Winter Blues Remedy Needed…

Y’all I am suffering from a terrible case of the winter blues mixed with the remainder of the flu bug I had last week.  Antibiotics are finished… steroids are done … but I have no get up and go!!  I am a glass half full girl though… so I pulled this from the archives and it is my motto today… gray skies and all!

So as I battle the January blah’s (I lived in Florida for the last 5 winters!  I don’t remember this being an issue there!)  I am trying to stay busy each day.  I spent some time with Gloria this past week sewing on Appalachian Delight!

 Last Sunday I got it to this point!

And over the week I sewed together all those half square triangles I had made as I made the Bear in the Cabin blocks…

I was giddy when the sides measured out exactly right !

I pinned them in place and sewed them on … adding top and bottoms in place too…

Tah Dah!!!!

Now don’t look at the mess underneath this quilt top in the making… that is part of my issue with winter time blues! But isn’t this looking spectacular so far!  Just like my pattern I had drawn out that I shared last week.  These Bear in the Cabin blocks look so nice framed by the burgandy with the blue diamonds at each intersection… My honey is not a lover of scrappiness like I am but he is liking this too… thank goodness since this is for our bed! lol  With all this progress on this quilt I want to link to my friend Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE!  Come take a look at her post… she did her own thing putting together the blocks of Bonnie Hunter’s latest mystery quilt… I LOVE her original take on this!

The pages I shared last week for you to print off I filled out while I have been trying to get my get up and go to get up and go…

Julie did a great job designing this list… as you can see I used mine for crafts AND quilting… I can list out what needs to happen and am already dating things as done on the borders of Bear in the Cabin… aka Appalachian Delight!  Wonder how I will get things marked off when this winter blah leaves!!!

I did do a bit of organizing amidst the knee pain I am dealing with and low energy issues…

This organizer I found very affordably ($20) from Target.com… ordered it one morning and it was delivered the NEXT DAY to my home via UPS.  We live very rural and no big stores like Target are near us… I have ordered from them before but never have I had such wonderful and fast service!  I look forward to buying another one of these organizers … they are made my closetmaid… and while not top quality for the price the organization and adding a few screws to their product adds the stability needed… I love it … all my bag making supplies are now organized on the back of my closet door where I keep my fabric stash in the sewing room!  SCORE!!!

I pulled this off facebook.  A girl made this sweet iPad cover from a pattern…. isn’t it precious!!!  Inspires me to want to do some applique and some embroidery too!!!

 That make by her encouraged me to finally make a cover for my honey’s spool table he designed….

My honey’s first initial is in the center… he didn’t want it puffy or pieced… he wanted a plain wholecloth design and he loves the finish… it is civil war fabrics left over from the quilt I am making now 🙂  He chose the fabrics that went into this make.  I made it washed it and dried it … no ironing needed even!!!!

Finally I want to share where I have spend some of EVERY long winters day this week… slow stitching on this never ending quilting project! lol

 Above is the start of the bottom of the 5th row of stars… and below is the middle of that row.

 You can see that wooden holder on my quilt… that holds my cell phone so I can watch youtube and Bluprint videos as I stitch… sometimes I listen to Pandora music instead… but this is a contraption I wanted and my honey made for me last year that I love!

 Here was my view this morning as I close in on the end of the bottom of the 5th row on my quilting frame!!!  Progress is real here y’all!

 So I continue marking some and stitching those chalk markings… then marking some more!  I am linking the slow and steady progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post where other like minded stitchers gather… come see what everyone is linking today HERE 🙂

Here was a fun item we got in this week and sold and mailed to it’s new owner…

 This little sewing machine was a child’s hand crank from the 1950’s… this one is an oddball as it has blackside parts all over it .. not only is it painted black which is a common color for these machines… but uncommon is the black metal it is made of.  This was common in the 1940’s due to war time efforts needing the silver so they made the metal black where possible.   Rarely do you see this carried into the 50’s.. wartime was over and remaining blackside parts got used here and there… so we were able to sell this to a collector of items like this… nice to see it go to a home it will be appreciated for it’s unusualness though!

