And the Pandemic Rages on in America

As we continue into November 2020… the Pandemic rages on. It is so sad to see so many people with debilitating illness from getting Corona while some get a sniffle or no symptoms and move forward… this is true for most of the world too I believe. I think New Zealand may be without many or any illness at the moment as well as Tasmania… both are islands that have quarantined well. Meanwhile in the US we are facing more Covid 19 than ever before!!! So how am I dealing??? Masking , distancing, washing and minding my to-do list below….

We are being warned against mingling with family and friends that aren’t in our circle of living daily during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend… while this doesn’t affect me much it certainly affects many around us who may choose to celebrate anyway or be very sad that they can’t celebrate with anyone… PLEASE find a way to distantly celebrate with a neighbor or family member who is alone right now y’all! We need to be there for each other in new and different ways. This week I gifted some Color Street nail strips to a new friend with a lengthy note attached for how to apply them and a link to a video to help her… she was overjoyed!!! Give it a try 😀

Today is my son’s birthday… James is 30 this year… so hard to believe. He has a wonderful wife and daughter and has yet to come visit us here in NC but they lead a very busy life at the moment raising kids and working.

Then on Tuesday my other son Michael has a birthday… He will soon be married and is celebrating 26 years of living in this crazy world 😀 He works for a Bank and enjoys wedding planning and hanging out with his bride to be Kristen. I talk to him weekly 🙂

Wednesday is Veteran’s Day so if you served in the military I hope you have a blessed day. My honey was in the Army and is happy he did. The benefits through the VA are wonderful to him/us.

The Presidential election we had Tuesday the 3rd , had final count numbers close enough to determine a winner of the Presidential portion yesterday… there are still several run off elections scheduled so we won’t know all the results and these results will still need to be validated and recounted I am sure… but we will have a change in leadership to President elect Biden. He plans to start a new Corona Task Force made up of medical folks in the know on this virus starting this coming week. Of course all this happens on his own turf. President Trump will not accept any of the results until the recounts are in and he has taken others to court to see if anything may change… so we will see how things turn out in the end.

Meanwhile… we have been house searching like crazy and not watching much of the shenanigan’s going on television… who do you even watch anyway… everyone has a viewpoint they this in the most right. So far there has been one house we liked but much of the square footage is large walk in closet spaces … we don’t need that !!! So we are continuing to look for something that suits us best… we are looking between Bryson City, NC to Franklin, NC to Waynesville , NC in hopes that something different will come onto the market in our price range. We may wind up choosing one of these areas to rent a space so we can shop easier once this house sells. Speaking of this home… we have the appraisal on Monday and due diligence or time to change her mind for any reason is up on Friday. Then we are to close and be expected to move out on the 23rd. We are excited and ready to hand over the keys and start a new adventure… we just aren’t sure where that new adventure will be yet.

While all this has been happening… we leaf peeped during our searches like crazy!!!

These views … so beautiful and breathtaking… are why we are staying in North Carolina!!!

And I have made great progress quilting too!

I am coming to the ending of the center and by next weekend I should only have outer border to finish up. My plan is… once I do finish this center portion … is to mark the outer border completely to make it fit right like I did when I started this quilt many moons ago.. I will try to look that up for y’all next week. This week has just been too crazy though 🙂 I am linking this great progress to Kathy’s quilt group linky HERE <<<

I also wanna share for those living in the USA a company I only recently learned of that produces different weights of heavy thread for tatting, crocheting and BIG STITCH QUILTING >>> Handy Hands is their name… I requested a FREE catalog of their thread and got all this…

I will enjoy using these samples in the future when we get moved! I am also pondering a youtube channel show featuring me hand quilting and sharing tips and tricks of the trade I have learned over the years once we are resettled! I would appreciate any feedback you have on this …

Please keep President Trump and President Elect Biden in your prayers as this transition after all the recounting occurs.. we need a peaceful transition here in the US.

Have a blessed week ahead each of you and please… if you made it this far … leave me a message.. I reply personally to each email left for me with a message 🙂

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And soon June will be done… WOW!

How has this month come to an end so quickly y’all!

 The awesome Sunrise I viewed Monday morning this week…. from our front porch 🙂

 Followed by freshly prepared strawberries and cream cheese danish (just a small piece ) 😀

 Finished the row I was on with Appalachian Delight….

