More is just more...

Continuing with the 100 day stitch book challenge #stitchbookchallenge2026 hosted by Ann Wood.

I have a bunch of little left over triangles from another project. You know, those corners that are trimmed off and thrown in the trash. I could sew them together to make into 1" squares. Or I have dreams of stitching them to solid squares for a quilt, sort of like this quilt by Quilty Love. Of course, these would be much smaller squares than is used for that quilt, probably best for a mini quilt.

But that is sometime in the future. For now, I'll dip into the left over triange pile and use some in this little stitch book. I put as many as I could on the page. Day 6 was simply choosing colors and arranging and re-arranging the triangles onto the page and pinning in place.

On day 7, I started to stitch them down with a running stitch and black hand quilting thread. I decided about 1/2" between lines would be good.

I got a little bored stitching in the same direction. I tried a 90 degree turn, hoping to add some interest. I finished the running stitches on Day 8.  I noticed that with the stitching lines 1/2" apart, that left some of the edges flapping. I'll have to figure something out to get those stitched down.  

I forgot to take a picture on Day 9. I used the base of an Aurifil thread spool to randomly trace circles all over the surface and embroidered around each circle with different stitches with 2 strands embroidery floss. That took care of most of those loose edges I was concerned about.

To my eyes, and compared to the first page, this still looked very flat. The circles didn't pop out as much as I had imagined they would. I felt like something more was needed. But I didn't want to add fabric over the triangels, so for Day 10, I added embroidery stitches to the bottom of each triangle with 2 strands brownish embroidery floss.

It actually looks better in this picture. I can see the blue circles here, but in person they don't stand out as much. In the end, I feel like it's just a bunch of stitches. Which IS the idea of this challenge. But I think I am probably trying too hard to make it into something. I'll try to dial it back a little on the next page and let it be more organic and remind myself that more is not always better, sometimes more is just more.

Thanks for visiting and having a look at what I'm stitching on. I wish you sunshine and joy until next time!

"You Grow"

 I’m loosely participating in a 100 day stitch book challenge. #stitchbookchallenge2026 hosted by @annwood 

Ms. Ann has set the 100 day challenge to slow stitch for at least 15 minutes a day and 5 days per page. I can definitely do that! I stitch for hours most days, 15 minutes is nothing! I’m in 👍!!

This is a great opportunity to use the smaller pieces in my stash! Picking out page pieces was fairly easy because I figured it’s basically going to be a foundation that’s covered by stitching. Perfect for pieces that I’m not likely to choose to put into a quilt any time soon. I had all the pages cut out and ready to get started. 

But I soon learned it wasn't going to be that easy.
The next day, I sat I staring at that first blank page...  I had no idea what to stitch on it.
I felt like I was blank inside. nothing.

Ms. Ann Wood stitches beauty onto her pages with linens and rich earthy colors that create luscious texture. (https://www.annwoodhandmade.com/stitch-book-100-day-project/) 
I don’t really have linens or hand dyed fibers in my stash.
I'm calicos and prints, a lot of bright colors. How can I make my page look like Ms. Ann Woods sample?!
Honestly, I was doubting my decision to do this challenge.

That’s when I realized that the challenge is really about getting creative flow going. It’s about embracing MY own style of stitching. It’s about STARTING...

So, I reached into a scrap bin and pulled out a piece of fabric. The words “You” and “Grow” printed on the fabric seemed serendipitous and I thought, “how appropriate!” Day 1 was simply appliquéing that one piece. I didn't trim it or shape it, just needle turned it as it was. 

When I returned to it the next day, I was doubting my choice again. That single appliqué looked like a blob on the page. I wish I had been taking pics from the start and you could see what I mean.
How/what can I possibly add to make it flow.

I decided to use color and 3D texture.
A little bitty blue yo-yo that matched a blue in the You Grow piece and a folded hexagon.
I stitched those on and completed Day 2.

.            

The blue triangle on the left was next. Stitched raw edged with running stitches and quilting thread. Day 3.

By this time, I was really despairing. What a mishmash of shapes dropped onto my page.

Oh well. I’ve come this far… I have plenty of cut off triangles from other projects, I might as well drop more triangles onto my page. Placing the black triangle in the top corner seemed to balance the “You Grow” appliqué. I stitched it on with 2 strands of varigated yellow/orange embroidery floss and a variety of embroidery stitches. Day 4 (but I think I stopped counting.)

Wanting to continue with embroidery, I stitched hearts on the folded hexagon and blanket stitched with 2 strands black floss around the yo-yo (photos shown above). And needle turn appliquéd the pink triangle. Day 5. But before I left, I had visions of swirls and I finally felt I knew how to pull it all together. I drew them on for the next day.

