The Last Slow Stitching Sunday for October

We are once again at the end of another month and the last Sunday in the month means it's time to post a slow stitching update.  I love to hand stitch whether I am doing an embroidery, piecing a quilt or just sewing a button or a hem, I just love passing a needle and thread through fabric.  I was taught at a young age to sew by my grandmother and it's been a lifelong passion ever since. 

As I grew older I wanted to learn  more about sewing so once I entered junior high school (middle school today) I enrolled in Home Economics and learned how to sew on a sewing machine it was love at first seam which would carry over into High School for all four years.

Embroidery and quilting weren't taught in school so I taught myself how to hand embroider and quilt with books, I must have checked out every craft book both the school and public library had and believe me there weren't that many.

Over the years when I move  one of the first things I do is get a library card. As the years pass my needlework skills have improved, most libraries have a great selection of books and videos for all kinds of crafts and there are classes offered at most local quilt and needlework shops.  But in my heart I still prefer the slowness of hand stitching.

This week I have projects in process and several traced a ready for stitching, I will be linking my post at Kathy's Quilts https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/10/slow-sunday-stitching_29.html
And on Monday to Super Mom No Cape https://www.supermomnocape.com/
The first in progress piece is my Lady of the Forest design the tree branches came out just as I had hoped.

Lady of the Forest

I also have the start on block one of the I Love Home project hosted by Jacquelynne Steves you can check out her site here https://jacquelynnesteves.com/

block 1

I was going to start block two after I finished block 3 but decided to do the first block, the fourth block will be posted in November.  Here is a look at some upcoming projects I want to get stitching for Christmas

This cute snowman pattern was sent to me by a friend a few years ago I had some dotted fabric leftover from a project and thought it looked like falling snow so I thought give it a try.

I used the same fabric scraps for the star snowflakes which were templates for paper crafts again from several years ago.  The last pattern is a Gail Pan pattern which from 2012 and is still a free download which you can get here:http://gailpandesigns.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/11/aurifil-blog-hop.html

The finished ornament should look like this the photo below is from the website listed above.

I love Gail Pan's designs and that little bird is such a familiar motif in many of her designs. I know I have made several of them from her books  Patchwork Loves Embroidery and Christmas Patchwork Loves Embroidery so I am looking forward to making this one too.

I came across some new marking pens for tracing patterns for embroidery, I have always used the Micro Pen .05 but I have had trouble using them on fabric with a print (like the dots I used above) chewing up the points.  I'm trying both of the Pilot Frixion pens with a .05 point.

ball and point style

pen tips

The pen tip on the left is the Frixion ball style the one on the right is the Frixion point style which is similar to the Micron pen.  I have used both on the patterns above, both flow smoothly and didn't run or spread and according to the Ads I've seen and read the Frixion point ink lines are suppose to disappear when ironed with a warm iron which is one of the reasons I wanted to try them, I'll test both pens and let you know. I purchased the Ball style from Amazon and the Point style for Nancy's Notions.

Another change I made is to the iron on transfer pencils I've used in the past this red transfer pencil from Aunt Martha came in handy before Micron Pens and other similar products were available.

I still have several packs of these pencils but I haven't used them for quite sometime, they work well but the lines tend to spread once ironed.  I came across this new pen from Sublime Stitching it has a .5mm tip so I am hoping once the design is ironed onto the fabric it doesn't spread which is what happens with the red pencil.

I purchased this pen along with my order from Forth Worth Fabric Studio.

Autumn weather has arrived to Ocala this week with dry cool sunny mornings, pleasant afternoons and cool evenings. We had some rain last night and today it's a little rainy and breezy, I have heard the tinkling of my wind chimes non-stop all morning long. It's the perfect time for a nice cup of tea and some slow stitching.