Slow Sunday Stitching

Now that the holiday season is behind us, I'm ready to settle into a peaceful routine for the quiet time of winter.  Handwork will definitely be on this agenda.   I got my applique project out of the closet, and I'm going to spend some time this afternoon with my birds.

Linking to KATHY'S SLOW SUNDAY STITCHING

***************

Slow Sunday Stitching

My first bird block now has all the basic pieces appliqued down, with embellishment to follow.  It's been nice this week to have had the block available to grab for odd minutes of sitting and stitching.  Quickly picking up a single block is a different proposition from settling down for an evening of binding.

This has turned out to be a wintery bird and branch composition.  My applique style is definitely casual and folk-arty, isn't it?  I've never been a tight formal precise quiltmaker when I do pieced projects, and this tendency also seems to be in evidence with my applique work :) 

Looking forward to more cookie baking and stitching this afternoon, and then tamales for supper -- our tradition for the first night of Las Posadas.  During the decades that we lived 'down the hill', the community we lived in had an annual Las Posadas street festival in the Old Town plaza.  We enjoyed attending and feasting on delicious tamales and tacos and champurrado!  Ah, pleasant memories of years gone by …

Linking to KATHY'S SLOW SUNDAY STITCHING

*************** 

Westering Women

Worked hard on this binding today, and it's DONE!

This is my version of Barbara Brackman's 2016 BOM, Westering Women.  Thank you, Barbara, for an excellent study series!  Looking forward to this month's Yankee Diary article :)

I'm counting this as a Slow Sunday Stitching entry also, because finishing the binding with coffee was a nice start to my morning. 

***************

Slow Sunday Stitching

Calendar circles: I've been focused on other things this weekend, but I did manage to get the February circle prepped and appliqued.  I need to get both of these blocks settled onto backing and proceed with hand quilting.  This will be a quilt-as-I-go project.  I'm enjoying the cute fabrics!

Click HERE to enjoy other relaxing handwork reports

at Slow Sunday Stitching

***************

Slow Sunday Stitching

I'm launching a new handwork activity this week ...

I've been appliqueing the first block of a 30s-repro calendar quilt.  This will also be a hand quilted project, using big stitch and perle cotton.

 My version , inspired by this photo, will have twelve monthly blocks made up of 1930s-style  seasonal novelty prints. 

I have, among other available fabrics, a complete set of Judie Rothermel's Through the Year fabric line dating back to circa 2003.  My 30s stash is very extensive.

At only one block per month, this will develop at a

'Slow Sunday' pace :)

Click HERE to enjoy other relaxing handwork reports

***************

A quiet day with my thoughts

It's snowing hard outside.  I have plenty of binding work to keep me company.  Two of these will be donation quilts for our local domestic abuse shelter, and the third is planned as a gift. 

Slow Sunday Stitching

***************

An old/new project

I ran across this set of vintage Dresden plates in a bag of odds and ends from the thrift shop.  Folded into them were the two cardboard templates, one marked with the name 'Ruth Hagin.'  I wonder who Ruth was, and why she didn't finish her quilt.

There are 18 blocks, which would work up into a 3 x 4 on-point setting.  At this point I'm just turning the edges of the petals and blanket-stitching them down to the backgrounds (an 'interesting' green, hey?).  Then centers will need to be added -- not included in the bundle, so I'll have to choose a color -- and then assembly and quilting ... 

This will be a long-term handwork project, undertaken mostly as a portable activity that I can take along when we're travelling.  But since it's been a UFO for 75 years or so already, I guess there's no hurry :)

Enjoy other handwork projects at

SLOW SUNDAY STITCHING

***************      

A variation

Temecula Quilt Company had been running a weekly sew-along for most of the year, and they revealed the project conclusion in early October.  I started with them back in January, but I gave out in April.

Recently I decided to move this UFO forward.  I added the brown bird embroidery to the center medallion, and layered and organized things for hand quilting.  It's a nice small piece to pick up whenever I have 20 minutes or so to stitch off another strand of thread -- the hand quilting will be done **someday** in its own time :)   

I must say that I'm totally enjoying being retired!  My time and energy had been so very scattered for the past year or so -- I've finally regrouped and I'm having the chance to redirect my attention back to my own interests.  My UFOs are biting the dust!  Once I get a few more things finished up, I'm going to start something exciting and new!

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

***************

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I'm spending the weekend doing embroidery and embellishments on several of the blocks of

"Happy Trails", a Pearl Pereira design.  This cowboy-themed Baltimore Album style quilt will be my guild's

2016 fundraiser quilt.  This is cattle ranching country, so we should have plenty of interested buyers.  It's a group effort, and will be spectacular when it's done -- we have some outstanding appliquers in the guild!

 

We've had some chilly drizzly weather, so it's been cozy to stay in and embroider, a good opportunity to link to Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts.

 

 

***************

Slow Stitching Sunday

Well this was nice!  Now that my life has slowed down a bit, I was able to spend the afternoon slow-stitching on my Halloween tile block.  I'm enjoying this very easy applique project, and should have no problem doing all nine blocks.   Lovely breezy shady time spent in the gazebo on a warm summer day! 

 

 

 See other Slow Stitching Sunday inspirations here

***************

Slow Stitching Sunday - Pretty Bird

 

I finished the March Robin block for

my CQJP2014 project this week:

 

Robins are very common here.  We already have robins' nests this year in the spruce tree, in the purple-leaf plum, and up under the front porch rafters.

