NEEDLEWORK MILESTONE: "Hedgerow Birds - Front Panel" by Blackbird Designs

 

Pattern: "Hedgerow Birds" Loose Feathers #40 - front panel

Designer: Blackbird Designs

Fabric: 20 count "Straw" linen by Weeks Dye Works

Threads:  Gentle Arts and Crescent Colors / Classic Colorworks as charted

 

Stitches:  Three over two, satin stitch 

Size: 10.75 x 10.5 inches (27 x 26.6 cm)

 

Started 9/6/2026, needlework completed 9/23/2026

23.0 hours

Blackbird Academy SAL - September 2026 (prompt = bird)

Back panel scheduled for March 2027 BBD Academy SAL (prompt = flowers).

Will be finished as a bag per the kit instructions when the back panel is completed. That's why it's dated next year. 

Slow Sunday Stitching September 20, 2026 AND AND 2026 Rotation #7 Slot #2 (Historic) Changeover

I have a page finish on "A Quaker Christmas"!  I have stitched 2775 stitches out of 23,406 for last rotation and this one (before and after getting it into Pattern Keeper). That brings me to 11.86%.  I'm still loving the Sulky 12 weight thread over two on the 40-count fabric.

It was totally worth the time I took to chart the pattern into PK.  The second half of Page one with the bird and the oddly alien looking hearts went so much faster than the two corner half medallions.  I think I'll work down the left side to the bottom left corner next.  Now that I'm not working from a paper pattern, I don't have to stick to one page at a time.  There's still a VERY long way to go!  

I put in 1,061 stitches on "Santa of the Forest" this week - all in the wolf's head.  Here's a teaser pic at 81.11% from just after I rolled up the fabric again.

No photo on the knitting, but I did the second round of decreases on the yoke yesterday.  Not too long until it will need to move to a shorter needle.  That's encouraging progress.  No appointments this week, so I haven't made any progress on either of the travel projects.

I'm pulling out the modern piece "Collaboration Bellpull" when I get back from church and will be catching up with the SSS crew over on this week's link up.  See you there.  

Slow Sunday Stitching - September 13, 2026

 It's been a very difficult week this week.  One of my college roommates passed away on Wednesday.  So I have a funeral to attend this coming week.  Part of life, I know, but still hard, in some ways even harder due to the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack.  Marilyn was always the one to comfort in the hard times and lead prayer and look for the good in all times and places.  She will be missed.  I'm glad I went to see her earlier in the month.  

For one reason or another, I didn't get a ton of crafting done.  I only put in 924 stitches on "Santa of the Forest" this week.  That gets me to 78.05% though, and I'm past the wolf's ears and almost to his eyes.   

Most of the crafting time has actually been spent at the computer.  I pulled out "A Quaker Christmas" and decided that I wasn't enjoying working it from the paper pattern, so I've been charting it into Pattern Keeper.   That took several hours. I did get a start on the big bird motif before I highjacked myself into charting. And that bird is what made me acknowledge that I've gotten really spoiled by having patterns in Pattern Keeper.  I find it extremely motivating to mark off my stitch count each day. 

There's actually a surprising amount of stitching in this piece.  It's DENSE.  Not like a full coverage, but at 23,406 charted stitches, it's up there at the low end of the 'large' category.  At the end of the last rotation, I had 1390 finished stitches, as of the photo above, I have 1719 or 7.34%.

The knitting on the yoke sweater is coming along.  I finished the colorwork and did the first decrease round.   Decreasing 80 stitches is noticeable in how fast I can knit around the circumference now!  Seven more rounds to the next decreases.  

Hope everyone else had a better week and I'll be checking in with the SSS crew (weekly roundup here).

Slow Sunday Stitching Sept 6, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #7 Slot #1 (Not Counted X Stitch) Changeover

I was totally focused on the vintage German needlepoint kit this week and put in ten hours!  It's really filling in fast.   I'm hoping one more rotation will get me to an FO, since I'm down to just a single color left.   I will run out of this green, so I ordered more, but what I got was not quite as yellow - a brighter green, too.   So, I'm planning on using that new yarn just in the lower center area.  It is SO hard to choose colors online!

