From Muddling to Magnificent >> Hand Quilting Has Started Back Ya’ll!

Happy Sunday Y’all!  Magnificent is sew much nicer than muddling!!!

These birds are photos from facebook eastern North American bird types Jannessa sent me… we thought they would make a cute opener for my post today and cheer you each up!!!

I have spent the last month muddling through… sewing masks…

Til I am soooo tired of them… I think this is a breaking time for me as all my friends family and locals have a mask … I think! lol

This Corona virus – Covid19 is a wicked virus for sure!  But it is maddening … esp here in the US opening early or refusing to wear masks in public places and refusing to adhere to 6′ distance in shops… is sad really!!!!  There are some folks even rushing the state government buildings with no masks as a method of protest for the governors not opening their state quite yet… Just Sad!!!

After listening to a quilting related fiction book as an escape from all this.. I decided I wanted to see a Garden Maze setting ….

 Above is a setting like that… I bought a Marcus Brothers panel on eBay and it came in this week…

 I will be hand stitching in dark red all the 20 blocks… then using this pattern here to do the most traditional type of garden maze setting…

I have a photo of these blocks put together but it is VERY busy… so I will make mine look more like the first photo I showed you with this pattern for how to piece it most historically with the switchover squares in place.  I can be more precise with this NEXT Sunday once the fabric I ordered arrives.

Molly wanted to pose for a photo here… on a quilt she loves that I hand quilted …

 My honey and I celebrated 9 years together with filet minion, baked potato, and broccoli …..

It was completely yummy…. then the next day my honey talked to our neighbor who had mentioned selling a John Deere mower almost new… so he dove in and offered him a cash price he couldn’t refuse… we got stimulated this week as well so that is what our $$$$ went to 🙂  We are passing along the good deal by selling our older mower to a friends kids for less than it is worth 😀

What comes around goes around … the motto we live by… we got a deal so we are passing one on!

Do you have a motto you & yours live by?

Here is a great family idea… let each person in your family choose a different color paper and trace their hand… you might have to get a bit creative to have this outcome but isn’t this a great way to remember this “time together” as a family unit???!!

Here I am … multiple times in the month of April I sat in my chair and looked out the windows at the view and viewed my hand quilting progress but just didn’t have any desire to pick up my needle and thread and make stitches….
Well thanks to a challenge from a very nice friend I am hand quilting!!!

I had 3 different sewing sessions to hand quilt this area of the quilt I am on…. I also finished that right sashing but the light isn’t out to get a nice photo for you all…. more next week!!!!

Jannessa started on the Miss Jane’s Best miniature quilt pattern that is embroidery heavy this week …

She got these 3 blocks all done… she is going to trace some for me on this same thick doll making muslin when she has hers made (for me to use to stitch with)!!! 

It is a group project I guess… I let her use my pattern that had been a gift to me (I will make it when she is done),  Connie is sending her 30’s repro fabric from her stash, and Jannessa is using DMC floss from her stash and mine to do the embroidery…  How FUN for Pandemic Relief Efforts!!!!

Linking all this hand stitching and my renewed hand quilting to Kathy’s Quilts Linky HERE <<<  Come see all Kathy is up to and all the rest of the linkers too ❤

Even when I haven’t felt like it I have blogged every Sunday morning…. I appreciate your kindness for leaving a comment when you visit my blog too 🙂

So continue being Kind and Wearing Masks when in public places please!

Advertisement

So much to share!

Hello my bloggy friends!!!  You will see as you read that I have been following my own advice to…

I am so excited to share my progress in so many areas of my quilty life!!!  As I am linking this post to my fave Sunday blog to read and enjoy (Kathy’s Quilts HERE) I will start with hand quilting progress on my Batik Hollyhock Garden quilt but there is more hand quilting below too!!!

 I was on the 2nd row a couple weeks ago when I linked up… now I am almost done with the 4th row!  The blue arrow on the left of the above shot shows where I am and you can also see the legend in the bottom right of that shot! 🙂

And here is a shot looking back on this row a bit too…

I love my Hinterberg quilting frame my honey built for me to use… and use it almost exclusively now even though I have a hoop and a project in that hoop that is to small for the frame.. I haven’t worked on it in a month or more!!!  Here is a shot you can see the frame better in if you haven’t seen my frame…

It has metal poles we got at Lowe’s… the kit we ordered from Hinterberg.com right here in the USA … I found a long length of cotton striped fabric on eBay and we used duck tape to apply the assigned length and width to each pole… this fabric is known as “leaders”.  The kit came with fairly good instructions on how to put this all together and how to cut and apply the leader fabric to each pole.. once in place it stays forever and I haven’t had any issues with using the tape to apply the fabric to the metal!

Unfortunately I broke a fingernail on my quilting hand into the quick of my nail bed… so I am taking a short break from handquilting as that fingernail grows back and it isn’t so sensitive… me and regular applications of Bag Balm are healing it fairly quick though… soon I will be back to quicker progress on this quilt! 🙂

While that is going on there… I have been piecing a quilt for my son and his wife that live in Tennessee… James and Heather… it is called Amethyst Star quilt.  I am using Gloria and loving her💖  I love my vintage machines to piece with!!

Glorious Gloria is her name!!!

Here is how I am laying out my rows for machine piecing in a controlled scrappy way…

And here are the first couple rows…

 I have all my pieces cut and in piles…

It took me a while from getting all pieces cut until I started piecing the center of this top… but now I am having a blast with it since I am not able to hand quilt too! lol  Make the best of a situation I say!!!