It may have taken me 2 or 3 days to stitch the swirls. Two strands green embroidery floss for stem stitched vines and lazy daisy leaves. 2 strands light blue embroidery floss for pistol stitches. 2 strand red 50 wt aurifil thread for a little accent color.

I once again learned the lesson of trusting the process. Seeing that blank page and then stitching the first appliqué had me doubting that I could make it into something pleasing to my eye.

The thing is, I don't HAVE to know what the end will look like. The whole point is to just start! and trust that I will go somewhere. It doesn't matter where. 
I'll test ideas. I'll experiment. I'll discover.

In the process I will learn. I'll start recognizing what I like, what I don't like. 

When you work like this and trust the process... 

                

                                       "You Grow!!"

 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me. I'll try to get better progress pics as I stitch the next page.
Wishing you happiness in whatever growing you do.
See you soon!!

"home camping"

 Is "home camping" a thing?

We moved into our house on November 1st.  

We only had what we packed into our suitcases to fly to the Netherlands. Our household items are being shipped over. The latest update on delivery is 22nd of December, though it has been pushed back once.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed! 

In the meantime, we are living with the barest of essentials.
(...  oh, I know that's a bit dramatic. It's not the barest. Many have less. I am grateful that we are comfortable.)

It's not bad, really. We made a considerable downsize from the house in Texas. Nevertheless, what I am experiencing at the moment is that with not much in this house, it feels big! It doesn't feel like a downsize at all!

See what I mean? My studio looks huge!! 😄

So, now that we are settled in, and we are comfortable,

I can stitch in my studio!

Except, I had the desire, but no oomph to get started. I kept looking at the scrap bags I brought with me, but I needed inspiration to get started.

I decided it was time for a trip to the Quilt Puzzel store. I needed to soak in some quilter energy. 

Browsing the shop was a bit meditative, 

walking through the fabric isles, letting my fingers pet the fabrics...

... breath in quilting vibes,

... breath out moving tension.

Then the "Caution! Curves Ahead" book by Jen Kingwell magically appeared in my hands.
I am positive there was a glowing light on the book and I heard celestial choir music.
Yes, this book, along with a few fat 1/8ths for background fabrics, is just what I needed for inspiration to get started!

However, at home with my newly acquired book, I soon realized I didn't have my regular supply of notions. No way to transfer the patterns from the book to the fabric, no pencil or fabric pen, no plastic template sheets, no paper or cardstock, or even a printer to make copies.... 

I considered my situation and decided this was not going to be a "make do with what I got" moment.

Luckily, a few days ago, I noticed a copy shop near my house! It took a couple days for me to work up the courage to step in. But there was no need to be anxious, the clerk there was super nice! I had copies of the pattern pieces in no time.

Also, Smitje is a fabric store that is closer to my house than the quilt shop. It is a sewing store of all sewing stores!! Fabrics from baby knits to casual apparel to fancy fabrics to burlap to quilters cotton. And walls of yarn, buttons, sewing accessories, notions... And trims, and beads.... I mean this place is THE sewing store!! 

I found plastic template sheets there and more needles for hand piecing.

And, finally, I can happily stitch in my studio!

I made pattern pieces of block 1 from the template plastic. Used those to mark the seam lines on the backside of the fabrics. And traditional hand pieced the first block. 

Oh, how wonderful to push the needle back and forth as I loaded stitches onto it.
So soothing to feel the draw of thread through the fabric as I stitched pieces together.
So satisfying, stitching the block up piece by piece...

camping or whatever,

I am HOME!!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

brrr...

Yesterday, I took a pic of flowers that I noticed during my trip to acquire a plier tool set. The temperature has dropped under 40°F. I made sure to bundle up with 3 layers and a big fluffy scarf! During my walk I saw these Japanese Anemones (thank you, google lens search.) The white lacey petals standing so tall and proud, reaching bravely for some warmth from the sun. I had to stop and admire.

This morning, we woke up to a dusting of snow. It felt so magical. And I enjoyed a few peeks at the neighborhood kids trying to gather up the snow with a shovel. It’s not even an inch high, they didn’t get much 🥹. But they were out there for the better part of an hour, scraping up as much as they could.

All the snow had melted by noon. We went out for lunch at a Mexican restaurant that’s new to us. 

I got a pic of my Heartbeat’s lunch, but I had already started eating mine by the time I thought to get pics.

The food was delicious authentic Mexican. 

The song  "Volver Volver" was playing. I always want to sing along on the chorus... 

"y volver, volver, volver, a tus brazos, otra ves..." 

For some reason I think it was one of my mom's favorites, but possibly it's really one of my favorites!

I felt so comfortable in this restaurant, that I talked to the staff about my difficulty finding lard. They gave me suggestions were to look. But then the chef offered some of the manteca that they save from cooking. I don't know if it will be good for the biscochitos, but it will be great for tortillas!! I feel there might be homemade breakfast burritos in my near future!! 

