A Productive Week Behind means a Happy Sunday is here!!

Happy Sunday Y’all!

Look at what my honey is making from cedar as birdhouses to sell to those interested in owning 1 or a pair!!!  This pair is for our yard and they will be what the template is made for future ones…. I love them!!!

Earlier in the week I got on a bib making kick for Ellie and Jannessa’s grandson Liam so I made bibs… on Cleopatra my 319w

 After applying the velcro on opposite sides and sewing them together with a thin batting inside… I trimmed it all down with my pinking shears….

 Pushed out all the little edge bits with my special tool …

 And before I knew it … Molly was photo bombing a pic…

And I had finished 7 bibs… 5 for little Ellie and 2 for Liam 🙂

 With those then successfully mailed on Tuesday I focused on my slow stitching progress…

Soon I had finished these green loopdy loops…

And I was ready for the medallion… good thing I take photos!  I had to go back in my photo collection and see what I did on the previous medallions! lol

Soon that medallion was done… and the loopdy loops again were completed with no problems! 🙂 

Today I am linking this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching HERE… Making progress quilting a medallion & marking a quilt top with chalk are my 2 handy goals today!

My quilt top that needs marking looked like this on Wednesday…

 This is the planning phase… then I went for Julius to help me with all these hst’s 🙂

 Soon we had the 5 fall leaves… I did change the order once I took the first photo though…

It didn’t take much to sew them together and press the whole thing then it was time to mark and sew the smaller squares from the free pattern for this table runner.

 And before I knew it I was making the zig zag border come to life with it’s hst’s and my ideas…

Finally early this morning I got the batting fluffed and 2 pieces sewn into 1 long piece, a piece of backing decided on and pieced together for length, and the table runner top finished too … even the binding is ready to attach 🙂 

This fall table runner is a pattern offered free on Jordan Fabrics website of free patterns… Mine measures about 18 x 60 … next week I hope to share a finish here on our bar! 🙂

Thursday we had to go to the VA… So Molly got her first real groom done that we liked and came home feeling overstimulated by the visit but feeling pretty too ❤  Jannessa's daughter did a wonderful job grooming Molly too 😀

Here she is the next morning relaxing with her daddy…

Then Friday I got these photos … they had received and LOVED the bibs I sent to my sweet grand daughter…

I was beyond thrilled.

Also on Thursday while in Asheville to go to the doctor… we looked and bought this desk from the 1930’s era….

Here is the collage of it’s transformation into a sewing cabinet…

And soon Julius and Cleopatra will have matching dust covers made of this fabric 🙂

 I neglected to share this a couple weeks ago when I received her back… but here is the Raggedy Ann I had as a young child made by a distant but loving aunt.  She needed repair and Jannessa knows how to do this so she took her and fixed her all up!!!!  Now she hangs out proudly with our oldest sewing machine we own and some other favorite items we have…

 I hope you each have a blessed and busy week ahead…

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Happy Christmas Eve Eve ~ December 23 !!

Hope you are having a wonderful December and are all ready for Christmas! 

My bloggy friend Kathy who blogs HERE and has my favorite Sunday linky each week is hosting today as well with a giveaway open for all that link up !!!  

She is preparing for Christmas and so am I… making MY stocking finally!!!!  All my snow girl was done with hand stitching…

The buttons that make up the face and the tatted pink lace wreath  came from my friend Connie.  The thick watercolor paper with my name on it I harvested from my friend Debbie’s Christmas card backing! lol  I think that is my bag with 2 straps made of green DMC floss 🙂

I stuffed each section as I “built” this snow girl… even giving her silvery grey hair like me!!!  She has 2 jingle bells on her neck scarf too!  The hair bow, gloves and neck scarf ends are all 3D in make.  I hope to show this better once it is finished and hanging 🙂  I am hoping to fashion this stocking front into a full stocking later today… so it can go with the other two I have hanging already…

Kinda like Santa over there who is quilting away to finish a project…   

Do you have any projects you are still working on this Christmas?!!

Otherwise all our Christmas making and shopping is DONE!  We are loving enjoying this holiday season too!!!  Here is the cool waterpaper cardstock card my friend Debbie made me (that I harvested the backside paper from for my bag on my stocking)!

It came with a big box of fabric scraps (and big chunks too) that Debbie no longer wanted to keep around.  So I am her recipient of choice 😀  I love being that for her as well as GREAT friends!!!!

I have made some progress on Stars Among Usthis week… Here is an overhead view… showing my phone holder on the right side of my frame too…

Here is a view from the side that I liked better…. where my green thumb thimble is … is my spot to start back at when I focus on this later today for Sunday’s stitching time!

And here is my view from a bit further away… when I stitch early in the mornings I put on those head phones to keep things quiet for my honey and our pup.  I get up very early most of the time and don’t want to wake others up during my quiet morning stitching time 😀 

Of course I am thinking of THEM and not my own selfish need for quiet quilting time! lol

We got freshly redesigned (since we moved almost a year ago… haha) business cards finally!

 Using this cool shot!

