Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party, where we value the slow process of creating with our own hands. If you knit, bead, hand quilt, cross stitch, embroider, tat, applique, hook rugs, hand piece quilt blocks, and/or enjoy english paper piecing, you will find other like-minded stitchers here!

I have a true confession this week and hope some of you will understand my predicament and give me some advice. I'm afraid I have fallen down a very deep stitchy rabbit hole. I have become completely smitten with full coverage cross stitching. 

After thinking about it for a long time, learning from videos, and having 2 false starts, I have settled into working on the Mini Treasure Hunt Bookshelf pattern (artwork by Aimee Stewart).  My fabric base is 25 count gridded Lugana and I am using 1 thread over 1 stitch. There are 88 DMC thread colours in this project. So far I have put in 1,187 stitches, which is a grand total of 1.55% of the total number of the 76,375 stitches needed! This is what it looks like today.

When I look at this project I fear I may have lost my mind! It seems like a ridiculous way to spend time.  It's so bizarre that I love it so much, and I feel guilty that I am not making something useful that could be of help to others. Instead I'm just staring at this 2.5" by 1" piece of fabric and threads for hours on end. It doesn't even look like anything, and won't for a few thousand more stitches! 

But when I am stitching on it, I am transported to another calm and wonderful existence of simply following a chart (on pattern keeper) and playing with colourful threads. 

Carl Holsoe painting 1900

Some people call it "being in the zone" and I could spend hours there and not realize how much time has passed by.  I can block out all the chaos and conflict in the world and enjoy a feeling of complete peacefulness. I love this painting of a woman sitting alone at a window, her back to everything, quietly stitching. Maybe women have always used hand stitching as a way to manage life?

But there must be a balance, right? Is there such a thing as spending too much time alone stitching? Perhaps this will pass as quickly as it came upon me?! Has this ever happened to you? What are your thoughts?

This past week I posted a little youtube video to show my March projects. 

My April summary video will not be nearly as interesting if I don't snap out of my full coverage reverie! I am planning to attend Stitch North at the end of the month, so I'm sure I will buy new fabrics and threads, and start new projects and be able to share that.

What are you stitching this week? Please link up your blog post below and share your projects with us.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching where we celebrate the wonderful world of hand stitching. We encourage you to take a big deep breath, pick up your needles and threads, and enjoy some relaxing moments today. 

I have started my full coverage stitching project (for the 3rd time!) and am really enjoying it.  You can hear more about it in my February recap video if you missed that. It is restarted using 1 DMC thread over 1 stitch on 25 count easy grid lugana. As of yesterday I have stitched 0.85% of the project which is 649 stitches! 

It is very slow going but the process really appeals to me. You can stitch for hours and not notice any progress. You can't even tell what this blob of stitches is going to become.

For me this process feels similar to parenting. You pour in resources and love and time, day after day, not seeing any noticeable benefit (often feeling worried and discouraged) and then all of a sudden you stand back and see that your efforts have indeed made a difference! One step/stitch at a time!

But I need more instant gratification than long term projects provide, so I also have lots of little projects to keep me inspired. I finished 2 of those this week and they are now hanging on the wall. Part of the fun for me is digging around in the fabric stash looking for a perfect scrap for the backing and binding! The top one is a design by Darling and Whimsey Designs, stitched on 14 count tea dyed aida. The bottom one is by Primrose Cottage on 18 count white aida.

Now it's your turn to update us on your slow progress. Link up your blog post below and share what you are hand stitching this week.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Every Sunday we roll out the welcome mat for like-minded hand stitchers to gather for a party. Thank you for joining us! We encourage you to get out your hand stitching project and put in a few stitches. Then make yourself a cup of your favourite beverage and visit other hand stitchers around the world to see what they are working on today.

This week I finished another older cross stitch  called Matryoshka Doll. This is still a free pattern on the Tiny Modernist website. I loved stitching on this, especially using the brightly coloured threads. I changed the colour of the bird on the left so the baby birds would be slightly different. The plan is to turn this stitchery into a project bag. Wish me luck!

One of the things I don't talk much about is what kind of hand stitching needles I use. Basically I use whatever needle I can find and am unaware of any preference.

This is the adorable chicken that my friend Debby uses to store her wonderful needle collection. I was surprised to see how many brands of needles she has and what stitching tasks they are considered to be best for.

Do you have a needle preference? A particular brand or size you recommend? I'd loved to hear about it! Link up your blog post below and share your projects and needle preferences with us!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching! It's the day of resting, moving slowly, breathing deeply, and hand stitching. 

I have been making a mess in my stitching room, moving things around, looking at projects, and thinking about why I am not accomplishing as much as I used to?

