Easter Blessings ~ Quarantine 2020!

Happy Resurrection Sunday Y’all!

As we continue to Quarantine to avoid this hateful virus sweeping all areas of our country and even has or will be to every point in the world I think!  How horrible but true!

I am learning to adapt to this as I learned to adapt to being retired and finally gave up fighting urges to return and took up quilting back then… now I am taking up mask figuring and my days are just generally restructuring a bit… ok a LOT! … not as much shows on my bullet journaling…

But Y’all … I stay busy all day every day now… just not so much quilting and crafting I guess… and sleep comes easy from 8 pm to 4 am then I am up and my day has begun!

I sure hope our world will heal real soon too ❤  Feel free to use this meme I scarfed on facebook 🙂

We have started shopping early in the mornings and trying to do our errands before lots of others are out and about… well last week we came home early one morning to find a visitor in our pond…

A duck swimming across the pond until we started him… in front of our neighbor’s cabin…  Picturesque view she has up there!!!

Molly has been quite the entertainer lately…

 She “claimed” this stick when we were doing the spring clean up a couple weeks back on the golf cart….

 Well she still has it … and that tulip behind her in the picture below…

Now that tulip sits in a cute little glass jar my bestie gave me from her collection…. So she is near during this lonely time too!

I have great company in my honey and Molly and facetime with Jannessa rocks!  Don’t get me wrong I am BLESSED on this resurrection day ….

I just wish I could hug Jannessa… spend time with Connie on her vacation week coming up… those kind of things… plan a visit to see some of my kids… like all of us… instead I am staying home 99% of the time and finding nuggets of happiness on social media and listening to audio books again!!!

Look at this cute little quilt I found in our toy sewing machine group that a member made… it is appliqued from a drawing she made… It is great detail and she definitely has skills I don’t! lol

But I do have some mask making skills…. I made several masks this week for friends and neighbors… some even got mailed, received, and there are more to be made… I have a quick and easy way to make my masks that are 3 layers of fabric a bit of elastic and a few bread ties!  I made a tutorial HERE this past week showing lots of photos of how I make my masks 🙂

 My honey even put on the mask I made for him and his thick beard…. nice cover up here….  Then he told me to wait a minute.  When her returned this was his response….

Here is hoping me and my honey’s shenanigans have boosted your spirits today!!!!

I include a printed note with my masks… people need to know that they need to HEAT them up to sanitize them properly in their clothes dryer ….  Here is another type of print out you can grab … it came from Bonnie Hunter’s facebook group “Quiltville”….

 Here is my favorite make yet….

My hair needs a trim… please don’t comment on THAT ! lol

Then I uncovered Cleopatra later on in the week and started marking and sewing quilt blocks I have been prepping with the template I made…. 

 I love how it turned out.. I was afraid it didn’t look above like enough quilting… but machine quilting these with 28 wt Aurifil top and bobbin for even finish on both sides….

 And I have 15 of those 39 that I have here quilted now by just sitting down here and there 🙂

 My main focus this week has been hand stitching down the binding on this baby quilt for Jannessa’s grand baby boy to be.  She has 2 coming within a month of each other from both her girls!!!  So I signed up to do the binding on this rounded corner quilt…

 By making that bias binding I shared last week… it really has stitched on great !!!  I am praising God for the blessing of being able to do hand work during such a time as this!

Linking this progress to my favorite Sunday blog stop >>> Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching <<<
I will be finishing the binding on this quilt today… Jannessa and I are working out a between a glass door meeting for later in the week.  YIPPEE!!!!!

For you homeschooling parents that need ideas…  Think about Appalachian roots and build a still! lol

 Or see if you can find a plastic spider or bug and try this out….

One of my favorite songs to sing on this day…

Have a blessed week ahead as we continue to adjust and continue to Stay Home to Slow the Spread here in the USA… what are you doing (or have you done) to Slow the Spread???  Keep all those infected and symptomatic in your thoughts for strength to endure and overcome this illness!  I especially am feeling a urge to pray for Boris Johnson of the UK.  Is there anyone you are especially thinking of during this time in our world???!

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…. And then it was April 2020 – Fun while Staying Home

Hello and Welcome to my Blog this fine April weekend!  I hope this post finds you at peace as you Stay at Home !!!

I have thought of each of you that visit my blog this week.  I know many read that don’t leave comments too… sew I try to think of about all of you that may need a break from the clamor of the tv and reading a blog post can transport you away from this world wide pandemic..

