. I went to a hand sewing get together with three friends on Thursday afternoon and got quite a bit accomplished. Unfortunately I left the pieces for the last two units behind, so I can’t finish off this centre. I think I’ll use that as an excuse to go and work on Connections. I have a lot of partial units ready for this one so I may be able to show significant progress by this time next week. It’s quite a lot of fun to work on and requires not a lot of concentration so it should suit my frame of mind these days. I’ll be linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Battle of the Stars

If you recall, back in January I decided that I wanted to schedule a time period for each of the hand piecing projects I have on the go. Two weeks for Willyne Hammerstein projects, one week for Connections and one week for the pieced hexagon sampler. We are at the beginning of the month which means it is back to my Willyne Hammerstein projects. This one is Battle of the Stars from her third Millefiori book. I have half of the centre sewn together. Now comes the hard part of choosing the rest of the fabrics to complete it. I think this is what I’m going with. The small stars around the centre will continue to be alternating pink and light green.
So today’s job is going to be cutting the pieces I need out of those fabrics and then continue sewing more together. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching before getting back to these fun fabrics.

Slow Sunday Stitching

My new quilt called Friendship Chain is growing and taking shape. The mechanics of how to put it together are coming along. One of the things I wasn’t sure of was how to figure out which colours and fabrics would go where when adding on new rows. I think I’ve figured out an easy solution. Cut a whole pile of sets of diamonds and trapezoids out of lots of fabrics and colours. Then lay the new ones on top of the preceding row since they will be intersecting with that row, changing out colours and fabrics as necessary.Then make sure that there is enough contrast between the new additions that are beside each other so that the chains will be distinct from one another. Then I took pictures to remind myself of which colours were going where for reference. The last step is to clip a pair of diamonds to the bottom of the unit where they belong and then set the rest of them aside. Now I know which colour diamonds need to be sewn to which. This picture is my working version with the some of the pairs already sewn in and the rest just clipped in place. I love playing with colour.My goal is to make this 8 full chains wide by 10 full chains long. I would like to be able to make this a “charm” quilt, meaning that I won’t repeat a fabric. Whether I can make that goal is debatable at this point. The more important thing will be to achieve a balance of colour and brightness.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching. Then I’m going to take everything off the design boards and get to stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching and Happy Easter

Of all of the days of the year, this one is the best. Easter Sunday, celebrating the rising of our Saviour and Lord from the grave. This Easter is extremely special. Years ago we belonged to a wonderful small but close knit church family. Unfortunately, over time, that church family grew smaller and smaller until it finally could no longer function and it closed. That was almost 20 years ago. Since then we have been searching for a new church family. We have attended numerous churches over the years but never quite fit. Back in January we heard of a new church that had started up in our city, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, and we began attending. It didn’t take long to realize that the Lord had answered our prayers and that this was to be our new church family. Today we become official members of that church when they extend what they call “the right hand of fellowship” to us. I don’t talk a lot about my faith here on the blog, but it is an essential central component of who and what I am, and also of what I do and why I do, and so when important things arise, I will mention them.

As far as stitching goes, once more not a lot of that has been happening. This past week, once more I was felled by a bug of some sort...... that’s three this winter.... I’m done, no more please!!!! Since that really bad illness that landed me in hospital for 10 days last April, it seems like it’s been just one thing after another. I am so ready to be done with all that. I’ve mentioned to my husband numerous times that I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. LOL! And each time, the recovery process takes longer. I suppose it must be part of the getting older thing, less immunity, less resistance and less energy at the best of times, let alone when ill. And of course it doesn’t help when I put myself into situations where I’m working at full tilt way beyond my strength and capacity, pushing myself way past where I should. A crash and burn in those circumstances is almost inevitable, as most of my friends and all of my family know and consistently warn me about. So I’ve been in enforced lay down on the couch and rest mode for the past week. I have done a little bit on the last four blocks for the last border of Leo’s Mane. I miscounted the number I need for this border, so I’m scrambling to find the fabrics that I used. I’ve managed to locate everything except the red. If I don’t find it I’ll have to do some creative substitutions. I have the four corner blocks already made. What were missing were 4 side blocks. If I have to, I’ll take the red off the corner blocks and move them to the side blocks, and then add a different red to the corners. At this point, I’m thinking something that is as close to what is already there as possible. But who knows, maybe a flashy contrasting red will work even better. Whatever the case, I have to decide soon, since I can’t go any further on those side blocks without the red.
I’m going to post this, link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, and then go red fabric hunting. If I don’t get attacked by yet another bug of some sort, these blocks will be done by this time next week, I hope.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Leo’s Mane continues to grow. I have two of the fifth borders finished and ready to sew onto the main body of the quilt.