And the back so you can see the progress

And where I was last time:  Basically grass, then path, and more grass......

I've put in 748 stitches on Santa of the Forest in the first five days of September.  (Here's the changeover from Aug month end.  I'm working on the right-side cloak right now.)  I got to the 75% mark on Saturday! A small but significant milestone!  

Last week, I promised knitting pictures.   I'm almost at the end of the colorwork for the yoke.  I know somebody will be wondering - the blue marker and row of weirdness down at the bottom is a "lifeline", which is a smooth, strong temporary cord that runs through every stitch in a row or round.  In case of emergency, you can rip back to a lifeline point and the stitches are held for you to wrangle them back onto a needle and re-knit back up.  In this case, they are marking where the yoke diagram starts; this yarn is 'rustic' enough to not ladder down if you drop a stitch, but having a steady point to count from is useful.  Lifelines usually stay in until you finish the project (or at least the current section).  Since the cordage is smooth and strong, you can just snip at the knot and pull it out.  

And just an inch and a bit to go before the decreases start on the charity knit hat.

Altogether a good week.  Happy Labor Day Weekend to everyone in the US.  Stay safe!  I'm hooking up with the SSS crew (the current lineup is here) and will be looking at all their pretty things while staying in the air conditioning - it's been HOT here in Kansas.  

2026 Rotation #6 Slot #4 (Pictorial) Changeover

 4,980 stitches this month / rotation period.  That brings the total stitches to approximately 25,413 or 73.23%

Here's where I was at the beginning of the month for comparison:

The month was mostly about the left side cloak and the animals it shelters.  That dove was a lot of fun, as was the rabbit.   The area to the left of the wolf's head is down to row 200.  The voided outline of the wolf is a little wonky looking because he is in 3/4 profile.   He'll look much better when his colors are put in, but that will be after I get the right-side cloak down to the same row as the left. 

Like the dove, the wolf is a tall motif. He's about 65 rows high and goes all the way down to the bottom of the piece, so I'll be doing him in two sections.  I'll take that area down to the same spot (a bit beyond row 200 so that I can backstitch the eye and mouth) before I move the fabric up.  BTW, the checkerboard patterns in the cloak that are empty will be filled with goldwork at the end.  

Still loving this pattern, still putting in an average of 150 stitches a day on it first thing in the morning.  Somewhere between 100 and 150 seems to work well for a daily stitch for me.  I get enough progress over a month for it to really show and still have time to work on other projects. 

Slow Sunday Stitching - August 30,2026 AND 2026 Rotation #6 Slot #3 (Historic) Changeover

 First up, bells.  As I mentioned last week, today's main service had a lot of bell music.  Most times when we play, it's one piece for either the prelude or the communion music.  Today we did both of those and procession music.  A total of three full pieces and some incidental music.  Basically, we covered for the fact that the choir is on vacation.  It went pretty well, a few mistakes, but nothing glaring.  I'll take it for the win!

On the needlework front, it's been a 'start-a-paloza' this week!  With the reorganization of the rotation to add the Blackbird Academy SAL, I needed a NOT Blackbird project for the historic or historic inspired piece.  I have been itching to do a Quaker and "A Christmas Quaker" by ByGone Stitches has been on the short list for several years.  It's an older pattern (2007), but Quakers are classics!

I have also been wanting to try Sulky 12 weight thread since several of the Floss Tubers I follow rave about it on 36 or 40 count - great coverage with one strand in the needle.  I can say, I LOVE it.  The coverage is as good as people reported, and working with one strand is my personal preference.  I choose a variegated green moving from deep pine to Christmas green as my main color.  There is no obvious repeat in the color order, and the color length (according to their website) moves randomly from two to five inches.  This makes the color pooling and overdying a lot more interesting and easier to work with than some more regularly variegated threads.  Highly recommend.  I also picked up dark red and medium green solids and a DMC metallic gold for the letters / numbers, the motifs where I wanted green without variegation, and the angel and star motifs respectively. 

