Busy November….

Wow this month is non stop so far y’all!

My honey made some yummy spaghetti this past week… and last night I heated up some leftovers… even BETTER!!!!

Today is our Molly’s birthday day 17 months ago…

I made this collage… she spent Friday getting groomed while we ran errands around Asheville!  She had more fun though 😀

My great friend Jannessa keeps her when she is groomed and Jannessa has a white poodle named Max that is Molly’s good friend too… they love to play and nap together 😀  We are definitely blessed!

As we were leaving… her husband blessed us by sharing some home laid eggs from his chickens too!

I snapped this shot of our back yard…

 From “across the pond”! lol

And here is just a small portion of all the limbs we picked up using our golf cart to haul them away!  It has been VERY windy and cool here in the mountains of North Carolina!!!  But I am loving it and so is my honey 😀

Last Sunday I asked you all for pattern suggestions for a table runner / placemat we will use in our kitchen from these fabrics Jannessa gifted to me…

 Many of you liked the pattern that came with the fabric… a honey bun and some yardage enough for this pattern.  So I designed something similar that would meet our longer length and skinnier width requirements…

I had fun designing it… and have the colors already picked out in my head 🙂  This will be fun… I hope to start on the piecing this week!

I will also be making Jannessa some place mats that are a bit smaller than the traditional placemat and more the size of some I made when we lived in Florida… you will enjoy seeing those come about too I bet…

But for my HQAL friends and for my Slow Sunday Stitching friends… I finally have lots to show this week!

There are 4 rows of swoon blocks on this quilt and I am on the top of the 3rd row!!!

Here I am just starting the outline stitching with regular 28wt Aurifil thread outlining each swoon section that will then get big stitch quilt with Aurifil 12 wt…

 Here is a photo showing the stabilizing stitching and the big stitching all done…

 Now I am on to the medallion bottom part as I move later on to the 2nd swoon top in this row 😀

 While in Asheville Friday… and again last night…

I worked on blanket stitching by hand the crochet thread around a block for my crochet quilt in the slow making progress.  This is my long term handie project… all by hand once the squares are closed and the fabric is the same on both sides 😀

Above you can see we were listening to some music, enjoying a soda and stitching as we chatted 😀

Earlier this week I was watching one of my faves on a facebook live chat and she posted this question….

 So my challenge this week … as we enter the busy holiday time is to take a breath and a few minutes…
 Ponder this question… what are your answers to 5 things you are most thankful for?

Write them down and keep them on the mirror or by your work station… remember what keeps you grounded 😀

I want to shout out to Kathy’s Quilts for the Sunday Slow Stitching link up HERE <<<  Come see what all the chatting is about this week including all of Kathy's finished and starting Gail Pan designs!

I also definitely wanna say hello to my slow stitching sisters in the HQAL group too >>>>

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. 

We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  

If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Bella, Daisy and Connie

Come play along with a link up every 3 weeks … contact Kathy if you are interested … she is the first linker in the list of names 😀

Our colors in the mountains aren’t as brilliant as they were last year because we lacked rain at the end of the summer and into the fall… we are caught up on rain now I think… but that lack of rain made us miss out of leaf looking as we drove to run errands and such.

I hope you each have a great week… I am thinking of 2 of my sons’ having birthdays this weekend <<<  One is 29 and one is 25… both are settled and happy so sew am I for them !!!

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Fantabulous Friday to you!

We are all having a fabulous week here on Florida’s east coast and wanted to wish you all the same… hope this Friday finds you feeling FABULOUS 🙂

UPDATE>>>> This Sunday, March 8, 2015 EST sometime that day Fons & Porter Love of Quilting Facebook page will feature the Valance I submitted to them on a whim!  I am MEGA excited to see what kind of response it gets! lol
Here are the shots we submitted to them…

 So if you would like to see what they post go find them on facebook and like their page or just check their page out on Sunday sometime maybe 🙂  Yippee 🙂

We had temperatures in the 80s yesterday with a nice breeze and my darling daughter decided to do some work in the back yard….

 She concentrated on this area of our patio and didn’t she do a great job of trimming away the deadness that had previously existed there???  Sorry no before pic ..