Early last week when it was raining non-stop we noticed in the warmer wet weather we had some buds coming up next to the front door….

 Well they went back down into the freshly laid mulch now as the winter cold and wet has hovered so long they decided to wait to be identified but a friend of mine thinks this could be the beginnings of hyacinth blooms… we sure hope that is what they are!  This flower bed held hostas and they had overtaken the bed.. so we may find surprises in beds like this one around this property we now call ours… will keep you posted!

Please keep me and this winter blues issue in your thoughts and prayers… just by identifying it finally I am feeling better already.  If you are suffering a similar issue… talk to others about it like I have or call your doctor … get out and seek sunlight and healthy foods… I am doing all of this already.  But talking about it here is surely helping and your thoughts and prayers will help me have a better week I just know!

So make sure you make time to take care of yourself and to…

Advertisement

2019… in like a lion !!

In North Carolina we welcomed in the new year with rain and storms… many had flooding too!  I got a mongo chest cold as well which sent me to the doctor’s office last week praying for relief!  In like a lion…

Despite how I was feeling as 2019 dawned into existence…. I found this cool watercolor to depict how I wish I felt! lol

And a little messenger pic moment about midnight on New Years when I couldn’t breathe much so I wasn’t sleeping either!

Now to look back on this past week… with antibiotics, steroids and breathing treatments all under my belt it has been fairly productive even with being sick… we sure didn’t get out too much! lol  We were sick after all and didn’t want to spread the germs!!!

We got Christmas all put away.. even our cute snowman got dried off finally to store until next Christmas season!

Gloria and I spent some quality time together….

 We webbed this top using THIS Quilt Cam tutorial by Bonnie Hunter as a reference to remember some of the finer points…

 In order to do this well I had to reset my 1/4″ seam guide… I use my clear ruler and roll the needle down to the scant 1/4″ area on my ruler once the seam guide is generally in place….

 As you see from this view looking more down on the throat plate….

You cannot count on those measurements on the graduated throat plate to be accurate… use some sort of seam guide to assure your 1/4″ seam .. this is MY favorite style!

Here is a reminder of the Bear in the Cabin quilt I am sewing together the center of just now…

I don’t use any fancy stuff to graph out my quilt designs.. I use graph paper and pencils and colored pencils and pens to guide me and fabrics laid out … for instance in this photo I thought my cornerstones would be yellow… but in reality … we chose a confederate blue color for them! WOW 😀

I am linking this fun progress to my friend Wendy’s Quilts and More from New Zealand… Peacock Party Link…
HERE… she is having a party this year to celebrate 5 years of blogging and who knows what else but mentions prizes for linkers… I am all for a good New Zealand style prize! lol  And I love Wendy’s quilting both hand and machine like me she has it all together!!!  COME LOOK and her cute table runner she is sharing and link up too!!!

Whilst I have been recovering from this chest virus… I have been surfing blogs and enjoying this process of planning my attack on projects when I feel better… part of this process has been organizing myself with a list I found on another blog too at Julie of the Crafty Quilter HERE …

Now if you notice at the top of my page I have “Quilts” added below UFO and WIP List for 2019.

Well the reality is… my sewing room is doing multiple jobs these days with crafts, Etsy shop, quilting, bag making… wowee!!!  So I need to fix it up to work better for me and in the meantime I have been stockpiling things for non quilty projects in this room too… I need to list them out.  Like that wristlet I want to make that I mentioned last week… none of that is on here!!!  But for now this is a good start… until this cold is officially finished and steroid haze is out of my system 😉

I hope you find Julie’s page easy to print off to organize yourself… but maybe you don’t have so many projects going on… 

You may like to then focus on my favorite Sunday stop… Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers.  Kathy has 3 slow stitching goals for this year to share… aside from getting my top into one center piece and start figuring out the hst border that is next… I will be wholly focused today on my hand quilting project by the fire place…

Here was my view New Years morning….

