Slow Sunday Stitching

It's been awhile since I last checked in on the weekly slow stitching party. Since I've done a little bit of that sort of stitching recently, it seems as good a time as any to see what all the talented ladies have been working on. Kathy's Quilts hosts this party every week on her blog; I've enjoyed visiting with these seamstresses and seeing the oh-so-inspiring projects they create.

I've taken time to reacquaint myself with an embroidery project I unearthed recently while sorting and organizing in my quilting room. I was going great guns on this back a few years ago when I started. I bought the book and the fabric with every intention of diligently stitching it up in time to use for fall decorating.

The book, by Kathy Schmitz, is full of wonderful patterns both large and small, many of which I could definitely see myself making. I just lost steam on it for whatever reason, and now am trying to regain my enthusiasm and finish it. It will become a pillow when completed.

In the time I've worked on it this last week, I can tell you one reason I probably stopped stitching  - lighting! I have very poor lighting in the room I generally sit in the evening (TV room), and the effort it takes to both follow the pattern and thread the needle makes me very slow about things. 

I have several good lights that I could bring downstairs - one that wraps around my neck for focusing light toward my hands. I owe it to myself to make use of the tools at my disposal.

I hope you'll stop over at Kathy's for her little party. It will inspire you, for sure!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne  

A Bit Of Embroidery

 Every now and then it's nice to just sit down and stitch something new for a change. That was my mindset a few weeks ago when I decided to begin a project out of a new book in my collection.

Stitches from the Harvest by Kathy Schmitz is chock-full of enticing projects, and even though we are approaching the end of autumn, I still felt compelled to make something from this fall-themed book.

This will eventually be a pillow cover. Maybe I will have it finished by next fall? I certainly hope so!

Another nice feature of a project like this: it travels well. I can easily take it in the car, and if the road is smooth, I stitch while riding.

Mostly, though, I'm stitching in my comfy chair watching something on TV. With Covid getting all nasty again, some of our sports are being cancelled or postponed. If we don't have a game, we catch up on some Netfix shows, so all is not lost.

I will link up with Kathy's Quilts regular Sunday linky party. Take a look at some of the fabulous Slow Sunday Stitching featured there.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

A Bit of Embroidering

 Quilting is not the only needle art I enjoy. I pretty much like all things textiles - and if I gave in to the temptation, I am sure I would have a closet full of yarn and needles and crochet hooks and, well, all the things.

I spent a good amount of time in my early adult years doing counted cross stitch. That gave way to quilting, but I still have a fair amount of patterns and floss. I recently have been picking up embroidery projects and have been working on a little pretty off and on for a couple of weeks.

This is the second little embroidery design I've done from Cozy Blue Handmade. Her designs are sweet and simple, colorfully whimsical. The earlier one I did was a big yellow sunflower. 

So, on this little blue bird design, I completed all the stems yesterday and have done 2 or 3 birds. This will finish fast.

Not much to say beyond that. Had my classes today, and now I have another batch of essays to read and grade. The life of a teacher, you know.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

A Bit of Embroidery

At the Circleville Quilt Show earlier this month, I picked up two little projects to fill down time in the evenings while watching baseball. I have also tried taking them on car rides, but it is hard to do neat, even stitches in a moving vehicle, so I gave that up.

Annette at Sewing the Good Life had a basket of these small designs in her booth for $5 each. They were just so appealing - small, easy, portable, no hoop required. I should have gotten more.

The designs are printed on what appears to be tea-dyed quilt-like fabric. Cut large enough for trimming to desired size, the fabric is single-ply with texture that evokes a worn and weathered effect.

My current plan is to piece a small patchwork border around these and then then insert them into frames. They could become gifts or maybe I will put them on the wall in my sewing room. My inspiration for framing came from a picture I recently saw on Instagram. This is my main reason for loving IG as much as I do - the inspiration is unending.

As I often do, I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching party. For anyone who hand-stitches, as Kathy says in her post "we are your tribe." The variety ranges from beading to hand-quilting to hand-piecing to embroidery - and far many more. Check it out!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jacket Progress

Bit by bit, I am adding embroidery - doing so as I feel confident about the design and stitches - on my old white jeans jacket. I carry it around with me, sometimes, in the event that I might take a moment to stitch. Sometimes I do; sometimes I don't; I'm sure you all can relate, right?