I have a little sad news today. 

I had started knitting this scarf years ago and found it again when organizing my studio to be packed up. I thought it would be perfect to carry in my luggage and be one of the projects I work on while waiting for my stash to be delivered. 

I needed a break from knitting the zig-zag scarf, so picked this one up and knitted 2 repeats of the pattern. I just couldn't go any further. I now realize why I probably stopped stitching on it in the first place. 

first, the pattern uses the stitch "p2tog tbl" 

oh, I don't like that stitch. It's just breaks the knitting rhythm because it's very awkward. Though, it does get easier with use, so a pattern with that stitch isn't an instant deal breaker.

It was the bumps in the texture of the knitted fabric. Even imagining it stretched and blocked couldn't convince me to continue. So I frogged it. I removed the needles and "rip'it, rip'it" was the sound it made as the yarn was pulled from the fabric. 

This weather has me wishing for a soft fluffy sweater to wrap myself in. I'm going to go look for a sweater pattern. 

Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you are warm where ever you happen to be. See you soon!!

Sometimes it's the little things that you take for granted...

Hello!! Wow! I can't believe it's been the better part of a year since I last posted a blog update!

2025 has been very eventful for my little family. The biggest news is that my Heartbeat and I traded in our cowboy boots for wooden clogs. We now live in the Netherlands!! (Well, I am bringing my boots and the wooden clogs that my Heartbeat gave me 8 years ago are for decoration and not to wear. So it's a figurative trade. I like saying it.)

Usually the first question people ask when they hear we've made this move is "How do you like it?"  However, I don't feel I can give a solid answer. 
I love it here, but I have a lot to learn!

We moved into our new house about 2 weeks ago. It's a 3 level townhouse. I love that one of it's features is floor to ceiling windows on both the front and the back. And there is a fairly big terrace on the top floor, right next to where my studio will be. I can stitch out on the terrace once I get it set up! How lovely does that sound?! (When it warms up though, the temperature has dropped in the last couple days.)

The house is completely unfurnished. We have some things being shipped to us from the U.S. but not much furniture. Most of the electronics were left behind because of the different voltages. What I am bringing is my 30+ year curated fabric stash, sewing machines, and a few kitchen things. The expected delivery is mid-December. That's still a month away!

If you have ever furniture shopped, you know that it's going to take some shopping around! We are slowly getting a feel for the furniture that we want. Items are ordered from different stores. Some get delivered in a just few days, some items won't come until February! I feel like we are camping out in our house. We started out with a mattress and two lawn chairs from the thrift store! The house was really bare for the first week or so. 

The spiral stairs is pretty neat too 🥰.

Anyway, to make a long story short, setting up house is going to take some time. I know this. I knew it when we packed up. However, I am just beginning to realize it now. I really didn't consider that we wouldn't have utensils, plates, pots.... Well, you'll see. Here's the story that inspired me to log into my blog again...

Making biscochitos has been on my mine. On the first day that my Heartbeat went to work, his co-workers welcomed him with a basket of favorite Dutch treats. There was a bag of ginger cookies, a chocolate "V" (for his name) that is a traditional holiday treat, something similar to a fudge bar (I'm sorry, I don't remember what it was), a bottle of really good beer, and these very popular Drop candies (pronounced with a long ō sound), that tastes like licorice.

It's the Drop that had me to wanting to make these particular cookies, Biscochitos are made with anise which has a similar licorice taste. We are having lunch with the boss today, I thought I might bring a little treat for him and his wife... And so, here is my biscochito making journey:

I ended up making 3 trips to the grocery store today. Here's a snapshot from the walk on the first trip. It's about 1:30 in the afternoon, a nice cool day. Not many people out and about in this part of town at the momet. I like how the street looks with the church at the end.

I found most of the items on the ingredients list. However, biscochitos are made with lard, which isn’t as popular here. The first store didn’t have it. Back home to unload groceries.

Around 4 p.m., I went to another store and found “frituurvet” which is frying fat. Looking online, I figured that’s gotta be fairly close to lard. When I got home, I opened the package to get a better idea. It is a bit more solid than the Crisco bars I used in the states. I decided that it'll do.

After dinner,  about 7 p.m., I get all the ingredients out and noticed that I was missing vanilla. So back to the store for the third time. 

Now, with all ingredients, I had to use a wok and a pan as mixing bowls because I have two sets being shipped with our house hold stuff and I don’t need to get more! (Yes, I’m being stubborn like that. I think I can wait it out!)

But then… “cream lard and sugar until smooth”… omg, I don’t have a mixer yet either 🤦🏽‍♀️. I creamed hard lard and sugar with my hands. and mixed all ingredients the same way. It was tough but I eventually had the dough to the right consistency.

