Forward Progress Happening Here :)

So happy to have some positive progress here this week to share at Kathy’s.. for Slow Stitching Sunday 🙂  And this is where you will find me today too!!!

Yep… I rolled the quilt on the frame again… now on row #7 of 15 rows total to do so ALMOST HALFWAY y’all!!!

I am sooo excited with this progress… here is a close up of the beginnings of row 7…

I am really enjoying the border and planning out the motifs for the charm blocks too… it is all quite fun for me 😀  Linking this post to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching come SEE!!!  HERE <<< and praying this is gifted by Christmas!!!

I can’t stitch all the time though… I am not as handy with thimbles as I could be so my fingernails break off frequently… thus I have also been working on some machined projects while increasing my use and ability to stitch with thimbles! lol

I completed this cool table topper…

If you are interested in my thoughts on the pattern I purchased and the overall construction of it in more detail look at my post from yesterday right HERE!

Earlier this week my kids met up in Tennessee and I got these photos sent to me…

 Above is James and his wife Heather with my son Mike… and below is Mike with my dd Brandi 🙂  So nice that they all keep in contact with each other!! 💗

Meanwhile I have been thinking of upcoming holidays and treated myself to an early Christmas present in the form of the new Quiltfolk magazine… focusing on middle and eastern Tennessee!!!

This is a completely ad FREE magazine that is 170 pages of vintage and historic quilts in pics.. plus a few newly constructed too… but the focus is on quilt history in each state.. this quarter it was focused in Tennessee … where I am from!!  They cost $22/each or $75/year subscription and there is no postage fees and it came well wrapped for safe transport via USPS… I hope to order more interesting ones in the future as I find them quite pleasing to enjoy on my back porch as the weather cools a bit.

Also on the Countdown to Christmas in my mind has been making some placemats for our dinner table… and I found a youtube tutorial I felt inspired by… here is the photo that inspired me…

And here is my fabric choices for MY placemats…

 Here I am actually doing it.. see the negative fussy cutting template I made at the top of this pic below??  A first for me … just made from cardstock though 🙂  I got 4 of these 6″ x 10″ hexi images from a fat quarter!!! PERFECT 😀

 Then I had the inner border on…

 Then the outer border and a good pressing was had!! lol

 Finally a look at my completed idea after re-auditioning bindings… not sure about the backing yet… should I go with plain fabric or make them multi seasonal with some print on the back that would also look nice with a black binding…

Well I made 2 of the 4 I need so far and now will ponder this quandary as I slow stitch this Sunday away 😀  These measure now 12″ x 17″ so that is a good size for us.. we use smaller sized lunch plates anyway 🙂

Are you making any crafts for your home for Christmas??

Finally… my honey has been making me a built in office in our bedroom… and he has painted the wall a soft gray color!!!

 Now here it is once all had dried well and I could move back in to this space 😀  I LOVE IT!!!

 I especially like the little shelves above… holding my overflow, a pic of my bestie and me from last summer’s visit and some decore items…

 We continue to ponder a move in the springtime… please keep us in your thoughts and prayers… anyone near Graham, NC?  This is in the center of the state … would love to get some pics from you if you live near this part of the world!!

Thanks for stopping by to see what I am up to… I would LOVE to hear from you as well!  Please leave a comment and have a blessed day my friend!  And don’t forget to follow the link I left for you to see what all hand work others are up to on this fine Sunday!!

Make sure to also ….

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Another row in the books and soooo much more!!!

Happy October Y’all!!!

We have been really busy since my last post a couple weeks ago!!!

I want to link up to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday HERE… so first let me share the hand work I am doing first 🙂

I am happy to report I have finished the 5th row….

 And moved on to row #6  … this makes me 1/3 done with all the quilting on this big quilt 🙂

My son and DiL are sooo excited to get this as they currently are fussing over the available blankets and quilts they have available to use at their home… there just aren’t enough!  Glad I can solve that issue for them.

And I am also excited to report… I have started some hand applique via needle turn glue stick basting.. I am following another blogger at “fabric therapy” and she has a tutorial section on her blog that chats all about this method HERE… here name is Teresa and she is quite witty and fun… I have enjoyed how she does her award winning applique so I am finally starting to get the hang of it 😀

I first did some string piecing to build a fall wall hanging that is whimsical with inspiration from Bonnie Hunter’s string pumpkins posts…

 So here is my beginning…

 oranges/ yellows/ browns and some black for my stems plus plenty of teal blue for my background….

and pretty soon I was having a BLAST making improv pumpkin rectangles .. using a smaller stitch length for easy paper removal was a GOOD THING!!!

