Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2016

Welcome to my stop in the 2016 Halloween hop courtesy of Joe @ Serendipitous Stitching.

So the first part of the arrangement is to share a piece of work on a spooky theme.

Here is mine.

The original pattern is a free blackwork pattern from kreinik entitled Blackwork pumpkin. My thanks to the Facebook Group Our love for blackwork celtic knots and free patterns  for the original link to this. I have only completed the central design and I have used various threads from my stash not the make, colours or specialty threads as specified in the pattern. 

As I have mentioned before, whilst I am not overly fond of backstitch despite the amazing way it can transform a design , I find blackwork strangely soothing.

On to the next part of the hop, the letter for the competition,

Add this letter to the others you have collected along the way and see if you have the phrase to win the prize back at Jo's via this link if you like serendipitousstitching.

Hold on a moment I'm not the end of the hop so click on this link to the next blog and grab yourself another letter.

Anarizonastitcher

Have fun.

A new sunday stitch begins

This time I am going to stitch whatever bit takes my fancy, not going to do one colour at a time. So four colours used and this is what it looks like so far

Not too inspiring yet is it.

I wonder if there are enough Sundays before Christmas to get it finished?

Surprise Sunday stitch

As previously noted I had not anticipated any Sunday Stitching this week as I would be at a special stake conference with the Presiding Bishop speaking. So not sitting in the Relief Society room avoiding the lights and listening to the talks whilst stitching.

However, we were asked / advised to arrive early, very early. So I realised I would have an hour between arriving and the meeting starting...sewing time. 

The result? A finish.

Before backstitching

After back stitching

Here are the close ups of the ladies.

I think I will stay with the female Christmas figures for my next Sunday Stitching.

Communal Quilting

I have not worked on any of my own quilts in what I would consider to be unusual places however, here is a picture of me and others quilting at Henry's Lake campsite at a family reunion.  Not my family, the family of some friends we were visiting with.  The quilt had been coming to the annual family get togethers for some years, the children sat underneath it and played in the shade and wiped sticky fingers.  It rather needed a wash but that would have removed the design. A design representing the family with a flower in the middle, the grandparents names in the centre, their children's in the petals.  Then new flowers spreading out from there, the child's name and spouse in the middle and the grandchildren's names in the petals. Buds for the children much wanted and loved but who never drew breath.  Some years later I visited again and the quilt was at last finished and proudly displayed on the grandparents bed. The grandmother smiled at me and said she could still tell which section I had sewn, in amongst her own and those of daughters, daughter-in-laws and latterly granddaughters, calling it the English bit ( I had made my stitches a tad bit smaller than the rest, ohps!) and that sometimes she wished that some of those sticky finger marks had not washed all the way out.

I also had the privilege one Autumn, or perhaps considering where I was at the time I should say Fall of being in Salt Lake City at Conference time. Walking in the ZCMI mall on Ladies Day, to see several quilting frames spread out.  The quilts were to be donated to charity and were waiting to be tied.

Anyone was welcome to give it a go.

Some knew just what they were doing sat down and got started, others had a little tying tutorial and were away.  I had been shown the method at a Relief Society homemaking only a few nights before and was  delighted to try out my new skill.

Stay for as much or as little as you liked as one quilt was finished another was added. There was a steadily growing stack of quilts that were going to be bound in the various Relief Society meetings that would follow. Person after person (yes mainly women) sat sewed moved on and were replaced by another.

That's me with my back to the camera at the bottom of the picture on the left.

I do not know for sure but I presume this was a regular feature as most just accepted it was there.

I have no idea where the quilts I worked on were headed, but I hope they were of use and warmed both body and heart of the recipient.

I know I was warmed by the experience.

I wonder if it would work at the Metro Centre in Gateshead?

Four more colours Sunday stitch

As anticipated this project is moving along at pace. 

Four more colours both started and finished.

Two colours and the backstitching to go, they are starting to rake shape.  There will be no work on my Sunday Stitching project next week as not a normal Sunday service.  Special Stake conference, so this project will be a fortnight before I get back to it.

Sunday stitching a double start a triple finish?

As I finished the cat and hedgehog last week I needed a new project for this week.  Cover kits still appealed, not feeling like starting a big project for Sundays just yet.  Three kits to chose from all with Christmas themes.  Working two designs together was fun last time around so I have gone with another duo of images hence a double start.   

