Slow Stitching Saturday!

Today was the annual Vice President's day at the Oxford Guild.  Many quilters were working on Anita's Arrowhead blocks, a pattern chosen by our VP, but I decided to bring along some hand stitching to work on instead.  Earlier in the week, I thread basted my Arizona quilt so that I could hand quilt it.  I am using 28 wt grey Aurifil thread for big stitching.  So far, so good!

I had several opportunities this week to add stitches to my Winter Woods cross stitch project.  The deer is done and I also did the snowflake.  I am working on the part below the deer which includes several trees. I still need to add some stars in the sky and the eye of the deer. 

I also hand stitched the binding on my potato chip baby quilt today.  I had finished the quilting earlier in the week. 

You can see my straight stitch walking foot quilting in the next couple of pictures.  I will block this quilt to get it to lie flat. 

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for February is blue so I put together some light blue hollow nine patches this week.  I may make some turquoise blocks too.  

After several months of not knitting, I decided that the only way my scarf is going to get done is if I try to work on it most days.  I have the yarn bowl and scarf on the coffee table to remind me to pick it up and knit!  

It was very cold today where my daughter and Finn live, but the sun was shining and Finn enjoyed sunbathing by the window.  He likes lots of blankets in his bed as well as some toys...

My daughter's crocheted book blanket will have 11 granny squares for the books she read in January.  

Here are the books she read in January along with their ratings.  She does not give very many 5/5's.  (only 3 books got this rating last year out of the over 120 books she read)

Last Sunday, my husband and I went for a walk at the local park.  I took this picture of a milkweed pod, dried out and cracked open, seeds and fluff still inside. 

 I will link up with Angela for the RSC, Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching and Frederique for her weekly link up. 

Arizona Quilt Top and Deer Stitching

 I put my Arizona quilt blocks together and it is now a completed top--36"square.  Before assembly, I remade a couple of the four patches. If you look closely, you can see that the cacti are now mirror images of the adjacent block in the next quadrant.  Anal, I know, but I didn't like how it looked before. 

I also worked on the walking foot quilting on the second potato chip baby quilt.  It is about 3/4 done and I hope to finish it this week and get the binding on.  One more of these tops to quilt...  The raindrop fabric is the backing.  I had to add the strip of purple to make it wide enough. 

The deer in my winter cross stitch only has one leg to stand on right now... he should have more legs soon. The borders are all done now.  

It's been really cold here--I have still been getting out for a walk every day, wearing extra layers to keep warm.  The latch on our gate was looking quite frosty when I was in the backyard yesterday. 

My daughter has finished reading 11 books so far this month and her collection of granny squares is growing. I think she has made at least one more square since taking this picture.  That is her sew together bag that I made her for Christmas. 

Finn was so tired one evening this week that he didn't even notice he was using the iPad for a pillow. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  

Quilt Blocks Made and some Slow Stitching

Last weekend, I showed you some fabrics I purchased when we were in Phoenix, Arizona in the fall.  I had pulled out some co-ordinating solids to go with them.  This week, at the guild sewing day, I started to make some blocks. 

I am making four of each block.  Each quadrant of the quilt will be a mirror image of the quadrant beside and below/above it.  I am using one solid and one print in each block.  The blocks are 6.5" square.  Here are the blocks I made early in the week, in a possible layout.  I was trying to show the others at the sewing day what I was trying to do. 

Later in the week, I sewed with a friend and made the rest of the blocks.  We played around with the blocks on the design floor to see if we could come up with something interesting.   This is the tentative layout, although, I may reorient some of the blocks before sewing it together.  I will quilt this one myself and will hang it somewhere in our house as a reminder of our wonderful vacation. 

 

I'm still stitching the borders of the final quadrant of my winter cross stitch project. You can see I am very close to finishing them!  Then, on to the colourful parts!

My friend had an interesting way of storing her rulers...she bought this shelf at Ikea.  Hmmm.  I might need to try this in my sewing room. 

My husband and I went hiking at a local conservation area with the hiking club this week.  The snow looked pretty on the pile of next summer's campfire wood.  We had never been to this conservation area before, even though it is not far from where we live.  We will be going back to hike there again. 

I really should be quilting some of the quilt tops that I have finished already but here I am, gathering fabrics for another quilt...  I decided to try some lighter colours this time.  I'm not exactly sure what this will be yet...stay tuned.  

It's always funny to catch a picture of Finn with his tongue out. I can't touch the tip of my nose with my tongue, but Finn can.  

Finn decided he needed a snuggle while my daughter worked one day this week.  

Speaking of my daughter, she has finished three more books this week so her collection of granny squares for the book blanket is growing.  

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning and with Frederique now. 

Sewing Day with Friends

This has been a busy week in the sewing department!  I have decided to rejoin the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again this year after a 1 year hiatus.  My scraps are in bad need of being tamed!  January's colour is pink so here are my two projects so far.  I may add one more but I'm not sure yet.  I have a pile of  white 2.5" squares with small scale prints on them.  I have had them for a few years and decided to use them for the centres of these hollow nine patch blocks each month.  I am also going to make some triangle in a square blocks.  I made my first one today.  I may do two each month...

Six friends came over for the day today for some slow stitching.  Three people were knitting, three did counted cross stitch, one did embroidery, one did some hand stitching on some placemats and one did rug hooking.  Two of us also did some machine sewing.  (I know--the numbers don't add up to seven--some people worked on more than one project. ) I made a quilt top from a set of 12 scrappy 6.5" squares I made in 2023.  This is the third quilt top I have made with these squares--only one set left to make into a quilt top. 

I decided on a shadowbox setting for this one. 

Karen started knitting herself a new scarf with some yarn she had in her stash.   

Frances is making a shawl. 

Pat worked on some striped two at a time children's mittens.  The stripes are red.  I didn't get a picture of her second knitting project--a blanket that she is making from leftover yarns. 

Frances is making a beautiful hooked rug with feathers on it.  

Christine worked on the Fall section of her four seasons cross stitch. 

Elaine has started to embroider a stamped cross stitch baby quilt.  

I finished off the quadrant with the owl in it earlier this week and started on the border for the last section of my Winter cross stitch.  Progress was made today on the border. 

The border is not very exciting but it must be done before I can start into the exciting part!

We had turkey vegetable soup, buns, fruit and cookies for lunch. 

My daughter has been working on her Christmas blanket--the gingerbread border is coming along.  Finn is a big help, holding the blanket down while she crochets. 

She finished listening to three audiobooks this week and made three granny squares for her book blanket.  

My book club discussion about The Secret Garden went well and I am going to start reading next month's book this week.  During Black history month, we read a book by a Black author. 

I am reading this short novella first.  This one may make it onto the list for book club next year. 

A friend and I took a walk along a hiking trail this week and this was our view 

My husband and I went for a walk on the day it snowed.  It was very fluffy. 

Finn got a new toy for Christmas. It comes with molds to make frozen yoghurt balls that fit into the green part.  It slows him down a bit when he has his frozen yoghurt treat.  My daughter made the balls with plain greek yoghurt, some strawberries and a bit of peanut butter.  

I gathered some fabrics for a new project this week. I bought the four prints when we were in Arizona this past Fall. The solids were in my stash. I may get started on this project soon...I just have to sketch out the design idea.

A friend has a new grandson so I made him a cloth book. I have made many of these over the years. 

 

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitching crew at Kathy's blog, the rainbow scrap challenge folks and with Frederique.  Have a good week.