 Once I had my 15 pumpkins made I took a break on my back porch and drew out what I now knew my design would be…

 and got the corners and stems cut and put on my pumpkins slowly but surely…

 then filled in the rest…

 And now it was FINALLY time to pick out fabric for the appliqued lettering I had planned this whole project around! lol

 I use Teresa’s method (and Karen does it this way too I believe) with letters all drawn out at actual size on Freezer paper and ironed leaving 1/8″ room around each letter for turning under as I glue…

 then I went to the Dollar General store and found the purple that turns clear school glue stick…

 Soon all my letters were turned under… and I removed the freezer paper as I glue basted them whimsically in place…

 Finally the center of my wall hanging is ready for stitching the letters down!!!

 So as I stitch those down using a binding stitch method on the stiff glued under edges I am sooo happy that it was much easier and less painful from the needleturn I have tried in the past!!!

I have arthritis in my hands and legs/feet/knees/hips that limits my ability to be as nimble as I once was… so now I can add to my projects!!!  So far I am almost done stitching “Happy” down on my words!!!  So that is the extent of hand work… except I did complete 1 binding by hand this week…

I fashioned this Mug Rug for my side of the bed… I shared my honey’s mug rug last posting… it is similar… but for this one I made a North Star with floating points… just a bit different … and a bit smaller than his as my bedside table has more “stuff” on it! lol  I just like that it features a fussy sewn patriotic doxie actually though 😀

Otherwise quilty I had a request from my friend I made the pillow for… to make one for her hubby… they like it as a neck and head rest while watching tv… so now all those hexi flowers are GONE!!!  Yippeee…

His fave colors are red, blue and black… so I made a red white and blue hexi positive and negative… and used a red/blue /black batik for the side and black batik for the backing of his pillow!

I changed out the foyer decor to fall theme…

That was just when I got inspired by Bonnie to make some string pumpkins… wonder what those 7 leftover pumpkins will become?? lol!

I also have gotten ALL of this bowl shown below… it is a LARGE bowl for halloween candy… almost empty and all the pieces and parts of my Kaleidoscope Krazy quilt to be… organized for sewing!!!

 I also used these 2 fabrics… the one of the front is from a friend who lives up north here in the US… she we traded fat quarters or something and I got this… I love it!!!   Then the fabric on the back was 1 from a friend who lives in the outback of central Australia.  She is very kind and sent this a while back with a batch of other stuff… I am adding these to this quilt cutting 😀

 Here is the grey pindot fabric I am using for all my corners… along with some of my sets ready to be mixed … then I thought of that big bowl I could mix them up in!!!

And here they are mixed and in process of getting matched into blocks… I pinned each “block” together to make sure I had good variety and made fun scrappy sets … that quilt is ready to be sewn into blocks now.. 132 of them!

And we are decorating our bedroom still… and painting the walls… notice the wall with the window is light grey… it only has 1 coat of paint… the second coat will come soon…

 I just love this big old rocking chair… we picked it up for $25 on craigslist.. the big painting was $25 from goodwill and the lamp with foot controller to turn it on /off easily was only $9 at a local thrift shop!  Such a fun grouping there now and a nice place to relax in the eves for my honey!

Here on the LEFT is a cute shot I sent my daughter to let her miss home a bit… she is doing well overall in Tennessee though… so it was in jest as bagels are her fave breakfast/snack and I have a mini bagel wiht cream cheese for breakfast most mornings…

The K on the RIGHT was a find at Goodwill for under $5… and looks nice next to my ruler holder in my sewing studio 😀

 This spoke volumes to me so I wanted to share this weeks Bonnie-ism with you all…

 Happy October and Happy Fall Y’all!  Enjoy doing a bit of slow stitching today!!

Do something nice … just because you have the ability to today.. something not expected 😀  Make this world a better place to live in!

What happened to August Y’all?? Happy Labor Day Weekend! Hello September!!!

Wow!  I have been so busy… I didn’t blog a bit in August!!!

So I wish you a Happy Labor Day weekend for those in the USA and Canada and a WELCOME to you ALL!!!!

August went by so quickly… but we were also sooo busy!