In addition, there are eight more squares finished and ready to sew together into another border. twelve more to go, plus the corners, and these borders are done and ready to attach. These are the last of the borders for this quilt, unless I decide to add a plain one around the whole thing to stabilize it. I won’t know that until I get there. This is what it looks like so far with these borders laying along side the main body.



And here a close up.

 I enjoy this quilt so much! But I must say, I will be so glad to have it finished. then I have to decide on how to quilt it. And at the moment, I haven’t a clue how to do that. If anyone looking at this has any ideas about how to quilt this, I’d appreciate the ideas. In the ditch quilting won’t work because with EPP most of the seams are open, rather than ironed to one side.  Anyhow, I’m going to link up tp Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, then maybe have something to eat and then get some more stitching done before heading out to church this afternoon.

Slow Sunday Stitching

How on earth did it get to be the 25th of February so fast?!?! Now mind you, I’m not complaining about that. It means we are so much closer to spring and the warm weather to come. In fact, it is sunny and going up to 7 degrees celsius today, and the snow is mostly gone, which means we can dispense with the heavy winter boots, for the next few days at least. It does mean though, that I am not going to make my goal of having this fifth and last border of Leo’s Mane finished by the end of the month...... rats!!

I have the corner pentagons sewn onto 13 out of 44 units. Nine of those units are sewn together. I need to add one more and they will be ready to be sewn onto the side of the quilt. I’ve spent a good deal of time in the last couple of weeks stitching. But a lot of that time was distracted by what was going on at the olympics, where I’d have to stop the stitching and watch what was happening, especially when it came to the figure skating, one of my favourite things to watch. And then I got caught up in all those extreme things like the snowboarding people who looked like they were flying, and the the skiers who were doing the same thing. All I can say is wow.... they are crazy!!
But, now the olympics is over, so maybe I’ll get back to more intensive stitching time. I’ve downloaded an audiobook that should keep me going for a while, which will help.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, and then I’ll pick the needle and thread back up for a little while.

Leo’s Mane fifth border progress

We had company this past weekend. Our grandson Avery came and stayed overnight with us Saturday and into Sunday. So there was no time yesterday for a Slow Sunday Stitching blog post, or for stitching either for that matter. By the time we finished looking after our 2 year old grand daughter on Friday and the 6 year old grandson Saturday and early Sunday these poor old grand parents were totally tired out, but in a fabulous and happy way.

I have been making progress with Leo though. All of the units for the fifth border are up to the point where the setting pentagons are going in. This month they have gone from these plus sign units then to having the side units put in and now the corner pentagons. I have three of these completed, with 37 more to go. So close..... so very close....

Slow Sunday Stitching

So close, so very very close to being done with Leo’s Mane. I have over half of the 40 English Paper Pieced units that I need up to the second step.
I have 40 of these, the first step
And 23 of these. the second step.I need 13 more of these for a total of 36 and then 4 of a bit of a different configuration to do the corners of the borders. After that, I put in the corner fabrics that turn these odd shapes into squares and these are done. The goal of the end of February looks like it might be reachable. Here they are, what I have done so far all together. They aren’t going to be laid out this way, considering they are meant for a border, but looking at them here, there are possibilities for further design variations. It would make a really fun scrappy quilt.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then it will be back to more stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’m making really good progress on the fifth of Leo’s Mane borders. All the centre plus signs for the 40 blocks are done. Today I’m starting the process of cutting the next fabrics, basting them to the papers and sewing the next set of pieces into place. As I thought it would, this border is going together very quickly. Maybe, just maybe, it will all be done by the end of February. That would be so cool!  Here’s a closeup of the block so far. The spaces at the ends of the yellow pieces will be filled with the navy fabric I’ve been using through the whole quilt and will make the blocks square. I’m getting so excited about having this finished! I’m starting to think about how to quilt it. So far, I haven’t a clue what I’m going to do. I’m hoping sometime before it is finished, inspiration will hit. In the meantime, I’ll keep on stitching.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Well, that was a week I’d not care to repeat. Like so many people all over the world, I got hit with one of the flu bugs. What a nasty bug it was!! I was out for the count last weekend and also for the first few days of this week. I had plans, so many plans of what  I wanted to get accomplished.......

However, the good news is I’m all better now, even if I lost a week. I had hoped to have all of the fourth border for Leo’s Mane finished and attached to the main body by now. The last of the fourth border sections is now finished and laying along side the left side of the quilt. After I post this, I’ll start stitching it to the main body. Then I can start in cutting and sewing the fifth borders which is the last one. Whew.... what a long process this has been. But that’s what slow hand stitching is all about, being slow and enjoying the process. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then will be finding something to watch on the computer while I stitch.

