Slow Stitching All week long

 I continue my obsession with cross stitch. It is helping to keep me sane during this very crazy season of life. This whole past year has been nuts, I’m sure everyone thinks and feels that. Add in the whole moving thing to that and it has been rather stressful. We now know where we are going though. Matt and Becca have bought a house suitable for all of us. But the distance and the Covid lockdowns mean that Matt is the only one who has actually seen it in person. We were hoping to get up there to see it when he does a walk through, but that isn’t going to happen now. We have seen pictures of our apartment area, but it is so difficult to tell exactly how things will work in it from the pictures. We do know that we have to get rid of some of our big bulky furniture. And we can now begin to pack more stuff away. From the pictures we’ve seen it is a gorgeous house, about 10 minutes outside of town on 18 areas of land, most of which is forested. The land backs onto Crown land, so it is highly unlikely that anything will ever be built behind it. I am looking forward to the next phase of our lives. 

Meanwhile, the stitching continues. I have finished the Canada Sampler. It is from the Victoria Sampler people. I can’t remember on whose blog I first saw the family sampler, but I am so glad she shared it. I love all of Thea’s designs. I have started another one, this time the Love Is Sampler. This one is going to take a bit of time since all the vines at the top of the piece are stitched using one thread of embroidery silk over one thread of the fabric. It’s a good thing I have magnifying glasses. I have 2 more of these samplers kitted up and ready to stitch as well, but I’m trying very hard to get one done before starting another of these big projects. 

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

Slow Stitching

 I am so enjoying this slow stitching time. I continue to have 3 projects going. They aren’t in constant rotation since 2 of the projects are stitch along style where a small portion of the design is given weekly. The majority of my time is going into the Oh Canada Sampler designed by Victoria Samplers. I’ve made good progress on it this past week, although the satin stitch stars gave me some headaches and had to be ripped out numerous times before I got the spacing correct. Now that it is figured out the stars are going quickly. This piece just might be done by this time next week. The stars are row 13 out of 15. I have two more samplers here with fabrics and threads ready to start once this one is finished. 

My second project is also from the Victoria Sampler folks. It’s a free stitch along for a monthly calendar representation. A section of each monthly design is released weekly on Fridays.

And then there is a weekly stitch along put out by the Peppermint Purple website. Each week presents a new square or rectangle with blackwork geometric designs. These are released every Wednesday. I haven’t done this week’s yet. They are relatively quick and easy to do.

I picked up the frames for my finished pieces yesterday. I watched a youtube video on how to lace the finished stitcheries in order to get them stretched and centred onto the backing boards. Now all I need is to get the loose threads trimmed from the backs and I can get started on that. I have to finish the beading on the Family sampler before I can frame it though. Maybe I should get those beads sewn on today. Then when the the mood and the courage strike, I can get it framed.

I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Stitching all week long

 My machine sewing supplies continue to be all packed away waiting for the move that is happening in the next couple of months. So in the meantime, I slow stitch by hand. And that is a good thing because it is soothing and relaxing. It just might get warm enough today to actually take my stitching outside into the sun..... I hope.

I have finished the Victoria Samplers Family Sampler. We went and picked out frames for it last week. I’m hoping they will be in this week and then I can get it stretched and framed so it can count as fully finished. Here’s a close up showing the finished pulled thread work at the bottom. I have never done anything like this before, so it was a bit of a challenge. But I like learning new things so it was fun too.

I’ve done some more work on the monthly sampler that Victoria Sampler is doing. The fourth part for March was released on Friday and I’m hoping to get that done today.

And then because I’ve had a couple of finishes in the past couple of weeks, I treated myself to a new start. This is also from the Victoria Sampler people. Considering I started this last Wednesday, it is going quickly. It a piece celebrating Canada. 

It has the cutest goose in the row I’m currently doing. This is row 7 out of 15 so almost halfway done this one. I am hoping that in our new place I will have a wall somewhere dedicated to this kind of needle work. 

