Christmas is in My Heart Blog Hop Begins Today!

The Christmas is in My Heart Blog Hop begins today!

Marian at Seams To Be Sew has done a wonderful job 

of organizing this fun blog hop!

The Fat Quarter Shop has generously sponsored the blog hop 

and is offering a giveaway every day!

The schedule is below. I cannot wait to see what everyone shares!

Thursday, November 12
Bejeweled Quilts
Quilt Shop Gal
The Quilting Queen Online
In the Boon Docks
BumbleBerry Stitches

Friday, November 13
All Thingz Sewn
Marjorie’s Busy Corner
Jane’s Quilting
Just Sew Quilter
Batts in the Attic

Monday, November 16
A Stitch In Time
Apple Avenue Quilts
From This To That
Just Let Me Quilt
Quilting Affection Blog
Kwilt Krazy

Tuesday, November 17
Just Because Quilts
Words & Stitches
Feather Your Nest
Patchwork Breeze
Quilt In Piece

Wednesday, November 18
Pink Doxies
Miss Loreen’s Schoolhouse
Morning Glory
In Stitches and Seams
Moose Stash Quilting

Thursday, November 19
Meadowbrook
Tea Time Creations
Selina Quilts
Living My Dream
Seams To Be Sew

Sponsored By The Fat Quarter Shop

A Sweet Surprise and a Few Notes of Interest

How often does someone knock on your door, unexpected, with a gift for you just because they saw it and you immediately came to their mind? If your answer is not often, so was mine - until earlier this week.

A friend and her daughter stopped by to give me this darling tea towel. 

Just look at the delicate embroidery! If you look closely (clicking on the photo will enlarge the image), you may be able to tell that the green fabric is sheer.  I cannot even begin to explain how tiny the stitches are. I feel completely spoiled!

My friend pointed out that she had not seen anything like these pink sections in the stitching I have shared. Although I have learned a lot in the past 3 years, I am still a beginner in SO many aspects of embroidery. I have seen things like this on other works, but have no clue what they are called or how to make them. I assume these and this section in the photo below are a form of stump work? (I would love to know!)

It is just lovely!

On another note... I opted to give up my WIP Wednesday posts. I figured a recap near the end of the month might have more to share. 

These next few weeks I should have some fun finishes to show you! I am participating in a Christmas crazy quilt fabric postcard swap and with a Christmas blog hop. 

A few notes that may be of interest:

• The Christmas is in My Heart Blog Hop hosted by Marian at Seams to be Sew begins tomorrow. The Fat Quarter Shop is sponsoring the hop and is generously providing a giveaway each day of the hop!

• Kathy Shaw has announced some changes with her free crazy quilt classes. You may read more about those changes at Shawkl Designs.

• Kathy also has a new book coming out! Pre-orders are available at a discounted price through the end of November. Learn more about it here. (I am not affiliated with the book, but I am excited about it!)

• Sharon B. at Pintangle has a second set of templates that are now available! If you are interested or curious, you can check them out here. (Again, I am not affiliated with these templates. However, I have heard loads of good things about the first set.)

• Registration for Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP) 2016 will be open from Friday, November 13th - Sunday, December 20th. You may learn more about CQJP 2016 here. (You may want to see what participants have been creating this year at the CQJP 2015 blog.)

If you decide to participate in CQJP 2016, please let me know! I will be joining the fun and am determined to finish on time next year. (I have a tendency to let projects for me to slip aside so I can focus on gifts for others... That being said, my completed blocks from CQJP 2013 will be finished into projects soon. And, almost all of my CQJP 2014 blocks have been embellished and most have been made into purses or totes. For CQJP 2016 I plan to make a real crazy quilt, just for me!)

TAST Stitches 17 & 18

TAST Stitch 17: Crossed Buttonhole Stitch

I really wanted to find a way to add the crossed buttonhole stitch to a Christmas stocking I am working on, but failed to think of a way to do so. Instead, I used this stitch to tack a ribbon down and added small flowers to dress it up.

This seam uses white glittery ribbon and size 8 perle cotton in green and pink. Stitches used were: crossed buttonhole stitch, straight stitch, detached chain stitch and French knots.

