Skate Ornament

Michigan's cold spell continues which makes for a good day to spend indoors stitching. Despite the dark political clouds hanging over the Olympics, the well-trained athletes will be competing. I love watching it all. My favorite sport is figure skating. Therefore, stitching will be done on this needlepoint skate ornament. It was a project started a couple years ago, yet I stalled on choosing fiber colors. Perfect time to revive. This will be a gift for the skater in the family.

Per my last post, the horse-themed fleece blanket has been completed and mailed across the miles.

A crochet picot edge was chosen.  

While being indoors, decluttering, minimizing continues (or whatever 'getting rid of stuff' is currently called). The sewing corner has gotten attention: a new set of drawers and wall decorations. The drawers (on right) are Ikea’s Alex, the letters are from Hobby Lobby, the plates came out of storage and are on display. Normally one would not hang antique Limoges plates in a sewing room, but what the heck as they add to the corner by balancing out the letters and I enjoy seeing them. 

Fibers are chosen and ready for skate stitching progress while joining kindred stitchers at Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching link party!

Thank you for your kindly visit!

Jill

A Finish and a New Project

The wooly hat/beanie is finished :-)  It keeps my ears and head warm in our 20 degree Fahrenheit (-6.6 Celsius) temps on walks through the neighborhood. 

The brand of yarn is Diakeito from Japan. The only place currently available, per a quick online search, is on etsy with very limited supplies. Possibly it is not longer imported to US.  There is another ball in the stash and a matching scarf would be nice, however, I'm switching projects.  

This week's Slow Sunday Stitching project at Kathy's is a crochet-edge fleece blanket with a horse-themed print. A dear relative who is a horse lover is recovering from a successful serious major surgery. All are grateful. Hopefully, she'll be 

'back in the saddle' soon riding and training.

At the start of new year, decluttering, reorganizing, downsizing, minimalizing, etc began. Some items were  brought out of storage, put on display and/or hung on the wall.  Here is a quilt made several years ago which is now happy to see the light of day. It is now hanging in my sewing area.  Much better than being folded away in a closet.

Hanging it on the wall was a DIY project. It is hung by Command Hooks, disc magnets, metal plates, and a metal tension curtain rod slipped into the quilt sleeve on the back. Below is one of the DIY magnetic bracket hanging on the wall.  Note: there are two (2) holding up this 42 x 53 inch quilt. 

This is not my idea. Directions were found on youtube by Lynn at The Stitch TV Show.  Perhaps some of you may find this helpful if you want to hang a quilt. There is no damage to the wall. All supplies were purchased in the hardware department at a big box lumber store.

May you all have a good day!

Jill

Hat Knitting

Progress was made on the knitted hat, yet not enough to get to the part of switching over to DPNs.  I should change the name of my blog to Slow Bliss instead of Sew Bliss (wink).  The suggestions received to used wood/bamboo DPNs are appreciated and will be used.

Some of my hand needlework time was done for a charity project. My church donates fleece blankets to local hospitals, nursing homes, etc.  Obviously with the pandemic, the need is greater than what the group can provide.  The group purchases the fleece at Joann's using coupons and buying remnants. The fleece is trimmed with a crochet rotary blade which gives perfect-sized holes for the yarn.  The fabric is coordinated with a complimentary yarn color and passed onto the volunteers who crochet the edges at their convenience in their own homes.  This was not a boring design to work.  

Every year I pick up a pre-planted Amaryllis bulb at the local big box store.  It bloomed this week with the help of a paint stick for support. Although it's a bit paler pink than what was pictured on the box, it was well worth the 5 bucks.

Knitting/crocheting today will be done while watching two of my favorite sports although they are opposites temperature wise: figure  skating and golfing.  This weekend is the US Nationals Skating Championships and the PGA is playing at a scenic golf course in Hawaii.

Maria Bell's championship performance

Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui

When Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching post goes live, I hope to join her fellow stitchers. 

Jill

  

Happy 2022

Happy New Year!  Today is Kathy's Quilts first Slow Sunday Stitching of 2022.  A purplish variegated yarn from Japan was found in my stash which is enough for knitted hat/beanie. All wool and a delight to to knit. Unfortunately, no longer available.  It's my first hat and it is coming along nicely yet some trepidation when I have to switch to double-pointed needles for the crown.  

On my last post, I was knitting a cowl with a crocheted flower. Here it is all finished.  Thank goodness for wrinkle remover/cover-up in photo-editing software (wink). 

Despite it being officially winter in North America, I still have color in my yard.  Evidently, it's a bumper year for winterberries. The bushes have huge clumps. It would be nice to have a few branches cut for decoration in the house, however, I choose to leave them outside for the birds as winter food.

May you have a good week and a year of happy stitching!

Jill

  

Crochet Flower

Learning to crochet a flower is the slow stitching project for today. The knitted cowl is finished, yet it is begging for an embellishment! This pattern by Cheryl Dee Crochet, found on etsy, is exactly what I envisioned.

As mentioned in the last post, I attended a quilt retreat. The excellent lighting and the ambiance of finished quilts hanging is aprreciated. It was an enjoyable retreat with progress made on two UFOs. One UFO is a pumpkin quilt and many stems were completed. Although, it’s too late for Halloween, perhaps the quilt top will be finished by Thanksgiving (in the States) 🤞

On the way to retreat, I drive by a spooky old house. This fall, the morning sun was shining brightly on the structure that qualifies as a Hollywood set.

Jack Frost paid his first visit a few days ago. Fortunately, he was unable to touch the porch protected pots.

