Saturday, July 10, 2021
New Patterns and Some Stitching
Monday, June 21, 2021
Switching to a New Email Subscriber Service
Good Monday morning
I wrote my first blog post here in August 2008. At some point I added the box over on my sidebar that allowed you to subscribe to my posts by email. In the past Blogspot has used Feedburner to allow you to get notices when I post here on my blog. But for some reason, Feedburner is going away.
So I've signed up with a service called Follow It. You will probably have to confirm your subscription again since I'm using a new service.
The email will be from follow.it.
When you open the email, it will look like this. Click the link in the green bar, and you will continue to receive updates from my blog.
If you are a blogger and haven't switched over from Feedburner yet, email Follow It. When you click that link and their page opens up, there is a box that pops up at the bottom that says "Send us a message." They were very helpful and emailed back and forth with me until I (hopefully) have made the switch. I believe Feedburner is going away on July 1, and if you don't switch to another service, you will lose your subscribers.
Those of you that follow me, thank you. I'll be back later today or tomorrow with a quilt/cross stitch post.
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Patriotic, Wreats and Hexagons - Checking In
I've been doing mostly counted cross stitch for the last several months. Lately, I've been thinking about pulling out my hexagons and starting a new project. More on that later.
Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
I hope you are finding some time to stitch today!!!
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Welcome Back
Hello Everyone If you are a returning visitor, I'm glad you're here. And, welcome to new readers that have found me. I guess I haven't posted since blogger switched to this new format, and it was a stretch for me to get the photos into my blog. Hopefully they will publish at the right size.
This is one of the quilts that I made last year. This is a pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew, and it was a fun, easy stitch. The Welcome sign came from Joyfully Said in Middlebury, Indiana. I'm really missing my annual fall trip to that area of our state, and I know those of you that gather in Shipshewana for our Jane Stickle retreat are missing our time together, too.
Saturday, May 2, 2020
Are You Stitching?
Right now most all of us are in some stage of a stay at home order or quarantine. So I'm wondering if you are stitching and being productive or if you're in the same boat as me. I seem to flit from one project to another and can't seem to settle on anything that will hold my interest for more than 10 minutes. It really irritates me that I have all of this time on my hands and can't seem to focus. I have to tell you that I really admire all of you out there that are plowing through your UFO pile and finishing things.
You already know that there's a whole range of emotions that go along with everything going on. My friend, Val, sent me a funny message the other day that she found on the internet:
I've joined along with a number of you, and I'm making masks. The first few I made were from Patriotic fabric. Then I read an article where batiks were a stronger fabric and would be better to use for masks. I also read where there should be a different fabric on each side so when someone wears the mask, takes it off, and puts it back on they can tell which side was nearest their face.
If any of you are making masks, you know there is some elastic to be found now, but not much. At first there wasn't any. So I pulled out my bias tape maker and made ties. That is really time consuming. And you're wondering what the problem was with that because I had the time. I don't have a good answer for that...... I can tell you that I find the mask making process just a bit depressing. Some days it's really depressing. I know that there are people out there that want and need these, so I keep making them. At first I made a few masks and then I'd make a box of ties with my bias maker and then complete the mask.







Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Doing Lots of Hand Work
The basket below is the one I'm working on. It's almost finished.
You can see in the photo above that I'm using a product called Transfer Eze to do my embroidery.

Transfer-Eze (no affiliation) is an easy way to transfer an intricate design onto your fabric. You simply place the design in your copier and a piece of Transfer Eze in the paper tray. Then you peel the backing off of the transfer Eze sheet that has been printed with your pattern and stick it to your fabric. The sticky part is very light, but if your needle begins to drag all you have to do is clean the needle. Those little bottles of hand sanitizer come in handy for this. It's available at your local quilt shop or from an on line source.

This is the Antique Baskets pattern. The pattern was copyrighted in 2015. That's just over 4 years ----not long enough to be officially labeled a UFO.
Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Fussy Cutting Class Fun

In these photos, I show you how you can fussy cut a hexagon. This is the same hexagon, but in this second photo the hexagon pieces have been turned 180 degrees. When you baste your hexagon pieces, take time to audition them in different arrangements. Sometimes you end up sewing the pieces together in a different way than you intended when cutting. I call that a "happy accident". In the photo above, you end up with the white lines creating a secondary design that forms a wonky star. In the hexagon below, at first glance you see a white circle in the center. It all depends on which way you like the best. In fussy cutting there is no right or wrong way to sew a block together.

But in the second star you get a red flower in the center with a white star as a secondary design.


I sewed with Quilters United yesterday and turned in 30 Christmas stockings for next year, 12 burp pads and a few quilts made from kid friendly fabrics. I've been keeping pretty busy.
Here are the links on my blog to my fussy cutting tutorials:
Fussy Cutting Tutorial
http://luannsloosethreads.blogspot.com/2014/02/fussy-cutting-tutorial.html
Lucy Boston Framed Tutorial
http://luannsloosethreads.blogspot.com/2017/07/lucy-boston-framed-tutorial.html