Cross Stitch
Back in January I decided to make another "Year Of The...." piece that celebrates the new spirit animal for the Chinese New Year. I had started making these in 2023 after seeing that Pat Sloan was going to make one. Each year I made them using the patterns designed by The Frosted Pumpkin ladies.
Admittedly, I embarked on this year's piece to warm up to returning to another cross stitch project that I had stalled on back in November.
Ironically the one I made for this year was also inspired by seeing one that Pat was going to do. This time she had found a free pattern that Maja of The Snowflower Diaries had offered on her Patreon account. I welcomed the opportunity to make another New Year celebration stitch but in a different style. So I started this one towards the end of January.....
...and finished it up at the end of February. I stitched on it before, during and on the drive home from our two week visit (and mini quilt retreat) with my MIL that month. I also picked two fabrics (one for the front and one for the back) for the "fully finishing" step:
However, I eventually decided to only use one of them for both sides and to frame the center using reverse applique. When I went to actually stitch it, I decided that it needed "a little something more" so decided to add beads around the frame.
I took those from this old jewelry making kit I had on hand because I felt the beads would be easy to replace if need be.
I long ago stopped getting kits from this monthly club as I never did as much jewelry making as I thought I would. Considering how long I've had this kit, I'm doubtful replacing them may ever actually happen, LOL! But as with hand work, I've learned to never say never!!
As with the others, I did a pillow finish on this one. Now I can call this one done and display it as we continue to watch the passage of this year!
English Paper Piecing (EPP)
The other project I focused on was stitching down some "Hexie Snowflake" blocks to their backgrounds. I had started this project back in 2021 as part of the "Blue & White" Christmas quilt decorating scheme I had decided to do that year.
My plan was to do a four block version of Edyta Sitar's "Snowflake" EPP design. It was also part of my continuing obsession with her Laundry Basket Quilts designs that started during the pandemic.
It took me until the start of 2022 to finish stitching all the hexies in each Snowflake together. Since then they have sat waiting to be stitched down to their backgrounds. I decided I wanted to finish this one up both as part of the "decluttering challenge" I did at the start of this year and because I realized this project now also worked for "Blue & White Winter/early Spring" quilt decorating.
I was surprised by how well it went as I thought all of that "stitching around the hexie edges" would be a real bear but it wasn't. Turned out to be great for doing while watching TV! So three are now completely done.
The papers have been removed from the fourth one:
And stitching is underway on it:
As I noted in a previous post two helpful tools for each of those processes was my "Sixth Finger Stilletto" for removing the papers and the "Under Thimble" for the stitching work. Both are available from Colonial Needle.
Not to mention I think I've finally completely overcome the aversion I had to hand work when I first started quilting. Now I heartily welcome opportunities to do some!
If you feel the same then you will love seeing all the projects being done by everyone that gathers at Kathy's Quilts each week when they share what's on their lap during their "Slow Sunday Stitching" sessions!
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