The Rhythm of Hand Stitching

I find that lately I've been doing a lot more hand-stitching than is typical for me.  It has been very comforting to sit by the fire in the evening and hand-stitch my Quilty 365 block for the day or add some quilting stitches to a wall hanging project.

I've been keeping up with my daily circles for the Quilty 365 project.  Today is my sister's birthday, so I pulled this scrap of fabric in honor of her alma mater.

 

I've already chosen tomorrow's fabric in honor of Martin Luther King Day here in the U.S.  I'm using Karen K. Buckley's Perfect Circles technique for prepping my applique pieces, so I get the benefit of two different types of hand-stitching on each circle!

 

I took a class in back-basting from my LQS earlier this year.  I liked the technique so much, I made one of the projects from our textbook, Back-Basting Applique, Step by Step: By Hand or Machine.  I finished the applique last year, but just recently began hand-quilting the project.  I did simple outline and cross-hatch quilting on the applique panels.  For the border, I plan to just follow the geometric designs in the fabric.  Purple, green & gold are the traditional colors for Mardi Gras here in New Orleans, so I'm trying to finish this in time for that celebration - February 9th.  I haven't done much hand quilting in the past few years, and it has been very soothing to get that stitching rhythm back in my fingers!

Since today will definitely be one of those hand-stitching days, I'm linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.  I'll be checking in there during my stitching breaks to see what hand-stitching everyone else is enjoying.

Circling the Log Cabins

Although I may not have lots of stitching time in December, I do have some slow stitching projects to turn to keep my hands occupied and sanity intact!

 

It's been over a year since my Dear Husband asked me to make him a Log Cabin quilt.  He had never asked for a quilt before, so of course I had to make it for him!  He chose the color scheme and block size; I laid everything out in the barn-raising pattern and found a backing fabric with log cabins.  My LAQ did a fantastic job adding pine cones, pine boughs, acorns and oak leaves.  Now I just need to stitch down the binding.  It may take all winter, as the quilt wound up being 90" x 90"!

When I need break from hand stitching the binding, I can work on making Quilty 365 circles.   

 

These two are from the last couple of days; prepped and ready to stitch.  Hmm...it looks like I might need to tweak the blue one a little!

 

Sometimes I pick fabric for the color & pattern, sometimes for the subject matter.

 

Some circles are cut from favorite, hoarded fabrics.  And yup, I decided to vary my background color just a little. <g>

 

Have I mentioned I love toile fabrics?  I expect there will be lots of toile in my final quilt.

 

I didn't have an turkey fabrics in my stash, but I found this great Riley Blake print that seemed appropriate for Thanksgiving's block!

And now I'm off to my comfy chair for some hand stitching.  When my wrist needs a break, I'll be perusing all the other projects being lovingly hand-stitched at the Slow Sunday Stitching link-up.

 

 

 

 

Rainy Sunday Stitching

I've missed linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching for a few weeks.  It's not that I've not been enjoying any slow stitching, it's that I haven't been doing much of it on Sundays.  Today is a perfect slow stitching day though, it's raining and the forecast is for rain for the next two or three days.  I'm about to plant myself in front of the TV and stitch to my heart's content.

 

First up is completing the binding on this Trip Around the World quilt.  I've been hand-stitching the binding on this baby f o r e v e r - 10 yards of binding!  I'm excited about finishing this quilt, for sure.

 

Once the binding is finished, I can get back to making and stitching hexies on this quilt.   It's a great go-to project for rainy Sunday stitching.

I hope everyone else has a great Slow Sunday Stitching day!

 

Slow Stitching Football Sunday

It's that time of year:  American football season is in full swing!  That means some slow Sunday stitching as I watch football games all afternoon and into the evening.

I didn't grow up as a fan of football, but I became one in self-defense when my two sons developed an interest in the game and even played for a short time.  My youngest son went on to choose sports journalism as a career and he has covered professional football since graduating from college.  On top of that, watching New Orleans Saints games - in person or via TV - is a de rigueur community activity here!

