Three on Thursday – Hand Stitching

Hi friends! Last week I joined Carole to share Three on Thursday – a sewing and quilting edition. Today I want to share some hand stitching projects that have been lingering in my life. I have a habit of starting things and never finishing them – how about you? I have little baskets stashed all over the house with projects that are half finished (maybe some are only half started?) and I keep wondering when I’ll be able to finish them. Maybe this post is will be the beginning of that planning process.

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Most days I’m lucky to #sew on just one hexie. But hey – that’s one more hexie done! #epp #englishpaperpiecingeverywhere #englishpaperpiecing #sewing #quilt #quilting #quiltersofinstagram #bonnieandcamille

A post shared by Katie Gilley (@katiegilleynh) on Dec 14, 2018 at 3:32pm PST

I started cutting for this in January of 2014. I’m not kidding – and I can prove it because it was my very first Instagram post! I had no idea where I was going with it at the time. All I knew was that I wanted a handstitched quilt made out of Bonnie & Camille’s Scrumptious line. I’m close to finishing the top so I’d really like to see this through at some point! This IG picture commemorates the last time I worked on it – December 2018.

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I quickly stitched up these two Mandolin Quilt blocks in December of 2018 and haven’t returned to the project. I had big dreams for this project friends, big dreams. I’d joined Westwood Acres Liberty Club and decided to make a block a month with each installment. A quilt made of only Liberty of London fabrics?! What luxury! And then I overdrew our checking account and that was the end of the dream (too much information? Probably. But I’m trying to keep it real with you!). So I’m not sure where I’m going with this anymore. I’d almost like to wander Joanne’s and find some “liberty like” floral fabrics, but there’s no more wandering Joanne’s in our current state of the world! I still have enough Liberty fabric to make two more of these, so perhaps when I finish my Scrumptious quilt (above), then I can spend some time with this one again.

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Sunday morning progress! #mysterioushalloweentown #thefrostedpumpkinstitchery #crossstitch #xstitch #stitching

A post shared by Katie Gilley (@katiegilleynh) on May 31, 2015 at 5:43am PDT

I started this mystery cross stitch from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery in 2014. It’s not a mystery any longer – all of the clues have long since been revealed – yet my poor little Halloweentown is in a very sad state. In the process of being pregnant and having babies, I’d wanted to fill the upstairs hallway and their bedrooms with cross stitch – nursery rhymes, primer patterns, etc. Of course, it hasn’t happened. This Halloweentown is as far as I’ve gotten! I don’t think I’ll ever finish it, if I’m being honest. I love cross stitch, but it’s just a bit too tedious for me these days.

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You’ll notice that 2018 was the last time that I worked on a lot of my sewing projects because that’s the winter that I put away my sewing machine and all of my fabric. I’d decided that I was stretched way too thin and needed to focus. But it’s all spilling out again – my ability to focus is out the window and it feels like it will never come back. I know it will – patience is required in a pandemic! – but it feels like I’m flailing. On the other hand, it feels good to have a little motivation to finish up some long term projects that have been sitting around. Can you see how torn I am? I’m just going to go with the flow and do what feels right, without being too hard on myself to focus on any particular thing. Or I’m going to try!