Above right is our new door hanger for this month!  I have one for Christmas time too that is a holiday wreath of seashells 😀

Quilting was one area that had ups and downs…

My piecing on the wall hanging came to an abrupt stop and it has been put in time out… I even reached out to the pattern writer for assistance … but she couldn’t help me 😦

So this is where I am stuck… with uneven joins… before recutting and resewing I just put it up… I have other projects to focus on anyway! lol

First I took this out of hiding…

And added a flange to it… it will end up like a 3d pillow/cushion and eventually will be gifted to my friend Brandy who got the quilt these leftover bits came from 🙂

And I can’t forget about this quilt….

Here I am working on row #3 of the center rows … 15 total so a ways still to go! lol

Row #3 is almost done… this is all hand quilting and all my designs 🙂

But most recently my honey showed me his sleeping snuggle pillow!  It is getting holey.. not holy!!! lol

 If you look closely you can see that the fabric is breaking down even though my stitching is all still in place…

So what is a good quilter wife to do???

Like I did above… find a pattern… blow it up to the right size… print it off in 1/4 size pieces.. tape that back together to make a 16″ pattern all together… make a light table on a glass top table … trace it onto NEW fabric that is nice and thick… then layer it up and start stitching! lol

As of last night when I went to bed I was about 1/3 complete with the stitching on this pillow top… I am using YLI 40/3 in a blue grey color to stitch with on this fun batik fabric… it was a backing fabric and if you look close you will see my wholecloth pillow actually has a seam down the middle! lol

Here is a close up of my pencil marked pattern that I have stitched from the front…

 and easier to see on the back side…

I wanted to use cotton/wool blend on this to show the stitching better but my honey requested cotton only!  so that is what he is getting 🙂

I will soak it in Palmolive and warm water to remove the pencil marks I made when I am done … then wash it properly and dry it well once it is a pillow 🙂  I will be making an envelope backing on it and that is all prepared … maybe I will finish the pillow top today?  Maybe tomorrow! lol  But I am enjoying the slow stitching… this will be the 3rd pillow in 6 1/2 years he has had!!!

Linking all this quilty progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching linky HERE !!!

We have also been doing decorating throughout the house…. from a puzzle framed and put in the guest bathroom…

To some pictures and artwork framed …

All in a focus to Relax….

We also have been buying things for a little and rehabbing them and selling them for more… like this sewing machine we found at a local thrift store last month…

 Then we put it on eBay like this with a starting bid of $49.99 to pass on the good fortune of what we found… well it went for more that we thought!!!!

Wowee!!! Did it ever!!!  

So we did some more redecorating…

 In the laundry room we found this cool hanger to coordinate with new shelves my honey fashioned for me 🙂

 In the kitchen we added a clock and bulletin board for pics and notes and keeping us on time 🙂

 Here is some fabric I found at a different local thrift store… someone had turned in their stash and I was lucky enough to buy some including this cool 1980’s fabric that will be a baby wholecloth or 2 for a future grand baby 🙂

 We gave our bedroom a life with this new headboard / footboard/ and pillow shams….

 Then we found these cool 2 cube shelves to use as bedside tables with our new bed…

But first my honey is prepping them for use with our CPAP machines… first his is getting fit and when I get mine later this month he will get mine all ready too!  He added the shelf his hand is on with rollers like a drawer to roll out the machine to fill with water chamber and do anything else… the back side is open for the plug to come out of 🙂

Another fun find for us this past month was some holiday solar pets…  we had the flamingo already! 

  The little lizard sitting in front was a gift from one of my nieces years ago and stays with us 🙂

Then there was a little upgrade for the business side of things too…

So my honey got a new iPad… the older one was giving him troubles!  And this one isn’t all it was supposed to be but it is better!  I think 🙂

So we have been working really hard the last month and a half to lose weight and make true lifestyle changes… so we did!  We met our first goal of losing 22 pounds each… and enjoyed a meal fit for royalty at one of our favorite seafood restaurants!

We had lobster tail… salad bar… and shrimp n chips too!   Totally yummy but I don’t mind how we eat these days either so back in the saddle we go!!!

As we continue to pray for all those left homeless and feeling helpless from Harvey’s wrath… we hope you all have a blessed weekend and can Make Today Great somehow and some way!!!

This month my grandmother I call Nanny will turn 99 years young y’all!  Here she is just last month too!!!!

I am so happy to still have her and her sage advice still in my life today!  

Let’s make time to show appreciation and caring to each other today and EVERY day please…  

So until next time…