Slow Sunday Stitching: The End of "Christmas In July"

With July drawing to a close,  I managed to finish the "Christmas in July" cross stitching for this month just in time.  So I am joining in over at Kathy's Quilts for a little "Slow Sunday Stitching" show and tell!

First off a stitching finish:  the Fat Quarter Shop's "Letters To Santa" pattern is done!

Stitching on Aida and then being able to go back to "mongamous stitching" this past week helped this get done.  At this point, I don't know how I want to "fully finish" it.  I might take cues from how FQS did theirs:

I'm particularly eyeing the bow on it since I just did a project for a blog hop and made a Patchwork Bow using Liza Taylor's tutorial:

Although it is patterned using 2-1/2" cut squares, she says you could use any size squares.  So I could see using one or half inch finished squares to make another bow to use for finishing the cross stitch piece.  Once I decide where and how I want to display it for the holidays,  I can make more decisions about the "fully finishing" of it.

And speaking of "fully finishes":  My little "Christmas Log Carrier" ornament is now done!

I was supposed to stitch this as part of "CIJ" last year but didn't get to start it until the end of August.  During a few spaced out stitching sessions (probably between other projects), I finished it in October.

The pattern finishing just called for putting some seam sealant on the edges and turning under the handle loops and glueing them in place.  However I wanted to finish it just a little more so first cut some fusible to secure the back of the stitching:

Next I cut some coordinating holiday fabric so I could line it.  I really liked this fabric but it was directional so I seamed two pieces together so that I could make a lining piece where the print would run vertically on both sides.  

I stitched them together along what had been the cutting lines leaving the handle ends open and an opening on one side so I could turn all the edges in and so no sealant was needed!  I edge stitched the opening closed and all around the edge and stitched the "handles" down to form loops.  Last step was to find some wooden dowels for the handles.  I didn't have a dowel the size I needed on hand but did have something that worked perfectly in its place:

Pays to hold on to some of these chopsticks after all!  I cut the chopstick down into two pieces the size I needed.  Then it was finding some ribbon in my stash and Cinnamon sticks from the pantry and this little ornament is now done!

I look forward to seeing what everyone has for this last "Slow Sunday Stitching" for July over at Kathy's Quilts!   

Christmas In July Blog Hop!

Welcome to the "Christmas in July Blog Hop" hosted by Melva of Melva Loves Scraps!

I am excited to join in to share some ideas about holiday crafting!  I always enjoy this kind of event that prompts quilters (and cross stitchers!) to focus on a specific category of projects to encourage getting some work done on them.  

Like many quilters, I often have trouble getting all of my holiday projects done in time -- usually because I don't start thinking about working on them until November or December, LOL!  I did "Christmas in July" for the first time last year and worked on two projects with mixed results.  

The words I chose for my MODA "Letters To Santa" quilt top.

My color scheme for last year was Red, Green, White/Light, Black and Gold.  I say the results were mixed because while I did get this top started,  I didn't complete it until December.  This year, it is still waiting to be quilted which is what I thought I'd be working on this time around.  However, a July 4th weekend camping trip and my husband being on vacation these last two weeks has definitely gotten in the way of that plan!

The other project I started for "CIJ" last year was this one:

That WIP is a "Scrap Squares" quilt using 2-1/2" squares that I cut from the "LTS" leftovers and from my Christmas stash as I auditioned fabrics for that top.  The plan was to use the squares to surround some holiday-themed panel blocks to make a lap quilt.  The project was influenced by the "Scrap Squares" quilts that I've seen quilt designer Pat Sloan make so many times.

Pat calls it "making a bonus quilt while making other things".

At this point, I still need to work on the layout of it and piece it together.  However, while working on that project I happened to come across this:

It is a tutorial for making a "Patchwork Bow" by pattern and fabric designer Liza Taylor of  Liza Taylor Handmade for her "Summer Sewing Series".  As long as I've been a quilter, I've always looked out for ways I can use my scraps rather than just collect them.  When I saw this, I figured that it would be another great holiday project for the squares I was already cutting.