 Rolled the quilt and started back to the right side of the quilt.  This marks the halfway point of this quilt project!!! 🙌 YAY 🙂

 Linking my hand quilting progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching Linky party HERE <<<

Also Linking to my HQAL group that I link with every 3 weeks…

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, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Kathi, Daisy, Connie, Monica and Sherrie

As you can see not much progress on this side of this secret project… just that top row done…

 But look at this hand quilted aspects of the hand applique added to the front of these bags!!!  WOW

 But this week has otherwise been a quiet week….

 And the Amaryllis blooms has been my DAILY dose of sunshine!!!

 As the second stalk continued to grow taller and sprout blooms to be…

 and the first stalk continued to fill out all 6 blooms…

 They fell over together … so we added stakes to hold them up unsure if they would continue to grow now…

 But they have 🙂

 And this hosta shoots up amazing blooms… here it was on Monday….

 And again on Friday…

 I found this little meme online… Why can’t we ALL be like a raccoon….

 And another meme that I posted on my Facebook page…

North Carolina USA has a mandatory public mask wearing policy now… 

Do you wear a mask when in public??

Feel free to right click on any of those meme’s to add them to your own photo stash and share on social media … we are all in this all over the world TOGETHER!!!!

 I am excited to look ahead to JULY!!!!

of JULY!!! <<<<

3rd – My bestie… Connie                                                   20th – My Honey’s … Rick

4th – Me                                                                             26th – My Darling Daughter … Brandi 

5th – My DIL to be… Kristen                                             In Memory… I will remember my                                                                                                                          grandmother’s birthday on the 6th…                                                                                                          She is watching over us from heaven

So here is the first fun birthday cake I found… doesn’t that teal icing look yummy!  with the moist chocolate cake… mmmmm!!!  Much less the precious unicorn full of cake!

So while this post had not much hand work to share… my mind is moving along solving roadblocks to get more handwork to show for next week!

Take care my friends 💖  And if you leave a comment today… please tell me…

What do you enjoy doing to celebrate YOUR birthday ???

I love that I am a Firecracker Baby and born the morning of the 4th of July!!!  My daughter may come for a visit on her birthday end of the month … THAT will be my present this year… along with the 2 new chairs we just bought for me 😀

Come back next week… you won’t be sad to celebrate Birthday Month each Sunday of July!!!!

From not much to share to a Birthday Post FULL<<< Come see !!

Sorry to have missed last Sunday posting as Sunday’s are my regular day to post.  I did have one regular reader inquire to me if all was fine and it was… just didn’t have much to share in my humble opinion… I will leave a short post in the future if I plan to not post anything of substance though 🙂  Thanks !!!

But today I have LOTs to share to make up for missing last Sunday !!!!  First of all my blog just got an update… do you like it???

AND >>>> It was a Birthday Celebration week here and my bestie came for a much needed visit!!!!  So grab a cuppa something yummy and come join me for a bit please 😀

In prep for company… and part of the reason I didn’t write to you all last week… our home got a DEEP clean.. with it just being me and my honey and Molly our Poo Shih… we keep a clean house.  But every now and again it is nice to do things like get the shelf above screwed into studs so it can hold our favorite old new sewing machine I shared in my last post.  It sure is nice around here though… my sewing room even got touched in the may lay of cleaning!!!  From this…To this to even more cleaning I didn’t capture by photo!!!  




Molly got a deep cleaning too AFTER a good grooming right here at home 😀

Above is Molly… showing off for the camera and hoping we would let her drive the golf cart… she loves going around on the cart with my honey too ❤

Not sure if they show much as we had some rain that brought them down but look at this cool hydrangea …

Loving all the colors available in this one at the bottom of a mountain where our water comes from.. varying pH levels in the water that gets the roots??? lol

With the sewing room cleaned up… I decided to try my hand at a mini art quilt for Connie as an extra birthday present for her… Her birthday comes first on the July 3… then mine on July 4… then my honey on July 20… so we enjoy celebrating together every year 🙂

These little snippets of fabrics were leftover bits she sent me with a square of white background as a teaser of what I would be quilting soon (referring to what it in my frame NOW)… I have held on to these bits looking for way to repurpose them back to her…. Confetti quilting won out!

 With some Steam a Seam 2, tweezers, sharp scissors, a pattern I made myself from a line drawing, and some patience and imagination… I soon had this ready to mount on white “grout” fabric….

