Getting ready for “A Winter of Care and Repair”

A Winter of Care and Repair. I love this Challenge! I participated last year and it was very gratifying. The online Challenge is hosted by Jeanna @thepeoplesmending and takes place from the Winter Solstice (December 21, 2024) to the Spring Equinox (March 20, 2025).

Winter of Care and Repair 2024-2025

Make a plan, set some goals

During this season-long project, participants are encouraged to design their own parameters/plan/outcome/pledge that suits their lifestyle while focusing on mending, repairing, and caring for their belongings or themselves. I generally focus on textiles—mending, up-cycling, recycling, prolonging their life, and keeping them out of landfills. In general, being more sustainable by caring for existing items rather than buying new.

One of the mending projects slated for this year’s Winter of Care and Repair Challenge.

How the WOCAR Challenge began… and what’s new

Jeanna started the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge in 2020 during the Covid 19 lockdown as a way to provide some semblance of structure and control during an uncertain time. This year, she’s added another element to the concept. She says, “The winter of 2024/25 feels like the beginning another period of frightening uncertainty… with the future of human rights and environmental action looking bleak, I’m expanding the very lose parameters of WOCAR to include ‘something within the participants’ circle of control’ rather than just belongings.”

In the past, the Challenge focused on the care and repair of garments and belongings. This year, she’s including other aspects to her personal plan that are “in her circle of control.” 

Need ideas?

Visit @thepeoplesmending for ideas for creating a plan or your personal plan or pledge. In the past, some participants have designed their Challenge project to focus on things such as:

• tending a garden and prepping the ground for the next season’s planting,
• repurposing or repairing household items (rather than disposing of them),
• de-cluttering a room/garage/house,
• creating habits to improve personal health and well-being.

Whatever works for your schedule, lifestyle, and goals… A Winter of Care and Repair is the perfect opportunity in which to apply them!

 

I’ve notified members of my household to begin setting aside things for the mending basket.

Slow Stitching Mindfulness

"Hand stitching is for people who like to be busy,
but busy in a calm and relaxing way."

I saw this quote on social media recently. Those of us who enjoy handwork can identify! With that, I thought I'd inventory and share my current hand stitching WIPs [work in progress].

Seed stitches with perle cotton on a garment-to-be.

Mix-It top
I'm using the rice stitch or seed stitch to add color and pattern to a new Mix-It top [The Sewing Workshop patterns]. The base fabric is from the Denim Studio by Art Gallery Fabrics. It is a nice weight for hand stitching and needles well. I do use an embroidery hoop for this work.

Hand seed stitches on a cotton from the Denim Studio by Art Gallery Fabrics.

Big Stitch quilting
The Sandy Creek print from M&S Textiles Australia is perfect for adding colorful accents of 8wt Eleganza perle cotton [WonderFil Specialty Threads]. I've combined free-motion quilting by machine with big stitch hand quilting.

Big stitch quilting.

By echoing the lines of this Sandhill print [M&S Textiles Australia], no marking is required! Gotta love the organic patterns in this fabric collection!

Big stitch quilting.

Hand embroidery
Just a little more embroidery to do on this Bee Kind canvas tote bag panel [Northcott Fabrics]. I also have the September Morning panel waiting in the queue. You'll love stitching through this canvas substrate.

Hand embroidery on a canvas tote panel.

Visible Mending
This is a visible mending upcycling project—the proverbial Boyfriend Shirt. 

8 wt. perle cotton for stitched embellishments and visible mending.

Paper piecing
I'm still enjoying my 100 Day Project of focus cutting three-quarter inch hexagons. 

English paper piecing.

Threads for hand stitching projects
The threads I've used for these hand stitching projects include:

• 8 wt. Eleganza perle cotton from WonderFil Specialty Threads; 
• Valdani 12 wt. perle cotton; 
• 6-strand embroidery floss and Valdani Wool Thread for hand embroidery; 
• cotton sewing thread for paper piecing.

8wt perle cotton by WonderFil Specialty Threads.

If you haven't tried Valdani Wool Thread (100% virgin Merino wool) for embroidery, I suggest you give it a needle. These threads were recommended by my friend, Vicki McCarty at Calico Patch Designs. This thread has a lovely loft and springy-ness that comes with being a wool fiber. The stitches sit higher from the canvas, giving the work more dimension. The variegated colors are especially appealing.

6 strand embroidery floss and Valdani Wool Thread for hand embroidery.

The weather is beautiful here today. I just have to decide which mindful stitching project to take outdoors with me.

Combining free-motion machine quilting with big stitch quilting.

Enjoy a little bit of nature—whether outdoors or on your stitching projects.

Garden blooms.