Then this morning my honey decided to pressure wash it (when he saw these pics! lol

Now look at our outdoor patio!!!

 My honey installed this as there was nothing but sandy dirt to walk out on when we moved in … and it cleans up so nice each time he pressure washes away the winter duldrums… and algae! lol

Meanwhile I know may of my friends and family north of us are having cold and snowy and treacherous weather.. here is a pic recently sent to me of my nieces and nephew enjoying the snowy weather…

The youngest one just had a birthday  🙂

Our azaleas liked the cold snap we had last week and this week we got lots of blooms!

Meanwhile… Monday I made it to the hearts of the outer border…

 Hope you can see them in this pic… this border pattern is 2 1/2″ and I have it set closer to the inner edge to leave room for evenness after binding 🙂

Here it is in my hoop… I have HALF of this done!!!  Yippee 🙂

I am very satisfied with my progress on this baby quilt as Kaydence isn’t due til May!

I have started reorienting myself to the Hollyhock Garden quilt again as well… and I have read the first chapter of the new book I shared with you in my last post.. so I have been quite busy to include housechores and such 😉

Hope you have a fantabulous weekend 🙂
Thanks for stopping in for a visit!
 

What makes you smile?

Project planning… New Fabric Alert!  Doesn’t that make every quilter smile???

I got these cute charm packs by Riley Blake in Red/White and Navy/White… each has 28 charms in it… so I have plenty to make something like Jenny’s quilt like this…

I think mine will be a bit different but I want to applique on it “Welcome” and use it by the front door.. that is what is NEXT!   But what about now???

I am loving my Slow Sunday Stitching and plan to link this post to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching linky here…

I started with a goal of completing this area (2 blocks, 3 feathers, and 1 cornerstone)…

Here I have done one feather and the spine of the one beside the blue block to stabilize that area… now I have marked the block and have started quilting it at about 9 o’clock on a clock working counterclockwise works best for me… I am ambidextrous 😉

Now this week was not a quilty week for me after all.. I started this out strong on Monday, Tuesday I got these cuties in the mail!

They are personalized cotton twill labels that won’t ravel and I can sew into the binding of my quilts!  Don’t you love them!  There are lots of choices… I found them in this Etsy shop 🙂  The cost was $13.00 plus shipping to me… and I think it comes with 20!  I designed all of what they say and you pick and icon from appropriate quilty pics to add… I just went with the hearts 🙂

My honey got an order for a dog this week so all else stopped (thus I quilted Monday! lol) and he made a pup to ship 🙂  I love their eyes the and ears so much!

My honey took pics and organized stuff I removed from my craft room to sell…

Using a camera that he loves and the Picnic white polka dot backing as his canvas to take pics on…

And look how they came out… We have listed 127 things right now… lol  These are just our 2 faves of the moment! 🙂

 Finally yesterday… after various errands and more time listing things to sell… I got back to quilting.. and have finally found a stopping place to share with you all!

Tah Dah!  Yep.. didn’t meet my goal but if I hadn’t had that goal… I wouldn’t have done this much I bet as busy as the week was! lol  But I got 1 block done.. 2 feathers… and 1 cornerstone done…

My hope is to have the remainder done by Wednesday.. but I have more stuff to list on eBay! lol  Yep… my papercrafting room is past and before the stuff I have loses value I need to sell it!

In closing I would like to share some of what has helped me make it through a very busy week with unmet goals… looking at this beauty in one corner of the yard…

 And looking at this bougainvillea leaning into the daisies really rocks my mornings 🙂

Have a blessed week and thanks for taking time to read my thoughts and share in my busy week! lol

Monday ~ Goal setting again!

Well if you follow me you know last week I set a goal and missed my mark… then when I did meet that goal…late!… I set a better goal that I did meet yesterday!  I was STOKED!!!  Yippeee 🙂  So this week I am sharing a new goal with all of you to keep me accountable…

Here are TWO blocks.. THREE feathers and ONE cornerstone that need done… THIS WEEK!

My plan is to hopefully meet my halfway goal of 1 block and 2 feathers by Thursday… 🙂

Wish me luck!

My brother and his family sent a new pic taken on Easter and I love it!  They are all so beautiful!