And my view yesterday!!!!

 Finally feeling like getting it done…

 And I finally got it rolled !!!!!

I can see the top of this little quilt… that seems large right now as the quilting is slow going on this one… lots of seams to deal with!  And so much other stuff in the path! lol  So come on over HERE before you leave to Kathy’s and read about her goals for 2019 and see what other slow stitcher’s are linking up to 🙂

All of the links I have shared here should open to a new window so you don’t lose this information while browsing around.  Hope these links are helpful and found interesting by you 🙂

I hope you are each enjoying this crazy weather we are calling January here in the USA and that you are staying safe no matter where in the world you live… I have heard down under while we are having unseasonably warm and wet weather they are having hot and humid weather !

Thanks for stopping in… thanks for taking time to leave a comment too if you do… it is much appreciated and adored to have the honor to chat with you for a minute ❤  

How did your 2019 come in??? Like a Lamb or a Lion??  Meanwhile comment and tell me your motto for 2019 as well if you have one… I am sticking to this one this year for now 😀

Tutorial: Bear in the Cabin Quilt Block ~ 14" Size

I am excited to share a tutorial for a quilt block I have fashioned…

It is 14″ finished size so these blocks currently measure 14 1/2″ square 🙂  They are fun to make and easy if you can cut accurately and sew a 1/4″ consistently !  Come on let’s do this …

First get your parts… I started off with enough to very light and very dark fabrics to make 16 blocks… I will show you my plan at the end of this post… for now lets focus on getting a block made though.  This photo is for each blocks points and the neutrals of the blocks background areas…

 While this photo is the mediums I had left over separated with the lighter ones on the left and the darker ones on the right… you can see their value more clearly when you look at the bottom half of the picture… in the black and white only…

 So gather your fabrics to make a log cabin.. I used the second photo of midtones separated as you need a light and dark for a nice log cabin and this one doesn’t have many layers so you have to make the layers you use count as I have.

Here are the cutting sizes for your log cabin blocks… you need 4 log cabins for each block.

I cut a bunch in each size (the white numbering is for darker fabrics and the black numbering is for the lighter portions… this IS important when you are choosing your fabrics! I cut enough for all the quilt blocks I planned to make plus a little if I miss cut or miscounted.  Then I pulled out 4 the same to lay out 4 complete log cabin blocks as I have done below.  I press as I cut and then press just prior to sewing for the most accurate sewing experience with these little blocks…

 I also chain piece starting with the center 2 same sized pieces with the dark on top…

 These log cabin blocks go together a bit differently than a traditional log cabin but give the right effect and this is actually easier not to mess up on… you don’t have to be concerned with clockwise or counterclockwise piecing… just make sure as you chain piece each piece on that it looks like the first one you pieced.

In other words… in the pic above you see all dark red fabric on top… the lighter square is underneath… I will press this set away from the center as I continue piecing these little log cabin blocks together side to side until all done… making sure they look the same as I feed them under my needle of the sewing machine.

Once the final piece is added I will press them all and rotate each one after the top left one a quarter turn to keep the dark 2 sides to the inside center of the block like this…

This adds interest and hides any imperfections as well! 🙂  At this point these measure 4 1/2″ square… if yours don’t look at your cutting or sewing … do NOT trim to fit … find the problem now !

Next we will cut the lightest and darkest pair of fabrics you have chosen for your block to make the bear claw portion and the background/center square 🙂

 From your darkest fabric cut two (2) 6 1/2″ squares.  Decide below the color you want your center square… I made mine the same for all my big blocks… you may want yours to be the color of your darkest fabric… whichever you decide… cut that one (1) 2 1/2″ square now.