So this Hop is a good excuse to try making that project now!  Liza's instructions call for sewing rows of three squares together and then sewing the rows together to create a "pieced fabric" strip that will serve as the "ribbon" for making the bow.  Fortunately, I had already started piecing together pairs of squares last year in preparation for adding them to the layout of the other quilt so I had a head start on doing this now. 

Liza had used "pieced fabric" on both sides of her "ribbon".  However after I had decided to make this design, I saw a great holiday print on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop and decided to purchase it and would use it as the backing for the "pieced fabric" front.

If you like it,  I see it's still available now.

The benefit of doing that meant I only needed half of the amount of squares that Liza calls for!

After I got all of my squares pieced together,  I cut two 6-1/2" wide x WOF backing strips, pieced them together and trimmed the backing to the length of the "pieced fabric".  I then completed the "ribbon" following Liza's simple instructions that include how to mark it to create the pointed ends.  

Of course, now I also needed to make sure that I remembered how to tie a nice decorative bow.  I found this video tutorial helpful for doing that:

It was pretty simple to do and here is the finished project!!

These bows would be great to display with a matching quilt or at the base (or even top) of a Christmas tree.  It could also be hung on a front door or in a window but you'd have to be careful to check if the fabric might fade from exposure to sunlight. 

  

Now if I can get this top quilted, I'd be gravy!

If this is your first time doing "Christmas in July" or want even more tips for how to approach doing it, check out Kris O’Neill's "Christmas in July 2025" video series on her YouTube channel "Sew the Distance".  

Kris is making a video daily for the month of July with tips on how to choose, thrift and organize your holiday stash and projects.  She also has offered a few projects to make with your stash.  But don't wait too long to watch it:  Kris says this series is a "Summer Special" and she'll remove the playlist from her channel at the end of August.

And of course there is even more to see from the other participants of this Hop!  Be sure to check out all of their posts too!

"Christmas In July Blog Hop" Schedule:

July 24

Melva at Melva Loves Scraps -- Our hostess!!

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts

Carol Andrews at Quilt Schmilt

 July 25

Melva at Melva Loves Scraps -- Our hostess shares another day of inspiration!!

Vivian at Bronx Quilter  --- You're Here Now!

Gail at Quilting Gail

Linda at Texas Quilt Gal

There is still a few more days before July ends so I hope you have been inspired to pull out a project and get your holiday season started early!

Slow Sunday Stitching: "Christmas In July" Stitching Has Started!

I'm checking in for the first time this month over at Kathy's Quilts for "Slow Sunday Stitching"!

In my report for the end of June,  I talked about unfinished projects for that month and the plan to start on projects for "Christmas In July".  Since July 1st was on a Tuesday,  my hope was to use the last Sunday and Monday of June to finish up the stitching of at least two of those projects.  Good news, one of them -- Primrose Cottage's "Home of the Brave" -- did get done!

No plans as yet as to when I will "fully finish" this one.

Then we had a camping trip over the 4th of July weekend to Letchworth State Park here in New York which was great!  It is known as the "Grand Canyon of the East" for the large gorge that was cut through the area over time by the Genesee River that bisects the park.  

These are the "Middle Falls" and there are an Upper and Lower set as well.

A view of another part of the gorge from one of the outlooks.

On the trip we learned something new to us:  the Genesee actually flows north from Pennsylvania to Rochester in Northern New York State to empty out into Lake Ontario.  That makes it one of the 48 rivers in 16 different states that do that.  This happens because rivers flow downhill so they will flow towards the lowest elevation which can sometimes be north of the river's source or headwaters.  

The Appalachian Mountain range (the "Rocky Mountains of the East") extends from Alabama up to Canada and this part of New York State lies west of the range so the land in the Genesee Valley area slopes from there.  

Image courtesy of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Mount Morris Dam exhibit

On the trip I took my "camping project":  Emma Congdon's Stitchrovia "Open Your Heart To New Adventures".  I have been working on this one since 2023 and on our last trip for Memorial Day I had stitched half of a page of it (the fourth one I've worked on of this six page pattern) so had hoped to finish that page on this trip.

