Hand quilting and enjoying the beauty around me :)

As I hand quilt I sit in my screened in porch and enjoy my back yard… I have shared it and have had positive feedback… let’s see how things are looking now 🙂

 The wandering jew are really growing in this wagon… here is a look from the other side too!

And the one that started with bits from the trash is THRIVING!

Even the one that didn’t want to grow is doing well with wet feet and plenty of sun since we moved it to the post 🙂

 that is our Carolina Jasmine finally taking off at the bottom and winding it’s way up the post… much fuller than my pics 2 weeks ago for sure!

The aloe that we moved to a corner of the yard to let it run and play is blooming again 🙂

our big cactus corner…

a view from the side

the blooms are dripping nectar!

Their true colors 🙂

 As for the smaller cacti… they are flourishing in their newfound space.  The pot my honey made a couple years ago for me 🙂  I weeded them this past weekend…

 And watered them while my honey cleaned the hammock for use VERY soon!

 My honey even made it a place to live when we aren’t using it with a pulley and leftover parts he had in the garage!  Doesn’t it loo nice here 🙂  It is on the side of our storage building safe from falling leaves and more stains to clean! lol

All the while I am working on the quilt we will snuggle under this winter while no bugs are about to take away the enjoyment of the great outdoors 🙂  in our own back yard!

Now I know you come here for crafting more than scenes of my backyard so check out this layer cake (10″ squares precut) that my daughter is gonna use to make her first quilt top out of over Christmas break… I think I am more excited than she is! lol

I am over 60% done with the final quilting design on the quilt on my table… I don’t use a hoop and am soon to finish this so I can start my first hand quilted project!  Yipee!!!  More to come on that!

Have a blessed week and thanks for stopping by!

Kathi

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Afternoon chats :)

I have a bff who lives far away… yesterday I missed her call… so today I am drinking from a coffee mug she made me last year 🙂

Whilst next to me on the table is the quilt I am trudging through… soon I will hit the 50% done mark and it will go faster… but I have had other things going on and quilting hasn’t made the list in the last few days unfortunately 😦

Tomorrow I have no plans… Yipee!  My “emergencies” are over for now… dinner for tomorrow night needs to be bought but is decided and all is well 🙂  Ahhhh… love that!

So I decided to share some updated pics from my back yard…

This is my honey’s fave viewpoint and I do love the nice rich green of the elephant ears 🙂  This started as 2 small plants last winter.. these are only about 8 months old 🙂  They get LOTS of rain when it does rain here so that keeps them happy with lots of morning light too.

To the left of them is purple queen.  It has cute pink blooms intermittently and has been fun to watch mature.

Across the back of our Florida room is more bedding areas with lots of purples and greens…

Up high are the wandering jew “callection” we have going… all 3 pots on the back of our Florida room are starts from the original (the one on the left) and the one in the middle are clippings my honey rescued from the garbage after my dd “trimmed” the plant 🙂

We also have wandering jew here…

And my honey seems to be adding more cuttings that have rooted…

And now it looks like this!

The Roadmaster wagon was a Craigslist find for $20.00 and we have used it a LOT in our yard 🙂

Now for that darn blooming aloe we put in the ground a few weeks ago… along with some lonely looking cactus friends.

Those crazy cactus were about 4″ tall when we got them at Lowe’s last spring… now they are each easily over a foot tall and all curvy!  lol

Last and definitely NOT least is our daisy… mixed with a little purple queen there on the left 🙂

 This daisy had one bloom on it when we looked at the house in December last year… small plant and small bloom but I loved it so my honey saved it and has transplanted it up in pots and is about to again!  But look at all the bloom heads on ONE leaf!

There are 4 bloom heads there!  It is full of upcoming blooms!  So excited…

Which makes me realize I should watch my Christmas cactus … it should bloom in a couple months !  Wonder if it is starting to have bloom heads on it???

Have a great rest of your week and thanks for stopping by!

More quilty posts to come… Cheers!

Kathi

Another day in paradise!

So much is going on with me personally I want to let you know that all is well but my family would covet prayers for understanding and patience.