I am marking all the little squares with a silver glitter pen on the back across the middle diagonally…

… Then I am sewing just to the right of that drawn line to make my star points on the scrappy sashing strips…

I am piecing the squares and sashings into 4 patch units like this…

Above you can see how I make the join of the “4 Patch” rotate so each square can join like I have below in a row…

 I then have ironed the joined squares open as that seemed to make the most sense… and sure enough when I now have 4 rows all joined in this center section it looks MARVELOUS if I do say so myself….

 There will be 15 rows before this center is completed… and now my pile of parts has decreased some… I am hoping to keep the scrappy look going til the end though!  I started this with some of my stash and a layer cake cut all into 5″ squares… sashing strips… star centers… and a LOT of star point squares for the flippy corners I am marking! lol

 Yesterday.. April 29… was my honey and I’s 6th year anniversary!!!

 

I feel so blessed to have him in my life!!!  

 He got me a couple things to celebrate our years together… first we found this water bubbler for our foyer… summer is here already and we aren’t outside to enjoy those much anymore!

And a quilt pattern I just ordered last night on eBay….

This will be a Christmas wall quilt for our foyer if the size is right in the ad 🙂  I have always loved the feathered star pattern and this one is perfect for that space!

Here is the one currently opposite the bubbler …

 And a larger view… it was a rotary cut with templates, machine pieced and hand quilted finish quilt!

 Here is a pic of the way I label my quilts… I get these off Etsy from a seller there 🙂

And I finally made the banner for a local charity with some fabric I found online and a new t-shirt the charity owner brought to me…

I used the front tshirt logo on the back cross… and the back tshirt image for the front of the banner.

I really enjoyed making this up… I took a break after 2 rows of the quilt center on Amethyst Stars to get this made and delivered.  The lady that runs the charity is in LOVE with it as a banner for her charity!  She will be using it in parades and to mark her charity’s spot when in public places!  This was all machine done… my finger was hurt already at this point! haha  

I will continue to machine make things for this charity including quilted pillows for those that are injured and need a comfort pillow to help them feel safe again.  There is such a strong need for us all to be kind for sure in this world we are living in!

Another couple days of taking is slow should have me able to wear a thimble again though!  So no worries 🙂  

In this time of so much negativity going on everywhere in the world  … make sure you take time to…

A Slow Stitching May Day !!

Happy May Day to you my bloggy friends…

I hope you are making time to stitch at this wonderful time of year 🙂

I sure am!!!

Earlier this week I finished this cool wall hanging… it is a mix of slow and fast stitched quilting 🙂

This was a wedding gift for my oldest son who eloped with his beautiful bride last month.. so a bit belated but they didn’t seem to mind! 🙂  You can read and see more pics on this quilted finish HERE 🙂

Also my honey and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary yesterday!!!!

 Above is the photo I post on my facebook page 🙂

My daughter made me a bracelet… I enjoy a stretchy bracelet on my wrist… when I get nervous or anxious I play with it! lol

So she made me a rubber band version in colors I chose… I think it turned out quite nice too!

Since finishing the wedding wall hanging I have refocused on Brandi’s Starlight ~ Starbright quilting though… nice and slow!!!!

Here was my progress exactly 2 months since I started this quilt… I am on the 4th block of 9 presently….

 Here is a close up.. use my needle minder to orient yourself to where this is in my frame if you like 😉

 Here is a fun slant on my progress…

 And here is a straight on view…

 I am currently big stitching around the top of the star…

 And here is my remaining part to quilt today and tomorrow probably 🙂

I am also working on my Spiral Log Cabin quilt again… I have the center now bordered with a thin black border that brings my measurements up to the right size for the next border…

 and here are the flying geese that will make up the next border … in progress on my ironing surface! 🙂

While I have been working on all these things my honey has been busy constructing a Hinterberg Hand quilting Frame 🙂  YIPEEE!!!!!

It started with some specialty parts and machine cut wood pieces in a box we ordered a few weeks ago as soon as they became available on their website…. then the instructions explained what wood to buy and how to cut it… it was all Greek to me! lol  but my honey is a master woodworker with things like this and he figured it all out…

Here is a picture of the raw wood being held in place to get our first idea of what the end would look like…

And here it is laid out on the floor.. the small parts have already gotten stained at this point…

Here it is now stained and top coated… 

This actually took several days to get the wood cut and detail cut and sanded all down… then stained… cured… and top coated and cured.

It still seemed fast to us though… It is NOW ready to use once we buy the poles for it next week!

I know it is long… we made it as big as the instructions called for so it would be versatile.

We also have more “tweeking” to do to give me side tension ability etc… Lighting and a good chair are necessary too… but instead of thinking of all that… 

I would rather dream of that Log Cabin being done so I can load it in this frame!!! My first quilt to load in it!!!

Well… I have shared quite a bit… if you made it this far CONGRATS!!!   Hope you were entertained!

If you have a similar hand quilting frame and ideas on how to load a 3 rail system the easiest please let me know.

Also I am planning to buy the leader fabric for the poles next week also… thinking I got a lot of zig zagged edges to keep the fabric from fraying over the years too!  Oh well, it is all worth it in the end!!!  

Hope you have a blessed Sunday and Cheers to Slow Stitching with MUSTER…

Speaking of mustering… check out Kathy’s Quilts blog today and see what that is all about and what fun hand work people are linking right HERE!

Remember… no matter the highs or lows each day… even each minute… Life IS Beautiful!!