 

These Grandmother's Flower Garden hexies have been my football Sunday stitching project for a couple of years now.  I haven't made as much progress as I'd like, so this year I'll have to stay focused and try to make more measurable progress.  Part of what slows me up is prepping the green hexies for stitching.  These aren't paper-pieced hexies, they're just marked, cut and stitched.  You can read the back story here, if you're interested.  It's good to remind myself how long I've been working on this quilt!

 

I'd like to press all the pieced hexie parts before I start sewing this afternoon, but my ironing board is out of commission for now.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I tossed my ironing board cover in the washer last night, planning to wash out all the built-up starch residue.  This is what happened - the batting attached to the cover completely shredded in the wash.  Duh - uncovered, un-quilted poly batting is not going to survive even the gentlest wash cycle!  I think I can salvage the cover by trimming off all the batting.  I have stacks of old mattress pads that I save to cut up for padding in various projects, so I should be good to go with just a little work.  If not, it's a good thing Target is open on Sunday!

I hope everyone enjoys their Slow Sunday Stitching!  I'm linking up with other slow Sunday stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

A Little Less Porch Time

Dear Husband and I have taken the four-legged children and escaped to our camp for the holiday weekend.   Part of me would rather have stayed home where I could spend hours buried in my sewing room, creating and stitching to my heart's content.  On the other hand, it's always wonderful to get away and enjoy nature while at the camp.  Sewing definitely takes a back seat while I'm here, although I can usually find time to put needle and thread together somehow.

I was up before sunrise today and discovered we may have a colony of bats living nearby.  I was out on the porch and noticed a half dozen black shapes swooping through the predawn light.  My hopeful identification was bats and I silently thanked them for devouring mosquitoes and other pesky bugs!  By the time the sun came up, they were gone, so I'm assuming my identification was correct.

 

My plan was to enjoy some porch time while I hand-appliqued the second (cheddar) crown on my 4 block eagle quilt.  Unfortunately, my neighbor also planned to barbecue and fired up his smoker just as I finished my first cup of coffee.  The smoke hung over both of our yards and irritated my eyes and throat to the extreme.  I had to give up and come inside.  It's OK, as the outdoor temps were climbing and outdoor comfort was about to be over.  And I love barbecue, so I don't begrudge anyone creating a little smoke.  I'll just sit in my rocking chair and do some Slow Sunday Stitching while I enjoy some air conditioned comfort!

Stitchin', Reminiscin' and Daydreamin'

I'm enjoying some porch time and hand applique again this Sunday.  This morning's temperature was a lovely 62 º F (16.7 C), definitely porch-sitting weather in this part of the world!

 

I'm working on hand appliqueing one of the circular "crowns" on my 4 block eagle quilt.  Despite my new-found appreciation for the back-basting applique technique, I used a freezer paper template and starch to prep the crown.  The stitching is going remarkably fast, so I may be finished with this crown before the day is over!

Hand-stitching time is perfect for listening to one's inner thoughts, and I've been indulging in that this morning.  We attended a wedding in Tampa, Florida last weekend, and I have been going through my catalog of memories from the occasion.  It was wonderful to see old friends and reminisce about past adventures.  It was also delightful to see children grown to young adulthood and now with children of their own!

 

Many of the wedding activities took place in Ybor City, an area of the city once famous for cigar-making.   The area is also home to the Columbia Restaurant, the longest continually operating restaurant in Florida.  What I found inspiring about the restaurant were the fabulous tile images adorning the outside of the building.  I snapped pictures of my favorites, all the while day-dreaming about creating an applique quilt to reflect my Caribbean Soul!

I'm linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, so if you're a fan of hand stitching, check out the links for some inspiration.

 

Slow Sunday Stitching on the Porch

I have been industriously practicing my back-basting applique technique this week.  I have steadily improved my technique, and as the technique improved I found myself enjoying the process more and more.  I've been using upholstery thread for my basting; I don't know if that has helped by making the fabric perforations more visible and amenable to needle-turn applique, but I'm happier with the results.

