YouTube Stitching Stars, Flicker Blocks, Slow Stitching

 It is happening, the lengthening of the days I mean. It is already noticeable but of course, we are still under banks of snow and will be for several more months. March can be our snowiest month here so I won't be seeing buttercups any time soon. But still, the tiny steady slivers of extra light each day add up. 

And I finally managed a photo to show why this fellow is called an Eastern Cottontail. Isn't it cute! I called all rabbits "bunny rabbits" growing up. Did you?

Slow stitching- I should say really slow stitching has me at this point now on What Remains is Love. This photo shows the true colour of this linen and it suits the floss colours very well. That's my butterfly mug, a gift from grandson,Jack, who I'm so happy to say is doing really well these days. 

Thank you to those who mentioned to me this block below is called the Flicker block. I will call them that from now on. So here are my latest Flicker blocks using up green scraps too and my eye is drawn to more flowery fabrics... thinking of blossoms I guess. 

These work well with an assembly line kind of thing in the sewing room.  In reality, I'm using up just scraps, but inexplicably, the bin is still just as full. I have never heard anyone say And that was the very last of my scraps. :)

I watched this episode of Red Velvet Quilts on Youtube yesterday. This was a flosstube video but Carrie is a very talented stitcher and shares her quilting too. If I haven't already mentioned, you should check out her episode where she shares her quilting kits. It's a great way to see what's available from many sites.

 Carrie showed her fancy tea warming cup/thermos thingy and I thought that's neat so I looked it up on Amazon. It is a great idea but comes with a hefty price tag. I guess it would make a good gift sometime. That made me think of my old grandparents who, in my younger years, had a wood stove in the kitchen that they used for both heating and cooking. It had a shelf above with a door you lifted and where you could put food to keep warm. It also had a water tank on one end so you could always have warm water. And you could also place your teapot and cup there to keep your tea warm. It was connected to a brick chimney that went through a bedroom above the kitchen and into the roof so upstairs got one very cosy bedroom too. All this for the price of your own labour cutting wood. How far we've come from those days ( like me checking out a $139 tea warmer) and, as the old timers would say, are we any better off???

And that made me think about how I've always wanted to stitch the famous Dear Jane quilt. Whenever I think of sadly bedridden Jane, I picture her in an upstairs bedroom in a house like that of my grandparents. The Dear Jane book does not seem to be widely available, not even in a library. I really don't understand that, what with the runaway popularity of that project throughout the years and even today. 

Lots of stitchers have shared their Dear Jane journey on YouTube and in fact, a number are doing so just now. Jaynes' Stitches is one who is stitching the blocks using various methods and sharing tutorials.

I just thought I wonder what that smell is. I'd completely forgotten I'm making chicken soup and put the carcass in the crock pot which is doing its thing. Oh my. What can I say. Luckily some days I still seem to be sharper than others. 

I do hope you are staying alert, minding your stoves and keeping your stitchy fingers flying.

So happy to share this post with wonderful linky parties...The Inquiring Quilter,  Creations Quilts Art and Alycia Quilts. Thank you all for hosting!