From your lightest light cut two (2) 6 1/2″ squares to match the dark ones you previously cut then also cut four (4) pieces 2 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ and four (4) squares 2 1/2″.   You now have all the main cutting done!  Yippee 😀  Now I will share with you the Magic 8 way to make your half square triangle blocks that make the bear claws.

First match pretty sides together for each of your 6 1/2″ light and dark pairs… here you see I have 3 pair… I am making extra for my outer border (my personal plan is later on in this tutorial… I am sharing directions for 1 block not a full quilt in this tutorial 🙂  )

Once you have your pairs draw a line diagonally BOTH WAYS to make a big “X” on your blocks… now sew 1/4″ from that line on BOTH SIDES like I have done on the left… you need to be straight but if your 1/4″ if off a bit you are fine… there is wiggle room built in to this method 🙂  Once sewn then press the block well to allow your stitches to sink into the fabric and secure them.

Next slice like on the right photo… BUT cut first horizontally and vertically… THEN cut diagonally in both directions on the line you  drew.  I drew my lines with  a pencil because they will never be seen 🙂

Now as you pick up each of the 8 pieces flip them over so the dark side is up.  Like I have below…

Now it will be easy to press them open with the seams to the dark side… 

Now you need to trim your blocks to 2 1/2″ square… most of them should be straight on the outer side …. so stack them up with the dog ears all on the same 2 sides… 

I used a small 2 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ ruler to trim mine.  I used my fingers to point to how I lined up my ruler with the points of the block to trim most accurately at 2 1/2″ square… 

Doing it this way also eliminates the dog ears 😀 

Above is the waste… and below is the beautiful finished hst! 

Here you can see those hst’s once sewn together…

 So take a minute if you used directional print like my neutral here is.. to orient your backgrounds to be more consistent.  It is worth the effort to lay out all your pieces then put them together pairing them up as you go.

The photo on the left is a layout made just looking at basic layout… the dark bear claw portions are directional though… and once placed like I did on the right… MUCH NICER and calming to look at I think… what do you think???  Does it make a difference… decide before you sew these pieces all together with your 1/4″ seams … press often without steam too ❤

So go have fun putting together this block …. or like me make a few blocks and put them into a quilt… this layout is 80″ and I need 105″ finished measurement to fit my bed… I have decided that this arrangement together will be called Appalachian Delight as I believe these blocks are a delight to make…

And my inner border of hst’s … well they are getting done a bit at a time as I make a block I am producing 8 or 16 extra hst’s using that easy peasy magic 8 method!!!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial for the Bear in the Cabin Quilt Block.  My inspiration was this block which is a bit different.  I found it on Pinterest and shared there by the Stashing Sisters…

They were quick to get back to me but had no measurements to share for how they fashioned their block so I made my own design up with their inspiration block… I love it and I hope you find this block as fun as I do!

So have fun creating your own masterpiece and PLEASE feel free to post your questions or message me if you make your own right here… I would love to see your design/finished blocks 🙂 

So until my next post…

Playing Catch up ~ A New Quilt is in the Frame!!

I missed blogging last week because my best girlfriend came for a quick visit…

Connie lives about 4 hours from me and because her life is so busy.. she had not yet been to our home!!  She visited at least once a year when we lived near the beach but not since we moved to the mountains… so she left us with this souvenir shot of her visit on an old oak tree 🙂

While she was here she worked on some hand quilting… while I finished up the stitching on this purse for our friend Debbie!

 Molly is watching out for me as I stitched it all together too! lol

And here is the finish…

 It was Priority mailed this past week and already received and put into use!!

Also Connie brought gifts when she came including this cool quilt hanger that my honey installed in our kitchen…

 She also left us some apple juice bottles that are glass and she uses the leftover glass bottles for flower vases… well we loved that idea!!!  So my honey went into our yard and made me a vase for the computer area…

And once I got my quilt loaded in the frame … He also filled another vase with more flowers when I napped one day!!! 🙂

Here he is suprising me with flowers on a day I didn’t feel so good…

 And here they are posed from the opposite side of the jar on the quilt I am working on intermittently 😀

And last night it was to freeze here… so this was the last of the flowers from our yard … so I wanted to share their delightfulness with you all!!!