 

Here's the completed flower from last Sunday's entry on back-basting.  I was inspired to keep practicing, so I chose another project from the back-basting technique book I've been using. 

 

This is one panel of three which will be a wall hanging.  I'll be adding a green bird and a purple bird, plus dog-tooth borders.  So far, I'm really enjoying the process!

 

I had the pleasure of some Slow Sunday Stitching on the porch at our camp today.  A lovely rainstorm popped up and made the outdoor temperature bearable.  I grabbed my portable Ott light to make up for the low light due to the storm.  I love stitching here, as I can watch the birds (we have about 5 feeders in sight of the porch), sip my coffee and just generally enjoy the opportunity to be outdoors! 

Kathy asked about long-term hand-stitching projects this week.  I truly don't mind long-term projects, and I get great satisfaction from finishing something, especially if there has been some challenge in terms of difficulty or new technique.  My only problem is staying focused on a long-term project.  Case in point, a hexie quilt project I inherited from my maternal grandmother.  I always say this is the year I'll finish it, but it always seems to get eclipsed by other, newer projects.  You can read more about it here - a Slow Sunday Stitching entry from almost a year ago! 

I'm linking up with a host of others who enjoy long-term projects over at Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

Sunday at the Camp with Birds and Beach Music

 

Dear Hubby and I retreated to our camp this weekend.  We were both in need of some R & R and the weather was some of the best we've had in months.  We spent most of the day out on our deck, watching the birds scarf down at the birdie buffet!  You can't really see them in this cell phone picture, but we had flocks of finches as well as our resident cardinals and blue jays.  A pair of bluebirds even stopped by to check out the bird house.  

 

We didn't exactly have a bright, sunny day, but the natural daylight was better for hand stitching than sitting in the house under the Ott light!  

 

I basted the head and wings for the first block of my 4 block eagle quilt.  After basting, I appliqued the head and most of one wing.  A little more stitching time this evening should result in two appliqued wings.

We also had a lovely Beach Music concert while we enjoyed our time on the deck.  Our oldest son turned us on to a music app (for smartphones, iPads and all computers) called Songza.  It has an amazing selection of music - for free!  We dialed in a "channel" called Under the Boardwalk and listened to hours of golden oldie R&B music.  All in all, a wonderfully relaxing day!

I'm linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  I'm so happy to have had a hand stitching day today!

 

 

Slow Sunday Stitching: Slow Progess

Grandmother's Flower Garden is one of those designs that goes slowly when hand-pieced. When I remind myself I'm piecing something started by my grandmother I don't know how many years ago, my snail's pace piecing doesn't seem to matter much.

 

I know it doesn't look like much, but in the past two weeks I've hand-pieced most of the green connector hexies seen here.  Between (American) football games and the World Series (Dear Husband is from Kansas City), there have been plenty of hand-piecing evenings to enjoy.  More American football today, plus the first winter-like temps of the season, led to great hand-piecing opportunities!

 

I did some serious work with spray starch and a hot iron today.  I thought I'd give you an idea in the difference between my grandmother's piecing and mine.  My grandmother pieced the hexies without marking any type of seam allowance, used doubled thread and large knots to help anchor her thread.  I need to ask my mom and aunt for more information about when these blocks were pieced - was my grandmother losing her sight or was this her usual method of piecing?  I own several other quilts made by my grandmother, but I've never taken them apart to look at the style of hand-piecing.

 

My style of hand-piecing is a little different.  I don't use knots, just back stitching.  I use fine 100% cotton thread (Aurifil is my current favorite), a small sharps needle and I mark my stitching lines with a pencil.  I confess my stitching is kind of slow, but enjoying the process is all part of the experience!

I'm linking up with more slow stitchers who enjoy the process via Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

 

Slow Sunday: Stich 'n Knit

Last week I shared my vintage hexie trials - unstitching a hexie flower to get the seams to be more consistent.  I was a little dismayed that it took me all week to get the outermost border of hexies stitched together.  I was stitching for short periods of time every evening, but I still didn't finish until this afternoon.  That's OK, most of the other hexie flowers have been stitched with an appropriate seam allowance, so I won't have to re-stitch ALL of them!