I gathered 2 machines from our collection and some accessories we use for decor items these days… plus our latest item we are selling and most possibly the coolest machine we have ever had the honor of owning temporarily.  Here is our sale at for eBay…

The link to our ad is HERE…. if you would like to see all the photos we took and read more about this 1900 Victorian era chain stitching sewing machine that WORKS!!!

I made 4 bibs for our post office dude’s baby girl who is 8 months old… They loved them he says 🙂

 I made one more dog socking for my best friend Debbie to celebrate the season with her poodle dog Ma-lady.  I checked how I did the spelling with her and she sent the fabric in the BIG box 🙂  I sent her back the stocking already but likely mail is running slow and she will get it after Christmas.

 Our favorite thrift store ran a sale on their purses and bags… I harvested these 3 for under $7 all together!

 I am excited about the possibilities of each one too!

I also got some fabric as part of a attachments bartered for fabric trade a customer offered me.  This is many yards of quilt shop quality quilt fabric from her expansive stash I picked out and she mailed to me for a cool vintage set of attachments in a cool tin we mailed to her!  We are BOTH happy with this 🙂

Here is a table my honey is making from pieces and parts harvested at Lowe’s and put together to look like a big spool (wire holder)…. 

Here is it with red mahogany stain on it waiting to dry then be varnished several times…. it will match my desk and shelves and coordinate with his recliner which is where it will be… we love the rubber wheels it is on too !!!

And then Rick also got some tools he had been wanting that were on sale while we were there… then when we got home I ordered him this hat from our eBay PayPal funds remaining 😀 

He is mega excited to get this Australian Akubra hat by new years or so eBay says…  He tried one on when we were shopping and we both fell in love with it on him and it is waterproof make of European rabbit fur in a 6 week process (yes he found a YouTube vid on the process of making this hat type!).  It is sooo soft and not furry… this picture is from eBay so next week I hope to have a pic of him wearing it! 😉  We shall see as he is definitely camera shy!

Many of you know he has been dealing with severe severe right hip pain.  He finally got a steroid shot as a step before surgical intervention and he is feeling relief in his overall pain … now he is back to whistling and singing again 🙂

Well, I got a stocking to finish and a few things around the house to do so I am signing off for now… Hope you leave me a comment about your holiday plans and what you have left to do before Christmas.

Don’t forget the real meaning of Christmas… Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on your 25th!!!  God sent us such a massive gift for this Season 🙂  And remember to …

AQS Show ~ Daytona Beach 2016 and sooo much more!!!

I was soooo excited this week.. I went to the AQS Quilt Show ~ Daytona Beach 🙂

The AQS Show was held in the Ocean Center just across the street (A1A) from the beach!!!

I was lucky enough to go with my honey to the show on Wednesday the 24th…

We prepurchased our tickets in January and saved a few bucks… I also joined AQS for 1 year… see what I think of their mag and got a great discount on the 1 class I also chose to take …

Ya’ll this was my first quilt show!!!! lol

I had NO IDEA what to expect and was so happy my honey was going with me for this little adventure!!!  Here are some of our faves from the show…

Here is a quilt done by my friend on facebook in Germany.. Andrea Stracke!  I had my honey take this shot of her flowery wholecloth.. it was so pretty and bright!  Here hand quilting stitches are so tiny and precise too!

This quilt won BEST OF SHOW….

It had sparkles all over it too!

This one was machine quilted but look at the lovely piecing!!! It is totally fab in person!!!!

Here is a cute quilt I saw in a vendor shop… what a cute baby quilt this would make!!!

Speaking of quilts I wanna make… this kind of DWR is def on the list if I am able to learn applique well enough…

This quilt had some cool quilting that really made the quilt pop to me… can you see the texture???

And last but not least was our personal favorite aside from Andrea’s wholecloth…

Can you tell we enjoyed the show??? lol!

Thursday I braved the show by myself to go to the class I had chosen to take…

 Mary Sorensen is an EXCELLENT teacher too!  Boy was I glad I took this class… it helped me to like applique and look forward to my next attempt at it too 🙂  I identified my fears, tackled my troubling spots all during her 3 hour class… then bought the DVD for beginners that she offered at a discount to those in her class!!!!

She provided needle, thread, and green fabric for the leaves as well as a neutral background fabric to eventually be the block pictured in her class announcement above!  The red bird will be the focus of the DVD… I am very excited to listen and watch this DVD and give applique a true try again!!!

I also have 2 machine quilted finished… this was my trial run bib for my granddaughter Kaydence…

 And here is the second one I made… a bit larger than the first as I felt she needed one a bit larger too 😉  My 301a Gloria did all the piecing on these patchwork bibs… but Zena my 401a warrior princess did all the quilting and bulky sewing jobs!

 I quilted them each a bit differently… the first one is straight line stitching and the second is organic wavy line quilting… can you see the difference???

 Here are both bibs… now you should be able to see the second one (on the right) is a bit wider and longer than the first… I think this is the PERFECT size too!

 The backing on both is Kaydence’s mom’s fave print… PINK CAMO!!!!

I used velcro at the neck opening and really like the way these turned out!!!   The pattern was an online class I got for free and I have modified the pattern a bit to make the second one… will keep that pattern for future bigger baby bibs for sure!!!