And speaking of beautiful things… check out the magenta pink blooms on the bougainvillea 🙂

Looks so nice to me with all the other lovely plants surrounding it!

 And we have this beautiful teal sewing machine now listed on eBay.. Wanna see it?  Check it out better here!  My honey rehabbed it and the case and don’t they just look FABULOUS???!!!

So what’s beautiful in your life on the beginning of this week???

Would love to hear what you find beautiful too!

Have a blessed week and here’s to MEETING goals!  Happy Monday 🙂

Going… going… SOLD and SELLING!

After a couple weeks on Ebay my Janome sewing machine sold last night!

Yippee !!!  I reduced the price about a week ago to $240.00 from $250.  And I offered FREE shipping and put shipping costs into the price of the machine itself to make it an easier transaction 🙂

Yesterday we also got a bid on this beautiful Singer sewing machine with bentwood case…

If you are interested it is an auction that has a few days left with current bid of only $90.00… that is a STEAL for this special machine… see the Ebay listing here for that beauty 🙂  She is a collectors dream because she is very rare, vintage, and she sews great!

Notice I used my fave quilt BACK as a drape under the machine to instill the unique beauty of the cabinet and machine.  lol 🙂

Now here is some back yard loveliness… our weather on Florida’s east coast has been rainy lately but the sun is shining today and even though it is only supposed to get to 73 degrees today I will be happy to have the sunshine to sew by 🙂

Just off the back porch 🙂

Bird Oasis 🙂

The “bird oasis” started with 2 small elephant ear plants… over time we have added some purple queen (in front).. re-homed a concrete HEAVY birdbath to this area … where birds LOVE to groom themselves during the day and I get to watch… this bird oasis is just outside my sitting area in the Florida room 🙂

Behind those big elephant ears is a “bubbler” or water fountain… I have a smaller one inside the Florida room too!  Makes a nice tinkling sound that complements the birds and squirrels playing just outside 🙂

This winter my honey broke that large elephant ear down to babies it had had and posed them throughout the yard…  The pic on the left is the far left of the back yard… and the pic on the right is the far upper right corner of the backyard (I see this area mainly when making coffee in the mornings through the kitchen window 🙂

Then there is that crazy blooming aloe vera… she is at it again… blooms will bust open any day now!

Will we get hummingbirds this time or is it still too cool for them I wonder????

In another little corner of the backyard are these beautiful plants…

They were getting full sun and hating it.. so once rehomed, fertilized and watered they are now THRIVING and beautiful I think!  And they cover my son’s room window where he keeps a window fan in most of the time… win/win!

Here is a close up of the repurposed trellis…

the wandering jew are looking lovely in their pots and the jasmine is a North Carolina variety I think… it is VERY happy now that we planted it and gave it a place to spread out.. 🙂

On the front of our storage building you can see more established wandering jew… it started out as clippings… we only bought one of these plants and now our back yard is filled with them from cuttings!  My honey has such a green thumb!

And if you made it this far in my post… please leave a comment and tell me your fave part of this photo….

It was my fave from this pic taking day last week… 😉

Hope to hear from you and hope these sunny outdoor pics brighten your day wherever you are…

Thanks for dealing with my selling blog posts.. we fix and rejuvenate vintage machines and cabinets… so occasionally there will be a sales ad about that machine.  We do LOTS of research on each machine we purchase to fix and sell.. so we want the buyer to know what kind of machine they are truly getting.  I can’t advertise in a way I can figure out except on this platform… so I appreciate you avoiding the ads if they bother you but assure you my regular posts will still be coming..

As for quilting… well.. I am counting down with 8 1/2 blocks to go and 9 feathers and 3 cornerstones before I get to bind and quilt the cable around the outside border.  Looking forward to finishing this project as several others are starting to call to me 🙂

My honey is re-newing Nelly’s cabinet (my Japanese clone zig zag)  next post should have pics of that process… for now check this out!

my honey working on a cabinet design 🙂

Cheers to a Wonderful Wednesday!

 

Whooping away Cabin Fever!

Although I live on Florida’s east coast in a little town near Daytona Beach we too suffer cabin fever when the days are cool and nights are cold… no sunlight for Florida is painful I will tell you!  Surely cabin fever is we are truly suffering from!  So I hand quilt!  My fave thing to do!

