Twisted Up Tuesday..

Hello my Bloggy friends!

Check out the beautiful hand work my friend Connie is up to!  This dresden plate is the center of a little preemie quilt… she has the cross hatch drawn out on the border already too 🙂

 Here is the back of that dresden.. isn’t it just beautiful either way??

What a roller coaster I have been on for about 2 days now but all is good and I am off the roller coaster now… at least for the time being 🙂

My daughter has a stomach bug and has been really not feeling well which also makes me sad but this was her day to go to get her brain looked at … check on the tumor… and see the doctors the next day to see what they think.

Instead, I am using my nursing skills to get her better so she can not miss more school.. (she goes to a very busy school and gets behind easily if she doesn’t watch it)…

I have been quilting away on the Byrum Family Quilt and am working hard on the inner border now…

Here is a view of my stitching with the blue lines still in place… can you see the circles joined???

Closer look at stitching 🙂

Here is how I marked this design…

With round objects 🙂  2 different sizes spools of thread and a medicine bottle I use for my perle cotton in use! haha!

So here I am stitching today and tending to my daughter.. what are you up to today??

Are you having a Twisted Tuesday too? 

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Progress on my slow stitching is AWESOME :)

I am so happy today to be able to link up with Kathy and Slow Sunday Stitching… check out her lovely blog here and leave her some happy thoughts today as she is needing them 🙂

 I have a few “it was dark so I took pics with a light on” pics of my current hand quilting progress on the Byrum Family Quilt (BFQ)… lol!!!

This quilt is for my brother and his family (4 kids too!) so this quilt will see lots of action and needs to be durable… I am using YLI 40/3 thread that is glazed and very strong in a natural color.

So far I have finished the very center panel quilting!  Yippee 🙂  I am so stoked to get this part finished and get to the patchwork areas… do ya think I am crazy as panels are pretty fun too… but I love the feel of patchwork under my fingers as I quilt! LOL 🙂

And I took this pic just to cheer Kathy up… a bucket full of hearts 🙂

And here is a nicer view of the top of the tree… although you can’t see much quilting here… I promise it is there… the outline of the tree and a pretend outline I quilted for the leaves of the tree… I may come back and add more definition to this but it is quilted moderately and the rest of the quilt will be similar.  Less than my normal amount of stitching for sure 🙂

 

Now on to the innermost border…

where I am stitching just inside the line ( and through my seam allowances) to stabilize this border then I will add various sizes of circles using medicine bottles, bottle caps, and a spool of thread as well!  Yep, I love finding objects to trace onto my quilts then bring to life… this quilt will have lots of fun quilting to come…

I am surely happy to be making great progress on this quilt… what are you up to on this Slow Sunday ??? Do you stitch or relax??  Any plans for Labor Day??

My Laundry List Linky Party is in FULL SWING!!!  

Not sure what I am talking about… win prizes just for linking your goals in a blog post to my blog… entry ends tonite… but not to fear next month I will be back again during the last weekend of the month offering you a place to stay more focused and organized with your crafting and other goals too!  Check out THIS post for more details on entering 🙂

Also linking this post to Karen at Sew Many Ways here 🙂

Progress on Projects :)

Yep, I am busy making progress on my progress as time to share nears 🙂

Yep, time to List, Link & Party is just a day away … what do you need to do???

Get a blog post ready to link Friday, Saturday or Sunday listing out what you have been up to lately and where you plan to focus next month.. I feel it helps me be accountable to others to get goals met over a months time.. How about you??

Also it is time to PARTY because I have special extra LINKY LOOT this month!

So be ready to link up…

Progress this month has been fabulous overall .. I am excited to review my list and see where I am really for the month… and now that I have my wonderful hand quilting project going… it will be my main focus for next month..

<<< Everything is coming up hearts… like this cute pic I got of the basket of hearts here on the left 🙂

Or the initials of the family this quilt is going on right down the middle of the quilt 🙂 Here >>>

I still have a bit to go on the center panel here but I am making great progress to finish on time I am thinking 🙂  Just keep on quilting every morning! lol

I did find some antique white fabric this week too… more on that on Friday’s post!  It was a great deal… do you ever look at your local thrift shops for FABRIC in bolt/yardage?  That is where I found this and soooo blessed to find it! lol

Invite your friends to join in on the fun this weekend!