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

Slow Stitching

 I continue to do exclusively hand work these days. My sewing machines and most of my fabrics are all packed away waiting to be moved to wherever it is that we end up. The search for a house that is suitable for all of us for an affordable price up in the very expensive region of Muskoka continues. There was one that was really good for the inside area, but the outside was too small. Very small narrow driveway with no parking allowed on the street, so that one got nixed. I’m confident something will come up. In the meantime, I continue to do cross stitch projects that will get framed and hung on the walls of wherever we end up.

I finished part 5 of the Mandala Millefiori from Peppermint Purple. Part 6 will be released on Monday. It will go in the bottom right of the piece. 

I joined the Peppermint Purple Facebook page because there was talk of a year long sew along which I was curious about. Dangerous, I know. Well once I saw it, I had to join in. There is a new square or rectangle released every Wednesday. I spent yesterday doing the first 9. It is such an enjoyable process. Almost like instant gratification for stitchers. The are choices for different borders to go around the whole thing. I have one of them that I really like but I’ll wait for a while and get more of the squares done before I make a decision.

And then there is the wonderful Family Sampler from Victoria Samplers. It is such a fun and challenging project to do. Every row has new and different stitches. I have a hard time putting it down. Here’s this week’s progress. And a picture of the whole thing so far. I had to set it aside for a bit while I did some thinking. The next row of text on the pattern shows the names of the families, so it would be my maiden name and my married name. However, I don’t have fond memories at all of my childhood, so I don’t particularly want that name front and centre all the time. Plus I wanted it to be a bit more generic for if it eventually gets passed down to other family members. So instead I did some searching in the scriptures for a verse that speaks to family and the Lord’s blessings. I found a perfect reflection of that in Psalm 103:17-18. So that scripture reference is going to go in the place of the names. This is so close to being finished. I will work on it today.

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

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. 

Slow Stitching All Week Long

 I’m back to rotating my projects again and it continues to work well. I have two more circles done on the Millefiori Mandala. I’m really enjoying seeing the different designs and details form inside each circle. I’d never done anything quite like it before, which was the original attraction of this piece.

I’m working on the goats for Noah’s Journey. It’s fun that one of the goats has spots that are heart shaped.

My favourite project though, is this Family Sampler. I am loving every minute and every stitch. I’m learning so many new stitches in it. That makes it fun and challenging to do and not a bit boring. I’m sad when the end of the day comes and I have to set it aside. But I’m determined to not let anything turn into a UFO and sit unfinished so I will continue to rotate through them. 

I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get to my own stitching. Today is the family sampler day. I’m looking forward to seeing how much further I can get on it. The next section is #9 out of 29. Yes I freely and willingly admit to being insane.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’ve worked almost exclusively on cross stitch and embroidery this past week. I have four projects going now, one embroidery and three cross stitch. It’s a good thing I never committed to only doing one at a time because I would have broken that commitment by now. But I know myself well enough not to say that sort of thing.

The seventh release of Noah’s Journey came out at the beginning of the week. So I got it traced out and coloured. This is a two block section. I have one of them almost finished. I just have to do the flowers and leaves on the top of the sheep’s head.

I’ve also made progress on the Millefiori Mandala cross stitch project. I’m keeping up with this, so far. Part 4 was released a week ago and I am part way through that.

The Victoria Sampler Facebook group is doing a monthly sampler type thing. A small portion of the monthly design is released weekly on Fridays for the first 3 weeks of each month. I finished February’s yesterday.

And then there is the new project, also from Victoria Sampler. One of our slow stitchers is also working on this and when I saw the picture of hers I sort of fell in love. It is a challenge to do. Lots of new stitches and also lots of different type threads from what I’ve used before. But I am loving doing it. There are nine little tiny birds in the tree. They are done with a single strand of silk thread over a single thread of fabric. I have never done anything that delicate before. I have one more bird left to do before I can move on to the next element. I am finding the instructions with this sampler very good and am planning on doing it step by step as it is presented in the instructions. 

And now for our big news that has been going on in our lives. We live with our daughter and son-in-law in a granny flat type apartment. Our son-in-law started a new job in January. The job is in the Muskoka region of Ontario. So we are all going to be moving. The house we are in now sold this past week, so there is a new adventure in our future. It’s very exciting, especially since we all love that area of our province. They are now on the search for a new home for all of us up there. 

I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.