I had a scant long piece of the backing fabric so watched a couple videos and chatted with Connie and soon had this art piece quilted and single layer bound as I didn’t have the width for the regular double layer binding…

Here is the back of this 6 1/4″ finished square of love!!!  I did the quilting on Cleopatra my Singer 319w using white Aurifil 50 in the top and bobbin..  I did hand sew down the label diagonal edge and the back of the binding but I had prethought that part and pressed it into shape before applying it so sewing it down went easy with clips 🙂

And here are the birthday girls…  Connie on the left and me holding our birthday cake on the right…

The pink roses Connie brought to add to the ambiance.  The little vase of flowers is what we picked in our yard prior to Connie’s arrival …

 Here is my birthday pose on the 4th…

 And me and my honey got fun goodies from my bestie and bestowed great goodies on her too!!!

 Let me share my lot of goodies as that was the main lot of photos I got! lol

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Birthday time… Maybe not my age sharing specifically but just celebrating being alive!!!!

My honey got me a wonderful daisy card with a deep meaning and private message inside…

 My bestie topped off her gifts to me with this cool fronted card and a nice message inside 😀

 Among other things I got this great pin cushion bought from a seller on Etsy named “SeaPinks” – her name is Jenny and I sent her a special thank you for this beautiful craftsmanship… it is only 3 ” or 4″ around and 2 1/2″ or 3″ tall… perfect to hold my needle and pins for binding at my computer area 😀

 Then a magnet that my bestie has a pink version of… to commemorate our mostly daily chats on her way to or from work….

 It found a place in the bottom corner of a little quilt pattern I hope to start soon 🙂  It is on the wall hanging by my things to do list! lol

 She also included some of these cute bobbin minders that hold the thread in place on  your bobbins so they don’t become a mess…  LOVELY!

Once birthday celebrations were completed… we slept and then started on sugar cookie making!!!

Connie stayed up past my bedtime to make dough on the 3rd… then on the 4th we made cookies all afternoon…

She had previously taken a “cookie class” with a sugar cookie decorating expert of sorts… it was great fun for me too !!!!

Here is Connie having fun as we prep to start the decorating!!!

 And showing off a doggie bone with a chevron design ….

This flower was my idea taken from watching her play in the sugar frosting….  Then using that yellow pointy ended tool I drug the color out and in to make my own kind of flower design…

 I also decorated a couple of thimble cookies (part of our gift to Connie had been cookie cutters in sewing theme shapes ).

And a flower that looks more like a pink ball with green chicken pox! lol

All in all… although I couldn’t hold up to her expertise in decorating… I had lots of fun and my honey enjoyed being a taste tester too !!!

So previously Connie has been sending me photos of her finished fabric squares with crochet edging she is making…

 To say I am smitten pales to my actual feelings of “I want to make one too!!! ”  So in cleaning up my sewing room I cut 80 sets of squares just the right size she shared with me to make this cool block.

Above… I measured and marked with blue water soluble marker where the the center motif quilting will occur and where the blanket stitch legs would be to make the perfect amount down each side for a square finished quilt…  and below is how the back side looks…

 I have 2 rows of stitching on that block as I didn’t understand the instructions Connie gave me fully… so once I saw that block … I made 2 more blocks that she took with her to work out the crochet pattern for later on when she can spend time teaching me to crochet the edging on each block.

Below is my marking guide and the first 2 blocks I made and hand stitched closed with batting in the middle for cozy finish…

 And this is where I am this morning on that project… it will hang out as I finish each of the 75 remaining blocks as a side line project for me to hand stitch… this hand stitched blanket stitching is being linked to Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE <<<<  Go check out the other linkers and the cool mystery quilt she is making from the Quiltmania mag…

 Here is one more shell stitch finished block finished quilt…  You can find that quilt on a blog and someone else has made a YouTube series on it as well.  We are not actually following the video instructions … we just got our basic ideas from the blog HERE <<<<

 This was another quilt I found in the same vein while searching Pinterest and Google for crochet fabric quilt… It is when I decided I wasn’t the shell stitch kind of girl but more the crochet style Connie added to mine with the squares 🙂

Connie is pondering making a pillow from her finished blocks now too then jumping over to my quilt block design as it crochets a bit faster and may be more durable with use instead of being a toe catcher design like the lacey bits of the photo before this one 😀  It is all personal preference. 😀

But my fave project is Connie Swoon Quilt hand quilting in my frame… This has been a nearly daily worked on project and what I am linking to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday linky HERE.  Go link up as Kathy has been under the weather using her hands for reading and puzzle working this week so she could use some inspiring posts to link up!!

