Winter stitching

One of the great things about living in the North is the winter is it's the perfect time to curl up by the fire and hand stitch. I do it as often as possible:)
I finished all my sashiko blocks and am ready to sew the top together.

I stitched this little piece for my daughter. I got this pattern off the internet a few years ago, (I can't remember the designer). I think it is so cute with the birds eating the sprinkles that fall off the cupcake.

I've also been quilting on my wool quilt,

trying to finish out lining all of the fiddle head fern prints.
If you see safety pins it's where I still need to quilt.

Making essential oil bath salts

In the winter I love to take a hot bath with a good book and there is nothing better in the water than bath salts. Homemade ones with no chemicals.
I made a batch last week and it is wonderful. This is the simple recipe:

2 cups of Epsom salt (which is magnesium, a naturally occurring mineral that is important for many systems in the body, especially the muscles and nerves.

1 cup of baking soda
your choice of essential oil, I used lavender and rose, both are good for dry skin and relaxing.

I put about 15 or more drops of each in.

Stir it well and enjoy.

You can add however much you want to your bath, I would start with about 1/4 cup.

I've been working hard on my sashiko trying to get big and even stitches. I probably could have stitched three of these pine tree blocks with all the stitches I've taken out and redid. The stitches are suppose to be about the size of a grain of rice, mine are the size of a half. I finally came to the conclusion everyone has their own rhythm and you have to go with it. Mine after 30 years of perfecting the quilting stitch to teeny, tiny, I cannot make the stitch any bigger, just work on keeping them even and the space between them even.

Moon Windows Sashiko Wallhaning

My practice block is finished, it was a little difficult to get in the rhythm of making big stitches.
They say sashiko stitching is the hardest to master for traditional hand quilters.
But I'm ready to begin on the "real" blocks for the Moon wall hanging.

This is the wall hanging laid out on the carpet. (not stitched together)

All the moons are hand appliqued on, 3 from antique Japanese fabric.

I traced on the lines for the stitching,
Moon over Mr. Fuji.
The faint circler lines will not be stitched, and will rub off.

Pine trees.

Spider web.

And there's one more block in the wall hanging I forgot to post, cherry blossoms.