As I think on the need of these things in our situations… I look at the beauty God has surrounded me with in my own back yard… let me share a bit with you…

You see I spend most of my time outside in a screened in porch… off that my honey built a patio with this beautiful mexican petunia bush growing and blooming each morning to greet me… I am up EARLY and so are these blooms 🙂  By afternoon they are all gone… but the bees and I sure enjoy the mornings 🙂

The hammock in the background is a great place to pose quilts for now and relax in the breeze come fall and winter 🙂

The big aloe we moved into the corner is also doing well it it’s new home and after a good pruning….

Check out the new shoots coming up from the center… she seems VERY happy 🙂 

Hoping she produces some babies next year too!  This is the same aloe that bloomed twice for us this year 🙂

New life is going nuts in this planter… we put in a few springs from a wandering jew we already had when we trimmed it and let them root… then put them in this planter and they are just taking off like crazy!!!

I sit right behind this … I can see the glasstop table my laptop lives on from here 🙂  Welcome to my paradise 🙂

Daisy loves the morning grass to lay in and sun herself… I caught her enjoying this paradise too!

This fall I hope to find myself quilting in these yummy chairs with ottomans… and adore my mexican petunias and maybe some birds will find a home for the winter in our birdhouse 🙂

So those are the things I try to think on when the going gets tough.  I appreciate you taking a look at all I have to be thankful for including my honey who did all the work to make it so special for me 🙂

I also want to thanks Connie who has been the best “bestie” a girl could ever ask for as I have trudged through this chapter of my life… she is amazing… I am so glad she now sleeps under the quilt I just finished 🙂

Meanwhile I will return to stitching… 3 needles…

3 rows of stitches going diagonally across the colored seams… so many seams to go over! lol  This is the sister quilt I now call the “hammock quilt” cuz that is where I see it being used this winter 🙂

Truly I am loving it but find it harder to pray for my self than to pray for others while I quilt.  You see I pray for the recipient and try to think of blessings for the recipient while I quilt something for them… it urges me on really… with this quilt I have to urge MYSELF on… much harder! lol

I will persevere on this front as I want to start another project and this project needs done… we don’t have a good big cozy quilt to snuggle under yet… we NEED it before fall… so I gotta get done! lol

Thanks for your prayers in advance and I hope whatever you do this mid week day you make the most of it and find the paradise in it someplace 🙂

Kathi

Happy Sunday!

Okay so against my parents wishes I don’t go to church traditionally… I am not opposed to churches but they are confining and all the people aren’t generally the greatest… but what I wanna share is the church I do attend… every Sunday 🙂

It is my back yard!

My faith is strong and I teach my children the same way.  Once upon a time we went to traditional churches … in fact I grew up going to church every Sunday and Wednesday… now I rejoice in calling this place my home and my church… I talk to God all the time 🙂

Earlier this week we were busy working in the yard… today we can enjoy the fruits of that labor but lets go back a bit to earlier week …

The blooming aloe found a new home in a partially shaded area of our back yard… out of the pot … a good trimming of the old and dead stuff and fresh cactus dirt … notice how happy the transformation has made this cactus in the first pic I posted….  but what did we do with that splendid pot my honey had made???

The big cactus sprouted 3 babies we found when my honey moved her… more fresh dirt and lots of room to roam and have babies for these guys…

We always water with a bit of root stimulator added to the water when we move plants… helps them get settled in 🙂

Now that it is Sunday… lets take a look at it all now 🙂

 We added some dwindling cactus from our tall cacti to our aloe pot 🙂  They look like they can all see the sun now 🙂

 And now the tall cacti have room to have water just dripping off their branches 🙂  How lovely!

While we have been toiling to have a yard to enjoy and celebrate in this Sunday I have also been hand quilting… so far I am almost to the last corner and ready to bind.

Yahoo for a blessed week!

Hope you can find a place to worship today that makes you feel like Praising Him!

Tomorrow I will be posting a couple things for a online yard sale!  Come take a look tomorrow.

