I have been making quilts for  many years now.  My Mum taught me to sew when I was five  years old,  when she  bought me some embroidery kits, mainly with old fashioned crinoline ladies.  I quickly moved on to embroidering handkerchiefs, tray cloths and tablecloths for family members, so hand sewing has always been a part of my life.  My Mum was also a good hand stitcher, not surprising as she was part of the generation that mended and patched out of necessity.

I still make traditional quilts, but less than I used to and quickly came to realise that my favourite part was the hand quilting that gave me the most satisfaction.

While checking out  YouTube, I came across a video by K3n  cloth tales, which introduced me to the art of slow stitching.  I quickly realised that the hand quilting I had always loved could, in fact, be classed as a kind of slow stitching.  I suddenly had a mind shift and to try out some slow stitching for myself.  I had a lot of fabric remnants, so I started to use them to just stitch and it was so relaxing and mindful that I realised that it was something I wanted to do regularly, specially if I am feeling stressed.  I also discovered that I really enjoyed listening to my favourite audiobooks or music at the same time.

My three favourite Channels on YouTube are K3n cloth tales,  Maarion's World and The Last Homely House.  I really admire these three amazing women and the work that they do and I urge you to check them out.

What has always interested me is sustainability and I have always re-used and re-purposed cloth to make quilts and other household items  for my personal use and have always used leftover quilt and clothing scraps in my classes for my students to use.  But I had never considered slow stitching as a way of relaxing, without necessarily using it to make something. Check out  the picture of the colourful quilt on the patchwork page (a sub page of this one).  It's made entirely of old clothes that were all too big for me after a weight loss.  I always call it My Big Pants Quilt and it always cheers myself and my husband up when it is used on our bed.  

The reverse is actually a traditional quilt called  Dart that was created by the late Donna Jordan of Jordan Fabrics.   If you like more traditional quilts, please check out their YouTube videos.  You can get some wonderful free patterns on their website at  https://jordanfabrics.com.

The object of slow stitching isn't that there has to be a goal in mind.  Of course, you can make items out of the slow stitched pieces but, personally, the actual act of stitching - the feel of the needle and thread and the feel of the cloth  - is what I enjoy more than anything.

I have added some pictures of my latest slow stitching examples to the Gallery page.