Sunday Stitching

Here's my progress this week.

I'm still happy with it.

I'm linking up to Kathy. You should go read her - she's very thoughtful and insightful about being mindful when sewing.

A Finish And A Start

I've been working on my Winter Wonderland embroidery all winter. It's coming along nicely. And, honestly, thinking about winter in these hot days helps me stay a little cooler.

I finished off the snowman fight block

It was relatively quick and easy and finished in one week.

I have 2 (or maybe 3) blocks to finish. The remaining blocks are large. I started this one

This is the left side of the block - a tree holding up a clothesline.

I had to do some quilty math first to make sure I could get my blocks cut out of the remaining fabric I had

And I had enough fabric left.

I'm linking up to Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.

This Cools Me Off A Little

It's hot again outside. It's been hot for a few days - without humidity - today we have some humidity and I don't like it much. I'm fine if it gets hot during the day only if it also cools off at night.

To cope with the heat I'm hanging around inside getting some sewing done.

I've finished this panel. I started it in early April and have been working at it steadily.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments on this panel!

I'm linking up with Kathy.

Sunday Stitching

I'm still making progress on my Winter Wonderland. It's cooled off a bit here, so I don't feel the need to think about winter just yet.

These snowmen are on the far right side of this large panel.

I got some large wonder clips this week and I'm using them to hold the rolled up completed part of the panel. They were expensive but well worth it. My little wonder clips were full of fabric.

I'm linking up with Kathy.

Hand Stitching

It's hot here in my part of the world. It's humid and hot and feels more like July than the end of May.

I don't like this weather much, so I spend a lot of time inside - stitching.

Working on this makes me feel a little cooler.

Slowly but surely I'm getting this large panel finished. I'm glad to be finished all the music lines - they were tedious. At this end of the panel are a few singing snowmen and a tree. Then I'll go back and do all the snowflakes along the top. I've rolled the finished part now to help protect it and keep it clean. It's working, but making it really wrinkly.

I'm connecting with Kathy

Sloooooooooooow Stitching

Not slow in a bad way, just slower than I've been going. I've finished the smaller blocks in Winter Wonderland and now I'm into a big block. And I had a very busy week.

This is my progress this week. (And this big block is traced out)

It's the left hand side of a pine tree. On the far left of the top panel

(photo from http://www.crabapplehillstudio.com/winter-wonderland.html)

This week coming up will be far less busy so I'm hoping to have more to show next weekend.

I'm linking up to Kathy`s Quilts

I Finished!

On Easter Sunday I finished sewing the binding on my Under The Stars quilt.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Some quilting close ups of the borders. I used the snowflakes I used on my HO, HO, HO quilt and added some loop-de-loops in between to join them together.

Around the squares in the centre I went horizontally and vertically row by row, and I went around each gold star.

In the dark blue band at the top I did a simple loop-de-loop again. I also quilted around the snowmen shapes and the big parts of their faces. Without that, they poofed up too much. With quilting the parts, there is much better definition to their faces.

I put a round label on the back that says: "Made by me, for me, then my name and the date".

I'm not sure I'd make this quilt again, or if I'll do another flannel top and bottom. I did like the mix of hand applique and sewn piecing. And the colours grew on my over time. On my current machine, quilting through two layers of flannel and batting was a bit tricky.

I've put this quilt away until next year when I'll bring it out for the couch. I refuse to accept that we have enough winter left that I still need a flannel quilt.

Just In Time?

A polar vortex has hit my part of the world this weekend. All our snow was gone, then we got some more yesterday - and it hasn't melted yet. I was just out for a walk and it feels cold. There are 3 boys tobogganing down a small hill just behind my house and judging by their shouts they are enjoying themselves. The weatherman is calling for more snow later today. This should be it for us for winter-like weather, but I'm not betting on it.

I finished another Winter Wonderland block this week - last night in fact.

It's up against the patio door, so you can see my carried threads behind. I'm pleased with how this block turned out. And I'm still enjoying the process.

Last night it looked pretty with the snow sticking to everything. But I'm ready for spring.

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

Sunday Stitching (A Day Late)

It's been a busy week around here. We had a spring ice storm last week and I got an extra day off school - so a 5 day Easter weekend for me.

I finished another block in the Winter Wonderland quilt.

I'm still delighted with the process and am really enjoying the hand sewing.

The next block is traced and ready to be started tonight.

I'm linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching (unless I'm too late).

Slow Stitching

There is a fellow Canadian blogger I read at Kathys Quilts.  I'm not exactly sure where she lives, but it's not too far from me - I found her when we had our big ice storm a few years ago. Her style of quilting is very different from mine and I appreciate her workmanship. She hosts a "Slow Sunday Stitching" link up every Sunday - the idea is you do slow hand sewing on Sunday.

Since Christmas I pledged to do some hand work in the evenings when I'm watching tv. Sometimes I knit and sometimes I do embroidery, and some nights I do both. I'm really enjoying this time and seeing the fruits of my labours. Nothing goes quickly but I'm happy with my progress.

