Stitching in the Park

 Last Friday we spent a lovely afternoon stitching at Lakeview Park in south Oshawa. We brought our chairs and some brought tables, lunch, drinks, and snacks. We sat under the trees and stitched and gabbed for hours. It was so nice to spend time with other humans, albeit spaced 2m+ apart. We decided to do it again yesterday - excellent weather was forecast. 

We set up south of the Jubilee Pavilion on the lawn. 

Judy brought her adorable puppy, Maggie Mae, (didn't make the photo) who behaved beautifully. Also pictured are Jeanette, Marion, and Siobhain.

Jennifer looked relaxed in her nifty folding chair with built-in footstool. Marilyn worked on her stitching project.

Barb got a wonderful new sock pattern book and spent the afternoon knitting. 

Trish stitched in the lovely sunshine. 

This week the weather is a bit cooler. Even a sunny day makes it wonderful for sitting outside. We hope to get together again before we have to huddle inside for the winter.

I highly recommend outdoor visits with folks you like spending time with as long as the weather holds out. If it's cool but sunny, dress a little warmer and enjoy the sun's rays. Many of us have hit the 6-month 'wall' dealing with living in a pandemic. Here are a few ways to power through it. I am summarizing an article in the UK Metro newspaper.

1. Give yourself things to look forward to. A walk, a visit with friends, some online shopping?

2. Identify your overriding goals and values. Make a list of small things you can do every day and tackle them.

3. Set boundaries on news and social media. Take a step back for an hour or a day. Read a book. Send an email. Let someone know you're thinking of them. Go visit someone who lives alone on their patio or deck or invite them to yours.

4.    Clear out. Tackle a drawer or cupboard. Sort your photos. Delete unnecessary emails and photos from your phone or computer. Get rid of stuff in your closet you have 'outgrown'.

5. Keep making plans. This ties into #1 as well. Focus on what you CAN do and do it.

6. Practice gratitude. Think of lots of things you are grateful for. It can really help you stay more positive.

7. If you're really struggling, speak to someone. Reach out to friends and family. Reach out to your GP. You may be isolated but there are lots of folks who care about you.

Stay healthy.

Plugging Away

I continue working on the Quaker alphabet sampler.

Somehow I got out a stitch in a couple of places but the motifs are spaced so far apart it has been easy to 'fudge' it. As long as the alphabet goes around in a square and the motifs are more or less where they're supposed to be, it'll work out.

I have been fussy cutting the threads, taking the bright red out. I don't mind some gradations and am being careful to start the next thread with the same gradient as what I left off with so there aren't any sudden colour changes mid-motif. I'm not sure how I will FFO this piece; whether I frame it, make a pillow out of it, or sew it into a project bag or some other useful item.

Today is the first day of autumn - my favourite season. I like the sunny, bright days and cool, crisp nights. I have a few decorations up and a bunch to dig out and display around the house.

I have a couple of autumnal stitched pieces that I could finish stitching and FFO as well. I just don't seem to have a lot of motivation to do much of anything. It could be that the isolation has really turned me into a hermit and has sucked the energy out of me. Last Friday we did enjoy the stitching day at Jeanette's last Friday and hope we can do that again soon.

Day after tomorrow Skip and I will do a Costco run and perhaps later take a scenic drive north of the ridges to see some fall colours. I'm so itching to get away for a couple of days but Skip is really nervous about staying anywhere but at home,

In the meantime, I heard back from Teresa about some pattern changes and will pick up the stealth sampler again and get more done on it. 

I've been watching a lot of farm videos on YouTube lately. It's harvest time so everyone is really busy prepping and maintaining the equipment so there are no breakdowns during the harvest. I'm sure it's very satisfying to get the crops in whether they're to feed livestock for the next year or to sell at market. The videos I watch by a shepherd, Sandi Brock, in SW Ontario have been lots of fun as lambing was last week and another bunch of ewes will lamb starting in a few days. The little lambs are so cute! This time of year, Sandi is also helping her husband, Mark, with harvest so it's a really busy time at Shepherd Creek Farms. 

I have also been watching FlossTube videos by Brenda and the Serial Starter, Teresa Kogut, Stitching in the Barn, Saltbox Stitcher, and Jean Farish. Jean just started publishing videos last month and puts one out every Sunday. They're quite informative about specific stitching techniques.

