Slow Sewing

The trendy term these days for hand stitching projects is “Slow Sewing.”  In the busy pace of life, it is a joy to slow down and create things with your own two hands. This summer I started a hexagon project using the English Paper Piecing technique of basting fabric around a cardstock template, then whip-stitching the pieces into larger shapes.

The traditional shape is a called Grandma’s Flower Garden.

I made a few of these (and I would love to swap more…check out the #hexiefriends on Instagram!) but, I have a hard time following the crowd at times. I decided to sew the hexies into a diamond shape

with the ultimate plan of making an Argyle pattern.

It was easy to make this diagram in EQ7. Under the Quilt tab, select One Patch Quilt, and it defaults to hexagons.  The layout is a bit skewed since I didn’t start coloring on the correct row.  My piece will be turned 90 degrees, but I didn’t figure out how to rotate the quilt in EQ7.  I’ll probably be working on this for the next 20 years!

Here is another project that I had to put my own spin on…the Mitered Square Blanket.  This example shows the standard layout.

image from Confessions of a Sockaholic, found through Google

I loved the idea of a multi-color project, so I chose a bunch of colors, but instead of making squares, I had the brilliant idea to use a layout called “Card Trick” where each color combination is found in 3 blocks and they look like an overlapping deck of cards.

The blocks were fun to knit…way back in 2008?!?!?  The seaming got the best of me, however, due to all those zig-zags.  I think I have all the groups of three seamed, and even a good chunk of larger sections.  When I glance at the box where this project is stored, I always think that if I just sewed one seam per day, I could finish it up…and then I pick up something else to work on!

What projects have you set aside?  Is it time to finish them or donate to someone who will?