My first hand stitching project is a pattern called Winter Wonderland by Crabapple Hill Studio, which I've had forever. I have a thing for snowmen and that is what caught my eye in this one. I've finally got at it - in my year of selfish sewing, this was one quilt on my agenda. I'm embroidering on white kona, with a mulsin backing. So far, I've been doing my marking with a pink chalk pencil by Bohin.

This is my current block:

For some reason, my white fabric looks blue. You can see the pink markings. I'm doing it all in red (2 strands of DMC floss colour 321), with a simple back stitch. The machine stitches you can see at the top and bottom are just basting to hold my two layers together.

I've finished 3 other blocks:

Again, the machine stitches are just basting to hold everything together.

I'm pleased with my results and I'm enjoying the process of this. I will probably use a different quilt layout when the hand work is finished - I'm not in love with the pattern layout provided. I'm hoping to use it as a winter quilt on my own bed. I'm not certain how my cat's claws will get along with the embroidery though, so I'll have to wait and see.

I'm linking up to Kathys Quilts today.

Hand Sewing

I decided to try to do a little hand sewing in the evenings when I'm watching tv. I'm really enjoying it - much more than I thought I would.

This fellow is on a 12x12 square - he'll be cut down eventually. The grey line around him is basting to hold two layers of fabric together. The top layer is kona white, and the back a muslin. It gives the fabric a lot more body and you can't see anything through from the back.

I've had this pattern for ages - it's called Winter Wonderland. I'm going to embroider all the snowmen then piece them into a quilt. I don't like the layout on the pattern, so I'm not sure how I will put it together yet, and I'm sure I'll think of something.

The embroidery floss is DMC colour 321 - I like the red (which isn't photographing well) and the stitches are a simple back stitch with some french knots. The pattern called for lazy daisy for the snowman eyes, but I made french knots instead. I pre-wash everything, including this floss. And I'm glad I did because it ran a little when pre-soaking. I treated it with a chemical dye retainer so that it wouldn't bleed all over my quilt once finished.

Quilting Update

I've been working away at quilting my Under the Stars quilt (sort of). It's not going quite as fast as I'd like - I think because it's been a bit tricky to quilt with the walking foot because it is so thick that it doesn't feed quite right.

The weather is warming up so I want to get it finished - I likely won't use it until next winter. And I refuse to start my next quilt, which I really want to get going on , before this one is finished.

So far, there is a grid quilted in all the squares and the stars are outlined. I free-motioned around the applique snowmen and did a loop-de-loop in the sky. In the green I want to do snowflakes (in grey) with swirly connectors between them - not too heavy quilting, but enough that it holds together nicely.

The light is really bad - but I'm not complaining, because it's pouring in through my sliding glass doors into the kitchen.

Snowman Update

My Under the Stars quilt is basted and I`ve started quilting. It`s going fine, but I`m not enjoying the quilting as much as I did on the last quilt I made. I think it`s because this one is really thick, with a flannel top and bottom and it doesn`t slide very easily under my presser foot. I get a bit of puckering, even using the walking foot.  It`s coming along though, so no complaints.

Right now I`m doing sid in the squares. I leave a big box around the star blocks and will stitch around the stars.

Snowman Update

There is no snow on the ground here in my part of Ontario. We've had a very mild winter, which has been kind of nice since I don't have to shovel mild weather.

The only snowmen around here are the ones on my design wall. I need to add two borders to this (that's what came in the kit), then get it basted and quilted. I'm still not sure how much I love it, but I am enjoying sewing it.

I Got To Selfish Sewing

On the weekend I finished sewing on the binding of a quilt for my niece - I'll take some photos when the sun comes out again.

Then I dug into some sewing for myself. This is a quilt I started quite a while ago. I've had the kit for ages and am getting to it now.

I started with this this afternoon

The snowmen are appliqued on - I did it by hand and I'm happy with it. I've been worried about the blocks beneath - that they would be too dark for my liking.

This was a kit and there were some fabrics I didn't like at all, like this one

and luckily I had enough squares to remove these and replace them. The fabric is all flannel - I haven't sewn an all flannel quilt ever and there are a few challenges - namely getting that thick fabric under my foot with a 1/4" seam.

By supper time I had a few rows together and I'm liking it (I think)

I won't know if this is a keeper until the top is finished. I collect snowmen, so that part is awesome (and why I bought the kit in the first place), but the other colours aren't quite to my taste. I tried to sell the kit at Monday sewing but didn't get any takers. If I don't keep it, I have other fabric on hand that I would love to cut up into this pattern. I think it is a great pattern for a winter quilt.

I've decided to try doing more handwork this year. In the evenings I like to park myself on the couch and watch tv - and my machine isn't there. So I'm thinking of doing handwork in the evenings and machine work at other times. I'll let you know how it goes.