I did get the page done but only got to work on about half of that remaining half page during one campfire session and the drives up and back during the portions when I wasn't driving.  I finished the rest of the page once we were back home.

Now this project will be put away again until our next trip in late September.  My hope is to complete whatever is still unfinished after that during our annual Fall trip in October to visit my husband's mother in North Carolina.

With all that aside,  I was then ready to start back in on my "Christmas In July" stitching:  the Fat Quarter Shop's "Letters to Stanta"!  

I had expected to be "monogamous stitching" on it this month.  However,  I only had some filler stitching left to do to complete another June project.  So instead,  I worked on both in the hope of completing them both by the end of the month.  So there's more good news now because the "Craft Supplies Lies" project from June is also now done!

Although I have to say,  doing the filler stitching in that bottom box wasn't easy!  In a recent "Two Tall Stitchers" flosstube,  Carol and Jen's closing "Viewers Poll" question was:  "Do you love or hate stitching big blocks of the same color?".  In the past I would have said that while it can be a little boring, it is a necessary evil.  

However, for some reason (probably the "Are We There Yet?!? of it all),  this took so much longer and was harder to do than anticipated!  Not to mention, I kept getting off count on the Linen threads as I filled in the black stitches around the letters.  It got to a point where I only felt up to stitching on it for no more than 30 minutes at a time and often wanted to stop at fifteen!  It wasn't until I was down to the last word that it finally clicked in and I was able to get through it less painfully than the way it started!!  Now I'm glad that's over and I can go shop for a frame to finish this in.

As for the holiday project, after the last two months of stitching on Evenweave and Linen, the return to working primarily on Aida -- even if it is on a dark Charcoal fabric which usually has it's own challenges -- is a pleasant and faster-to-stitch reprieve!  So as of today,  I've finished another page of it and now only have one more left to do:

So that's it for me this week!  My quilting plans for "Christmas In July" have taken a bit of a back seat to cross stitch as the hubby has been home on vacation this past week and will be so this week as well.  With only a little less than two more weeks of the month to go,  I hope I can squeeze in some time for that either in between or once this last bit of cross stitch is completed!    

Now to go check in on what goodies others are working on this week at Kathy's Quilts for "Slow Sunday Stitching"!

To Do Tuesday: Plans for July

Another new month already?  Guess that means it's time to join everyone and check in with this week's "To Do Tuesday" over at Carol's Quilt Schmilt!

A Recap of Unfinished Things from June 

During June I had hoped to "fully finish" "United We Stand" which is a cross stitch piece and put together the parts for a quilted pillow cover made in fabrics from the MODA "Seeds of Glory" line. 

Neither got done as I spent most of the month focused on my cross stitching.  I had wanted to try making that edge finish on the little cross stitch pillow first and if successful then try it on the larger pillow cover.  

However,  after I trimmed the cross stitch in preparation to finish it,  I lost a piece of piping trim that was already prepared and which was leftover from a project from years ago.  I had hoped I'd eventually find it but still haven't so now will have to make more.  I'd still love to get both of these finished but admit I haven't made any definite plans to do so this month.   

I also had planned to finally layer and quilt a top I call "Modern Bohemia" for Rebecca's Sugar Sand Quilt Co. "Misson UFO" challenge.  

Well only two things for that got done:  I decided on the quilting plan and I reviewed the backing fabric I had purchased for it.  The good news is that the quilt is a lap quilt but the backing fabric had been purchased during a sale on 3 yard Wide-back packs at Keepsake Quilting.  I found in my notes that I had actually planned to split the backing between this project and another that also needs to be quilted so I got that done too.  

The last of the unfnished June plans were to finally start (or even finish?) blocks for a Red, White and Blue version of Edyta Sitar's Laundry Basket Quilts "Alaska" design.  The plan was to leader/ender the making of those blocks with putting the blocks together to complete the top for a wallhanging.  I had finished up the blocks for the wallhanging back in May and it has been sitting on my design wall ever since.  

