Hi, you may remember that I taught a Meditation Stitching course this summer. It was a great experience, and I'll be repeating it (in French!) at the end of November.

Getting Ready

I know that I have a lot of time to get ready, and that this is probably another great way of procrastinating, but I've prepared this lovely piece to show at the course.

Joyful

There isn't anything very about doing mindful stitching. It's all about taking the time to be creative, to set a few parameters around what you want to do, and then ...

 I finally decided that I am finished with the embroidery on my Crimson Tweed. Here is the final layout, before quilting.

Would you believe that I didn't have ANY of the thread colors that I needed to seed quilt this with!? I was a bit shocked, but I gravitate toward the brighter colors and I need neutrals for this.

The tin shown in the photo above contains the 5 colors of thread, size 8 Eleganza solid colors, that I will use for the seed stitch quilting. This style of quilting takes quite a while to do, but I'm ...

This morning we enjoyed each other's company before heading up to Olympia. We left early because Patrick saw they were working on I-5. We passed the south bound that was moved to one lane. The back up was about 5 miles long. So, we weren't sure if we would be able to come back on I-5. We ended up being an hour early. So, we sat in the car for about 30 mins. I worked on my embroidery. 

I was able to get this flower going. I worked on it while waiting to get into the doctors. The ...

 Wow - I haven't blogged since April, hence the picture heavy mention in the title.  I keep thinking about it but then...  

I have been keeping busy with life in general, quilting, cross stitching, decorating, keeping out of the heat.  I also took a quick trip to California to see my friends and check up on my father-in-law.  But you aren't here to hear about all that, you want to see some finished (or semi-finished) products.  

First, quilt finishes.

Wonky Log Cabin - used some Amish fabric my mom bought me years ago and some solids from my stash.

Made ...

 This morning I woke to the phone ringing. I called the number back and it was one of the quilters from the quilt show. She told my quilt was found! She also said that she was going to pick it up and deliver it to mom this morning. I was jumping for joy!! After she called I got a text from Suzy telling me she had the quilt. I told her it was a blessing it was her. I was so glad it was her! If it was someone else I would have been worried. She's a dear friend ...

 Today is the day for Brazilian embroidery. I decided to work on my class project. Plus I have an idea of who to give the piece to if I get it done in time. 

I started working on the knots in the tree. I still have more work to do on the knots. I filled in the middle and did the outline stitching. I did the satin stitch on the one on the right. It looks darker. I like the way it looks. I have more to do before I can move on to the bullions under the tree. 

Came ...

 This morning I had to run into town to help Phil out. Once I had that done, I was back in time to attend my virtual class with Debbie Goff. While I waited a few minutes before attending my class, Patrick was making Grape Jelly and Grape Juice. He picked the grapes yesterday and was getting them ready to work on the juice and jelly. He made a lot of jelly. We had a really good year for grapes. 

At noon I was on the computer attending my class with Debbie Goff. I loved having the class all to myself ...

It was a relatively short day of driving yesterday. We hated to have to move Sadie who was enjoying a morning nap on her window hammock.

But move her we did. We were just about 20 miles from the state line, and so we passed into Illinois just shortly after getting on the road.

It was a relatively short day of driving yesterday. We hated to have to move Sadie who was enjoying a morning nap on her window hammock.

But move her we did. We were just about 20 miles from the state line, and so we passed into Illinois just shortly after getting on the road.

The last stitching stuff post was back in June, 14 weeks ago.  I really didn't intend for my break to last that long, especially not the break from my sewing room.  It's been a struggle to get back into my habit of heading to the sewing room for at least 15 minutes every day so my metrics really do look sad.  

• 15 minute days/week = 3/7 days
• 15 minute days/June = 9/30 days
• 15 minute days/July = 0/31 days
• 15 minute days/Aug = 10/31 days
• 15 minute days/Sept  = 9/24 days
• 15 minute ...

 Missy gets a lot done! Recently she stopped into the shop to get some backing and binding fabrics for these projects.

Autumn Art Panel Pillows:

Good morning, my friends. It's been a while since I've been able to get a blog post up...one with pictures anyway. We're going to have to do some time traveling over the next couple of days to catch up. For now, let's just talk about our time on the road. We find ourselves two states over and one hour earlier, now that we're in the Central time zone. So, let's start with backing up to our previous driving day, after leaving Babcock State Park in West Virginia, and then heading over to Hocking ...

Good morning, my friends. It's been a while since I've been able to get a blog post up...one with pictures anyway. We're going to have to do some time traveling over the next couple of days to catch up. For now, let's just talk about our time on the road. We find ourselves two states over and one hour earlier, now that we're in the Central time zone. So, let's start with backing up to our previous driving day, after leaving Babcock State Park in West Virginia, and then heading over to Hocking ...

 We were out the door by 7:20 am. Decided to pick up some drinks at Starbucks. Then it was off to Tacoma. It started out really easy to get through the traffic. Till we were around the Tacoma Mall. Then it slowed down. We were still an hour early to his appointment. While we waited for his appointment, I worked on my embroidery. 

thirty pieces of hand embroidery

 Today I was up and out the door. It was BE day. I had to make a couple stops on the way. Then I headed through town and met up with Cindy and Sandy. We had a really good time. Everyone was working on something as well as chatting. Usually there is one or two of us that don't work on anything. 

I worked on the flowers. The red color is the one I'm working on now. It's fun to work on this. 

I've been doing some slow stitching in the last few weeks. It's always such a relaxing thing to do. 

Stitching a second seascape 

Last month, I wrote a post about Embroidering a seascape. It was based on TextileArtist.org's workshop with Bethany Duffy (see Related links below). I decided that I wanted to go further with this technique since it's a lot of fun and since I changed it up a little, was able to learn a new beading technique

artist book, continuing embroidery on paper