Hand quilting Aaahhh ~ LOVING IT :)

I am loving waking up early all of a sudden.. and I don’t wonder why anymore… I am back to having a hand quilting project underway and I am so jazzed about this project… all the love it will get for as long as it will stay together … and how zen the hand quilting process is once you are into it!  Yippee 🙂

To the right… I have quilted the outline of the tree on this center panel and am now outlining the hearts that go down the center of the tree… The shaded pink heart that has my brother (younger and MUCH taller than I) and wonderful sil initials in it and year married was already part of the panel… I just added that info with embroidery  during the piecing phase 🙂  Below that are hearts that each of their children added with paint brush or finger painting them there… J is for Jared… he is the oldest and the only boy.  He is a strong leader sort and when I had my nieces and nephew here this past spring and we did this artwork he and his oldest little sis Madison (the M under his is for her) headed up the ideas for what to put on the tree in the first place!                              It was so much fun doing this project on a panel with them adding to it like this… I used fabric paint from Michaels for their finger painted hearts 🙂  H is for Haley who has a birthday very soon. and finally is Delaney .. the baby of the family but she knows what she wants … and fingerpainting was not what she wanted to do… so she used a brush and got help from her older siblings… what a wonderful memory 🙂

Is there a part of the quilting or other crafting process you love most?  I would love to hear about it!!!  I read every comment and look forward to getting comments so please share what you enjoy most in the crafty world we try to live in amongst all that is going on in the world today…

A tropical storm is out in the Atlantic right now… they predict we will only get breezes from Cristobol so we shall see 🙂  Living so near the coast (about 2 miles from the beach as the crow flies) means we must stay alert to weather situations.

Have a blessed week… hope you plan to Link to Win your goals this coming weekend!

Until next time 🙂 

I love Slow Sunday Stitching :)

How about you?  Do you like to sew something imaginative… or meet a goal on Sundays or do you refrain from all work on Sundays?  Recently this question was asked on a couple quilting boards I am a part of on facebook and I wondered if any of you guys believe Sunday should be a day of rest only.

Personally I can’t imagine hand quilting NOT being relaxing and meditative.. I find it totally relaxing yet focused… but it is my favorite part of the quilting process and I am finally BACK!!!!  So I had to rearrange my space a bit…

 Above you will see my design wall in the background holding up the 2 completed hexi star flowers… these will be pot holders to adorn my kitchen… and to use! lol  Not the table topper they were meant to be… and that is okay with me 🙂

Just in front of those hexis I have a stool… that is where the quilt sits as I do not use a hoop but quilt heavily pinned only using a table/stool/ironing board.. to support the quilt.  As I quilt an area I remove the pins… one at a time.  I have to watch my tension very closely and check it often but I enjoy quilting this way..

As a child doing handwork came naturally for me and no one told me hoops should be used when they watched me stitch… now as I quilt… I find many want to share what I should do differently to get a different type of stitch.. well here are my stitches! ….

And I do have a hoop if I have a quilty friend come visit they are welcome to use it… and I may use it myself one day… but not for this project 🙂

So I am one happy girl today as I slow stitch the heat away in my mind… the feels like temperature here has been in the 100’s all week long !!!  I know… I live in Florida … what do I expect… well a breeze would help! ha 🙂

Hope you have a blessed Sunday however you spend it.

Don’t forget to Link Up next weekend right here!!!  Follow me so I can remind you with my post on Friday 🙂  Check out the Linky Party logo on the right side of my blog for more info… or check my post from yesterday for details too!

Linking this happy Slow Sunday Stitching post to Kathy’s HERE!

Happy Weekend!

I am so excited to share with you my 2 flimsy finish FINALLY on the Byrum Family quilt!  You see this has a scrappy front and a pieced back… so I figure that will now have 2 quilts in 1 🙂  Check out the inspired backing I did…

104″ square backing.. pieced on Gloria

after I got warmed up piecing the front! lol

94″ square front… pieced on Fiona

Hope you don’t mind that I made this flimsy shot so big but I wanted you to notice all the details in this top… made especially for the family that will be receiving it!  My brother!!!

The Byrum Family!

I will be hand quilting this finish over the next 3 months or so… they are coming to Florida for a visit on Thanksgiving… so I can hopefully gift it to them as an early Christmas present then!

Here is a better pic of the backing… before I turned it over or sandwiching…

 My brother and his family live on very strong Christian values… and try to incorporate their faith into every aspect of their life… so as I shopped for fabrics or this quilt over the last year I prayed over each one before buying… above are the 10 commandments… on the front are the beatitudes… each fabric has a special meaning for them in this quilt!  Isn’t that neat 🙂

It all started out in a container of randomly collected fabrics and donations from dear friends like this!