I want my embellishments to be multi-colored, so I put away the red and have begun some flowers. Yesterday I did stems and leaves - green. I tried a yellow flower, but it looks pretty sad, so I will have to rethink that, or consider adding more colors with petals or something.

As I've said from the beginning - we shall see.

This picture shows most of the stitching thus far. I like how that meander stitching turned out above the left breast pocket. It was free-hand, as is everything I've stitched so far.

It's Holy Week! Are you ready for Easter?

I am linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Happy Stitching, Friends!

Colorful and Playful

Having no clear direction for projects at the moment, I pulled out a tub of what I call 'modern' fabric, and just began playing. (I need to reconsider what term might more accurately describe these prints.)

I need to cut more variety of fabrics - yes, I have more variety - and mix them all up in a totally scrappy fashion. It's an easy block to create, and while the pattern called for using paper-piecing, I found an alternate that is normal piecing. I will provide all the details later.

On Sunday evening while watching Mrs. Wilson/Masterpiece Theater, I added some embroidery stitching to my white jeans jacket. The red on the pocket flap is pearl cotton (much thicker) and the meandering vine above the pocket is regular embroidery floss (thinner). I have free-handed everything so far, but I foresee having to create some patterns or drawings to transfer at some point. I don't think I trust my artistic eye to do the flowery stuff I envision.

This week is our Canter's Cave Quilting Retreat! I am so stoked to get some major quality time going on something! I have several projects packed, but what will I decide??? Come on back and see! I am not even sure what I will select at this point!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

End of March Round-Up

Dang! Where in the world did this month go?! We bemoaned the length of our short month (February) and now here we had 31 days in March and they have flown right by. I'm not sure I understand how that can happen. *scratching my head*

Last night I took to my sewing room to listen to an audio book - Louise Penny's A Fatal Grace - and begin a new embroidery project. For ages, I mean like 15 years or more, I have had a plain white denim jacket that I always believed would look way better with embroidered embellishment.

I have started by using the red pearl cotton floss I bought in Key West, and I (so far) am totally making this up as I go. I have no plan in mind, nor any pattern to reference. I have looked at pictures on Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration. I will be winging it all the way. I hope that as I get more comfortable with some of my stitches, I will be more experimental - maybe even fancy - with my designs and colors. I figure this will be a long-term project, but would be able to wear it even if I decide I still want to add more to it later.

Truly, I am going to have fun with this project. It is a perfectly wearable jacket that has been hanging in the closet all these years! So what's to lose? I wasn't wearing it, and with the fun embroidery on it, I think I will want to wear it. That's the plan, anyway.

Thus far, I have outlined the collar and the pocket flaps. Two little flowers are on each corner of the collar. What next? Change colors? Try out some different stitches? I will keep you updated as I progress.

So let's look at the March collage. This is the first one I can recall making that doesn't have a single person pictured. I hope that is not significant of anything, but it does seem odd that I'm featuring places and projects in this collage.

Top Row: My little poison green and navy churn dash table topper, the poison green checkerboard, and margaritas on our first night in Key West; Middle Row: the pool/deck area of our KW hotel, crocuses in our yard; March blocks for the Quilter's Planner quiltalong; Bottom Row: my finished embroidery project which was a birthday gift from dear friend Sharon, daffodils in our woods, and a totally improv embroidery project, the white denim jacket.

I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching. I tell you, I love slow stitching with an audiobook playing; it makes me feel doubly productive! My usual slow stitching is that Lake Effect EPP, but I have favored working on these embroidery projects lately. I promise I am NOT forgetting about Lake Effect! *grin*

Have a great week everyone!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Vacation Mode

GAH!

I have been so busy since getting home from vacation! My satisfactory blogging record from the beginning of the month has become non-existent here at month's end.

Hubs and I took off on Sunday the 17th for Key West, Florida. We booked a nice single room on Simonton Street and had close walking proximity to nearly all the local hotspots that KW has to offer. It was a wonderful week which ended much too quickly. I will share some vacation pics and memories in an upcoming post.