Slow Sunday Stitching

As usual, I’m plugging away at Leo’s Mane. I love the project, and the way it is coming together. Here are more parts for the fourth border. I’d say I’m almost 2/3rds of the way finished this particular border. I’m making the individual parts, and the slowly sewing them into the border. I need to get most of the purple units done so I can get an even distributions of the colours.

Every now and then I need something that isn’t quite so small and fiddly. This next project has been around for a while but I don’t know if I’ve ever actually taken a picture of it and shown it here. It’s a public domain design from EQ7 called Sapphire Net, and it’s a perfect candidate for English Paper Piecing.
The octagon shapes are 5 1/2 inches long, and are perfect candidates for using up some of my large scale floral stash I have hanging around here. So far it measures 24 inches across. Whether I make it any bigger than this or not is yet to be determined. There will eventually be papers and pattern available for this in our web store. I’ve been working on it this week when I get tired of Leo’s tiny pieces.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, before going back to more stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’ve made good progress this week. Last week my second length of the fourth border for Leo’s Mane looked like this. It had three stars and three of the lantern type units finished. This week the entire border is now finished.
Two down, two to go and then I move onto the last of the borders. As I progress through the quilt the borders are taking longer to do, since the quilt is getting bigger. These two took me a month to make. That’s something I need to keep in mind for writing up the sew along instructions. The instructions are released twice a month, so I’m attempting to divide the steps up to take that length of time.
I haven't  yet decided today whether I’m going to sew these two sides in place, or whether I’m going to continue making more units.
However, my brain is kinda fuzzy today, so maybe the simple sewing these borders in place should win out. Yep, I just decided, that’s what I’m going to do. So, after I link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, I’ll get started on sewing these borders into place. 

Leo’s Mane Fourth border

I’m late writing up a post this week. I usually do one up for Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching. I was stitching on Sunday, lots and lots of stitching. But I was also binge watching a show on England. Tony Robinson is the guy’s name, and he does walks all over the country side and talks about the land marks and the history. I am fascinated by all things English history, so I got rather caught up in it. By the time I realized what time it was, it was too dark for pictures and too late for thinking straight. And now, here it is Wednesday, and I’m finally getting around to writing that post.
The good thing is, the third border is completely stitched onto Leo, and is all pressed and laying nicely flat. It took a bit of persuasion with some steam from the iron on the eight point seams, but they finally cooperated.
And now, I’ve started work on the fourth border.  The colours in this photo are a bit yellower than in real life. The close ups in the photos further down are closer to the actual colours.


These are the two basic units that make this particular border,  with a couple of extra things as well. It’s going fairly quickly, with all of them that are laying beside the quilt finished since Sunday. There will be small gold coloured triangles filling the space along the edges of the border.

I’m linking up to Lorna’s Let’s Bee Social, Esther’s WIPs on Wednesday and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network. Then it’s time for supper and some more stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching....

I’m continuing to work on Leo’s Mane. And yesterday evening I put the last stitches into the last star for the third border. Woohoo, yippee and a happy dance or two!!


I’m a little later posting today than I like to be, but I have an excellent reason. Our grandson Avery was visiting this weekend, so we spent the time with him today. He’s on his way home now, so it will likely be a month before we see him again. (sigh) We did some fun halloween crafts with them yesterday. He made a wreath, using a styrofoam circle, a whole pile of black and orange 2 1/2 inch squares of fabric, poked into the styrofoam, and then a battery operated string of eye ball lights. As long as you don’t look too close and actually see the eye balls, it’s kinda pretty. LOL! Here he is, holding up his masterpiece.

He had fun with it, and the rest of us had fun with him having fun.
So, my task for the rest of this evening is to begin the process of sewing the borders of stars onto Leo’s main body. I am so very thrilled with the way it looks all laid out on the floor.
 I said last week that I hoped to have this border finished by the end of the month. That goal was met, with the exception of actually stitching it in place. Whether I can actually get that done before the end of the month..... I’m not sure but I’ll give it a good try.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching before going back to more sewing. I’m having so much fun!!!

Leo’s Mane Third border

Hand stitching is all about slow stitching. It’s about enjoying the process as much as the finish, since the finish takes so long to happen. But, slowly Leo’s third border is coming together. I started the third border back on the 6th of September, but then took two weeks out of that time to work on something else. Out of 28 blocks needed for the border I have 18 1/2 of them finished. The last of them should be done by the end of this month, if I keep up with the amount of stitching I’ve been doing. It’s mostly evening stitching, 2 or 3 hours at a time, but not daily. Last week I had 10 of the stars finished, so that’s about 1 1/2 blocks a day, on average. I’m keeping fairly close track of this both for my own information and also so I know approximately how to break down each border into steps for the sew along for this project.