Here I am almost near the end on the middle row which is where I was with my last post I think…

 And a close up of the final border before rolling to the last run of the 1st row of 4 rows of these big 24″ swoon blocks…

 And rolled and set up on the far left to move to the right for this row of stitching…

 I love this shot I got in a dark room with the morning sunrise ambient light coming in the blinds…

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 and Kathi (that is ME!)

 that is the center swoon block above… the beginning of the final swoon of this row is below 🙂

 I am loving the water soluble pens I got in a pack of 10 from Amazon too… they write clear and crisp and disappear with a sprints of water… below is that area all clean after stitching and spritzing and leaving to dry overnight…

 Look at this sweet cotton yarn cloth Connie crocheted me just for my quilting marking removal ❤

 It hangs out on my lamp beside my chair… here I am close to the end of this row.. soon… very soon I will be rolling on to the next row of swoons!!!  While I am stitching I have started listening to a new audio book on Audible.com… it is my fave audio book club.  This is a story of the royal gown makers and their stories… very interesting to listen to as I stitch!!!

Do you need to make Double Fold Bias Tape and don’t have the handy gadgets they sell online and at big box stores… measure and make your own… look at this made from card stock and easy to iron on without burning anything!!!!!

I hope you have found this long post entertaining and glad you got your cuppa before you started reading and enjoying… please take a minute to leave me a note… I would love to know what your fave part of this long birthday celebrating post was 😀

Have a blessed week and stay warm/cool depending on where you are while reading this!

Sewing Progress and Happiness to Share !

I try to post to this blog every Sunday morning in the US.. but sometimes things get in the way! lol  So Happy Monday to you all ❤

One of the biggest things was my honey’s birthday that happened this past Friday!

 And one of his requests was for me to cook him some fried green tomatoes from our little garden!!! 😀

Here is the most recent photo I have of us… with my bestie just after she bought her home!

My bestie, me and my honey in April 2018

I enjoyed doing that and cooking dinner later too… we had a neighbor come fish in our pond and had a relaxing day overall at home.  SWEET!  But this was how the week ended for us really… the beginning and middle were busy busy busy!

I am now over 69% done with the quilting on Hanover Stars!  Sew excited to be rolling the quilt after I took this photo…

 And look what I found!!!  The beginning of the top is starting to show on my frame 🙂

 To celebrate this fun milestone my honey brought me the lightly sweet smelling rose from one of our bushes… it is right outside our bedroom window but having one right by my quilting frame is wonderful… esp since it is from my honey ❤

 And I hope you enjoy this video I made 🙂

It is a video of butterflies all over this bush in our yard… they love what this bush blooms of!  They are vivid purple conical blooms 🙂

Having all that hand quilty progress made I decided to focus a bit on some machine work I have slowly been making progress on … Daisy’s Star quilt or more formally known as “Disappearing 9 patch Star” that I made a tutorial for these blocks HERE if you are interested… they are fun and easy!

 Above you can see I laid each of the 30 completed blocks … one at a time… on a gridded cutting mat and trimmed them down so they all were 10″ square in the end.  I thought I might could get them a tad bigger but some were tightly trimmed so 10″ it was!

When trimming down blocks you must choose a measurement that works for the smallest block and avoids losing your points too if possible but you have to give room to have a 1/4″ seam too… it is a struggle sometimes but these blocks give lots of room for trimming so it was fine 😀

Once they were trimmed I sewed 6 rows of 5 blocks as scrappy as I could make them lay out for me them.  Then to add borders for easier quilting and finishing and I just felt these blocks needed a border too.  So I chose the burgundy I used in the setting triangles and inner border of Hanover Stars… and a fun coordinating pup print I had in my stash!

 I found some 5″ blue squares of some of the fabrics I used in the quilt in my scrap user’s system of fabrics of quilts past…. and made some qst’s with the burgundy scraps I had left in the same size… once made and trimmed they were the size of the outer pup border… 4″ 😀  I love it when that happens!

