The House quilt is finished!!

 Over the weekend I managed to finish off my house quilt (41' x 64") which features a panel of houses which were slow stitched to a fabric collage of blue, green and brown.  I added a polyester batting (green blanket)  and a cotton backing in taupe.  I am really happy how well it went together.  I tried using the walking foot I inherited from my Mom but it kept undoing the screw on my needle so after breaking a needle I just gave it up and went back to just straight stitching.  I bound the edges with the backing and ran two rows of straight stitching all the way around.  I washed it again to ensure that all was good with the stitching.  I now only have one quilt top left to finish off before I can move on to a new project.  I do have quite a few possibilities so it will be fun to think about them for the next bit.  I am still slow stitching cats.  Therese

Slow Stitching - mending a coat lining

Yet more slow stitching that was really mending.  DH loves this winter coat and uses it all winter when he is working outside or in his workshop.  You can see from the photo below that the lining has worn through in several places and he wondered if there was anything that could be done to extend the life of his coat.  I decided to patch the areas that were affected with some slow stitching.  It would have been very impractical to do it any other way but relatively simple to add a patch and hand stitch it into place.  I used some brown polyester fabric and cut patches that would cover the affected areas then stitched them into place with orange polyester sewing thread (doubled).  This will definitely save this coat for a few more years.  

This is similar to the Japanese process called Boro Mending where Sashiko stitching is used to add patches to clothing.  The process of repeated mending takes on an artistic asthetic which can be very beautiful.    Therese

 

Slow Stitching - mending a sweater

I did some slow stitching this week to mend a sweater.  The patches on this sweater have raw edges and simple line of stitching to keep them in place.  With some wear and washing the raw edges are pulling away from the stitching so I used some dark mending wool to stitch two rows all the way around the edges of the patches in hopes that will keep them from raveling.  Slow stitching is relaxing regardles of the project.  Therese