This past week Manuela posted a picture of her finished centre on her blog here.  Martina’s is here and Ariane has posted a picture of hers on instagram here. They are all so completely different and it’s so much fun to see other people take the design and make it theirs.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching before going back to more stitching of my own.

Leo’s Mane back in production again

I’ve gotten as far as I can get in my version of Creme Brûlée without rethreading the sewing machine with dark thread. I have to sew up the corners of the borders before I can sew down the last of the outside diamonds. So, I am back to working on Leo’s Mane, the third border. I’m taking these stars and am adding on the outer triangles to turn them into finished blocks, which I am then stitching together to make the borders. Here’s how it looks so far, with that third border laid beside what is already finished. It is a long, slow process. But that is the point of hand stitching, to take our time and enjoy the process. Of course, it’s made even longer when this device currently sitting on my lap, on which I am currently typing, keeps distracting me with all manner of interesting things on the internet and Facebook and blogs. But that too is part of the fun and process and relaxation of the Slow Sunday Stitching thing.
There are fifteen people signed up for the sew along for Leo’s Mane. Four or five of them are actually over in Europe, mostly in the areas around and in Germany. That is so thrilling!! Not everyone has shared pictures, but Martina has here. And Ariane here in Canada has shown a picture of hers here and here.
I’m going to link up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get back to more stitching myself, assuming I can drag myself away from this device. (grin) I’m also linking to Esther’s WIPs on Wednesday and Sarah’s Help for hexie-aholics

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and I wish to extend our hopes that all who celebrate it will have a wonderful weekend. Kathy asked what are we thankful for? There is so much.... our God and Saviour have to be at the top of the list along with all the gifts and blessings He has given. This home and the family in it is right at the top of that list of gifts. It is such a joy to live here and to be able to share in the lives of our daughter and son-in-law and grand daughter on an almost daily basis. It is wonderful to be able to be useful, to be able to help as they both work full time. Our grand daughter is such a joy, even as she navigates through the challenge of finding her voice and her individuality and we navigate those challenges with her as she is coming up on the 2 years old milestone. She has a very strong will! I am thankful that our grandson Avery will be here today. We don’t get to see him anywhere near as often as I would wish, so these times are precious. My husband, such a kind, generous, gentle soul who loves his God and his family has to be named in that thankfulness list, too. The gift of quilting, and the friends that come along with it, have to be on that list.

My Creme Brûlée is almost finished. All of the rosettes are sewn together, the bordering diamonds are sewn on, and I made a decision about how to finish it. I’m not going to square off the piecing. There is something in me that just shrinks away from the idea of doing all that hand sewing, only to cut it off. Plus, I like the look of the irregular edges contrasted against a border. So, that’s what I’ve done. The Kona Snow edging is being appliquéd down to Kona Pepper borders.


I love the way it looks. And at the moment, it is telling me that it wants an overall feather quilting design done in a light coloured variegated thread. So, unless it changes its mind, that’s what it will get.
It’s very close to being finished. I don’t know if it will get done today. We are celebrating our Thanksgiving today, and the house is going to be full of family and friends with ten adults and four children under 8. We cooked the turkey and dressing yesterday in order to cut down on the work and the chaos today. All we have to do is put it in the oven for 45 minutes or so to heat it up.
So, I’m going to link this to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then maybe get a little stitching in before the family arrive.

A little Creme Brûlée

I’m continuing to take a break away from Leo’s Mane while I work on Creme Brûlée, which is a design by Willyne Hammerstein from her book Millefiori quilts 2. It’s much less complex than Leo, so it’s been a nice brain break.
I’ve taken the original single rosettes and started putting them together.
 I have a total of 12 of them finished. I don’t know if this is going to end up being a full sized quilt, or if I will end up just using what I have and making it into a smaller wall hanging. I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head that I want to play with. They all take so much time that making a full sized anything seems like it won’t happen. So I might stick with doing smaller, which is something even two years ago I never thought I’d ever hear myself say. I was always “I don’t do small”. But that was before I discovered the addiction called English Paper Piecing, all done by hand therefore taking so very much longer to actually finish anything.
I’ll see how big this ends up and what it looks like with another row of four rosettes added to the bottom and make my decision about what to do then. It could end up squared off with white hexagons around the edge, trimmed square and then hung up on a wall in my studio.
So, my task today is to continue sewing these together, after I link up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.