Slow Stitching on a Sunny Sunday

There is nothing like the sunshine after a storm, and today we have bright blue skies and plenty of sunshine.  Hurricane Matthew blew through here on Friday and while the storm was wrecking havoc on the coastline here in Ocala we were very lucky.

I managed to run a few morning errands before the worst of the winds came blowing through and by dinner time it was clear enough to take my daily walk at a local park with a blustery breeze and light drizzle it was invigorating.

I was able to finish the last 6 hexie hand embroidery pieces for the Christmas Tree Skirt while the rain was pelting the windows.

Here is a close up of some of the blocks I put my own spin on I added spirals to the center of the stars
and stars to the gift box. In the above photo the first gift box is also my own while the 3rd one is done in the book as is the last star hexie block, though I used less lazy daisy stitches.

Here is a look at all 12 hexie blocks with the hand embroidery completed, the lines around the motifs are guidelines for the needle turn applique.

After the hexie blocks were done I picked up block 10 of the Hocuspocusville Quilt stitching the items on the clothesline,  I can not believe how long it took to stitch the articles on the clothesline but they are all so cute. I plan to finish stitching the tree today.

I will be linking up over at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching click on the link to view what other bloggers are working on today.
https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/10/slow-sunday-stitching.html

First Slow Sunday Stitching for October

A new month has begun and the first slow Sunday stitching for October is upon us.  New projects have pushed older projects back a little bit but not totally forgotten.  I love October the weather here in my area of Florida begins to change just enough to take notice.  The mornings are cooler which makes pulling weeds and other outdoor tasks much more enjoyable so I spend more time in the morning outside.  Nightfall comes earlier each evening which makes more time to settle down with needle in hand to stitch the night away.

We have the stirrings of hurricane Matthew in the air which means sticky, humid days with lots of rain which in turn keeps me off the road and happily stitching away on one project or another and reading when the fingers are too sore to pull the needle through one more stitch.

Here is my progress so far on the hand embroidered hexie blocks for the Christmas tree skirt class I'm taking. These are the six word piecesI have embroidered so far.

six words done

I'm midway through the other six hexie blocks and I am putting a personal touch to them by changing the motifs a little. The original design in Gail Pan's book Christmas Patchwork Loves Embroidery is a lovely pattern. Here are the blocks from the book we are to make 3 stars and 3 gift blocks I plan to change the little designs on the gift and star blocks.

I just want to pesonalize the blocks maybe add a few beads or metallic thread, I have a few ideas and I always did march to a different drummer.  I will be linking up today at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching
https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/10/slow-sunday-stitching-link-up.html

As I mentioned early in my post some older projects have been pushed aside, but not forgotten, the hand emboridery on block 10 is coming along in fact I had to pull my needle aside to snap this photo

block 10

I will work on this later in the afternoon, by the way this is the block that made me decide to buy the pattern to make the Hocuspocusville Quilt.  While searching patterns by Crab Applehill studios this one block came up the most when viewing images. I just loved the clothesline, the steaming cauldron, the cat and all those items hanging on the line to dry.  It was such a whimsical block I had to have it. I will link up Monday at Supermom No Cape
http://www.supermomnocape.com/2016/10/03/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-78/

Last Slow Sunday Stiching for September

I have made some progress on the hand embroidery for Hocuspocusville Quilt block 10.

block 10 started

On Wednesday the 21^st I attended the first Hand Embroidery class at Tomorrow' Treasures quilt shop we are making the Christmas Tree Skirt from Gail Pan's book Christmas Patchwork Loves Embroidery. I believe there are 12 of us in the class and we will meet on the third Wednesdays in October and November.

 These are the hand embroidery blocks for the tree skirt, we traced them onto fabric in class or at home. Some of my traced pieces waiting to be hand embroidered.

tree skirt blocks

hope and love

joy and merry

I will work on the the tree skirt blocks today, there are 12 small blocks to be hand embroidered, lots of letters.

These are the fabrics I chose for the tree skirt. and two back up fabrics just in case, I have been known to change my mind, there are a few other projects in the book I want to make so I can use them.

tree skirt fabric

back up fabric

I bought this sweet little pattern of the phases of the moon from Etsy, the shop is Cozy Blue a sweet little shop with patterns and kits available with a nice selection of original patterns. Here's the link

https://www.etsy.com/shop/cozyblue

Kit

kit contents

I had the echocardiogram on Tuesday and will have the results at my next appointment in October unless something irregular shows up when the cardiologist reads the results. This is routine since I have been experience quite a few bouts of shortness of breath and being a heart attack patient I suppose the doctor has to cover all bases. I don't worry since the morning of the day I had my heart attack I had a complete physical including an EKG and everything was fine then 12 hours later I had the heart attack. I find these test more a nuisance and an unnecessary expense, but what do I know. On the up side my blood pressure hasn't done its spiking thing in a long while.

I am linking up today for Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts  here is the link:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/09/slow-sunday-stitching_25.html

Monday linking up to Supermom No Cape here is the link: http://www.supermomnocape.com/2016/09/26/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-77/