Saturday, November 7, 2020

Machine and Hand Stitching

Essex Linen seemed to be the fabric of the week in my sewing room over the last few days.  First, I finished the last two blocks of my Summerhill quilt and then added linen sashings and borders...the colour is called Pepper. I like the texture of the linen surrounding my blocks.  I am in the process of making a pieced border from more tiny pieces of Kona solids. I'm hoping to get the final two borders on this coming week. 


Next, I made a pillow for an online Christmas bazaar.  I had the three trees made already--they had been pinned to my design wall for the last couple of years so this was a good way to use them. I was pleased that I had enough scraps of the right colour of linen to complete the top of the pillow.  The back is a Christmas print that was in my stash--I added a zipper closure. 


My third Essex Linen project was this quilt top:


I participated in a broken dishes block swap with Barb at www.funwithbarb.com a few years ago and finally assembled the four blocks a couple of months ago.  I did not have the right fabric for the sashing and borders in my stash until the Essex Linen (pepper again!) arrived in my sewing room.  I already have a plan for the quilting on this quilt but need to purchase some red thread in 28 wt. and make a backing.  My sewing machine that I use for quilting is in at spa right now for a repair and a deep clean, so the quilting will have to wait for a bit. 

My blackwork project has almost all of the gray and black frames done now. I also added some more blue to that section. 


Our daughter was so busy following the news this week that she did not get any hand stitching done at all. Hopefully, she will have some progress to report next week. Finn would like to report that they had some snow this week where he lives, and it tasted good.


I glanced out the kitchen door today to discover that a squirrel was hiding a walnut in my wreath.  Mostly, they hide the walnuts in all sorts of strange places and then promptly forget where they are later. 


We had a beautiful day here today--sunny and 17 degrees C.  We spent part of the day raking leaving and cleaning up some gardens. Then, we went for a bike ride on a local trail and came home and cleaned the windows.  A very productive day!   I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

14 comments:

  1. Our temp reached 23 by mid afternoon. I found a walnut in one of my geranium pots that I brought in last week. Good thing I was cleaned out some of the dirt before adding some fresh potting soil.

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  2. I love your colorful broken dishes quilt! Our guild's virtual block of the month is broken dishes this time. It's such a versatile block.

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  3. Your colorful blocks really pop on that dark linen. I like the Christmas tree pillow. Looks like pine trees in snow. Could be used all winter. Your blackwork project is so pretty. We have holes all over our backyard where the squirrels are hiding their acorns. You have a very unique squirrel.

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  4. I'd say you had a productive day -- great job! I'm really loving your blackwork project. Stunning! And that pepper linen? What an excellent choice!!! Hope I can find some of that around my LQS!

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  5. Your Christmas Pillow is lovely It will be a sucess in the Bazaar Your embroidery is looking more lovely each new week. And I've loved your squirell picture LOL

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  6. Was that Fin I saw on the news eating snow in a video? I swear it looks just like him. Wonderful projects!

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    1. It was on Weather Nation channel, in Truckee California?

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    2. No...it wasn't Finn! He loves the snow...eating it and jumping around in it.

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  7. what beautiful bright colors in that quilt! and the Xmas pillow love it. That squirrel!! my husband has a squirrel trap that we use when we get too many in our (they tend to start to chew things we don't want them to get into) it is a trap and release contraption - he will get quite a few and then put it in the back of the pick up and bring them to an area away from here and release them into the woods.

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  8. Your Essex Linen projects are lovely as is your stitching and pillow. Squirrels usually bury the acorns in my yard and I find little oak trees coming up all over the place that I have to pull up! I have one in the middle of my lavender that proves difficult to definitely pull out, I just keep cutting it to the ground!

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  9. I do love those solid colours! Your Christmas cushion looks great too. Finn is such a cutie.

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  10. Such a beautiful broken dishes layout... love it!
    Enjoy your hand stitching!

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  11. Warm our way too and so enjoyable. Lovely post with all sorts of goodies. Relieved to read you have things from years past that you are using now too. I like all your blocks and projects. Cute squirrel using your wreath like that. And cuter still that photo of Finn.

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  12. Love your Christmas Tree cushion and the Broken Dishes quilt top is so vibrant! Cute that you had a squirrel hiding nuts in your wreath.

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