One of the reasons for sure is this little stinker who doesn't like to sleep in the night! This photo of me rocking my grandbaby was taken at 4:20 am - he prefers snuggling to sleeping and who could blame him?!?! However, his parents are exhausted and I am so happy to rock a baby - night or day! So that takes up a lot of stitching (or sleeping time)! They have threatened to hire a "sleep consultant" so my night time snuggles may soon be coming to an end!

Another reason for my lack of progress is due to having too many starts, and not enough finishes. I have little piles of projects everywhere with all the fabrics, threads and supplies. 

Here is an example. This week I started a St. Patrick's Day stitchery. 

It was a free pattern that came to my inbox from Primrose Cottage. If you are a newsletter subscriber, you receive free patterns once a month. How could I resist that? I couldn't! I grabbed some greens, a gold, and a black floss and started stitching on 18 count aida fabric. I got obsessed and forgot everything else I wanted to work on this week. And then I decided it had to be finished by St. Patrick's Day, which is tomorrow. So ridiculous!

So today I will be finishing this little stitchery into a wallhanging and am excited about meeting my self imposed deadline. And then I will try to get back on track with what I had planned to work on last week.

What are you obsessed with lately? Are you madly trying to finish any St. Patrick's Day projects before tomorrow?

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly Slow Sunday Stitching link up! Did you turn your clock ahead one hour last night to adjust to "daylight saving time"? Although it's not as stressful of an event as it was when my kids were young (and the adjustment was simply miserable), it is still a change that takes some getting used to. 

Lately I have been inspired to stitch on my Canadian Sampler by Erin Elizabeth Designs. I finished all the letters and the border across the top. Stitching the roof of the house is going well, although it is boring to stitch. 

And late last night I stitched the leaf motif on the top left of the top border. So fun to make some progress on this sampler!

I also have been stitching a bit on my version of Arctic Animals by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. This is a partial Harp Seal which has a lot of boring neutral threads, so when I picked it up to add more  stitches, I realized I had left 4 of them just dangling! So today I'll work on finishing off those threads.

What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share the projects you are working on this week.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching link up party! We encourage you to join us by putting some stitches into one of your projects today. Just a few moment of stitching can provide numerous health benefits - click here to learn 14 benefits of hand stitching and why you are so wise to invest your time and energy in hand work!

I have had a lot of productive stitching time when I went to a retreat last week. It was lovely to get away from the regular routine and be able to focus on finishing some things. Here is the fall tablerunner I finished from the Modern Holiday Tablerunner book by Cluck Cluck Sew.

This was a kit project purchased from the Creekbank Sewing Centre at the May shop hop last year. It is simply quilted by machine and then I enjoyed hand stitching the binding using scraps from the pumpkin blocks. What a fun backing I found in the stash! It is ready to use for fall 2025!

I also put 2 cross stitch projects into a hoop finish. The top is Cardinal Wreath by Tiny Modernist, and the bottom is Festive Cardinal by Pigeon Coop Designs. These are very rudimentary finishes and I would like to learn how to make hoop finishes look nicer on the back. But they are finished and we all know that finished is better than perfect!

I also did some unstitching on an older project. I detest ripping out stitches, but I forced myself. Even using this lovely seam ripper made by my friend Sue's husband, it was still challenging. But now it's done and I am ready  to restitch the bird. 

To hear more about my February stitching, I just uploaded a new Flosstube episode.

One of the exciting things I have done in preparation for Stitch North in April, is commissioned one of my talented friends to design a sticker for me to give out to stitching friends. If you would like one, just email me with your address and I'll pop one in the mail to you. You're a Stitching Star! 

What exciting things are you hand stitching today? We love to see your projects, so please link up your blog post below and tell us all about your stitching this week.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! Take some time today to power down your brain and enjoy the benefits of relaxation with your favourite hand work. 

I can hardly wait to share my most recent finish with you today! This pattern is one of the Blessings Samplers from Chris the Camping Stitcher's etsy shop. I started it on New Year's Eve and now it is a finished wall hanging! I used a 25 count pewter lugana and 3 different blue Roxy floss threads to make this piece. It measures 7" x 9".

I finished this cross stitch like I do all of my miniature quilts. I ironed a stabilizer on the back of the stitching since it's a bit larger than a "mini". The single binding is cut at 1 3/8", attached on the front using a 1/4" seam allowance, folded to the back and hand stitched down. I added the split handing sleeve at the top, and the triangle label at the bottom. I usually write the name and designer of the pattern, and my name as the maker. Sometimes I add the year or other pertinent information on the label.

It has been a while since I have experienced the joy of finishing a project and it has inspired me to look at what else I can finish in my sewing room!

Do you have any finishes to share with us this week? Are you longing to have a finish? We understand! Keep stitching and eventually you will get there!