Molly is now officially 4 months old !!!

 And after celebrating her birthday with a nice bath!!!  We prepped our guest room for Connie’s soon arrival… I love this quilt but soon I think it will be time to wash it one last time and send it to it’s destiny… to be with my darling daughter (dd) Brandi ….

She chose this quilt top and the quilting plan and colors … I just did the work! lol

Once I finished the bag for Debbie… while Connie was here I started prepping the Rooster EPP project …

 And even got out the organizer I had bought for this project too…

Pulled fabrics from my stash… and that pin cushion on the neutral fabric on the left… a gift from Connie too!

 Glued the templates to the fabric as the directions called for using scrapbooking adhesive I had in my stash 😀

 Soon my pattern had MY colors in place of the makers colors… so it will match the vibe in our home…

 Here is a close up of that sweet hexi pin cushion Connie gifted me too …

 And long after Connie was gone back to her home and her crazy busy life… I finally got it all organized!!!

Now to find the time to work on it some more… time to glue baste down all the edges with my Fons and Porter fabric glue sticks.

I removed the doggy themed border fabric and not jiving cornerstones and made this more civil war looking with remaining fabric left from Roberta’s quilt finish….

 Daisy’s Stars is now “Stars Among Us”  Tutorial to the scrappy star blocks is on my blog HERE.  It is truly more of a memory quilt we will use on the foot of our bed in honor of her… as none of this coordinates with Connie’s decor! lol

I chose these stencils … both I have never used before… for this quilt…

The left for the border and the right for the body of the quilt where the stars are 🙂

With batting and backing already pulled long ago for this quilt loading went quick…  First was the backing to put on the 2nd rail and the bottom rail… winding it twice to make sure all was straight…

Then the top and batting were added first to the top rail and rolled on (twice as well) …

 Until they were going on straight and even…

 Then pinned to the backing at the bottom rail and tighted all up….

 Now I am ready to mark and begin quilting once I baste the bottom edge!!!

 Molly is my steady companion when I quilt… she tries to squeeze her growing body in this little box… so I traded it out for a larger box but she teethes on everything right now.. so don’t know how long that will last !!! lol

 Soon the bottom border was all stitched in place…

 And I am now making great headway on the slow stitching of this crazy triangle pattern from my stencil!!!

 Here is my set up.. early each morning I bring in the day slow stitching…

 And here is how I am marking these designs.. with pounce chalk and with a piece of pink chalk in a marking tool…

I am linking this fun slow stitching … where I will be today and every day… with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Squad of hand work specialists HERE!  Come see what others are doing following the link and if you blog come join the party too ❤

This week Bonnie Hunter posted this Bonnie-ism…

 And I received all this wonderful fabric in fat quarter form…

 Then I organized it with some in my stash like this…

 And checked value like this (Batman is for sale and was just a quiet space to rest your eyes between the colors at the top and those same fabrics in value only in black and white at the bottom! lol

 All in hopes of making 16 big 14″ blocks of log cabin bear paw blocks like this…

 So this weekend I cut out the log cabin blocks in medium and light with red centers to keep the home warm 🙂

 And here is a close up of my piecing plan per bear paw block… with the first 4 log cabins pieced on Gloria the Glorious 301a!

 Here was my inspiration block found on Pinterest and shared there by the Stashing Sisters…

 If you are into log cabins…mine are not quite as intense as theirs… but I think it will work!!! lol

In closing this long post… I want to reward you with a glimpse of the Valley Eagle!!!  A bald eagle that lives in this area but we had never seen him… until the day before we got these photos and this day too…

 Here is my dd… now in Kentucky with some of her tribe.  We have a growing friendship now that she is grown up…she is in the center with Jasper the 6  year old sitting on her back! lol

So until my next post … NEXT SUNDAY!!!!  Have a blessed week and…

Another UFO completed!!!!