Connie is holding artwork made by my friend Wendy in Australia and in front of that is neatly folded all the fabrics for this quilt… plus I did pull some from my stash as well!!!

The label I like to make using special fabric treated for ink jet printers to hold the ink wash after wash…  I put it at the top of the cross on the back of the quilt… here is a closer look at it!

What are your plans for this weekend?  Any quilty ones?

Pics of my stitches coming tomorrow for Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching… I have missed my Sunday posts! lol

Don’t forget next weekend we check out where we have been and where we are going with our goals!!!

Just write a blog post with goals you have met recently and goals you want to meet over the next month… link it up with my linky party.. and PARTY!!!!  Also a chance to win Linky Loot!!!  One lucky linker will get something from my quilty stash just for them based on their post and their goals!  Cool deal I think!  So link up NEXT WEEKEND!

Until next time 🙂 …

Linking this 2 flimsy finish to…
Sew May Ways >>> Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party here 🙂
and
Tanya & Richard Quilts >> Link A Finish Friday here 🙂

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hello my bloggy friends… I usually find it fun to blog 2 or 3 times a week… but time has slipped away from me and now I realize it is almost a week since I have shared with you!  For shame!!! lol

Squirrels play in our bird house and birds live in the trees!  Silly animals 🙂

Well, Saturday the 9th of August, my brother and his family moved into their “new” and they hope final home to raise their family in… on that day I also finished their quilt top… AND before they had their old home cleaned out for the new family I had the backing all pieced in the shape of a cross made from fabric with the 10 commandments on it… I am just soo excited with that progress…

Where I finished up “The Byrum Quilt”

Flimsy pictures you say?? Well first of all this is TOP SECRET right now.. and second of all the top is 94″ square… yep, HUGE!!!   The backing measures out 104″ square itself as well… so we plan to move the living room around for the pinning of the quilt sandwich this weekend and will get pics then!  Yippee!

Look for a post Sunday for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy as I will be linking there and delighted that (once the batting arrives to the pinning party Friday) the pinning will be over and the hand quilting will begin!  Yippee 🙂

In the meantime.. I do have something fun to share … I have been doing some hand piecing on my hexi star flower table topper…

Now I have 2 done

and am working on the 3rd… there are 7 to make before I join them to make the flimsy properly 🙂

I started this project to try multi-tasking… as hand piecing affects different parts of my fingers than hand quilting… so we shall see how it goes with both projects going!!!  Very soon I am hoping!!! lol

Meanwhile, my honey has put together a little railroad for himself on a piece of plywood we salvaged for free (someone hurricane shutters they decided they didn’t need… in Florida really???)!  Check this system he has designed!

He has 3 working trains… one from the 60’s, one from the 70’s and one from the 90’s all working together on the track he bought on eBay for a deal and has carefully sanded each piece to get great connections all around.. screwed in each piece of railroad… and the trains love it!  So fun that we have interesting hobbies… to us anyway! ha 🙂

For my hand piecing project I am staying organized and using my portable design wall to hold my pieces in place together :).. my bestie Connie made them.. along with my design ideas .. during her July visit for our birthdays… this was my birthday present and I think she rocked it!!!

 Here on the left is my portable design wall as it was intended to be used… and being used today on the right!

 I love the buttons Connie added that we both fell in love with during a visit to the LQS 🙂

 So what are you up to this week? 

Well.. must go for now and fondle my fabric! lol

4 Star Progress on the Byrum Family Quilt & MORE!

So happy to be linking this post to Whoop my progress up with Sarah today 🙂  Check out her post here 🙂  She has lots of eye candy today … and lots of links to look at too!!

Today I have 4 great stars to share with you…
I made 2 of each star in the same colorways…

<<<< This is "Star on Star" pattern from Patchwork Square website..
And this cutie >>>> is called “Swamp Angel” pattern also found at Patchwork Square.

Before we move forward to see the other 2 stars I want to share that Patchwork Square website tells you to cut a large square and then sub cut via diagonal slices your pieces down to the needed hst and qst unit sizes … all that said… I drafted my own patterns with my friend Wendy’s help and used rulers not subcutting squares to get my hst’s and qst’s with precise points….

 <<<<< This star is called "Bear Tracks" pattern by Patchwork Square…
>>>>> This star is my fave block of the star blocks for some reason.. it is just very happy and fun!  It is called “Evening Star” but I think the orange looks like butterflies going in for nectar from a flower 🙂  Silly me!  Pattern also from Patchwork Square.