The top 12" block is the smallest size I could make pieced triangle units with the Large Kaleido-Ruler.

I only got as far as making up the test blocks for the project.  I am making the Kaleidoscope blocks for the design using Marti Michell's "Small" and "Large" Kaleido-Rulers.  I've owned the Large one for years but soon realized I needed the Small one to be able to cut the parts for the pieced triangles for the size block I planned to make this in.  

That ruler didn't arrive until the second week of the month and I cut the pieces for the test blocks in the third and then didn't get around to stitching them up until the last week.  So this is a good time to start in on the plans for the month and for this week!

The Start of Christmas In July!  

For this month,  the primary focus will be on holiday projects for "Christmas in July".  I don't dare start any new ones but I can't promise that won't happen --- you know, squirrels and all of that, LOL!!!  So for "CIJ" I need to:

• "Fully finish" my little "Christmas Log Holder"  cross stitch piece 

• Finish stitching my "Letters To Santa" cross stitch piece

• Quilt the two Christmas tops finished last year:  "Letters To Santa" and "Christmas Trip Around the World".  In both cases the top, backing and binding are already prepared.   

I should note here that since I also have the same done (well, not the binding) for "Bohemia",  I'm thinking that maybe I can also plan to quilt it along with them. 

• Continue and hopefully finish the top for the "Scrap Squares" quilt started during last year's "CIJ".  It was inspired by Pat Sloan's quilts in this design and incorporates panels from MODA's "Cheer & Merriment" line.

• Oh wait, there is a possible new start laying around:  I had kitted up a project during my "7 Days of  New Year's" quilt-a-thon.  The pattern was in the December 2024 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  I saw that it could utilize some of the stash I already had out from the "CIJ" projects and the dwindling stash of red fabrics still around from my Red & White Holiday Quilts adventure from 2022-23.  I was able to order the same feature print used in the published design and additional green coordinates for the block piecing from the same fabric line. I also found a suitable tone-on-tone background print to fill out the stash needed for that project. 

I can't promise I will get this started but I can't promise I won't, LOL!!

What's Up For This Week 

1. Since I have quilts I need to layer and baste for quilting, a big priority for this week will be to start clearing off my cutting table so that can actually happen!!   
2.  I also need to clear my design wall so I can put the "Scrap Squares" project up and finish the layout of the squares.  That will require that the top laid out on it now becomes a leader/ender for something.
3. I want to start making the blocks for "Alaska".  However, since this is not the priority project for the month (in fact not for the next few months as I had already planned out what I want to do during those as well),  I've decided to do this project as another self-styled Block of the Month (BOM).  It should be noted that "Bohemia" had been one of the projects I had tried to do this way in 2020, all the others of which are still UFOs.  If I can keep up on "Alaska",  maybe I can eventually put the others back into rotation and finally zero them out as well! 
4. Most notably for this weekend, we will be headed out on another camping trip for the Fourth of July weekend.  As has been my habit whenever we go camping,  I'll be taking a hand work project with me for the long drive there and back and for some "around the campfire" stitching.  For our last few trips, I have been taking and trying to finish my "Open Your Heart" project which is camping themed.  I actually got half of a page of it done during and after our last trip for the Memorial Day holiday so am looking forward to finishing that page on this trip.

Other Plans For the Month

1. As noted earlier, I have a wallhanging top that needs to be put together.  I will leader/ender it with either the "CIJ" projects and/or the "Alaska" blocks so I can clear it off the design wall to make space for laying out the "Scrap Squares" project. 
2. If time and projects permit this month, I will also try to continue the two cross stitch projects left over from "May-nia" and "Red, White and June":  "NY Skyline" and "Right To Vote".

"Skyline" will probably get priority there since it is the easier of the two to work on and when finished is destined for a decorating spot I've long wanted to fill.  

So that's more than enough to keep me busy this month as well as a few things identified specifically for this week.  Let's see how I do!  Go see what others have planned for the week ahead by heading over to Carol's at "Quilt Schmilt" to see what's popping up in quilt studios around the world!