I can’t believe I am chatting with you 2 weeks in a row with yet ANOTHER finish to share 😀

The newlyweds are LOVING their quilt and sleeping under it on their bed… no pics yet but I am fine with that as it is being loved and slept under 💑

And while I am very excited to share my finish… I really wanna share this photo!!!

 Look what the Color Catcher’s caught 😀

And look how beautiful and unstained the finish quilt is…

None of this quilt was pre-washed as I bought the top my daughter found already made from an eBay seller…

From the above pic it is 90″ x  90″.  She then picked out the pattern I would use to stipple in black thread on the white background from one of the online stencil companies and helped me decide on a pattern for all those carpenter star blocks… the outer border has a simple “s” design we both liked in red big stitch… and the binding is something fun and snazzy she liked!  She named it Starlight Starbright during the quilt designing process 😀

This quilt was meant to be her graduation from high school quilt… yet she has yet to graduate from high school.  She has chosen a different path right now and has quit school to work and pursue other interests… so I will be holding on to this quilt until her life settles down a bit I think 🙂

This quilt was purchased about this time of year in 2016 when I look back in my blog archives for a history moment.

It was officially started on my February 24, 2016 in a hoop…

Soon after this was started I realized it was gonna be an arduous journey this way so my honey built the PVC quilting frame for me from 1″ pvc and his own ingenuity to my specifications ❤

Here is a pic I took once this quilt came out of it…

It was surely dusty from being in this frame for 2 years with only small movements to reposition it for quilting… when I took it out to bind it dust flew everywhere!!!  lol

BTW… my previously cut binding???  Well I had just this 5″ piece left!!!  WOW that was close 😀

Then to wash it I also wanted to remove all the markings… mostly pencil markings on the white fabric… I really didn’t want to scrub with a toothbrush on it with Palmolive dish soap which is my secret weapon to remove even a stubborn prewashed pencil marking… so I washed in cold water with detergent… then when that didn’t remove the pencil I washed again with detergent and 2 tablespoons of Palmolive in my front loading washing machine and left soaking once it was good and wet overnight (about 4 hours honestly )… then checked it and all the pencil appeared to be gone… I washed it on warm with no extra soap just what was in it and as you can see in the pics… it is all GREAT!!!!  No pencil marks found by my meticulous eye at all!!!!

Above you can see the pencil marks in the white that I made… pretty heavy handed I got !  Then had to remark most of that as it wasn’t very good for stitching really …

So I have learned A LOT with this quilt.. and I am happy to call it done… I have a 100% cotton pillowcase this quilt will be calling home until we get moved… then I will display it occasionally and change it’s folding pattern occasionally as recommended… until the time my daughter is ready to receive this gift of love!

While working on this I have also started drafting a future quilt pattern as the pattern comes in 70″ square size and I want it 105″ square size…

And another UFO has shown itself on my PVC frame…

The colorful whole cloth quilt I am making… look at the fun backing I added… it is a wide back… I started this some time long ago and am happy to be calling this one my current project.. maybe til summer???  Not sure how long it will take… I am only about 1/4 or 1/3 done with the quilting on it.

So that is all that is keeping me busy and out of trouble… how about you?!   What are you doing to keep your hands and mind busy this year??

Thanks for visiting with me … I hope I have left you inspired to pick up a new project or return to an older project and finish it up!  Linking all this to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday HERE… she has the flu so come cheer her up !!!  And she has a new idea to share for 2018 linkers too 😀

In closing here is a large view of the quilt itself for your enjoyment…

Have a blessed Sunday whatever you do… try to spend a bit of time doing something fun with your hands too … but most importantly ….