Patchwork square is similar to quilter’s cache if you have visited there but not as uber organized… however>>> they have PICS!  I do better with a picture instead of just a name of a block… so I went HERE to get all these block ideas 🙂  WHOOP!

Also I struggled but finally won with a perfectly measured school house block!  It is part traditional piecing and part paper piecing….

I am super stoked about this block… see my pattern is not yet updated but here is my layout .. with this post maybe you can understand some of it 🙂
I make notes on my patterns for future reference… the “center” is on another piece of paper and the backing I will piece next is on yet another piece of paper! lol

So next up are those little 4″ blocks that I call “square in a square”.  I have my fabrics chosen… and with this final block sets done I will be ready to assemble this section of the quilt over the weekend I think!  WHOOP!!!!

I still have Wendy’s beautiful artwork she sent for this quilt to border and add the year to…
I will put this years date on it as when she made it in 2004 she dated it as well!  What a special piece this is to add to this quilt 🙂  Here is my friend Wendy…  you can see her work on her blog here 🙂

Wendy has been instrumental in helping me accomplish unrealistic goals I had set and make them happen!  I am amazed at what I have created with these blocks I have shared today!

So between the front and the back I will actually use ALL of the “special fabrics” I had purchased for this quilt… Amazing I think that I collected over a year or this and now am using all I collected to some extent somewhere in the quilt!  AMAZING how God works things out I think 🙂

Now that this quilt is mainly together I am excited to ask you a question about this post!

Would you like the chance to win a fun fat quarter… just pick a fave block of the 5 I have shared… and pin it to your Pinterest page please… Once you have shared it leave me a comment that you shared and which one was YOUR fave… and if you are a NO REPLY BLOGGER… leave your email addy pls otherwise your entry will be forfeited and another name drawn!  Drawing is SUNDAY August 10 🙂 & open to anyone anywhere that would love a FUN FAT QUARTER! I will contact the lucky commenter and let them have a CHOICE of fat quarters available from the quilt I have been working on 🙂

Anyone up for a little giveaway??  WHOOP!

Byrum Family Quilt update…

Happy August!!

So much has been going on.. and I got into a rough spot in the piecing adventure on the Byrum Family Quilt… so I am just now posting an update on this project WHOOP!  So happy to be here with you right now too!  but this is what I have been working on…

Jacob’s Ladder blocks 🙂

These are 6 blocks above all together… all my joins aren’t perfect but I am pretty pleased with how each of the 4 panels turned out…

Here is a snafu I caught only when I took a pic…

So I extracted the wrong turned block and fixed it..

close up and…

once all fixed 🙂

Now that I am done with these 4 sections it is time for FUN… I get to make star blocks that I chose for this quilt next…

 

Here is my design on the design wall… not perfectly laid out… but as I have pieced it … all is measuring up!

You see… I love to hand quilt.. but I have never felt strong in the piecing realm… with this quilt.. and with my friend Wendy’s help.. and my friend Connie’s help… I am making this quilt sing out loud before the quilting even begins… loving that!

Does your work sing as you are doing it?  Would love to know how to keep this feeling around 🙂  I am loving how this quilt is turning out!  Hope you are loving the project you are focusing on too!

Do you web your quilt tops?

I do… do you know what webbing a quilt top is?  It is a little trick I noted watching Quilt Cams with Bonnie Hunter.. she talks about it on her blog in this article too!

You see the current quilt I am piecing to hand quilt has a center panel surrounded by lots of 2 1/2″ & 4 1/2″ squares in a pattern that I designed.  Here is the design..

And here it is in reality once webbed together to hold the pieces in place then stitched together as it was laid out….

I am loving how precise my piecing is becoming in this pic 🙂  Thanks Wendy Gontier!!!

The fabric at the bottom of the pic is the next border to go around.

This is the center of my design however and used fabrics I have been collecting for about a year all starting with this panel!  I am loving this project 😀

The Byrum Family Quilt thus far has been lots of fun… now I am working on the next “circle” around the quilt of all different kinds of quilt blocks… and I am webbing each 12 1/2″ block together for an easy finish too…

Hope you take time to read Bonnie’s article… and let me know if you web or not when putting a top together… I am always looking for more accurate ways to piece a quilting puzzle together… do you have any tricks or tips?  Leave them in the comments… I reply to all comments too!