 

Have I mentioned the hexie flowers are 12 inches in diameter? 

 

Some of my hand stitching time has also been taken up with this project:  Nae, a shawl by Anat Rodan.  I haven't done any knitting in about two years, but I saw this shawl on Pinterest and knew it was exactly the type of knitting I enjoy.  It is a simple pattern, so I can knit while watching TV or listening to an Audiobook.  I have a loooong way to go yet, but I'm very happy with the results thus far.  It doesn't hurt that I found a wonderful yarn in my favorite color - purple!

It's been a slow Sunday in many ways and I've enjoyed every minute - especially the stitching!  I'm linking up with the other slow stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts, and looking forward to enjoying everyone else's slow stitching as well!

Slow Sunday UN-Stitching

I had high hopes for making some good progress on assembling my vintage Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt today.

 

I pinned all my various pieces on the design wall so I could have a visual guide for attaching all the flowers and green borders in the correct order.  

When I was ready to start sewing this morning, I started with the blue flower in the upper left corner.  I planned to add 3 green hexies so I could then attach the bordering red flower. 

As I have discovered so often with these blocks, the original piecing is very inconsistent.  There was no way the blue flower was going to fit together with the green border hexies without lots of tucks.  Out came the scissors and soon the block was completely disassembled.

  

I pressed all the old seam allowances carefully to avoid distorting the edges.  Then I gave everything a good shot of starch and pressed again for stability.

 

I had purchased a 1 1/2" acrylic hexie template to help me draw seamlines on the blocks.  The holes in this hexie illustrate how inconsistent the original seams were.  Most of the other hexies work very nicely with the 1 1/2" template, but this yellow one (and all the blue ones) were way off.

 

Once I had the hexies pressed and seamlines marked, it was smooth sailing to begin re-assembling the block.  

 

I'm hopeful I can get the blue and white print hexies attached this evening as I watch some Major League Baseball with Dear Husband and Dear Son.

I'm also hopeful Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching will help keep me motivated to continue working on this quilt!

 

 

Slow Sunday Stitching: It's All in the Game!

It's the best of both worlds today - Slow Sunday Stitching meets the Annual American Football Extravaganza!  I've got my projects ready so I can keep my hands occupied while I watch that heady mix of gridiron gladiators and commercial advertising (tongue firmly in cheek here).

I do enjoy American football and I'll be rooting for hometown boy Peyton Manning, but the hype and extravagance surrounding the game are just way too over the top for me.  On the other hand, the plan to sit and stitch throughout the game is a pretty good one!

I was inspired to try my hand at making spool pin doilies a few weeks ago.  Spool pin doilies are fun accessories for antique and vintage sewing machines:  they sit at the bottom of the spool pin and help keep the spool of thread from unspooling too fast.  Bonnie Hunter posted a pattern contributed by one of her readers (left) and I found another pattern at Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm.  I hadn't touched a crochet hook in years, but the technique came back pretty quickly once I started.  I used perle cotton, but I thought my crochet hook was a little too large and wanted to try a smaller size hook.

I finally remembered to pick up some smaller crochet hooks when I went to Hancock Fabrics today.  Those are 1.60 mm and 1.70 mm hooks!  I don't know if this will work, but I'm going to try it.  Making the doilies is actually fun - they work up quickly and the crochet motions are very soothing.  If anyone knows of any other spool pin doily patterns, please let me know!

Just in case the spool pin doilies are not working out, I have my old hand-stitching stand-by.  Yet another quilt binding to hand stitch.  This quilt was begun during the Rainbow Scrap Challenge of 2012.  More rainbow scrappiness was added in 2013.  Once the binding is stitched (and label attached), it will fly off to my sister-in-law.  I'll do a complete reveal when the hand stitching is complete.

It makes me very happy to have good reason to link up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching today.  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else is slow stitching today!

Slow Sunday Stitching: More Never-Ending Quilt Binding!

My eyes needed a little break from today's Slow Sunday Stitching project.

