Getting started on the July Chookshed challenge

My Chookshed challenge for July was to start the bird stitcheries. I bought this book at the festival of quilts in August 2024.

At the end of 2024 I decided to put these stitcheries on my list for this years challenge. I put them at number 9 and so this month I need to make a start on them. I decided to increase the side of the patterns to 120%. I printed out several patterns ready to transfer to the fabric.

I went through my stash to find some suitable fabric. 

and this is the one I'll be using. 

The first bird I'm going to be stitching is the green woodpecker.

Tomorrow I'll copy the pattern onto the fabric and get started. I going to be using DMC embroidery threads from my collection. I have a lot of thread I want to use up and I think I have all the colours I'll need for all the stitcheries. I'm looking forward to starting this project but I always get a little nervous. Although Kantha is all about running stitches I am worried I won't be able to make the stitches similar lengths or stitch them neatly. Isn't it interesting how starting a new project is exciting but can also make you nervous at the same time!

This evening I also drew two more sashiko patterns onto the Japanese quilt. These will be fun to stitch. I'm going to stitch this one tomorrow during my lunch break.

This one will take a little longer to do as what you see is just the top half of the pattern.

On Friday John and I will be going to Winchester to visit the Cathedral and also to have a walk to St Catherine's Hill. It should be a good day out. Saturday is my sewing day and I'm hoping to get a lot of quilting done on the dinosaur quilt.

Having got my slow stitching organised I'm off to bed as I have a busy day tomorrow at work. However busy it is I must remember to book some annual leave. Our leave runs from the beginning of September to the end of August and I have quite a lot of leave to take. I'll carry a week over to next year and try to fit the rest in.

Take care

Lyndsey