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.)