 And here it is with the center all together and the burgundy border sewn on… it is looking JUST like this today too… maybe I will get back in there now that I am sharing it and get that pup border sewn on … it is ready as you can see from my design wall shot! lol

 While doing my slow stitching… which I am linking to Kathy’s Quilts this morning HERE I have been avidly watching vids on Bluprint (the remodeled Craftsy Unlimited) that I have a 1 year subscription to… and have been watching a video on making full bust adjustments to tops/shirts.  This video was especially helpful and I took screen shots of several points made in this video

by Jenny Rushmore she explains very eloquently how to adjust any pattern to your specific measurements and how to best obtain those measurements for best fit in the end!!!  I have not regretted this subscription once… and I have so many things I want to learn from the new Bluprint platform and check into.

Finally, happiness like a kid at Christmas came Friday when me and my honey had a chat about the new red laptop computer… it was sooooo slow and painful to use because it would just go black screen for a full minute or TWO when moving from one tab to another that was already open… this just wasn’t the computer for us… so we agreed I could use the old old laptop if I could get it up and rejuvenated (it has not been reliable in the past and the battery has some issue too that didn’t resolve with a new one back in the days of trying to keep it running )… so out of the depths my honey pulled it out and Saturday I booted it up and wiped out the new red laptop for returning it to the place we bought it.  Mission accomplished!

But the old old laptop wasn’t reliable and it was showing it’s age even though it’s speed handling the same I had thrown at the red one was much much improved! lol

So we searched online relentlessly and slept on it Saturday night and finally Sunday we decided a desktop was really what I needed… I rarely moved that laptop and we do have hopes of updating with a new hard drive for the blue laptop that started this saga.

 so here is the new desktop tower and we are using an old 26″ flat screen TV I bought almost 10 years ago for a monitor with a HDMI cable for a great shot you can see just above my logo the pic quality better than the big shot that is overexposed to show the general area and my set up 🙂

I am definitely living my mantra this week of ….

How about you?  How has your week been?
Are you living a life you love???
If not can you change something to make it better???  That is my challenge to you my bloggy friends! 🙂

Slow and Loving Stitches Here!!!

Happy Sunday Y’all!!!

 This week I have had a very busy week to be slow stitching… but I find the beginning of a project busy as I gather supplies and make final design decisions on the hand quilting…  So I have been to the beach a few times!

We also were celebrating here more this week… my honey celebrated his birthday this week!  This was a pic I posted on facebook 🙂

 My bestie Connie took a couple of good shots of us when she was here… nice to have an ocean background as that is our fave place of late!

There is NOTHING to me besides hand quilting that equals beach visits for therapy of the soul!!!

Speaking of stitching let me show you the progress I have made slow stitching on this beauty Amethyst Stars…

I shared this planned stencil to use on the outer border…

 Here is where I marked it with Pounce Chalk… and enhanced those markings as I went along with a chalk pen I have…

 Here is the right side stitched up…

 Here is the joined area… this is a directional stencil… so because of that at the center of the sides, top and bottom I have a “join” area to deal with… which I prefer actually so it is all good…

 And here is that joined area stitched and cleaned and dry 😀

 Here is a fun photo I caught in the early morning one day this week too…

 Thought you would enjoy that shot! I love catching the stitching in different light.

Here is the inner border in the design I had planned… and argyl-esque look with 2 colors of perle cotton in use here…

Here is a shot of the “Argyling” I did… it looks oh so cool in real life.. I hope that is captured in these photos taken with my iPhone though! lol

Now I have rolled the quilt yet again (yep that is twice in a week!!!) and have ordered some stencils… I get stencils from 2 different places… The Stencil Company and Quilting Stencils International.  Both can be google searched and ship in the USA as well as overseas for a price I think!  I had exhausted the fun charm square sized stencils from the first place so I checked out the second place… I am now patiently… NOT… waiting for my stencils to arrive via mail.

I do wish there were local hand quilting outlets… I live 1 hour from a big city but there is no hand quilting shops near me … so most of my shopping is done online.  So I wait PATIENTLY! lol

As I wait I am using the stencils I had in my stash/or had ordered from the first mentioned place anticipating my need for charm sized stencil designs.  In this shot you can see my markings from a stencil to the far right charm square…

 And in this shot you can see that charm square is now stitched … as are the 3 stars …

So how many different threads am I using on this quilt all together you may wonder??! hahaha… let me share this shot with you then…

Yep, I am using Aurifil 28/2, YLI 40/3, Valdani 12 wt perle I get from the Rusty Crow online shop, and DMC 12 wt perle cotton too!!!  Each different brand has it’s own texture though so just like using lots of fabrics can make a quilt scrappy.. using lots of different types of threads can make it more scrappy in it’s finish too… I only bought a couple of these for this quilt… the rest if from stash!  I LOVE THREAD!!! lol