Kathi

I have missed my bloggy friends :)

2 1/2 weeks is too long not to blog… in celebration of getting back to blog land I updated my cover 🙂

This is a recent pic of me in a shirt I really like 🙂

The smile took some convincing… to not blog about me and my life for 2 1/2 weeks is a lot!  I have been a two to three time a week blogger for over a year!

One highlight while I was off the grid was that we rescued a turtle from certain danger on the path he was on…

So we watered him up as he was shy and we couldn’t tell if he was okay or not… but look at him!

 We rehomed him to a neighborhood lake where he would be out of harms way!  Yay 🙂

And there is always good therapy to be found nearby at the beach…

I really do love being only 10 minute drive from this 🙂  That is my dd in the water playing!  She has a  blast playing in the waves and I have a blast watching her.

The aloe blooms are gone and no insects came to enjoy them… so soon this aloe will get trimmed and replanted somewhere it can enjoy itself and heal from the rough life it had before we came around.
 
I haven’t stopped quilting… last week I rounded the 3rd corner on this beauty!

Here is one of my fave fabrics and some close up of my quilting 🙂

I really enjoy hand quilting…

If you enjoy quilting by hand instead of machine you should request entrance to the greatest show on earth… a worldwide group of handquilters are uniting on facebook.  The work I see there encourages me every day and there are answers to so many questions… Celebrate Hand Quilting request for entry as this is a closed group and you have to request entrance by clicking here you can see our header this week and request entrance to this group.  There are almost a thousand quilters right now that are members from all over the world!  It is so fun to show and tell hand quilting… some hand piece but all hand quilt what they show.  Most is much more refined that my quilting… lol!

If you are interested in a smaller low key group of weekend quilters by machine or by hand check out my facebook group called Patchwork Friends here… we have show and tell too but not daily ! lol  But it is a great group for newby and not so new quilters to get together and chat!

Please pray for me to be the decision maker that God and my family need during this time and I will try to write you at least twice a week from now on!

Thanks and have a blessed week!

Kathi

Playing catch up :)

Not with life… but with you my bloggy friends 🙂  Sorry I haven’t posted in a while… we have been very busy and I am wrong in not sharing more but I guess we all need a break sometimes… check out this quote I found on my fb page today 🙂  Love Joyce Meyer!!!

So what has been keeping me so involved I didn’t have time to share with you????

The aloe vera cactus is blooming again… I haven’t alerted you as I wanted to see how it went…

We moved it over on the patio so it gets MORE direct sun as we keep it wet enough … we thought the sun would help the blooms mature 🙂

See the blooms forming in this close up 🙂

While I was out I noticed a large bumble bee sucking up nectar from our mexican petunia bed 🙂

Oh how much fun I had…

But mainly I have been quilting!  Having so much fun… pics and an update on that next time 🙂

Have a blessed day!

Kathi

Slowly making progress… Aloe Update too!

Well in my last post I shared all we have been up to… the family like has gotten busier and the work has slowed but not stopped 🙂

I am on the 20th butterfly on Pam’s quilt out of 30 total.. then on to border work.  Yahoo for progress… sure wish the butterflies were done but I won’t wish away the time to stitch them either!
 Here is the back side with my needles loaded and ready to go…

In between stitches I fixed this curtain to hang up higher in the middle… I like it now and like the shabby chik look it has 🙂

Meanwhile….
My honey is making progress on the Florida room floor tiles and is cutting the last one as I write this…

So now it looks like this…

And now for an aloe update…

Here she was earlier this week…

The blooms are drying up and blowing away and the hairs that grew on te limbs are shooting out a seed pod looking thing… there are 3 of them on the aloein this pic on Thursday…

Today it looks like this…

Now all the blooms are basically gone and the seed pods are getting jucier looking… hmmm wonder what is next???

We have had a lot of rain for this time of year thanks to an early tropical storm from the Gulf side of the state… but it looks healthy and happy otherwise… will keep watching!

Have a blessed Father’s Day and a happy Sunday!

Kathi

Love that… Update!