Slow Sunday Stitching: The Last Week of Red, White & June

 As I say good-bye to "Red, White & June",  I'll check in one last time this month over at Kathy's Quilts for "Slow Sunday Stitching"!

Some Are Almost Finished

After a focus on them this past week, I'm thisclose to finishing the stitching on "Home of the Brave" and "Craft Supplies and Other Lies I Tell Myself".

I will admit that stitching on these two have been the most fun of all the stitching I've done over the last two months.  In each case, it was seeing the design revealed as I went along combined with the ease of stitching them out.  I also had less issues stitching on the fabrics as well as following the patterns for these than I did with the other two projects I worked on.  Well, with the exception of the error in positioning I did when starting "Craft Lies"!  Yeah, I still have some ripping to do from that, LOL!

I will continue to focus on these to get them done even as I've already pulled the project bag out for one of the projects I'll be resuming for "Christmas in July "!  I had hoped to have had them finished because plans for "fullfully finishing" them are already in place.  "Craft Lies" is to be framed so I'll be shopping for that as soon as it's done.  For "Home" the plan is a pillow finish and I will probably just follow how the designers at Primrose Cottage did it.  It's noted in the pattern that they used prints from Minick & Simpson's "Belle Isle" line and I actually have some of that so will consult my stash to see if I can do the same.

United We Stand is Still Not "Fully Finished"

Last time, I had talked about having a scrap of piping that I could use for the edging I want to put on this project.  Well, it still hasn't turned up so now I'll definitely have to make more.  

I will try to do so over the next two months since for me the "patriotic period" is from Memorial Day to Labor Day so Red, White and Blue quilts and cross stitch will remain up in my spaces!  I'd also really still like to see if I can then do the same edge technique on a pillow I also still need to finish so I'll see what happens with all of that going forward.

Stitching Still In (Long-term) Progress

This means I also end the month with "Right To Vote" and "NY Skyline" still in progress:

The threads I needed for "NY Skyline" arrived!

I may or may not continue stitching on these over the next month.  As I said eariler,  for July I plan to work on projects for "Christmas In July".  For that I already have two cross stitch projects that need to be completed:  one to be "fully finished" and one that the stitching needs to be completed.  If anything, "NY Skyline" will probably stay in the current stitching rotation since it's the easier of the two to stitch and is the one I want finished so I can use it in a prominent display spot that's open.  

It's been another fun "Red, White & June" season to focus on patriotic (and other) stitching!  Now head over to Kathy's Quilts to see what others have been "Slow Sunday Stitching" to finish up the month!

Slow Sunday Stitching: Two Weeks of Red, White & June Stitching

Things have been progressing nicely as this month's "Red, White & June" stitching has continued.  So  I am linking up again at Kathy's Quilts along with the rest of the "Slow Sunday Stitching" cohort.

Stitching Has Gone Well Since My Last Report

So much so that cross stitching has been about all I've been doing on the crafting front.  Of course that has not been good for my quilt projects, LOL!  The very slow, fumbly start I had made resuming two projects started back in 2023 for "Red, White & June" has eased a bit and over the past two weeks,  I finally got into the groove of working on them.  So "Home of the Brave" (a Primrose Cottage design) stitched on an Evenweave fabric has progressed as shown:

After this, I repositioned the hoop so I can continue by filling in the stars and words to be stitched next to "Home".  After that all I need to do is fill in the bottom with one more word and a big house and then the stitching on this will be finished! 

For my Linen stitching project "Right To Vote",  I managed to almost finish the word "Votes",  add one more of the backstitched words and started on the word "for" in yellow.

I should be able to finish that word and then will need to move the hoop to stitch the "S" for "Votes" and the other backstitched words on the first line.  

I had talked before about how hard it is to stitch on this soft Linen as I am more used to stitching on stiffer Evenweaves and Aida.  Next time I use a Linen, if it is as soft as this one, I will starch it first to make it easier for me to work with.  