Next, it was time to roll out the dough and guess what?!? I don’t have a rolling pin (also in the shipment) or a cookie cutter!! 😂🤪 omg, I’m a mess. But I’ve already gotten this far. 

Rolling the dough into individual cookie balls and smashing them is the only option. Smashing the ball made the edges crack but a few taps around the edge got them back together. 

Then I sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on top the cookies and popped them in the oven. While the first batch baked I smashed the next batch of balls. Then while the first batch was cooling down, I started cleaning up the mess and putting the ingredients away.

Guess which ingredient was on the table still wrapped with its store packaging?? … the vanilla! The ingredient I had to make a third trip back to the store. Yes, that one! I didn’t add it to the dough! Good grief!! 

In the end, these biscochitos are still tasty, good enough for me and my Heartbeat, but I won’t be sharing any with our Dutch friends tomorrow like I had hoped.  And it was a good run through. I learned a few more Dutch pantry items. And I believe my next purchase will very likely be a mixer or a blender. I am NOT going to “cream lard and sugar until smooth” by hand again!!

Thanks for sharing my biscochito making journey with me and reading this far. Here's the biscochito recipe that I have used for at least 30+ years during the holidays.

And I hope this update has broken my blogger dry spell. See you soon!!

A Piece of Whimsy

Wow! It is at the end of January already! Where does time go?

In 2024 I had been posting a picture on IG/FB every day of what brings me joy. Most of my photos focused on stitching but I did sneak in a few personal moments as well. Four months had been dedicated to hand quilting a special quilt. That took priority over all other stitching activities. I did manage to make some quilt tops and try out new techniques. But I think the hand quilted quilt was the only one that was completed with binding and label!

My intentions for 2025 is to be blogging more. Post what I'm working on. I intend to figure out and draft patterns for myself.  I want to share my process with you.

I'm excited to start with A Piece of Whimsy! Neither the technique nor the design is original. I saw a pattern by Christine Vlasic called In The Red. I believe that pattern is for hand piecing and uses octagons and squares. I love to hand piece but I needed this quilt top much faster than I could piece it by hand. I haven't read the In the Red pattern, only the description of it. If you are craving some hand-piecing you should look it up and purchase the pattern! It lends itself well to having scrappy background squares!

But like I said, I needed this quilt faster, so I drafted the blocks with snowball units using the flip and snip method.  I wanted to start with 5" squares, then settled on 2" squares for the flip and snip corners.

I wrote a pattern that doesn't included diagrams (because I don't know how to make diagrams for patterns easily yet) however, at the moment that gives me incentive to write a blog update and here we are! 

Here is the PDF version: A Piece of Whimsy PDF

A Piece of Whimsy

by Naomi Perry

finished size: approx 36.5" x 45.5"

Fabric requirements:

(20) 10” squares assorted prints and colors
(or equivalent to (4) 5” squares of same print)
1 yard accent color

Cutting:

(4) 5” squares from each of the assorted 10” square
- for a total of 20 sets of (4) 5” squares
(320) 2” squares from accent color

(Each block requires (4) 5" squares and (16) 2" background squares.)

Instructions:

(Press all seams open to reduce bulk.)

Mark a diagonal line on all 2” accent squares.

Snowball method for blocks:

Working with 1 set of (4) 5” squares -

Place a 2” square on a corner of a 5” square with right sides together and with diagonal line across corner.

Stitch just to the side of the drawn line on the corner side to account for fabric folding over the seam.

I may have stitched a touch too far, but I wanted you to see the stitching is not exactly on the line.

Test for accuracy by folding 2” square to the outside corner, creating a corner triangle. 

• If the folded triangle overlaps the corner too much, restitch closer to the diagonal line. Test again before trimming.
• If the folded triangle is too short to cover the corner, unstitch and restitch a little more to the outside corner. Test again before trimming.
  

If it covers the outside corner just right, unfold the 2” square, then trim the extra fabric to a 1/4” seam allowance. 

Repeat on all corners of the 5” square. Press seams open.

Repeat for remaining 5” squares.

Assemble block:

Arrange sets into a 4-patch block.

Stitch 2 together matching seams to make a top row.

Stitch 2 together matching seams to make a bottom row.

Then stitch the rows together doing your best to match seams.

I felt matching the very center intersection was the most important seam to match. Don't fret over the diagonal seams too much.

Assemble quilt top:

Arrange blocks into 5 rows of 4 blocks.

Stitch blocks into rows.

Then stitch rows together matching seams.

And there it is! Make a sandwich with backing and batting. Quilt as you like!

Thank you for having a look. I have not had a tester yet. If you make A Piece of Whimsy, would you let me know how it went? Or leave a comment if you have any questions.