Baby hats are great for evening TV knitting, and I finished these a wee while ago. Then they sat  till they were finally sewed up.  At last they are completed and have been donated to the church where I attend a monthly knitting group, for the Nest Collective group.  There is a Columbium refugee family with a new baby the church supports, I was told, and would I mind if the hats get passed on to them instead?  Not at all, whoever needs them.  One of the other knitting ladies had several pairs of knitted booties which will also be ...

What’s the Tutorial? Learn how to sew a buttonhole stitch around appliqué pieces for a clean, decorative finish. This simple technique secures the raw edges while adding a classic hand-stitched look to quilts, pillows, table runners, and other sewing projects.

Have you ever looked at an appliqué project and thought, “Those stitches look way too fancy for me.” I promise they’re not. The buttonhole stitch is one of those techniques that looks impressive but is actually pretty simple once you get going.

It’s also one of those stitches you’ll see over and over in quilting. It ...

This quilt is mostly made up of handwork which really appeals to me.  There are 121 blocks which are mostly applique'.  I think this quilt has ...

This quilt is mostly made up of handwork which really appeals to me.  There are 121 blocks which are mostly applique'.  I think this quilt has ...

 I must admit that adding stitches to the sky in my current cross stitch project is not that exciting...I try to break it up by adding stitches to the bottom part of the picture too.  You can see from the picture that progress was made on both fronts this week. Someone asked about stitching on perforated paper--the paper is quite thick and I have not had any issues with it tearing.  I have had to unstitch in a couple of spots and did not have any issues.  

My daughter has been working on her crochet in the evenings this ...

 The French Knot is a basic embroidery stitch that many people struggle to perfect. I recently did a short video on how to make a French Knot.

As I have said previously, I signed up for a year of Threadhouse Academy classes this year and have been working away at several, but not all of the projects.  This month's project is Folk Art Dolls taught by Jo Avery.  They are too cute to resist so I decided to make a bird first.   I used a piece of felted wool for the beak and hand stitched it down with pearl cotton blanket stitches.  I embroidered the eyes and the X's as well as the fly stitches on the body. The legs, feet, and wings also have ...

 Hand Stitching V Crochet 

Crochet

Hand Stitching 

It is not just the Goldfinches that tackle those spikey Bull Thistles. I've noticed two different kinds of butterflies giving them lots of attention too. Here is the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail in it's July brilliant yellow.

 

I got waylaid from chores this morning but for a great reason. The garden was ...

 A couple weeks ago our older kitty and supervisor, Ms. Spooky Boo, passed away. She had recently been diagnosed with cancer and then went downhill very quickly. She was 13 years old. 

My son, Parker, was Ms. Boo's person. When he was little she would not allow him to take a bath without her supervision. She would howl outside the bathroom door if she got left out. She supervised his every move (which is why we called her The Supervisor) and he was with her when she passed.

I don't know where this item came from, but Parker ...

 Block Printing - Hand Stitching 

I don't do a lot of Hand Stitching but whenever I do I find it So Relaxing.

Late last year I did some Fabric Stamping on some plain canvas Bags and Zip Pouches I bought from Amazon

Block Printing 

The Fabric Stamping itself was very easy and fun to do.

I have quite a good selection of Wooden Stamps

Most from Colouricious

And I used some of the Stamped Bags as Gift Bags at Christmas.

The little zipper pouches have come in useful over the last few weeks as storage for my Little Janome Gem ...

 I'm making progress on the second side of my little hexagon bag project.

For this side I decided to just applique the hexagons down to my linen base in a pattern. I have more to add, but this is as far as I got yesterday afternoon while watching the NFL playoff games with my hubby.

I took a photo of the pre-made hexagons and the embroidery floss my friend gave me. I wish I had thought to take of photo of the hexagons before I started using them! They looked so pretty all laid out in rows that it ...

 Every January I like to try to make something just for me. So I started this little project. It will be a zippered bag when it grows up.

 As most Sue Spargo projects are, this one took quite a while. I've been working on this for about four years. The hand quilting alone took a little over two years, but I really only got to work on it on Thursdays during the hand sewing group at my shop.

I included lots of close up shots of the finished quilt below. 

The pattern is called Crimson Tweed by Sue Spargo. The pattern book is discontinued and I have already sold my personal copy of the pattern to a customer who wanted it. An internet search might turn up ...

 On Thursday of last week I put the final seed stitch, which is how I hand quilted this, in my version of Crimson Tweed.

I've been working on this for quite some time! I started quilting it in October of 2022. I worked on it most Thursday afternoons at my shop during our Hand Sewing Group. Sometimes store sewing took precedent and I had to get it done instead of working on my Crimson Tweed, but I tried to not let store sewing get in the way very often.

The last step is binding, a label and a hanging ...

 These Needle Grip-Its are fabulous for hand sewing!

You put one on your thumb and one on your forefinger, right where you pinch them together to pull the needle through. They help reduce hand fatigue by gripping the needle to help you pull it through your project so you don't have to pull as hard. They stick very well and can be used several times before they stop sticking. I'm not sure how long that is because I'm still using the first two!

For proper placement, pinch your thumb and forefinger together pretty hard like you are ...

 I shared this idea with you previously in July. Click here to read that post. I finally got it finished!

Here is what it looks like all stitched but not sewn into a pillow cover yet.

For those of you who are curious, here is what the back looks like before I sewed it up into a pillow cover.

I cut a piece of batting the finished size I needed the pillow to be. Next time I would cut the batting about an inch larger than the finished size. I added the fabric directly on top of the batting and ...

Last week I showed you the sights of Tekapo.  This week I'll show you what we did at the retreat.  

I taught 14 ladies how to make my Summer in Tekapo tote bag.  We had a great time experimenting with wool felt, Perle 8 threads and ombre fabrics. Everyone's bags are going to look so different because they applied their own artistic flair to the design. 

Tula Pink lining

It was a great weekend with good people and very good food.  And of course the scenery was gorgeous with all the snow on the mountains.  I definitely hope ...

 I've been playing with this idea of scraps and hand stitching for a while. So far I've only made small projects, pin cushions to be precise. Now I'm going to try making a larger project, a pillow for my chair. It will finish at 16" by 16".

Above you can see the layout I have chosen using scraps from my scrap basket. I have everything cut to fit and pinned in place. There is batting underneath the fabrics. When I made the pin cushions I just laid the fabrics loosely where I wanted them, took a picture ...

Seems like it has been a slow start to this year when it comes to creating new works. I have hardly worked in the studio lately. It has been months since I finished my last quilt. Yet, the way time is passing by, something tells me I am extremely busy. I better sit down and really think about where it really goes. 

Here is the last Kawandi I finished early this year. This one started out as wanting to take a break from my usual palette of colors and needing to work with texture. The choices of fabrics were random ...