I am over 50% complete on THE MAN quilt for my honey…. it has 30 squares… this was #14 🙂  I am on 15 now!

I listen and watch my “bubblers”… water fountains that work continuously to flow the water… very soothing to listen to with a movie, a tutorial, or just quilting!

I have even taken to watching the cactus garden that is too heavy to bring inside so we prayed it would survive the winter as these are our smallest cacti…

And I have been selling my honey’s handiwork locally for now but we have boxes for shipping on order!  So exciting to see dachshund food bowls and mancave signs coming off the shelves as we get the word out that they are even available! lol

How do you cure cabin fever?  Check out Lily Pad Quilting Linky Party to share your helps 🙂

What are you whooping?  Check out the great stuff Sarah has going on here 🙂

Hope this post has inspired YOU to share what makes you whoop … or what cures your cabin fever… no matter where we live we can all get it ya know! lol

Moving on :)

I have so much to share today!  We are moving on sick or not because we are tired of it! lol 

Block 14 of THE MAN quilt I finished last night…

The is an edge block so you can see the different sashing on the outer border that will be quilted last… can you even see the stitches???  How about this view???

Doesn’t that show the design clear as mud??? lol  Insert major sarcasm… however after wetting a couple blocks with a spray bottle I do think this design will show well once washed and wrinkley… and if not… my honey and I will know the design is there and he will love how quilty it all feels when done too!

So here is the same design beginning to get marked on block 15…

In real life the swirly are fairly apparent now… but just not able to get light and camera to agree with me!

My honey meantime has been battling his cold by doing yardwork!  That is his form of relaxation…

We scored some concrete rectagular planters WITH some almost dead plants in them… and this is what my honey did with all them!!!

Starting from the left is a new to us planter with some monkey grass, next is a cool planter we also scored with a chinese rubber plant… it seemed to need it’s own space 🙂 
Next is another new to us planter with a bouganvillia (the scraggly small tree like bush with scant fuscia blooms on it..)  These are native to Florida but it was in partial shade… it needs 5 hours of sunlight a day… so I am excited to watch this baby take off… my honey lovingly added wandering jew below it for more color and warmth. 
On the post my honey set in the ground a while back are 2 planters and a trellis that came free with the planters… we are using to train the Carolina Jasmine growing from the base of the post… it has some little yellow blooms and is happier in the ground than anytime during the year we had left it dormant in the pot it was gifted to us in!  So happy it is happy now 🙂
Behind the post is the rejuvenated wagon with wandering jew ready for a winning year of beauty for us… In front of that is a planter like the others with more monkey grass and finally in the foreground is our cactus garden… mostly dormant now but looking healthy overall 😉

Better view of my view!

The wandering jew from last year that were near the house survived and look vibrant and hearty this morning…

As does the azalea bush below 🙂

And in the distance you can see the wandering jew we planted in the windowbox of our storage building has done well… but the pot on the corner of the house needed replanting… so my honey renewed that one too!

And finally a pic through the elephant ears… that brave winter in Florida without a blink… they don’t grow much but they don’t die or get limp either!  Loving that… and you can see a bubbler we got… it is a water feature that looks like concrete but is molded plastic and causes us lots of JOY!  With the deep trickling sound it gives out… mmmmm… relaxing…   Great for quilting!  So we are moving on despite illness..

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and a blessed week!

Backyard Walk About :)

The cooler than we are used to almost freezing temps for the last couple weeks here on Florida’s east coast has left me wanting some color in my life!  After my honey spent some time sparking up the back yard… I thought I would share some of what I found on my walk about this morning!  Just outside my back door too!

Here is the door leading off my Florida room (aka screened in porch) 😀

Look at the new growth of those dark red plants to the right of the door…

I love this shot with the windchimes showing their prettiness with the little storage building looking so cute in the background…

And the wandering jew in the planter outside the building did well with the frosts we had 🙂

these wandering jew didn’t fare as well…

Sunday my honey divided down the elephant ears from here…

And put the divided out middle here…

and here 🙂

My honey trimmed the daisies back yesterday too….