I've been hand-stitching the binding on this Halloween small quilt.  The binding has a black background and I'm using black thread for the stitching.  It's hard on the eyes, even with my wonderful Ott lamp for illumination!

I did finish the binding on my previous Slow Sunday Stitching project.  This baby quilt was inspired by a stack of Tula Pink's Hushabye fabrics and a Moda Bake Shop pattern. 

I didn't want to cut the yard-sized piece of hidden owl fabric, so I used it for the back of the quilt.  Instead of a stark white background fabric, I used Kona Snow - it worked beautifully!

If you're a fan of hand-stitching, be sure to check out the other Slow Sunday Stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.  As for me, it's time to go add some more stitches and enjoy some slow time with my family!

Slow Stitching: Never-ending Quilt Binding!

It seems I'm always working on quilt binding when Slow Stitching Sunday rolls around!  This baby quilt, made with Tula Pink's Hushabye fabric, was pinned and ready for quilting but got stalled.  I finally decided I needed to get the quilting done before the pins left permanent marks on the quilt!  Now I'm hand-stitching the binding and hope to finish up while watching football (Geaux Saints!) this afternoon.  All will be revealed when the binding is complete!

I'm linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching - there will be lots of other great hand-stitching projects to check out there!

Wrapping Up Grandmother's Choice

I have been trying to finish up all of the blocks from Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice BOW.

Block #46, Barrister's Block, was straightforward machine piecing.  I like the look of this block; I can see it in a completely scrappy version - good way to use up scraps!

Block #47, Heroine's Crown.  Another favorite block!  I opted to use the fusible applique technique with this block, as I wanted to finish more quickly than hand applique would allow.  Instead of machine blanket-stitching around the fused shapes, I decided to do the blanket stitching by hand.  Maybe I didn't really save any time, but doing some Slow Sunday Stitching today may wrap things up!

Block #48, Fair Play.  Completely hand-pieced this one. 

Block #49.  An Arc:  Bending Toward Justice.  Also hand-pieced.  I don't care much for the design of this block, but I thought the sentiment was a perfect conclusion to the series of history lessons on women's suffrage.  The block symbolizes a quote from Martin Luther King:  "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Once I finished block 49, I had to circle back to a block from early in the series that I had not completed.  Block #4, Kansas Sunflower, was a nod to early suffragettes from Kansas.  I also hand-pieced this block, and although a little wonky, it came out better than I had any right to expect as I was rather cavalier about making my original templates.  If I were to make the block again, I'd definitely use freezer paper templates for greater accuracy.

At this point, I'm going to lay my Grandmother's Choice blocks aside and contemplate how I want to assemble the blocks.  I need to focus on some other projects and come back to these with a fresh perspective.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching today as I put the finishing touches on Heroine's Crown.  Hope you'll stop by there and see what other hand-stitching fun is underway!

Hand-Stitching with the Stars

It's always difficult to justify starting a new project when surrounded by UFOs.  On the other hand, it's always good to have a hand-stitching project ready to work on during quiet moments.

I have been contemplating my own version of this quilt...

from this book.

To that end, I've been drafting

and practice piecing.  Oops, the center didn't meet up very well.  Will have to work on that!

I made a good start on cutting pieces for the LeMoyne Star blocks.  The beige fabric will be the plain squares and the large floral print will be the border.  I'm hopeful I'll get a chance to start hand-piecing later this afternoon!

To keep me motivated and inspired, I'm linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.  

Binding up a Rainbow Scrap Challenge Project

I'm looking forward to some time in "my" easy chair today while I hand stitch the binding for one of last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  

I'm going to wait for the full reveal until after the binding is stitched down.  I gave this to my local longarm quilter, Cindy Braiwick, to quilt for me.  She has an amazing ability to take my ideas for quilting and turn them into wonderful designs and textures.  I found the perfect binding fabric maturing in my stash (Kaffe Fassett's Roman Glass), so no excuses about needing a trip to the fabric store!

I haven't made time for hand stitching for a couple of weeks, so I'm cheerfully linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching in honor of St. Patrick's Day!