Embellishing the "Boyfriend Shirt"

Yup, there's that thing about wearing your guy's flannel shirt, or his bulky sweater, or bomber jacket... it hides certain parts you'd rather not think about... and makes you feel slim and petite... because it's, well, over-sized. And sometimes it's still warm from him, or smells like him (in a good way), and he feels close to you. You know, it's "the boyfriend shirt" phenomenon.

The boyfriend T-shirt.

Wearing the Boyfriend Shirt
I like wearing those oversized, well-worn and broken-in, washed-a-million-times soft, cotton T-shirts of my husband's for sleepwear. Those big Tees offer plenty of wiggle room, cover just what needs to be covered and are soft as butter. When my husband was going to "cut this one up for car wash rags" because it had a new hole in the front and a few stains, I said, "no." And promptly rescued it to make it mine.

Visible mending
With the focus on visible mending and sustainability these days, I decided to pull out the needle and decorative thread to embellish the stains and mend the hole in this well-loved shirt. This will prolong its life and there would be no question about to whom it belongs.

Running stitch with a decorative thread at the neckline.

A simple running stitch in a decorative thread follows the neckline. The hole (below) was covered with straight stitches, and a blanket stitch surrounds one of the discolored areas. More stitching will come as I find the time... and the imperfections.

Visible mending and decorative stitching on the front of the T-shirt.

The Boyfriend

For a number of years, he was the tech support guy for the department I managed. 

          He was the boyfriend for a short time. 

                         For 8 months, he was the fiancé. 

This past week, we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. 

Happy 20th anniversary to us! October 14, 2020. 

I love him and his T-shirt.

5 practices and processes for 2018

Last week, the blogosphere was full of "Best of 2017" photos. I reflected on mine in this post. I also gave thought to goals for 2018 for how to better spend my time—with a focus on processes and not just projects. So, Hello 2018! These are the things I want to practice ...

Use it up or Give it up
In 2018, I'd like to enjoy the piecing process more—with improv patchwork.

Improv patchwork with scraps and leftover fabrics.

This practice will enable me time with my sewing machine without having to have a specific project in mind. It will continue to put a dent in the stash (everyone's goal for the last few years) as well as "use up" my collections of scraps and odd bits. The likely candidates for this liberated-style patchwork will be my kitty/doggie quilts for local animal care and shelter facilities, and the charity program at my quilt guilds.

With a bit of clean-up, purging and re-purposing in my studio I have a bag of fabric that I'm gifting to my MIL's church group that makes quilts for those in need. As the clean-up continues, I hope to "give up" more.

More Me-made garments
Today's trends in the fabric industry are stirring up excitement for DIY and home garment sewing. I love this! Fabulous knits, rayons and other fabric substrates (check out Art Gallery and Cloud 9) and richly textured "garment-conducive" yarn-dyed wovens and the ever-so-popular Buffalo Plaids (see Diamond Textiles) are becoming more prevalent on the shelves of local quilt shops.

Knit tops I've sewn for myself with cotton knit fabrics from Art Gallery.

Social media groups, blogs and Instagram are brimming with encouragement, ideas, and photos to reflect this—Me Made May, and the plethora of patterns from indie pattern designers—and sewing classes are popping up at quilt shops, sewing centers and Make-It spaces. It's out there for the taking. My 2018 is going to have more Me-made garments in it.

Buy local and support independents 
On my travels, I've found some unique sources for coffee, tea, and artisan crafts. My husband does a wonderful job of supporting our local independent small businesses—bakeries, farmers markets and restaurants. I'm choosing to support artists, indie crafters and small businesses. I like finding unique and functional items that we'll use frequently in our home.

Ground coffee from Cabin Coffee Co.; hand-made ceramic mug by a
Chattanooga potter; wood coffee scoop from Log House Craft Center, Berea, KY.

Visible mending and hand stitching
Hand stitching—kantha, boro, sashiko, big stitch, hand embroidery—have been a staple for the textile artists community... well, since forever. These techniques are also quite prevalent in the quilting, craft and sewing industries these days. Inspiration and a renewed interest in hand stitching still resonates with me from the workshop I took last year with Dorothy Caldwell. I'd like to take the practice of hand stitching a bit further by preserving and extending the use of items through visible mending—or we can call it "creative embellishment"—rather than disposing of clothing and buying new.

Kantha stitching. 

Time management
One of the things I missed in 2017 was participation in my quilt guild's Challenge. I had the best of intentions—even finished the quilt top—but didn't get it quilted. My guild had a fabulous turn-out for the Challenge. All the quilts were well done and their makers were inventive with their interpretation of the Challenge guidelines. I wish I had had a piece to contribute. Alas, time was not on my side last year. I even took many in-progress photos with the hope of a "here's my process" blog post.

My MIL says, "everyone gets the same 24 hours in the day... it's how we choose to use our 24." I think my time management will improve with organization, automation, prioritization and learning to steer clear of the rabbit holes.

Here's wishing you a fulfilling new year. Take time to enjoy your process.