Leaving these 2 beautiful blooms to get all the food 🙂

A close up of the fuscia flowers you saw outside my door to the left of the first pic I showed 🙂

Azalea bush blooming 🙂

And a rescued couple of plants that have flourished in a shady spot in the back yard since we moved them last summer…

And the one of the left had a hidden bloom head… so I will be watching that but I think we missed the show this time…

The blooming aloes and cacti did not fare the weather with pretty blooms but they all look to be surviving … as for now I bid you adieu and hope you have enjoyed this colorful display of bloggy love sending to each of you that take time to read what I have to say!

So much to share :)

My honey has been super busy!  Making things for me now!!! Yippee!

I got this gorgeous sign to hang over my design wall…

but I also got this great ruler organizer too!

the triangle isn’t wonky… I just had a wierd angle on the camera 🙂

I have been slowly cleaning and straightening my stash and quilting accoutrements… and now my quilting and computer area in the Florida room looks like this!

The design wall is simply a frame built out of 2 x 4’s with a flannel backed tablecloth stretched and stapled to the back side… but it works perfect and I can pin into it without hurting the stucco wall behind it 🙂

Meanwhile I have been on a quilting adventure… I would love to share with you what I am doing with it and will soon 🙂  Suffice it to say I am making GREAT progress on this quilt for my honey!

Evie, my niece who had to have open heart surgery is recuperating well…

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts for her over the last few days!

The cactus bloom has remained intact even though we had freezing temps one night…

It is getting plenty of sun and is soaking it up…

but the littler one isn’t getting as much sun… it looks tired…

Do something for yourself this week… something you enjoy!

What’s up Wednesday!

There is sooo much good stuff going on around here… just wanted to catch you all up 🙂

My honey has been busy in his mancave making things we could sell… we have been racking our brains to make something together that we could produce to assist our financial needs 🙂  You know how that goes! lol 

So first I saw a proto-type that looked like this…

He just used plywood to give it a trial run!  I loved it 🙂  So off we went to get some pine… something lower cost but better quality to stain a nice red tint and wha… lah!

Our first doxie dog bowl was born!  Now to make a few extra and figure out where to advertise… we are thinking local first and try to figure out a way to ship then start selling on eBay.  We shall see where this course takes us!

This was my fave shot from the advertising photo shoot I had… and what I used as the backdrop for our ad….

The ad looks like this right now…

In order to make these my honey wanted to get a special saw for cutting shapes like my Cricut but for wood… so we got a scroll saw… not electronic like my gypsy/Cricut but works well… here is what it looked like when we rescued it from Craigslist for a pittance of it’s worth… it is heavy cast iron …

And after making a few doxie bowls and earning it’s place in the mancave… check out the makeover my honey gave it!!!!

 Sexy huh!  And she sounds so nice as she cuts the wood so fine!

Meanwhile… out on the Florida room… I have been quilting away feathers and yin yangs like crazy and reached 50% done on this part!  Yipee 🙂  You see this morning I reached the 25th feather on my quest to complete 49 to stabilize this quilt top well… then on to the 30 blocks to be meticulously hand quilted… on a busy fabric no less… but it is my honey’s quilt and his wish is my pleasure 🙂  I LOOOOVE Hand Quilting!

I am planning a quilt along that is about to be up and running… and I am planning 2 quilts ahead of myself! lol

I have added a quilt after next inspiration to my design board to keep me motivated but I am still loving what I am doing so not much inspiration really needed….

this will become the center of a king sized throw!

Finally, as if that isn’t enough to share I took a walk out back to see how all the plants fared the rain and cold we have had lately.. at least for this neck of the beach! lol…

Daisies ~ require frequent pruning… but aren’t they pretty!

Aloe nursery… with drawf cactus and a Christmas cactus waiting to be rehomed to a new pot…

Lots of wandering jew and houseplants that prefer the outdoors 🙂

Mexican petunias… can’t kill em! lol

Azalea blooms…. amazing how they love the cold!!!

And finally… if you stuck around this long… check out the cool cactus blooms I have now!

the whole plant….

the bloom… just used a little cactus soil and it took off over the last year!  HONEST! lol

A smaller version just blooming…

Hope you have enjoyed this catch up post and have a happy Hump Day!