And here is my Pounce marking pad…

It comes in white, blue and pink … there is a good video on YouTube by Leah Day showing how to properly use a pounce marker… there is a definite learning curve to this way of marking… and when you “charge ” it to use you have to whack it against something pretty firmly and it makes a startling noise to others around who may not be expecting it! lol  So if you need a quiet environment or quilt with others in the room work out a communication for when you are charging your pad to mark is my advice 😀

I have a Facebook group that I started several years ago… it hums along usually but of late has been languishing… so I am trying to resuscitate it…

 Here is the group name and the Facebook header I just put up this morning 🙂  I have been so preoccupied with my honey and his health and my own health concerns… I am just getting back to keeping up with things I enjoy like this Facebook group ❤  If you are interested in quilty talk and sharing in a small group setting… as to join in this group if you like!  Would love to get to know you each better… if you aren't already in my group that is.

Also to add to my productivity this week I straightened my sewing room quite a bit…

 The top shot is my 401a (on the left) ~ Zena, and my 301a ~ Gloria ready for action… you can see my design wall and ironing surface there too… then below to the left is my cutting surface and it is MUCH tidier.

My bestie gave me that cool wood ruler organizer/holder over a month ago… I finally made a space for it and put a note she left me LAST summer on it along with my small cutting mat and my most commonly used rulers 🙂

To the bottom right is a collage I made of my next project coming up to piece and thus the reason my sewing room needed this tidy.  I now have all the major cuts made to this Christmas wall hanging… you can see the red and green and white with grey fabrics I am using… this will be a wall hanging for the foyer when the season arrives I am hoping!  While I was ordering the white/grey fabric during a clearance sale online… I found some remnant pieces I felt needed to be added to my existing stash to enhance it! lol  They will be used on a future quilt I am planning also!

Here is a closer up shot of my 401a… Zena… with the cool pin cushion my bestie gifted me for my birthday… I sent it to the lady on etsy that fashioned it from vintage stuff … and filled it at my request with walnut shells!  It is weighty and useful… I LOVE LOVE LOVE it ❤

Here is a cool way to use art to decorate and say something meaningful too that I found on Pinterest I think.  I sent it to my daughter but it has spoken to me also…

 I haven’t heard from my daughter since the 4th of July (my birthday) .. hoping all is well with her and helping her to see a silver lining if life isn’t working out as she thought it might!

For now I encourage you to each …

Stitch and enjoy… come over to Kathy’s Quilts to see what others are slow stitching this week too… that is where I will be posting this too!!   HERE is a direct link to make it easy for ya! 🙂  She has a fun interpretation of this too… this is just mine because it has the ocean in it!!!💕

Y’all … there is PLENTY of meanness in our world of late… please be the change in your area… I will be in mine by showing my love to others… won’t you try it too?!!!  

Have a blessed Sunday and a great upcoming week and grab the opportunity to make a difference around you!

A Busy but FUN Stay-cation :)

Last Sunday Connie drove down from Tennessee for her yearly visit!

I was so excited… and as I relive the highlights… I realize this was a Stay-cation this year for me.. I was her support staff as she got some quilty projects completed 🙂

Connie is my quilting mentor… she is the one that started my obsession!!!!!  

So Sunday we visited and relaxed… and enjoyed a wonderful bacon cheeseburger and tots meal too thanks to my honey’s culinary talent!  It was sooo yummy 🙂  But by Monday morning and a good nights sleep under our belt she was ready to start quilting something… a baby quilt!!!

 And she is making it from stash… hers and a bit of mine too!!! 🙂

Then Tuesday she got a new doo!  Kimber, my hair stylist and friend gave her a GREAT makeover!!!

 Above is Kimber and Connie and below is how cool the back looks after a treatment, cut & style 🙂  Yippee!!!!

 AND we went to a LQS where I picked up a few things…

 Check out this cute ruler above… it is a size I have seen Bonnie Hunter use and I LOVE it!!

Below is a panel my daughter (who was with us) went crazy over … so I bought the panel 🙂

I got Connie a ruler like mine as a surprise little gift.. and with this quilt shops name on it … it is extra cute I think… it is 2 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ and is perfect for cutting up block parts during the piecing process 🙂

By Wednesday she had a flimsy completed…

 about 40″ square 🙂

Then below she is layered and pinning…

 And just so you all know… she got a light grey solid binding sewn on after machine quilting all the ditches… then she hand quilted all the open spaces remaining!!!

