My August piece is complete. The theme for my piece this month was Friends. I am following Kathryn at K3NClothTales - Comfort Coverlet 2025.
I finished the background in running stitch and white thread.
A reminder of my friends and how much they mean to me.
I have no plan for September yet as I have been unpacking for ages.
I am sure inspiration will provide something.
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.
I chose a mottle blue piece of cotton fabric which I invisible basted to a thin cotton foundation layer.
I chose to create a tea bag and tag which adds a border around my square.
The tea bag has been running stitch around the edge of it with seed stitches towards the bottom to represent the tea.
The green tag is at the other end onto which I added TEA lettered in turquoise.
The string was embroidery with stem stitch in a grey floss.
This is week 3 of the Comfort Coverlet Slow Stitching 2025 project hosted by K3N Cloth Tales.
I continued to work on this January piece by adding the frame. I used 2 strands of green embroidery floss with a running stitch.
I stayed 1 inch away from the outside edge to allow for assembly later on.
I added the seed stitching in the four corners with ecru pearl cotton.
Another extra square of slow stitching. I have used up the supplies I had packed for being away so I will have to dig out some more.
White cotton top layer on a foundation piece. I did not learn my lesson about now covering the front with fabric as well which makes for a thick piece. In all fairness, I did not have a plan when I started.
I chose strips of purple fabric in various patterns. I stitched the horizontal lines first in running stitch with purple thread from the ORTS tin.
Then I did the vertical ones with bright pink thread. Along the way I had found the lace flower I had dyed a while back and decided to use it.
I tacked it in place then added a purple circle which I over cast stitched to the piece. Then I added a lot of French Knots in yellow in the middle of that. That was very thick with 4 layers of fabric. Turned out nice.
Another Extra Square for my slow stitching project.
I decided on a landscape composition. I invisilbe stitched my white layer to my foundation layer.
I added a couple of pieces of blue for the sky with a yellow sun.
Two grey mountains and a green layer of trees.
A deeper blue layer at the bottom of lake and a brown piece for land.
Mostly running stitches on these pieces. A bit of seed stitching.
I did triangles on the green for trees but it is not very visible.
Sewing Group
I have joined a group who meets to do sewing the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month.
The last group shut down when the pandemic hit and our leader moved away.
I got a call in early October to attend the first meeting. We brainstormed who we could find from the old group to invite? What was the purpose of the group? When were we going to meet?
A women's group. Tradition quilting is the focus but all are welcome with whatever project they are working on.
We will meet from 10 to 12 Noon then have lunch together for fellowship.
I missed the last meeting due to commitments here at home and made it for a bit of lunch.
Today, was our third meeting and fortunately I was able to attend. With most of my stuff packed I brought my slow stitching. The 2024 challenge will produce 53 pieces about I think I need 56 for the project so there is room for a few free lance pieces. I pull some fabric bits, some foundation pieces, my tools box and the floss box and a bit of lunch and headed out. It was a great time. Three of the ladies are working on their own traditional quilting projects, another brought knitting and me with my slow stitching. We shared our projects and then 3 of us had lunch together it was great.
I cut my foundation pieces 5.5 inches square from white cotton - top white and the bottom stained. I brought pink fabric scraps and some green. I cut the petals and leaves, pinned the pieces and stitched them down. Added the yellow center circle with running stitch and French Knots. I added blue seed stitches to the upper part of the background then some green below. A bit of a brown strip at the bottom. I think it was supposed to be ground but now it's just a random element/.
K3N Cloth Tales Slow Stitching Challenge 2024.
Week 45 - Kantha Stitches
I made a sandwich of thin linen, gauze in the middle and cotton on the back. I did invisible basting around the edge and down the middle.
I chose heavier thread for all of these and it made it harder at times.
I liked the double running stitch in blue and pink thread.
I was familiar with the stem stitch though I made my stitches too long. In deep pink thread.
The cable stitch = French Knot and a chain stitch. I several several and had a heck of a time taking them out with all those knots. I just settled for the chain stitch in yellow thread.
K3N Cloth Tales Slow Stitching Challenge 2024.
Week 43 - Sensory Stitching
This week's focus is using our senses when stitching.
The sense of touch as we are stitching. How does it feel when the needle and thread goes through different fabric? Elements to excite our sight as we see our piece. Do we hear the needle as it goes through stiff fabric?
I chose a black fabric with a hint of herringbone texture to it.
I added the couched yarn, the button, the pom pom trim, the lace, the corduroy and the netting for my fingers.
The button and colors for my eyes.
The taffeta fabric below the button certainly engaged my ears as the needle went through that fabric. Also there was printing on the piece of white tone on tone fabric in the bottom left hand corner and as I put in my seed stitches it was more difficult to push through the printed areas.
K3N Cloth Tales 2024 Slow Stitch challenge.
Week 42 - From the Same Cloth - Pulling Threads and Running Stitch.
This is a piece pale yellow linen.
I pulled thread from the bottom area and stitched them into the cloth above.
Lovely finished piece and a very simple process.
K3N Cloth Tales Slow Stitching Challenge.
Week 41 - Scrapplique
I did an odd number of circles which were cut by hand with no template.
I dug in the stash and found my background fabric and selected a foundation layer.
Then I chose 5 cloths and made the circle to match the size of the scrap. Folded in quarters and just cut from edge to edge. I did a bit of extra trimming as needed.
I love the colors.
Now, Kathryn had indiciated we should cut out the back of the image to reduced bulk but I just was on rote and had blind basted before I knew it. I was not prepared to undo that. It did make stitching a bit tough towards the end.
Just thinking about it just this morning I could have cut out the middle before I stitched the next circle. It is what it is.
For this set of coasters I decided to use stab stitch in other words just pushing the needle straight up and down in hopes of duplicating the pattern on both sides.
I pulled my knot through the 2 side seams into the middle between the layers. A bit tricky.
I started with the little red crosses which I positioned based on a 4" stencil.
Then I chose a round object and aligned as best as I could and then stitched in running stitch all the way around in yellow.
I chose a navy thread for the center star. It was harder to align perfectly.
This week's prompt in the K3N Cloth Tale's Slow Stitching challenge is "Nature of Cloth".
Kathryn explored her bundle of fabric. How does it feel? Does it pass the needle test? Does it ravel? Does it have texture?
Once we had selected our fabrics then we were to make a fabric collage.
I chose a corduroy, wool plaid, orange cotton, yellow cotton and a small triangle of mustard colored silk.
I placed a circle of stitching around the intersection of these fabric pieces. Then random running stitching, seed stitching, with a sprinkling of French Knots. This was a lot of fun to make.
I made this coaster for my sister who is celebrating a birthday.
She likes to fly kites so I decided to put one on this coaster.
I cut a 4x4 inch foundation fabric. I cut my blue sky piece and then my felt pieces for the hills in green. I cut a cloud. These pieces were basted to the foundation layer. Then stitched with a running stitch and a coordinating embroidery floss.
I cut a piece of interfacing for the kite and then cut the 4 colored quadrants and stitched them onto it. Once complete I stitched it to the coaster and added the kite tail.
I chose a white felt for the back, white embroidery floss and the blanket stitch to hold the front and back layers together.