This is a good-sized piece, even on 40 count linen.  10.25 inches (26 cm) H x 16 inches (40.6 cm) W.  The picture shows 10 hours; I was so excited to work on this project that I finished the rotation slot already! I'm working from a paper pattern, so no stitch count or accurate percentages will be available.  However, the pattern is three pages across and 1.5 pages high, which breaks naturally into a 9-block grid of rectangles.  And it's pretty densely stitched.  To give you some idea of the size of a section: the left side motif is half a page or one section high, and I'm halfway across the width of a page or section at the center of the half motif just above the "4".  

Carl had a haircut appointment this week and wanted me to go with him to meet the new stylist.  He has curly hair and has been having issues finding someone who can handle curls that are not tight and give him a cut that shows off his curls and is still easy to take care of.  But the result of that is that I got to start on the next perforated paper ornament; it's underway at 15.58%.

And finally, I picked out the next project for the Blackbird Academy SAL.  This is Loose Feathers #40 "Hedgerow Birds".  I'm using the kit materials and stitching two over two.  It will be a project bag finish per the pattern instructions.  This one I will start on September 1.

"Santa of the Forest" will have its month end picture on Tuesday, so look for that changeover post with the stats and progress comparison picture mid-week.

Knitting is progressing on both the new LOSY hat and the yoke of the sweater.  I'll try to remember to snap pictures for next the next update post.  In the meantime, enjoy the work of all the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.  (Current week's round up here.  And I should be back to my usual posting time next week.)

Slow Sunday Stitching - August 23, 2026 AND 2026 Rotation #6 Slot #2 (Modern) Changeover

 Well, my grandson and I survived the first (partial) week of school LOL. We aren't exactly into the routine yet, but we will get there. And bells are also off to a good start, with our first service next week.   We are playing a lot more pieces than we normally do in a single service because the choir is on break - I'll post after church next week (so later than usual) and will hopefully have good news.  Luckily, since we only have a couple of rehearsals to prep, most of the pieces are fairly simple to execute. 

I had a little more stitching time than I thought I would this week.  Carl is actually taking more responsibility for his online learning schedule this semester.  (Something I am very glad to see.)

I managed to get ten hours in on the "Collaboration Sampler" and finished the Shepherd's Bush section (top area of the bellpull, part 1 of 3) - except for the beads that will go in at the end. This brings me to 20 hours on this project so far.   It's cute - basically a mini band sampler.  The shadow stripes and checkerboard patterns in the sheep are my favorite part in this section!

Then I started in on the Just Nan area (bottom of the bellpull, part 3 of 3).  I'm leaving part 2 in the middle to the end due to all the specialty stitches in that area that would not like to be squashed onto the scroll rods when the fabric moves up and down.  This section is a small pictorial, so I took the time to put just this one area into Pattern Keeper so as not to miss any stitches.  It's dense and full of confetti stitching with over a half dozen colors just in this one floral branch!  This section is at 9% (not counting the corner eyelets and beads).  When I pick this up again, I'll be working on the first peacock of the pair.

And there's a finish in the Blackbird Academy SAL slot!  I got the stitching done on "It's Berry Time".  (Finish post is here.)  I won't be working on the actual finishing into a drum until next year in April, though, because I have another project that will go on the same piece of linen.  It's the strawberry emery that came as a bonus chart in the Berry Time pattern.

I'm leaving the linen on the scroll rods until both the projects are stitched, then cut them apart for finishing over the SAL "summer break" in June/July.  Hopefully the Academy will continue since I have MANY more BBD projects in the stash (30 of them including the planned December restart on "And to All a Good Night").

The prompt for September's Academy assignment is "Birds".  SO many BBD designs have birds, I'm spoiled for choice!  I'll report next week on which one made the cut.

Santa of the Forest got some attention this week as well. 1,133 stitches, which brings me to 69.39%.  I did make it over the 2/3 mark this week though, so progress milestone!

Linking up with the SSS crew for ongoing accountability and inspiration! (This week's link party is here.)