Imagine my delight when Anneliese shared her examples with the TAST Facebook group using crossed buttonhole stitches and upside down wheatear stitches to create trees. (I just LOVE embroidered trees and hers were fantastic!) I had to give her crossed buttonhole trees a try. My first attempt was the tree on the far left. I think my technique improved a bit as I went along. I do so love being inspired by creative thinkers!

For my trees, I threaded a needle with a strand of white and a strand of green DMC floss because I wanted the them to have a snowy look. What a fun way to try out a new stitch!

TAST Stitch 18: Half Chevron Stitch

In the future, I plan to use waste canvas with the half chevron stitch. This seam intersects with one I had already added beads to and they would have interfered with the waste canvas, so I did not use it this time. This was a fun stitch to try, but I found it difficult to make even stitches freehand. 

This seam was created using white size 12 perle cotton for the half chevron stitches (basic seam) , size 12 pink perle cotton and 2 open detached chain stitches (hearts), light green size 8 perle cotton for straight stitches and detached chain stitches (stems and leaves), and light pink size 8 perle cotton detached chain stitches and French knots (flower petals and centers.)

Sorry for the photo quality. My camera really does not like to focus on white and light pink stitches. This was the best of over 30 shots taken in totally different lighting situations.

TAST stands for Take a Stitch Tuesday. It is a personal stitching challenge offered by Sharon B. on Facebook and on her blog, pintangle.com. You may read more about it here. Last week the crossed buttonhole stitch was introduced and this week the half chevron stitch was introduced. If you follow the TAST Facebook group, you know there are some incredibly inspiring examples of these stitches being shared. Thank you, Sharon, for offering TAST!

Oh! Before I forget... Many of you know that Sharon B. created a set of crazy quilting templates a while back. You will be happy to know she will soon be releasing a second set of templates. If you missed her post about them, you may check it out here. (Please note: I am not affiliated with these templates. However, I have only heard positive comments about the first set from members of the on-line crazy quilting groups I belong to.)

Thank you for stopping by!

Renee

HAED Twilight Duel Progress Update #3 November 2015

The picture to the left shows my progress on the HAED Twilight Duel chart from August 30th - October 2nd. The chart is based on original artwork by Ruth Thompson. 

This is how it looked after 2 months. (August 30th - October 30th.)

As of November 8th, I had completed 5,841 of 147,600 stitches. It is not as far along as I hoped to be, but other projects have demanded my attention this month.

(Note: I rotated this photo so it accurately reflects the lower-left corner of the original artwork. The others are shown as they are on page one of the chart. There is a photo of Ruth Thompson's Twilight Duel on the sidebar to the right.)

My goal by November 8th: 7,100
Actual: 5,841 stitches (1,259 stitches behind schedule)
The chart is 3.96% complete. (Up 1.44% from last month.)
Page 1 is 74.43% complete. (Up 27.07% from last month.)

I will share pictures here again on December 8th (the 2nd Monday of the month.) Although, if I finish page 1 before then, you might see an update a little bit sooner.

I am linking up with the Monday Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape! again this week. It is a great place to visit for a free embroidery pattern and to find links to more eye candy. This week's embroidery pattern is the words "Seasons Greetings" in a fun font. If you do any hand stitching and have a blog, I encourage you to join the fun!

Thanks for stopping by!
Renee

HAED QS Red Hearts Progress - November 2015

On my last update, I had completed 5,669 stitches on the Heaven and Earth Designs Quick Stitch chart QS Red Hearts. (There is a photo of the artwork this chart is inspired by on the sidebar to the right.)

Page 1 was 72.31% complete. The full chart was 12.06% complete.

Since that post, I have added 1,242 stitches. So, this is where I am now with 6,911 of 46,990 stitches complete.

Page 1 is 86.1% complete and the full chart is 14.71% complete. 

I read that due to tension issues, sometimes lines may appear along the edges of individually stitched pages, so I opted to extend some colors onto the adjoining pages. As a result, a bit of pages 2 and 4 have also been stitched this month.

My next progress update will be shared on the first Monday of December. Due to a long list of homemade Christmas items and another time consuming commitment, I may not have a ton of progress to share.

I am linking up with the Monday Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape! again this week. It is a great place to visit for a free embroidery pattern and to find links to more eye candy. If you do any hand stitching and have a blog, I encourage you to join the fun!