It has been a busy week around here… I finally got my Florida drivers license 🙂

And even though my family calls me “crash” (because I have had a few wrecks… not my fault mainly but still) I have a SAFE DRIVER icon on my license now 🙂  Love that!

I got my license because my daughter needed an state ID to fly to Tennessee for a little 2 week vaca.  She got her ID and I got my license… then we prepped her to be away for 2 weeks… her brother doted on her and helped her get her toenails painted…

Such a sweet moment… and this is the ONLY place this pic is gonna be seen so enjoy it!  Her bro is 28 but still is embarrassed that I caught this shot of him painting his sisters nails.. his first time to try it and he ROCKED it!

Then my honey found a STEAL on Craigslist… this great edger for our crazy St. Augustine grass…

for only $40.00!!!  In great gently used condition and normally this style of edger would cost about $200.00 new 🙂  Yahoo!  My honey loves it!  So we got it for him for an early Father’s Day present 🙂  Love that too!

Once my honey had the yard looking spiffy he decided to work in the back yard some more and set up this darling….

water feature on a slate table we have sitting out in the Florida room.. so no water damage to worry over and a great addition to my relaxing space here.  It stands about 2 feet tall and just has the most gently trickle.. LOVE that too!

On the aloe vera front….

It is growing hair like things on the stems to each bloom… see them better on this close up…

It is slowly maturing the blooms and getting ready but we have also had lots of rain in the last few days and that could be slowing down it’s maturity.  Thanks Tropical Storm Andrea!

Elsewhere in the back yard… the wandering jew is growing noticably longer but we aren’t having to groom it to keep the shape… very interesting….

And the mexican petunias are recovering from being replanted…

And this remains my fave area of the back yard blooms right now…

The blooms are an electric lavender color against deep green leaves and the backdrop of the elephant ear is just glorious color combos for me 🙂

When DL isn’t painting Brandi’s nails he is making a header for my Patchwork Friends facebook group!  This is the backdrop … a pic taken by one of the members in her archives of quilts she has made…

then DL is making the name over it with Photoshoppe! Yay 🙂  I don’t understand photoshop… but he does 🙂  LOVE THAT!!!

And finally my fave thing is my progress on the quilt for Pam.  I have 6 pinwheels to quilt then I start quilting butterflies on the white spots created by joining all the squares 🙂  I ordered special hand quilters cotton YLI brand thread and am planning on using some white perle 12 cotton for the butterflies to make them pop a bit off the white areas 🙂  I will show you as I work on them 🙂  Love it all!

Thanks for visiting with me and would love for you to join Patchwork Friends on facebook here!

Have a blessed crafty weekend 🙂  Loving doing that myself!

Kathi

Cool 3D Altered Project with Lots of pics :)

Today I have such a treat for you!  

Yesterday I got my papercrafting jive on with my bff (best freakin friend) Pammy and made this!

I enlarged the pic… it is an 8″ x 8″ box about 2 or 3″ deep Pammy found on clearance at michaels…

We prepared items during the week and got together at her house on Friday for a fun day of crafting… 5 hours later I left with THIS!  Isn’t it awesome 🙂  It is for my mom and dad’s 50th wedding anniversary coming up later in June but I wanted to share this with you today because I am so happy with it… 

Let me take you on a tour 🙂

Starting in the left lower corner… check out the depth on this cute altered box…

and the hidden butterflies on lower levels 🙂  Love these 🙂  And I also love all the whimsy with all the different colors that go together so well…

Check out the pearls tied in this the rolled paper and ties with a gromet… very cool!

In the lower right corner is more fun stuff…

Like this fussy cut bird and sitting on a rolled flower with a pearl for it’s center… the flower is almost covered but still peeking out adding LOADS of layers to this corner of the frame.. and that crocheted flower had a pearl center I removed for this more antique jeweled center 🙂  Don’t iss the baby dragonfly brad 🙂

In the upper right corner is my fave part… a butterfly with a 50 stamped in it.  Pammy made this with Martha Stewart clay and a mold of the butterfly then used a rubber stamp for the numbers… I colored in the numbers to show off the 50 a bit around the white and we layered it and whalaah!

