What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Most of my slow stitching time over the past couple of weeks has been taken up with mindless sock knitting. I started and finished a pair of socks. I took the last stitches in them last night and decided to wear them today. Here they are in their sock modelling debut.

And then I did the tiniest bit more on the hardanger lace section of my Quilting Bee Sampler. By the time I get to it most evenings my brain is too foggy to concentrate on it or I’m watching something that requires watching rather than listening. I just ...

 I managed to dig around in the spare bedroom upstairs that is acting as our storage facility while our renovations down here are happening and I found my Quilters’ Bee cross stitch sampler. I’ve been slowly working my way through the white hardanger lace work at the bottom. It is very fiddly and slow going, which is the whole point of slow stitching, so that’s OK. 

And when my brain or my eyes are too fried to be able to concentrate on the cross stitch, I’ve been working on a very simple mindless scrap sock yarn scarf ...

 I managed to get all the satin stitching done for the pulled thread work necessary on the third last band of my Quilters Bee cross stitch sampler. And then, I was able to spend a few evenings doing the cutting and tread removal for the Hardanger Lace section. What a slow process that is, to make sure to only cut the correct number and location of threads. Whew! Am I ever glad to have that done. I have set it aside again for a few days while I refresh my memory as to how to do the specialty stitches in ...

 I’ve missed a couple of weeks posting on my slow stitching progress, mostly because there hadn’t been any progress. It is renovation and gardening time, so not much stitching was happening. I tried to change that last evening only to have to take out most of the stitches I’d put in due to not looking closely at the instructions. There are stair step type satin stitches at the bottom the piece that were supposed to have five stitches in each group. I had only put in four stitches per group. I am hoping to change that today ...

Spring has finally arrived in our neck of the woods so there has been lots of time spent outdoors in the last few days. Unfortunately, it is May in Muskoka, which means black fly season and they are out in force. So far the non-deet bug spray we are using is keeping them from biting. But it doesn’t stop them from swarming around our heads. It might be time to get out the bug jackets.

Since I have my hand quilting project finished I’ve brought my cross stitching back out. The quilt section is almost finished. Then it ...

 I’ve made good progress this past week on my very bright sock. I’m down to the toe decreases. The progress on the Quilting Bee cross stitch sampler is a bit slower. There are a lot of white work squares which require concentration and focus so they go slowly. I think I got 4 of them done this week. I just might focus on getting all of the white work squares done and then go back and finish the rest of the coloured squares.

We have family visiting this weekend, so I’m going to make this a short ...

 When doing Slow Stitching it is always so exciting to have a finish. And I have one. Noah’s Journey is done..... or at least the assembling of the top is done. This is a design by Crabapple Hill Studios It still needs to be layered and quilted. But all the embroidery and all the piecing of it is done!! According to this blog I started this project in September of 2020, 3 years and 5 months ago. For such an intensely coloured and stitched and pieced project, that’s not bad, especially since it sat in it’s box ...

 I left off last week with a goal for my slow stitching projects. I was going to finish an element in my cross-stitching before I charged projects so that I wouldn’t forget how to do it. I met that goal yesterday. All the quilt blocks are now outlined and the basket bases that were a challenge to do are finished. That meant I could pick up my Noah’s Journey block - bears and ducks. These are fairly quick to do. I did most of the outline stitching on the bear in the back last evening. I think I’ll ...

 It’s the first Sunday of the new year.... how did that happen so fast? Do you make new year resolutions? I don’t because I know I am terrible at keeping them. I like the word goals better since it is a more nebulous something to aim at rather than a resolution to keep. With that in mind, I have some goals I’d like to aim for. I want to keep up with my slow stitching, of course. But I seem to have gotten stuck on cross stitch, which isn’t a bad thing, but some of my ...

 I’m continuing to make good progress on my Quilting Bee cross stitch sampler. The flowers on three sides are done now. After I finish the last side I have to go back and put beads into the centre of each flower and then I can move on to the next border in this cross stitched quilt. Have I already mentioned how much I’m enjoying this piece? Of course I have..... sorry for the repetition. I suspect progress on this will be slowing for the next while. There are Christmas gifts to finish and at some point I will ...

 When I left all of you last week I was getting ready to start on the stitching  for the large quilt on my Quilting Bee cross stitch sampler. I’m quite surprised at the progress I’ve made. One of the things I love about the Victoria Sampler designs is their wonderful detailed instructions. For this section they say to work from the outside of the quilt to the middle. So I started that. All of the outer blanket stitches are done and also the stems of the vines are finished. I have to add in some lazy daisy leaves ...

 I’ve gotten the top section of my Quilters’ Bee Sampler completely finished. All the beads are added and the threads and needles in the quilters’ hand are done. I can now move my hoop and start in on the large quilt section under them. To give a reminder, the sampler I am doing is available at Victoria Samplers here.They have scaled back their services and no longer offer printed patterns, but all their designs are still available through PDF purchases.

I’ve made progress on my grey/blue sock too. I’m at the point of starting the ...

 My Quilting Bee cross stitch was in time out for a couple of weeks. I’d gotten to the 1 thread of floss over 1 thread of fabric section for the lettering and I was finding it difficult to see and I didn’t have enough patience for it. So it got put away, That seems to have passed and I’ve picked it back up again and made good progress on it. Not only is the lettering done, but so are the quilt blocks and I’ve started on the floral border of the quilt. I still have to ...

 I’ve started a new cross stitch project. I’m enjoying it so much that I can’t seem to stop working on it so I’ve made really good progress on it. It is the Quilting Bee Sampler. How perfect is this...... quilting and cross stitch together. I love it! Wouldn’t that be a fun location for a quilting bee, outdoors under a flowering arbour. 

I will link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.