Hopefully you will get to see the finish once it is gifted too… but it turned out amazingly beautiful with her tiny hand stitching in the pink with white thread and in the white with pink thread… this is a quilt for a girl baby being born to a coworker who has 3 boys presently!!! So lots of pink is a necessity for this little girl to be!! lol

Also while here Connie made us matching cup cozies…

 Here is a close up of mine….

 It has my initial “K” on it… it now sits on my bedside table.. a little reminder of our friendship that sends me off to sweet dreams and gives me a smile when I wake 🙂

Finally Friday was here… and we went to a local seafood restaurant!  We all have July birthdays and when we told our excellent server this … she grabbed this shot after a group sang happy birthday to us all!!!

 Connie’s birthday is July 3, I am on the 4th, my honey is on the 20th, and my daughter is on the 26th!!!!  Yippee 🙂

Check out the free desert we got to share too!

Yummy dessert called the “Boat Anchor”…

While we were at the restaurant we took some photos on the boardwalk attached!!!  Here are a couple!

 And here is a fun shot of me and Connie cheesing it up!!!

 but my fave shot was this new family shot!

So now my teenage daughter is gone for the summer… I have 5 1/2 weeks for just me and my honey to enjoy.  Wow… how long will it take this reality to set in???  Not sure yet!!!

But one thing I am certain of as I adjust to life sans any kids in the house for the summer… 

October… Already?!!!

Happy October and Happy Fall Ya’ll! (or Spring if you are below the equator!!)

 Above is a pic I posted on the first day of Autumn here in Florida… and here is a pic I found on my friend Kathy’s fb page today…

Unfortunately… I had to have this one explained to me.. do you need an explanation as well??? lol

When other states travel to Florida the license plates change colors.. as Florida has a huge amount of “snowbirds” who come for the mild winters… but they begin arriving about now! lol  And this is accurate for sure!!!

So I hope whatever you have planned during this season includes something nice.. I have been hand quilting some.. although I haven’t been blogging the progress much as it has been slow but steady…

I did finish this block… although the quilting doesn’t show much in this photo….

 it is quilted quite nicely and will show up once washed as a background of sorts..  Then I also just finished this sashing…

Just 5 blocks, 3 sashings like the one above.. and one wide sashing left on the center of this quilt… hopefully October will find me with MORE time to get this quilt closer to finished as well!!!

Here is was as just a flimsly… now all the center vertical section is done… except the wide sashing on the center right.. and all the left side is done except the lower left block… that is what I will be focusing on next!!

And if you are needing some fun pieced inspiration.. here are a few things I see finding a way into my future projects..

 Above is a “T” square block.. it reminds me of my daisy if done in a bit different colors…

And this is a few blocks from a free pattern on Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltiville… Open Studio page.. love this design…

 And here is a quilt my sweet DIL Kayla sent me to inspire me on a quilt she wants for my grandson (her child) CJ…

this is a baby quilt and I want his designed more along these lines for a center and add fun blocks around it.. she enjoys modern so I am open to ideas you all may have …

I am more into traditional things… lol!

And this piece just wows me!  It ws done by my fb friend Andi Perejda.. and is just breathtaking to me that she did this…

the texture her handquilting adds to the applique is just amazing to me!!!  She had a Hand Quilting class on Craftsy.. if interested message me and I can forward you a link or just go on Craftsy and search “Andi” to find it under classes.. well worth the money.. but wait for a sale for a better price too!! lol  I continue to learn.. but have requested an advanced class from her via Craftsy after seeing this piece… I couldn’t even imagine coming up with this design of hand quilting on my own!  And it is basic echo and such with areas left unquilting for the leaves.. love that!!!

My Nanny (paternal grandmother) turned 97 years young on September 22!  What an accomplishment!

She is still very clear headed with a great memory and lively conversation was had the day of her birthday too!  So happy she is doing so well!!!

I really have been living a life I could be proud of as of late.. and found lots of inspiration in this saying…

 I find it very true!

So happy I am back to my blog… please take time to leave a comment if you made it this far.. we can always use an encouraging word now and then.. I am in need of that today!

Have a blessed rest of your week/weekend!  Until I can post again…