Working one colour at a time across both designs I finished three colours, two shades of yellow and peach, so that would be the triple finish.  I have the feeling these kits are not going to last me that many Sundays so I will be moving on to one of the others quite quickly. 

Sunday stitching, .

all finished....

Cat and Hedgehog

they came with cards to mount them in.

Cat card

although I guess I can swap them over if required.

Hedgehog Card

However that is not the end of the Sunday stitching for today as it being General Conference there was more stitching time and as watching it via the Internet and being at home there was also a comfy seat.  So a little bit of progress on a project that has been languishing even though it was supposed to get at least a monthly outing as part of the IHSW, I have been remiss in my participation in that group.

It is however, not a project for normal Sunday stitching, the pattern is too busy and complicated for travel to and from church.  I do hope that this little resurgence of interest in this pattern will continue.

Sunday stitching grey backstitch

is finished and it has made a big difference to both characters.  You can really see them now.

There are still a few grey french knots and some brown backstitching to go before they are finished.  So with the extra stitching time General Conference will give me next Sunday I am going to need to decide on another project for the day, this one will certainly not take all of the time available.  

Leaf and stripe quilt

This quilt came first in the show this year, of the two items I entered I had higher hopes of the bag.  You never can second guess what the judges will prefer.

This another project that started out with squares I was given after a Church project faltered. (This was before the Quilting Group I facilitate started but it is one of the reasons I have been surprised the group has kept going).

The subtle colours of beige and light teal stripes did not initially inspire me.  I was not attached to the squares and when asked to do an demonstration at Church I thought they were just the thing to use for quick nine patch bags that the ladies could try in an evening.

I made one bag up as an example and had the pieces for enough for the ladies attending.  I rather liked the little bag and the effect turning the squares to alternate the direction of the stripes gave.  Added to that I noted the material was quite soft and began to think I might make a quilt with the remaining squares.

Each time I was working on something else and had the sewing machine out I would stitch  a few of the squares together.  There were more squares than I had realised so the quilt grew. 

Leaf ans Stripe quilt

I rather liked the sashing, particularly as the material used was left over from another project. 

The inspiration for the quilting on the sashing came from the wonky-quilt. A similar arrangement of Celtic knots.

I was less certain what to do in the squares, a knot over the stripes did not feel right.

My BFF proposed the solution, leaves. I liked that, she even supplied her light board to help transfer the extra size ivy leaf shapes into the squares.

Leaf quilting

Corner Knot

Tri-foil Knot

I am quite pleased with the overall effect which is a bit cooler and subtler than many of my designs.

      

Big Birthday Blog 1975

The Birthday blog hop Serendipitous Stitching..

If you have reached 1975 from Jo's blog then you know what this post is about and can skip to the next paragraph. If you have arrived here from a search engine or Facebook etc then perhaps a little clarification is in order.  Today is a BIG birthday for the Queen Bee of blog hops Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. To celebrate we are hopping along the years of her life to date, sharing her stories and adding one of our own for the year in question and a stitch we think Jo might like. So here we go.


Jo was 9.  Once again Jo was in a mixed age class at school but this time some of the children were from the year below her.  Luckily Jo's teacher this year was one of the most inspiring teachers she had in her whole school career and he was able to stretch all the children with the topic-based learning he favoured.  This was quite radical in the 1970s!  Time out of school was spent playing in the streets, the local park or the  wasteland behind the houses.  There was a big mixed-age gang of children who all looked out for each other.

I however was 7, in the first year of the juniors and the bottom reading group.  Actually to be totally accurate I was the bottom reading group all on my own!  Up to this point I don't recall having made the link between reading and stories book at school having been on the "run spot run, see spot run, spot can run" variety whilst at home my mother would read me  a chapter from the unabridged version of Black Beauty if I ate all my breakfast.  This was the year the books we were given at school changed and had adventure stories with mysteries and pirates and a reason to read. All of a sudden it was hot knife through butter time, I could not get through the books fast enough.  So startling was my sudden progress  my teacher would make me tell her the plot to make sure I had really read the book before I got another one.  Sadly for my acquaintances the need to tell the entire plot in detail when asked to comment on a book or film or play remains to this day.   So this is the year my love of books kicked in.

Having shared Jo's 1975 and my own, here is a piece of work that I hope will appeal to Joe. 

I made this for a birthday last year, my mother's birthday  I stitched it inside the card as part of the verse. It was a special birthday.

Queen Bee

 Happy Birthday Jo I hope you feel like the Queen Bee for your special day