Slow Stitching - August 2025 - Week 3

Comfort Coverlet 2025 - August - Week 3.

My theme for this month is Friends.  

I have diecut fabric with my Bigshot machine from fabric which I associate with each of these friends.

I have started a running stitch background around the stars with a matching colored floss.

Slow Stitching - August 2025 - Week 2

Comfort Coverlet 2025 - August - Week 2.  Project hosted by Kathryn at K3N Cloth Tales.

My theme for August is Friends. I die cut seven stars to represent some of my friends. I chose colors which I associate with them.

I continue to stitch down the stars to my foundation layer.  I have used running stitch, French Knots, blanket stitch and representations of stars designed by me.

I am thinking of what the stitching will be on the background.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I heard this Downy Woodpecker long before I saw him. He was pecking away at this telephone pole in the neighborhood.

It was a nice morning and I had a good walk around this area.

I am reluctant to head into the river valley after the hooligans I encountered last summer.

It is time to be somewhere else.

When We Were Sisters by Emilie Richards is the book I finished this week.

This is a story of foster sisters who lived in the same home for a while and forged a bond under difficult circumstances.

Cecilia and Robin vowed they would be the sisters they never had.

Robin has an accident which compels her to look at her life and decides to join Cecilia on a passion project about foster care.  She will be the photographer on the project. They will revisit good places and not so good places and relive experiences they have buried deep in order to move on.

Robin's husband is not impressed that he must shoulder the home duties while Robin is away. he comes to appreciate the work, the love and the investment to get to know his kids. He thought he just needed to make the money but it is not so.

Cecilia has money, fame and needs to work out who her friends are.  Excellent read.

With all the rain we have had recently the rust on the metal plates in the windows of this empty building is developing overtime.

I love the colors, the textures and over pattern the dripping water has created over time.

I had a friend over for tea this week.  

It`s been nice to have the place all put together again after the new floor and renovations.

We had a great chat and 3 hours just disappeared.

This House Sparrow was foraging for seeds in the parking lot of a nearby building.

You can see how small he is next to the tire.

He was quite hard to catch because he kept moving.  Don`t imagine there is a lot to eat on pavement.

I caught his eye. 

I was lucky to be lower than the parking lot so I was not on my hands and knees taking this shot.

It was a unique perspective.

Slow Stitching - No. 013 - Friendship Star

The prompt for week 13 of the slow stitch challenge 2024 at K3N Cloth Tales was  Friendship with a nine patch square as the technique hence a Friendship Star.

I am not a traditional quilter so nine patch is something I have not done before. Then to make on a small scale and hand stitch it was another level of challenge.

I started with 2 inch squares but somewhere along the way I ended up with extra fabric I had to cut off the the center square was a bit too big.  Math is not my strong point.

Friends are important.

I chose to put the print on the star and the aqua on the surrounding squares. I then added the yellow and teal strips around the square to make it work better when I put these squares into a project at the end of the year.  Once the nine patch was done, I added a white cotton layer on the back and id the top stitching.  Really happy with this piece.

Card - Friendship

I made this card for a challenge on one of my on-line groups.  The challenge is was to make a friendship card.
I printed the birthday greeting on the white card before I cut the Friend letters with the Stampin Up Little Letters thin-lits. I cut the white layer to 3.75 x 5.00". I paired it with one of my alcohol ink backgrounds from this session. The background was cut at 5.25 x 4.00" and glued it to the card front.  I added a strip of Washi Tape across the centre of the card. Over that, I added some silk flowers in bright pink and deep purple held in place with a black brad. This layer was then adhered to the card front with 3D foam tape which creates great shadows in the Friend word.

Card - Friend - Washi Tape

I made these cards for my monthly card exchange.

I started with a white layer 3.75 x 5.00 inches.  I stamped the village scene from Stampendous in black near the bottom edge.  I chalked the image. I stamped the word Friends with a clear stamp and VersaFine Onyx ink. I chose 3 Washi tapes, different in width, color and pattern. I started with the widest, turquoise dots on the outside followed by yellow chevron then black stripes to repeat the black in the stamping. I ripped their ends to be irregular and brought the other ends to the back of the layer. I layered it on a piece of yellow card stock at bit larger then onto a black card.

I'm submitting the card to City Crafter Challenge - Washi Tape Challenge 251 which I discovered through Darnell at djkarkkreations.  She is the guest there for March.

Here's my second card. I thought I would change it up a bit. I chose grey dots, pink floral and yellow stripes for the Washi tapes.  I water colored the image this time but it really warped my paper so I had to steam and press to get it flattened.

Coaster Calendars - Vellum Sentiments - More

I made a lot more coaster calendars. Here a few more of the different ones I made.  I made some golf ones, some friendship ones as well as general ones.  You will see on the purple friendship one I designed some sentiments in ovals.  The down side is they had to be cut by hand so I only made a few of them.