Come on let’s see what photos I took for you this week!

Last Sunday was all hand work… cutting and marking the wrong side of fabric hand work though! lol

But at the end of that day the Shelbyville/Lancaster Quilt was complete….

I have ALL those pieces cut and am ready to sew together some flying geese even!  YAY 😀

I have a circle formed around my 301 ~ Julius ~ so I sat down here Monday morning and started some piecing of flying geese!

And by circle… LOOK!

The above photo was actually made when I was cutting but it is still similar to this set up… chair in the center and a table Jannessa left over here on the right side of the top of the photo… some placemats are there on the design wall waiting to be quilted… some day! lol  and I have 10″ squares of fabric everywhere else but I have 2 ironing surfaces.. 1 of which I have a smaller pink cutting mat on.  This is an environment I thrive in…

How about you??

Do you create in a clean or messy area ??

I like to start a project with a clean room and as I finish projects I try to put them all up but y’all don’t wanna see the far end of my cutting table right now!  I need a straightening day I think! LOL  REALLY!  This may make a bullet journal spot even for the coming week!!!!

Oh that last photo … if you look under Jannessa’s table you will see the parts and pattern for the briefcase Jannessa and I can make via Facetime… but we haven’t slated when it will start yet… 

Speaking of which… this is what took over the end of my week…

 Above I am making bias binding with a bias tool I ordered moons ago from MSQC… Jenny has a wonderful video making bias binding sew easy!

Once I got the bias binding made and folding in half and ironed I sat down at my non-messy 319w ~ Cleopatra ~ and strapped on a walking foot for a nice finish and sewed the binding on a rounded corner quilt for a grand baby on the way for Jannessa.  She is binding one for her other grandchild coming… I am binding this one… we are splitting the chores 😀

 Here I am being silly with hair way too long to show! lol

 Once I got it all one time to clip it down.  I rotate 8 wonder clips myself… Jannessa likes to pin her whole quilt at one time… how do you bind a quilt ???

 Here I am at the second corner ….

And that will be my slow stitching today.  I will be working on ladder stitching this binding down to make a nice finish for this little 53″ square – ish quilt for a baby boy yet to be named… in fact neither of her grandsons have a name for sure yet… so labels will wait until parents can quit being fickle…. lol!  It is the last one for each family too… so give them space to decide I say! hahaha

I am linking this hand stitching finish to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<

For my HQAL sisters I am linking a finish of HALF of the blocks below for the Crochet Fusion Quilt….

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, Kathi,  Bella, Daisy and Connie

This is an exciting time for me with this project…  You can see above in the photo some have crochet surrounding them … well after I do a bit of quilting in the center of each block I will be crocheting the rest to match.  Then when they are all ready to lay out and stitch together will I start this same process on 40 more blocks already cut and waiting to get this far!   I am very serious about making this fusion quilt a reality to enjoy for years to come!

Here is the template I made for marking the stitching lines… the stitching on these will be the same color as the crochet thread… the quilting will be done by machine so not working on this today but later in the week….

 Here is a Coraline doll my bff Jannessa made from scratch for her granddaughter who is 10 now I think…

 She is posed with a sweet little pin cushion Jannessa fashioned for ME!!!  Next time we see each other I should get it 😀

Now here is a completed block below left and my template… made to trace outside the square and inside the diamond for 2 stitching lines in 28 wt aurifil thread on top and bobbin….

What do you think?  Others say those 2 lines of stitching will be enough to hold it together for washings, etc…

If you like this kind of hand embroidery… check out THIS website… right now for a limited time this pattern is free and many are unique… support small businesses when you can ya know!!!

Here is Molly posing for me as she watches for her daddy out the window in his shop.

 And here she is asking to go out and “check” on him ! lol

 He put up the hummingbird feeder as we learn what time of year to start feeding for them here…

And please know… if you feel lonely right now… reach out to someone in your inner circle of friends/ family.  I am blessed to have my honey and our pup during this time.

Please feel free to reach out to me on facebook or here via message below if you would like to converse via text or call or video chat.

Just please… wherever you live… keep on keeping on to whatever your government and area is mentioning to do!  For me it is staying home as much as possible…. so we are!  I would LOVE to make new close friends during this time though so please feel free to reach out to me if you need someone new to chat with 😀

Take care… thanks for visiting… and may God bless YOU!