Yes, absolutely!
I made the first part of Seam 1 on the 2023 BOM:
I advanced Frosty McChill:
I finished Jack and Jill and traced Little Bo Peep:
In March, I’ll do Jennifer’s short SAL for a supper cloth:
Yep, four projects to fill my fingers with love.
I have several stitch buddies here in town. One is Miss R, and she informs me the cow is working out nicely, and she’d like a sheep next.
One is my friend, Barbara, who is coming over tomorrow for a real stitch session. She is going to do a purple sheep. It was fun to work on Frosty McChill while Stacey was binding her quilt today. She said it felt like a regular Thursday stitch meeting.
I did get him moved a little further along. It’s slow, and it isn’t perfectly done, but it is getting done and it doesn’t look bad.
I took the stitchery for Sweet Land of Liberty (SLOL) and made gold star points for it. When the angel is finished, it will be half the second unit row ready to sew together.
Two things that go together well are appliqué and embroidery or some kind of stitchery. I’m back to working on my Sweet Land of Liberty blocks (by Cheri Payne), and this is a good example.
Here’s the stitchery I finished a couple of years ago:
This goes in the center of a sawtooth star. I’ve picked a pretty yellow for the star points, but I only got the first stitching lines done before I realized I’d met my nemesis (tiredness) yet again. So it will finish next week, and it’s fine, obviously no rush on this, since original people did it in 2018, and I started in 2020, and now it’s 2023!
The other block I am working on for it is the angel block. Here are my fabric choices for that block:
That’s background on the bottom, then her dress, and on top her sash fabric. I checked out what it would look like with the dress and background exchanged, and it still looked good, but I liked the sash on the green better.
So I traced all the pieces on Aleene’s fusible (the best, but no longer available – I bought a bolt when they were quitting production, and still have some.) and then ironed them on the appropriate fabrics, including some little scrap pieces.
Embroidery comes into play on the angel’s face and a star that will be under the flag she’ll be holding.
I made a plan mentally, and this morning as I ate breakfast, I began to pin a few pieces of lace on the two sections I have made. Since I chose not to piece the diamonds, I have to divide them in some other way, and I chose lace for these two. Nothing like adding an extra challenge to a challenge!
I believe one of the two photos is out of focus, maybe both of them. I will substitute better pictures later..
Embellishments with silk ribbon embroider (SRE) will be on the light triangle shapes, and I’ll probably use ideas from Sharon’s diagrams. I can’t think of any other initial information to record. Now I simply have to start choosing seams and combinations and stitching!
Oh, thread! I’ll be using Cosmo and Aurifil floss, Sassa Lynne 8 Perle, and Valdani 8 and 12 Perle. If I use silk, it will mostly be Victoria Clayton hand-dyed.
I finally actually started stitching block 1! I’m excited to make some progress. The picture is poor, taken in the infusion center, and you can see the Snowman’s body becoming outlined. This was January’s Block, and can be found HERE.
That post has only block one, Let it Snow. However, This post has links to all twelve blocks. Look for the bright red print with the titles. Those are the links.
It isn’t a great picture; the sun was shining through big windows in the infusion room at TN Cancer Specialists. I’m also not far along, and there will be more, and better, in another post in a few days.
I started with the body, wanting something not too complicated. It’s been at least two years since I set a threaded needle loose on an embroidery, and I was rusty. It felt awkward, though I know the backstitch like … well, the back of my hand, say. I went slowly, 2 strands of DMC 796 on an embroidery needle that was stuck in the pincushion in my Laural Birch Global Spirit zipper bag.
After an hour, and the progress you see here, it still felt awkward, and I had three stitches go off line slightly. I figured my hand was becoming fatigued, so I quit there. It seems odd that the stitching muscles, in hands that are used a lot, need to be exercised and strengthened! They were shaky, though, and I had some trouble going back into holes, but I’m not displeased even with this. It will be fine and work to show my improvement as I go, an accomplishment which will make me smile.
Hello, Stitching Buddies!
I *did* finish this block!
Here’s a new picture.
I also have only a head to go on Jack and Jill, which I never showed on here at all. Sorry it’s wrinkly, but I traced with Frixion pen and pressing will take out the ink that’s left.
Before I can do any more, I have to find the fabric I was using. I know where the patterns are, but I don’t want to switch fabrics. I will if I have to, but I don’t want to. This fabric is white. I have at least four that are an eggshell and no one could ever tell the difference between them, but the white? Just the one … wherever it is after all this time.
Update: I found it last night when I couldn’t sleep! It’s Kaufman Essex Linen in white. The problem is finding it and buying a yard without spending more for postage than for the fabric. I hope to find it in town somewhere. I think I MIGHT have enough, but I’m not sure. I guess I’ll keep going and see what happens. LOL
I want to work on this each month when the bluework snowmen are finished, and there’s still month left when I need a warm-up piece.
On the back, I iron a piece of Pellon interfacing or another one I get from Australia that I like better than anything I’ve ever tried … but now there’s that postage issue again, and finding someone who has it and will ship to the U.S. Life in a first world country!
Here are the first three blocks I finished two years ago.