May-nia Projects Also Continue

I also continued with my two May-nia projects which helps explain why I've been cross stitch obsessed!  Those two have bounded ahead and "Craft Supplies Lies" is now here:

I had to "frog" some of the false start I made originally so I could put in the last motif on the bottom right.  All that's left after that is the line of yellow text that will be surrounded by a big black box underneath all the previous stitching.  The line of stitches under the center are the start of the top of the box.  Fingers crossed that the sitching on this too could actually be finished by the end of the month!  

My "New York Skyline" project has also hit a milestone: 

I've completed one page of this five page pattern, woo hoo!!  That said, this means this one will take a few more months complete.  

I also just realized that I don't have enough floss for this!  For some reason I had only stocked two skeins and now I can't find the second one and I see that it took almost a whole skein for this one page (I am using Classic Colorworks "Black Coffee").   So needless to say,  an order for more floss has also been put in.  

Well at least, all of this focus on stitching has been encouraging as well as enjoyable!  What didn't go as well as planned on the cross stitch front was a finish!  

"United We Stand" Finish Stalled!  

My plans had also been to "fully finish" my little "United We Stand" piece into a pillow.  

To do so, I was going to finally get a chance to do this edge finish I've wanted to try for forever.

I had noted it at the end of this quilt post I did back in 2021 on "Special Edge Finishes".

The pattern by Primrose Cottage had not included finishing instructions for their pictured pillow finish.  So as best as I could tell, their piece had about a 3/8 to 1/2 inch of open space around the stitching.  The instructions for the "Piped Scallop" edge finish called for 1/2" seam allowance so I trimmed my piece to one inch beyond the stitching figuring I could take off the extra 1/8" if I thought the larger allowance didn't work. 

The edge finish also requires having rounded not square corners.  Ironically the pillow pictured on the pattern seemed to have that too which I would bet would also make adding the pom-pom trim they used easier too.  Not a problem, I've added curned edges before.  My usual tool for this is my Creative Grids "Curved Corner Cutter Ruler".  But the smallest curve there is 1-1/2" inchces and I felt that was too big.  I tried the bottom of a two different sized thread spools -- nope still too big.  The perfect size to my eye was a bobbin!

The edging also calls for making piping.  Now despite the fact that I have read (and added in blog posts!) the name of this finish a bazillion times (okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration) until now, I had been focused on the scalloped edge and had completely overlooked the "piped" part, LOL!  So reading the instructions in full for the first time, I was only now realizing that this called for piping.  However, I totally lucked up on this front.  

I actually have a tool for making piping purchased all the way back in 2008.  Back then I had belonged to the Empire Quilters Guild here in NYC and the tool and quilt designer Susan Cleveland had done a presentation at one of the meetings.  As a result, I had been impressed enough with the quilts she brought for her trunk show that I purchased this tool.  I will admit though that I've only used it once:  back in 2010 when I made this doll quilt for an Aunt of mine:

I had applied blue piping around the edge of that quilt instead of a traditional binding because I wanted the blue fabric for the binding edge but felt a traditional binding would be too strong on it.  The blue piping was just enough.  Ironically, when I pulled out the piping tool package, inside of it was a remnant of that same piping!  The fabric I had used had faded quite a bit but fortunately for me it was still blue enough and the piece long enough to be perfect for use in this project.  That meant I didn't even have to make more piping!

Unfortunately, at one point I did try to work on some quilt projects and that further filled my already cluttered cutting table (which I was supposed to clean off in prep of layering a quilt).  When I finally tried to go back to working on the cross stitch finish, I couldn't find my scrap of piping!  I can't figure out where it has gotten to.  I expect I might have picked it up along with some other fabric I was working with.  I've turned over a lot of piles and looked through things that had visited the table but still can't locate it.  Sigh!  

I'm really hoping it turns up but if not,  fortunately I have more of the cording that came with the tool so I can make more piping.  It also tells me that I have too much going on right now so need to focus more on just a few things!

To check out what everyone has been doing with their slow stitching projects, head back over to Kathy's Quilts to see what others have reported for this week's "Slow Sunday Stitching" share session!