Wish me luck as I crochet a flower while linking with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Jill

Slow Knitting

As my usual speed, there is slow progress on a knitting project ~ a cowl done in a simple garter stitch.  Slow, yet enjoyable. Soon I shall be crocheting a flower as an embellishment.  So far it has been a warm autumn, thus the weather has called me outdoors.  

Recently, I picked up a sweet basket at a yard sale without knowing what to put in the basket.  While doing fall yard work, the empty basket pondering was resolved by adding the trimmed hydrangea.

Happy days this past week as there was a charming quilt show in the area! Quilts were made by the "Quilters in Training" guild of Capac, Michigan.  This was my favorite which also won Quilters Choice.  

On display was a wonderful collection of feedsack dresses which once belonged to a local farming family.  

More happy days as next weekend I will be at a quilt retreat in Michigan's thumb.  

While away, I look forward to making progress on two UFO quilts.  Today I have enjoyed joining other kindred slow stitchers at Kathy's Quilts.  

Jill

Fall Knitting

Cooler, crisp weather arrived this week. It puts one in the mood for fall attire, decorations and projects. This week I've began knitting an autumn-colored cowl.  A very simple pattern of which I obtained the idea from a cowl purchased at a craft show pre-Covid.  It's all garter stitched from an ombre/graduated yarn. 

Below is the craft-sale cowl.  It appears to have been made out of an acrylic yarn due to its tendency to pill yet it's very soft and warm.  Rectangle shape, gathered at each end and decorated with a knitted and/or crocheted flower.

Perhaps some of you've seen The Hocus Pocus quilt pattern by The Pattern Basket?  It's a pattern with Fig Tree fabrics that I could not resist.  Here and there, I've been machine piecing the pumpkins. 

As September draws to an end, it's time to say good-bye to the impatiens which were planted along the north side of the garage. They did terrific this summer growing to over 2 feet!

Back to Slow Sunday Stitching with others at Kathy's Quilts.  Have a good week!

Jill

Back to Stitching

Sew Bliss has been neglected far too long. No specific reason other than everyday life seems to interrupt my sewing and stitching.  Thankfully, all has been well.  This Sunday I’m delighted to join Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers by picking up where I left off….knitting golf club covers. Two have been completed and today I’ll finish another one. Actually, the knitting has been completed, but I need to add a number to the cover and I do this by using the duplicate stitch method.

Golf club covers are not what one would call a pretty project, yet they are practical and functional.  The color of yarn was chosen to coordinate with the golf bag. During this project, I’ve learned with each cover to improve my knitting, how to duplicate stitch and make pom poms - fun and easy!

A new quilt project is underway also. A Winding Ways quilt.  The blocks were started last spring while I was at a quilt retreat in Michigan’s thumb. 

This week, I have revived the project and have been machine sewing more blocks.   More details in another post.

Michigan is at the end of its blueberry season, yet local blueberries 🫐are still available for purchase. A neighbor shared this cake of which I have since made several times. If interested, click here for the link for Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake by the King Arthur Baking Company. Both the neighbor and myself followed the recipe exactly and used real butter. Unfortunately, not heart healthy. 

During my absence of writing posts, I continued to read and follow many bloggers. Due to technical difficulties on tablet and time constraints, comments were not often made. However, I continued to enjoy all your projects and pretty photographs.  It's fun to rejoin Kathy and her Slow Sunday Stitchers!

Jill

Slow Sunday Knitting

Evidently, I've been bitten by the knitting bug recently as other stitching projects have been put aside. I needed a new set of golf club covers and desired to knit them. After searching the internet for a good pattern of which there are many, I've settled on several. I'll attempt to combine different patterns along with a final design that I have in mind. The outcome will be a bit of a mystery even for myself (fingers crossed). It's not a pretty/cute project, yet functional. The yarn I am using is not an attractive color by itself, but it coordinates nicely with my new golf bag.

When I get to the stockinette section of the cover, I prefer to knit in the round and will use the magic loop method. In the past I've struggled a bit as I don't magic loop often. Therefore, I went to youtube for a brush up. This link by Rox Richardson has been helpful personally and may help others should you want try the magic loop method.

As summer draws to a close, I'd like to share a field of small sunflowers from a nearby field. Two years ago, there were large sunflowers planted. These must be their seedlings. 

Today as I link with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching party, I'll be magic looping!

Until next time,

Jill

Something Old, Something New

Finally, London has returned from the professional finisher! Oh how I had to be patient for four long months. Therefore, I'd like to learn how to do my own finishing. Understandably due to the pandemic, mail has been slow, and the finishers were overwhelmed with many stitched projects.  

Kirk and Bradley Travel Round

My favorites are the Buckingham Palace Guard and Big Ben.

I am happy to say that the slow snowman cross stitching is done. Until he's either mounted, framed or made into an ornament, I don't consider him totally complete. I hope to learn the finishing process myself as mentioned above in sending needlework projects out to be finished.  

A design by Sugar Stitches on etsy

These past two weeks the household was been discombobulated due to a bathroom remodel. My normal calm nerves were a bit frazzled with the pounding and hammering. This photo of the old bathroom sums it up.

Hope the neighbors didn't mind looking at this dumpster.

This Sunday I have two projects regarding my favorite interests while I slow stitch with the nicest group of people at Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching linky party.

Decisions, decisions. I enjoy playing and watching golf, and there is a skater in the family which is why I was drawn to these needlepoint canvases.

Take care,

Jill