Looks like it’s about time to choose the next pattern. By the way, the fabric is really white, as I said, but the pics all came out more looking like oatmeal!
So, that’s my update on this stitchery set.
Well, he hasn’t ridden anywhere for me yet, but his designer, Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting has finished hers from 2022, and the post linked here has links to all 12 of her snowmen patterns for free. If you like cross stitch, you will love her blog, because most of her designs are XS and are also FREE! She’s very generous, and thrilled if someone does one of her designs.
Here are the five blocks I traced today. I’m going to do them in blue when I find my blue threads … soon. They will be the warm up to hopefully get my hands steady before I start on the CQ stitching.
Now I will tell you a funny story on me. I think I’ve mentioned before that I like to store my balls of perle in wooden cigar boxes. My favorite is Acid, because the box smells so amazingly good! I went online, looking up ‘buy wooden cigar boxes’ and several things came up, including Amazon sites which sell the cigar boxes. I clicked on one that wasn’t Amazon, because I wanted to see if I could find an Acid cigar box, specifically.
And I did! They wanted $10 for it and shipping was $7, but I figured it was what I wanted and I only need one more right now, so go for it. And I did! Then, as soon as I pushed the pay button … it occurred to me there had been a cigar on top of the box. What if I had just bought a $10 cigar and not a $10 cigar BOX?
And I did! LOL. So I’ve spent the day trying to reach the fellow. He said he would gladly send me his next empty box instead of the cigar, and I said okay, but I’m still not sure if he’ll refund my money instead, since the messages were out of order. Either way is okay. I just don’t want a cigar! LOL
In better news, I found a place in town that will sell me one for $4, and I just have to call him every Wednesday to see if he has an empty one yet. Eventually, I’ll hit him on the right day and go get one. He’s right on Peters Road, sort of across Kingston from Culver’s Ice Cream. There’s another one right in West Town Mall, but his English was so poor, we didn’t understand each other very well, but I’ll try him, too. There’s also one which takes the lids off, so that won’t do at all!
If I can’t be a good example of how to shop, I’ll have to teach you all by my poor example! LOL
Hello, my CQ friends! I finally pieced a couple of blocks for the Pintangle BOM for this year! I’m not doing it initially as Baby Blocks. I’m using Debby Kratovil’s No-Y Seams way of making the diamond sections so they don’t look the same, and I may not put them together the same way, either.
Here are the two I did today, a light and a medium and a light and a dark. There are linen, duck cloth and a cotton brocade involved here.
I cut the diamonds at 7″ and 60 degrees. I’m going to divide sections using lace and other things and see what I think about leaving them whole pieces. More than one experiment going on here!
The last time I was posting more or less regularly was March 2021. I have done no more stitching in all that time, thanks to the cancer wars, but I’m ready to start again. My hands are getting steadier, and that will have to be enough.
So what are my goals and plans now that I’m stitching again?
First of all, I need a warm up piece, and I decided on this cute design by Pinker n Punkin Quilting. I’ve linked the last post which shows the completed blocks and links to each of them. I’m going to work it like a BOM, and one block will be my warm up piece each month.
Here’s a picture from Melisa’s blog of that first block. She’s generously shared her patterns free, so if you like it, go there to download them, please. I think I’ll do mine in bluework. Probably Carolina Blue is too light, but something not royal blue, either. I’ll check the thread bin. Might even do scrappy blues and use up some blues!
If I run out before the end of the month, I’ll continue a Nursery Rhyme block. The last one I showed on here was Ten O’Clock Scholar, but I know I finished that one and went on to, I think Jack and Jill … or something with a girl in a dress, anyway! Now I have to go look! Here’s the unfinished Ten O’Clock Scholar, anyway. Remember, these were drawn by a ten year old with talent!
Sharon Boggon/Pintangle.com
A friend, EvaLyn, e-mailed me Sharon Boggon’s post on her 2023 BOM idea, and I was thrilled. I haven’t started a new project in two years. In fact, I have another seam and a half to go on my last block for my last project. It’s time to stop waiting for the problems cancer has left me with to go away, and to start doing what I love in spite of those problems!
So, I’m in for this block of the month! Whether I will get three diamonds done each month, or only one, doesn’t matter. Doing matters. If you click on the sample picture above, it will take you to the post with all the details, and you can start gathering supplies to begin in mid-January.
If this is something you’ve always wanted to do, and you didn’t know where to start or how to stitch it, Sharon is a great guide. She has an entire stitch dictionary with directions on how to do hundreds of stitches.
Remember that if Sharon posts a seam that is more difficult than you think you are ready to do, you can stitch your own seam there! It won’t be the same as Sharon’s block, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It’ll be YOUR block.
Sharon also has books she’s authored, which are good, and she sells her templates, which are helpful. There are many resources online that are free for crazy quilters, and lots of support out there.
I’m cross posting this on my QuiltBOM blog. Feel free to go back through my seams here or click on the tag tast to see what those seams might look like.
Sharon’s BOM is free, and she has a downloadable .pdf diamond shape template. Be sure to read what she says about the template in the post linked to the picture at the top.
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