Today, let me just mention that I sought out local quilt shops with success! The Island Needler is a yarn and embroidery shop on Fleming Street. I found some floss needing to come home with me. The Seam Shoppe is a quilt and yarn shop on Truman Street, and of course, a few fat quarters were purchased.

There's my haul. I have 8 FQs there; 4 dark prints and a light print (4 of them) that will be the background of whatever I decide to make. I actually do have an idea, so this might happen sooner than my normal rate of starting things. The floss looks like basic crayon colors, and I think I can find a use for them.

I hope life settles down here in the coming week. We are about to end March and move on to the glories of April!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Slow Stitching

I've added a new slow-stitching project to my arsenal - embroidery!

My best friend Sharon gave me this gift last month for my birthday. I started it about 10 days ago, and find myself strangely drawn to it! This could very easily become a new addiction.

I've enjoyed working on this in the evenings while we watch tv - movies, sports, shows - I can usually multitask. I may have to improve my lighting though! My eyes don't work like they used to, darn it!

The pattern is by Cozy Blue Handmade. I haven't started following them yet, but they have an IG account, so I will probably check them out. I can hardly believe that I am actually thinking about what embroidery project I will work on after I complete this one! gaahh! I have some of Grandma's upstairs in her stuff, and I may go that direction.

I am linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitches, even though it's Monday! Hope I don't miss the deadline!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

An Unearthed Treasure

Gracious! The things one can find in her sewing room! I have been digging around, sorting and straightening, and in the process, I found one of Grandma's projects that I did not know I had.

Several years before she died, I spent a few days helping her clean out her sewing things. She had a little bedroom where it was all stored, and I'd helped her over the years to organize and condense it. Grandma was a super-organized lady, and I was merely the laborer in getting the job done. I wrote about bringing home the stuff from under the guest bed, and later about the stuff from her closet.

Well, in one of those boxes that was all embroidery, I really hadn't sifted through it very thoroughly. For whatever reason last week, I found myself opening a box and I discovered a little treasure.

Very neatly wrapped in a protective plastic bag, I found all the parts necessary for a Flower of the Month embroidered quilt. I will let the pictures tell the story. Some months are completed, one is partially finished, and four are untouched.

This is the partially finished block. I am concerned about the way the transfer ink has bled and faded. All the remaining blocks have been transferred to the fabric and the ink is in the same shape. I could use some advice on whether or not this will be easily washed out, or if I should redo these remaining blocks.

Yes, I am considering finishing this. In case I finish the EPP project Lake Effect, I have this needlework waiting on standby.

The patterns are all here, neatly organized in the envelop in which they came. Not being too familiar with embroidery patterns, I am assuming I could reapply the patterns and get a transfer that isn't so smeared. Again, any advice more experienced embroidery stitchers have is totally welcome.

A bonus find in amongst these items is this list of colors that Grandma had written. It tickles me so to see evidence of her neat and orderly activity. She totally had her act together!

Today is my birthday! Google reminded me when I logged on earlier - isn't that scary when your computer is sending you birthday greetings?? I saved the image.

I called Mom yesterday to ask her what she was doing 61 years ago at 5pm on January 14. She said she was just getting off work! I had no idea she worked right up until the day I was born. She said it was so very cold, and Dad had trouble keeping the pipes from freezing - barns and house. Of course, those were the days when women had week-long hospital stays after giving birth, so Dad was left to do everything. I imagine that both sets of parents offered assistance, as they all lived relatively close. It was interesting to hear about it; I 'd never thought to ask before.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

More Bazaar Work

When I agreed to set up a table at the local holiday bazaar coming up on November 7, I made a mental goal to try to make at least one thing a day between then and the day of the bazaar. That was about a month of inventory-building.

There have been several days when I've not made anything, but there have been more days where I've made lots. Yesterday, I worked on a few kitchen towels.

This one required a bit of embroidery work. Most did not. Embroidery is not one of my fortes, honestly, but I have done a bit of it over the years. Since these shapes had already been fused to the towel (when did I DO that???), I decided to finish it and use it for the bazaar.

I need advice on how to price items and how to "market" myself - these are areas in which I don't feel especially confident. Maybe I will get it figured out.

Happy Quilting, Friends!