 

Three blocks together begin to give an idea of the "look" of my Pretty Bird crazy quilt:

 Rather than a very formal Victorian crazy quilt, I'm aiming for something that looks like it might have been created at a long-ago summer camp -- a souvenir that came home after a summer spent bird watching and hiking here in the mountains.  

 

Hours of hand stitching time have already gone into 

this project:

 

 

 See other Slow Stitching Sunday inspirations HERE 

Kathy has some especially thoughtful observations about commitment in her Slow Stitching post today.

 

***************

Slow Stitching Sunday

I finally had a chance to return to my Pretty Bird project.   This embroidered robin section will be used in my March block for CQJP2014.  The embroidery patterns I'm adapting were published in the Detroit Free Press in 1928 by Ruby Short McKim -- they are very simplified child-like images of the birds.

 

  See other Slow Stitching Sunday inspirations HERE 

 

***************

Slow Stitching Sunday

Now that February is behind me and the calendar has turned to March, I'm making an effort to settle back to regular life as much as possible.  I'm going to try to resume some/all of the activities I had going before Dad went to the hospital.  Not much reactivated yet,

but the intent is there :) 

 

So far, I've been puttering along stitching this binding down for the past few evenings, and plan to finish it up tonight.  The simple repetitious hand stitching has been relaxing when I finally sit down each evening and unwind.  It's a start anyway, a step back to normal.   

See other  Slow Stitching Sunday inspirations here.

***************

Slow Stitching Sunday

 

It's been a good week in the handwork department!

 

I finished the second block for my CQJP2014 project:

 

 

And here are last month's Jay block and this month's Dove block together: 

  

 

 Even though I have this project planned as a block of the month, I'm working ahead already so I should be finished well before the year's end.

**********

This week I also made a little Valentine mini-quilt for RSC14 - Pink.  I quickly finished it up with some outline hand quilting and binding, so this was also a satisfying handwork activity.
 

 

This coming week we all need to get plenty of handwork projects prepared for the long hours coming up that we'll spend watching the Olympics!

 

See other  Slow Stitching Sunday inspirations here

 

***************

Slow Stitching Sunday

This week I added the crazy patches and  got started on the embellishment embroidery for my dove block.  So far my CQJP2014 project is developing just as I'd planned.

I find that winter weather makes my hands extra dry, so the fine threads of the embroidery floss tend to catch and snag on my rough skin.  Slathers of shea butter lotion help smooth the way.   

 

See other  Slow Stitching Sunday inspirations here

 

***************

Slow Stitching Sunday

 

This week I stitched the embroidered section of my February Pretty Bird block, so I'm ahead of the game for next month.  The February bird is a dove.

 

I like being accountable on Sunday for having completed some handwork!  Normally I tend to procrastinate and let things go until the last minute, but here I am working on next month's block already!  Onward to the crazy patches for this one ...

 

  See other  Slow Stitching Sunday inspirations here

 

***************

Pretty Bird - Slow Stitching Sunday

At first glance this block doesn't look much different than it did last Sunday, but I have been diligently embroidering the seams all week, and there are only a few left to cover.  I should get them done this afternoon/evening during football on TV. 

This project, for CQJP2014, seems to have taken on a personality of its own.  Originally I was envisioning a "red bird" crazy quilt, but the collection of bird fabrics I've accumulated nudged things over into a blue and brown/natural theme instead.  And because of the earthy palette that has evolved,  I think I'll be aiming for a  rustic summer-camp-souvenir feel for the project rather than a more traditional ornate formal crazy quilt.  I think I have a piece of blue and brown plaid homespun that might be good for borders -- I'll have to go stash-diving and try to find it one of these days.

This is my Slow Stitching Sunday link for the week.

***************

CQJP2014 + Slow Stitching Sunday

 I finally managed to make some progress on my January Crazy Quilt Journal Project block!

 

The center bird motif was adapted from the Pretty Bird pattern series which was published in the Detroit Free Press in 1928.  I've been adding the crazy patches little by little, whenever I've had a few minutes for stitching.  Everything on this project will be done by hand, so I've been able to work on it even though I'm not able to use my sewing room this week. 

 

Next comes embroidering/embellishing ... and by the end of this week I can reclaim my sewing room!!!

 

Since this will be an ongoing handwork project, I'm going to start linking to Slow Stitching Sunday

so I can keep track of my progress 

 

*************** 

Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2014

Recently, I've begun designing, collecting fabrics, and getting organized for a new project I plan to undertake next year: a crazy quilt for  CQJP2014.  The project's guidelines involve sharing embroidered and embellished blocks once a month.

 

The quilt I'm hoping to create will be based on the "Pretty Bird" embroidery series, which appeared in the Detroit Free Press in 1924.  The embroidery patterns were offered under the name of Ruby Short McKim, a well-known quilt designer from the Depression era.

 

 

I've selected twelve of the twenty-four bird designs to include in my project, having chosen birds that live here in my area.  Each of my monthly crazy-quilt blocks will feature an embroidered bird along with coordinating fabrics and embellishment.  Additionally, I'm planning that my block themes will be seasonal -- robins nesting in springtime, etc.

 

 

I'm looking forward to the challenge of an ongoing large-scope handwork project.  Watch for my first block, the Jay, sometime in January.

 

***************