Slow Sunday Stitching and a finished block

Well here we are on the last Sunday of the month and the last Slow Sunday Stitching for February and I have a finish to post, well a block finish that is. All the hand embroidery for block number five of the Hocuspocusville quilt is done.

Block five The Black Cauldron

At the start of stitching this block it worked up rather quickly with all those long straight lines of the house but once I hit those signs it was like hitting a wall, then this last week my allergies were acting up causing my eyes to tear up and itch so stitching for a few days was out of the questions. Yesterday afternoon and this morning I put in the finally stitching on the stairway, bats and all those french knots on the roof.  Oh and I added clear beads to the open sign to resemble those large clear light bulbs found on old signs.

All in all I am happy with the out come of block five and I will be posting it over at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. Feel free to drop on over and have a look at what other talented bloggers are slowly stitching this last Sunday in February, here's the link:
 http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/02/slow-sunday-stitching-life-is-beautiful.html 

I will be starting block six very shortly but this week I have a special project I need to get started on and I can use a break from all the black embroidery floss.

Book groups books are slowly being read I'll post the latest update for what I have read in a few days right now it's back to some slow stitching.

Happy Valentine's Day and Some Slow Sunday Stitching

Crazy Heart waiting for embellishment

Once the calendar turns to Valentine's Day I begin to feel the approach of Spring, while many are still in the deep throes of winter little signs are revealing warmer days ahead, the days are lengthening, it's no longer pitch black at 5 p.m. when I take out the trash and I can leave about 15 minutes earlier for my morning walk.  Buds are sprouting in the shrubs and trees, and a few early flowers are in bloom. Yes Spring is in the air.

Today I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching, she posted about how nice and warm it is to be stitching a quilt beneath you and placing her chair in a nice warm sunbeam. Click the link and take a look at what Kathy and many other talented bloggers are stitching this week.
http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/02/slow-sunday-stitching.html

While it doesn't get to minus 23 here in Florida this week our temps dropped to 28 and 29 in the evenings for me perfect weather to have a large quilt project on my lap, and this week is no exception I added some hand quilting to another block of my log cabin quilt. The perfect project to work on once the sun has gone down and the deep chill sets in.

I have a few more logs to quilt on this block then on to the next, but today I will be working on some hand embroidery on block five, the Black Cauldron, this block is coming along quickly I would guess its all the straight lines on the building. My stitching will slow down today as I stitch the roof and signs which seem to take me hours to complete, but hey that's what slow Sunday stitching is for.

Black Cauldron block five

As you can see by the first photo in the post I have some crazy hearts to embellish so later today or tomorrow I need to poke around in my stash of beads, buttons and colorful flosses to see what I have then plan out what stitches to use and where to put them, or maybe I'll get crazy and work randomly.
What ever you do today I hope you have a wonderful time.

Happy Stitching and Happy Valentine's Day