2026 Slow Stitching Project - Page 28 - N2 - Notan and Navy

Working on the slow stitch project hosted by K3N Cloth Tales for 2026.  We are working through the alphabet A-Z. We are working on the second prompt of the letter N.

This one came together so much faster than the last one.

I chose yellow and Navy which is one of my favorite color combo's.   The prompt was Notan which is a Japanese design concept that translates to "light-dark harmony". It focuses on the balance and interaction between positive (light) and negative (dark) spaces.

I cut 2 piece of fabric the same size then traced a circle in the middle and cut it out. Switched the pieces into the other space and stitched them to my white book page.

Love it!

Technical Pen Refurbished #2

I found another Staedtler marmagno 2 technical pen in my stash of pens. Amazing.

I have picked up these pens second hand.  They looked like quality pens. 

Yes, it took another 24 hours to clean out this one cartridge of ink so I could refill it.

I have not been able to find out what the numbers mean or when they were manufactured.

This one makes a very thin line. 

The number 1 on one side and .45 on the other side.

I decided to try this FW acrylic ink which indicates on the bottle that it can be used in technical pens.

I have several colors but chose Sepia to have a neutral.  I would have liked black but I decided to shop my stash instead of buying new.

You see that permanence is 4**** which is good. I will test it out a bit later.

So here is my set up once the cartridge was cleaned.

I put some FW Sepia acrylic ink in this small glass container.  I did add 8 drops of distilled water to thin it out a bit.

I injected it into the cartridge with my blunt syringe and screwed the nib in place.

Put it into the barrel and let it stand for a little bit to allow the ink to descend into nib assembly.

I discovered this feature this second time around. Last time I used pliers top loosen the nib.

The cap has the wrench to loosen the nib!  What a cool thing.  

These are very well engineered pens.

Yes, the Sepia acrylic ink is waterproof.

You can see the writing I did with the pen once the ink was coming through the nib.

I just washed over with a water and a brush.

No movement.

Very good!

Slow Stitching - No. 002

I finished my 2nd piece of slow stitching.

I am following Katherine at K3NClothTales on You Tube and Instagram. 

The prompt for this week is Balance - Light & Dark.

I chose 2 heavier fabrics in my favorite color combo - yellow and navy blue. I aligned the join on the center line of my 4 inch foundation fabric, pinned it and did whip stitches in both colors - yellow first then black next.

I traced the circle for the sun with a spool of thread then with a darker and brighter yellow embroidery thread 3 strands I stitched the half circle with back stitch and the rays with running stitch.

I added white stars to the navy bottom half.  The fabric was unraveling so I added a blanket stitch all the way around the outside edge with thread that matched the fabric color.

Sewing Project - UnPaper Towels - Batch 1

I was working on reusable wrapping before our Christmas celebration.  I did not have the material I needed for tea towels so I discovered these.  UnPaper Towels made with flannel instead of terrycloth.  I had some flannel in stock so I set off to work it out.

Fortunately, the fabric I had was a quite dark grey in a herringbone pattern.  It was 100% cotton made in Portugal. Beautiful stuff. I decided to maximize the fabric I had so I cut my pieces 10 x 10 inches square. I zigzagged the edges as I only have a sewing machine.  A serger would be ideal for this task. 

They can be any size that works for wiping up messes.  I think that one should have light and dark ones for different kinds of messes.  I heard of a person who had color coded ones in her house.  One color for counters and another for floors and still another for pet messes. Whatever works.

The great thing about the flannel ones is that they just stick together so you can wrap them offset on an old paper towel roll.  The roll can just then be put where the paper towels were dispensed from before.  

I think a set of 10 works nicely which I hope gets one from one laundry day to the next.

I have purchased some light flannel and plan on making sets of 5 dark 5 light.

They could also be placed in a basket on the counter or in a drawer.  They should be individually folded so they are easily reached.