I plan to mail these out to Kaydence this week… so I hopefully will have a pic of her with one on in coming weeks 😉

Finally, my ongoing project this week is complete!  The marking on Brandi’s quilt is finished!!!!

I spent 11 days marking this quilt for hand quilting… my daughter chose this stencil for all the background white fabric areas and the rest I used ruler and white ceramic lead to mark the stars… will be a fun quilt with detailed quilting that should show quite nicely when done… but I have NEVER yet spent 11 days premarking a quilt before layering and starting the quilting on it!!! lol

I marked these lightly with graphite… each square is unique to the area I found the stencil fit best on the space… here above you can see an odd shaped white area I am filling in with graphite.

Here is a close up of the design and stencil I used…

Here is that same area once I have marked it with the stencil…

Once marked the legs are still blank spots all over so the design is not contiguous lines… so I fill in the “legs” and whalaah!!!

Now the design looks like it should and when I am stitching I won’t have to figure out what goes where… I can just zenly stitch the motif on the white… in black thread 🙂  The white lines on the dark grey and black will be stitched in white thread… and each star on the quilt will be outlined in big stitched dark red thread… it actually coordinates well with the backing and binding I am getting ready to iron….

The backing was my daughter’s choosing… as this is her graduation quilt… for now this quilt is “Brandi’s Carpenter Wheel quilt 2016”.  She actually will graduate high school next May (2017)… but I have a bug in my bonnet to get this quilt done!

The chevron striped fabric above will be the bias cut binding for this quilt which will put all these cute zig zags on a 45 angle… will add a festive finish to this quilt I think!

I will be using my fave batting… Hobbs Tuscany Cotton/Wool blend… it is 80% cotton and 20% wool so it still crinkles when washed and dried but also gets puffier thanks to that wool and is very breathable so not too much in the Florida weather either! 🙂

So this week I will be quilting on this… and thanks to the marking shots I took… I think this will be fun to link up to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday here!  (Also, the applique she is showing is very similar to the method I learned this week! 🙂 )  I hope to take my first hand quilting stitches in this quilt much later today or tomorrow … after the pinning is finally done that is! lol  I also hope to get a full-sized shot of this quilt while it is laid out for pinning 🙂

This week… also brought the 31st birthday of my oldest child…  This was one of the pics I sent him… a little walk down memory lane… he is a HUGE history buff… Do you remember the song from the mid 80’s??? I didn’t until I listened to it on youtube! lol  Then it was VERY familiar to me … just never knew the name! lol

 Sorry this post is so long and I haven’t made time to share all this with you before the end of the week… but better late than never!  I hope you enjoyed the eye candy I had to share this week from the quilt show… I am MEGA inspired by that show!

Remember… no matter what twists and turns come your way this week…  Life is always precious and…

What is your favorite season?

Mine is Fall… Tennessee Fall to be exact…

Didn’t this turn out just LOVELY!!!

I will do a formal post on this very soon.. but I am just giddy to share this shot… and the journey that led to this finish deserves a post all it’s own…

So yes, Fall is my favorite season.. What is yours???

Since I finished this quilt with fun hand quilting … then washed, dried, and hung this beauty… I am linking to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post… HERE!

Now I have switched gears and started marking my daughters’ graduation quilt!!!  In 1 year and a few month she will be graduating from high school!!!

So she got this flimsy for Christmas…

she picked it out online as just a flimsy so that I could hand quilt it done for her 🙂

So after some fits and starts and erasures… I have a pattern going and I currently have 2 of the 9 carpenters wheel stars marked…

but check out how the white background is getting stitched…

I do hope you can see the meandering star and moon pattern I am marking on the white background…

On this quilt I am marking with graphite, white chalk & white ceramic lead size 0.09 mm… this will all wash out when I am done but is safe for the quilt as it shall take me several months to stitch all this… I am choosing to mark the quilt before layering because the designs are so involved and I need the straight lines drawn neatly for me when I quilt… will go MUCH faster for me 🙂

Her idea is… I stitch all the black/grey areas in white thread (YLI) and all the white background meanderings in black thread (YLI)… then we will add some dark red (Valdani Perle 8 cotton) big stitching to the stars to make them pop a bit… very exciting and different from anything I have ever done and VERY QUilTy when finished! lol

In the meanwhile, my friend Wendy is getting a Double Wedding Ring Template Set!  I am very excited about this as I have always wanted to do this pattern… so I bought the template set as well!  It is by Marti Michell and will be a project in the future for me..

I am in a fb group for DWR designs and see lovely eye candy there…  so many ideas!!!

Once I finish the 3rd carpenters wheel and star I will be making Kaydence some bibs with both Zena and Gloria!  Here are some of the fabrics I have pulled along with the perfect thread I found in my stash… and a cool pattern I found online…

 Here is the cute recipient of these bibs to be…

I am blessed to call her my granddaughter for sure!

Here is my inspiration to encourage my design…

I found this one for sale on Etsy 🙂

So I best get back to marking… this sweetie needs some handmade bibs !!! lol

Whooping up all this accomplishments and plans with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict HERE

Have a blessed weekend and always remember…