This morning, I browsed through my digital issues of The Gift of Stitching, printing several of the projects I'd like to start some day. The Australian magazine was always digital and was published monthly from 2006 to 2012.  The editor shut it down due to Internet piracy. I was familiar with the magazine way back when and had purchased a couple of issues, then was really bummed out when it disappeared and until recently was unable to purchase back issues. Now they're available for download. That's where I found the pattern for the Quaker alphabet mentioned above.

 

Taking a Break

I have been exclusively stitching on the Teresa Kogut piece since I got it a couple of weeks ago. I'm at a spot where I'm waiting to hear back from her so I thought I'd take a little break from the piece and start another that I had on my 'wish list'.

A while back I bought the entire run of The Gift of Cross Stitching - a digital Australian cross stitch magazine that came out from February 2006 to June 2012. 

Sadly, the editor stopped publishing because of all the Internet piracy. I remember having a subsciption for a year and was really bummed out when it disappeared and even back issues became unavailable. Then, via a Facebook ad I learned that all the issues were available on .pdf.

I have enjoyed going through the issues and have bookmarked several of the projects that appealed to me. 

Last night I started Willie's Quaker Square #7 with DMC 115, a variegated red thread and am stitching on 40ct Platinum linen. This is from the June 2008 Issue #27

I'm stitching 1 over 2.

I wasn't really happy with the bright red that appeared so I am selecting darker areas. I may pick out the bright red part and stitch it with a less bright section of thread.

The linen is lovely to work with. When finished the piece will be about 7.5" square. Now all I need is an 8" square frame.

Yesterday, 10 of us met outdoors again in Jeanette's front yard for a stitching day. It was coolish so we all knew to bundle up. Pictured are Siobhain, Barbara, Marilyn and me. Carol, Sue, Barb, Jeanette, Jenn, Alda and Yvonne, although not pictured, were also in attendance. 

It was quite cool in the shade so we moved over to a sunny area and after a while we started peeling off layers of clothing. Jeanette even had microwave hand warmers for us if we felt we needed them. It's going to be such a bummer when the weather makes it too uncomfortable to visit outdoors. Until then, we are going to try to get together as often as we can. We also visit twice a week online on Facebook Messenger but visiting in person, albeit from 2+metres away, is much better. 

Sue recently bought a 12' longarm quilting machine and was interested on learning and practicing her skills on it. I remembered I've had a quilt top and back all ready to be quilted and sitting in a cupboard for almost 3 decades. I dropped it off at her place the last time we met at Jeanette's (they live in the same town), suggested a few patterns for the centre part, and invited her to try whatever she liked on the two borders. 

She had it ready to return to me yesterday. Her great machine quilting isn't really visible but it's done. All I need to do is trim off the batting, trim the backing to the right distance and fold it over and hand sew it as binding around the edge. This would probably fit a queen size bed.

I have no idea if I'll use it as it doesn't match anything in the house but I'm glad to have it so close to being finished.

In that same cupboard, I have another bunch of maple leaf quilt blocks that I pieced at least 10 years ago, before I purchased my Bernina machine. It was a kit I purchased from Connecting Threads. I recall that I just need to applique the stems of the leaves on the blocks, sew the blocks together, and find a backing fabric. 

This Came Today!

A couple of weeks ago Teresa Kogut asked if I minded doing another stitching model for her - this time on dark fabric. I told her I was fine with that. On her last FlossTube channel (or maybe the one before) she mentioned she had sent a couple of projects off to her stitchers. 

I hadn't received anything by yesterday so I emailed her asking for the tracking number so I could monitor the package's progress from MI to ON. The last one she sent me took 7 weeks to get here.

She emailed me at about noon saying it had been delivered! Whoop de doo! It only took a week to get here.

I can give you a sneak peak at the 40ct fabric and threads.

Of course I had to drop everything and start it. After a few rows out from the centre I decided to do a bit of gridding, just to make sure I stay on track. 1 over 2 on 40ct is a pain to pick out if mistakes are made.

There's a LOT of stitching in this one but I'll just keep plugging away at it. I think it might be one of the charts for release at next year's Market - if there even is one.