Another cool part of this is the fern leaf we added… Pammy made these cute fern with leaves out of cardboard and mod podge and paint!  Isn’t it a fun addition!  I also love the pops of light blue around it! 

Then the upper right corner… the dove is flying across the frame here…

And I love the “Our Life” charm below the cluster of flowers… and the whimsical pink butterfly because I had added the pop of hot pink for the bird to sit on 🙂

So how did we do it???

 We started with a focus pic, the box, scraps of paper from one line… and lots of imagination!
Here was the table when I first got there…

with some of the embellishments for me to choose from…

and a box with fun stuff to get me started 🙂

And then the beginning was born!

I wanted my parents pic to be circular but Pammy thought if we cut the hole in the paper instead of cutting the pic it would look better… I think she is right!  What do you think???

The curled paper is done by wetting the paper lighting and curling it around something and letting it dry or drying it with a heat gun.  doesn’t it give a nice effect 🙂

Next we added mulberry paper ripped into little pieces to the outside and inside edges of the box…

I didn’t take a pic of this step but you can see it really well above and the paper and box below 🙂

Next … while that was drying I cut a template from cardboard the size of the base and started designing…

And adding…

Then when the box was dry enough we started layering it from the bottom up in the box…

We used pieces of corrugated cardboard between paper layers to show off the layers better and give us more height!

To get this unembellished design… then we embellished to give the final effect… Take a look again 🙂

I just hope they like it as much as I had fun making it….

Now back to quilting 🙂

Half done on quilting the pinwheels… then I will add butterflies to the white spaces on the middle of the quilt 🙂

My beautiful daughter and an aloe update too!

Can you believe it is taller than her and she is almost 15 now… this is her on one of her last days of school… 🙂

Have a blessed weekend and hope you enjoyed this post!

Kathi

I am soooo blessed :)

As May ends and 5 years ago so much tragedy hit our family I want to recall all that I now have to be blessed with.

Know what those purple flowers are???

I have 4 great kids 🙂

DL helps when I do vids and is my go to person for all things technical, historic or trivia like.
James lives in Tennesse with his beautiful wife and has an aspiring medical career and calls once a week just to check on me 🙂
Mike is about to graduate from high school.
Brandi is my only girl and the baby of the family… although at almost 15 she is NO BABY! lol
Love all my kids 🙂

starting to mature a bit now…

I have 4 great friends plus one awesome honey 🙂

Pam has been my friend the longest and even though our friendship started out close by to each other most of our friendship has evolved long distance and we know each other so well… She is a little older than me and her wise advice is coveted on a regular!
Brandy I met while working as a charge nurse in a large pediatric critical care where I trained her to our practices there.  She went on to be a shooting star in her field and is now a stay at home mom so we get more time to chat!  Love that 🙂
Connie I also met at work but only got close to over the last couple years as I have begun quilting our friendship grew and we are now very close 🙂  We have similar family situations and even though she is a grandma and I am not yet we find PLENTY to chat about 🙂
Joyce lives the furthest from me being in California… we met online and have yet to meet in person but we chat on Skype and on the phone and via email… we enjoy papercrafting together and sharing about our families.  Joyce is quite a bit older than me and has lots of great advice from her years of mothering to help me with the teenage angst I face with my son 🙂

My closest and most precious though is the friendship I have with my honey.  He loves me even when I fail at something.. he makes me laugh when I am sad and he listens to how I say something not just what I say.  He knows me better than I do myself sometimes.  Thanks honey!  You rock my world!

see the nectar leaking out???

I am blessed… now I will get back to quilting… heading to 3/8 done on these pinwheels I am quilting … baby steps gets it done with hand quilting 🙂

So relaxing… today we are gonna go to the beach and I will quilt and my honey will read… will we like that???  Something new to ponder 🙂

Take care and God bless you!

Hope you find something or someone (as I have) to be grateful for in your life 🙂

Kathi

P. S. My honey is sacked out on the bed still reading and I am still quilting… just back home now… the beach is windy but a great place to get a lot of quilting done quickly we found 🙂