Lots of Progress to share on this last Sunday of January 2020!

Lots to share today y’all!  Starting out … I spied this pic of my sweet grand daughter on Facebook on Friday as Elliana celebrated 8 months old!!!!

 And Saturday we woke up to SNOW!!!!!

 Yes it was also overcast most all day until afternoon… we live near the Nantahala National Forest.  Nantahala is Native American and means “land of the midday sun” well that is most usually true for us… the afternoons get sunny …. not always the morning times! lol

I worked on the curtains a bit this week for our bedroom.  I am using this fabric seen close up and sideways from how it hangs in the pics below for the cafe curtain…

 And here it is on the window…

 Here is a better view of it without competing with the bit of light coming in the window too…

 I also started early in the week on cutting out the black border fabric from the backing with some special scissors I borrowed from my friend Jannessa… I will be getting me my own pair now that I have used them though! lol

 So now the rooster still needs the eye put on before layering but will soon be in my PVC hoop to hand quilt!  I am planning to quilt it all by hand now that I have spent more time with him.  Any ideas for the rooster itself???  Color of thread or design is greatly appreciated!

 I found this vintage pattern online but can’t find a reasonably priced pattern to buy.  However the pic may work to decide how to make my raggedy Ann a new dress to match the deep blue of the pants her new mate Andy is wearing!

Here are my Raggedy Couple….

I am most proud of my hand quilting progress this week though… I am linking this progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers HERE <<<  Take time today to slow down and do something fun  you enjoy with no pressure!!!   

Monday I rolled the Appalachian Delight quilt after finishing the stitching on the outer border on Sunday evening…

 I quickly filled in the quilting to the right of the first block shown here…

 And focused on quilting in the ditch on the HST inner border and the sashing and cornerstones too…

 All this close quarters stitching is made possible with my awesome thimbles!!!  The metal one is a Clover brand one that is open and adjustable but stays sized as desired.  And the green one has a small bit of stretch to it to stretch onto my thumb… it is made by Dritz…

Both are available at Amazon if big box stores are not near you 🙂

I thought I would be marking this design in the wide sashing with chalk so I had purchased a new Allary brand Chalk Cartridge with chalk for under $10 at Amazon… instead my handy blue wash away markers showed up on the burgundy fabric!!!! YAY 😀

 Here is a close up of the bear in the cabin block I designed … a variation of the bear claw.  I am excited to roll the quilt later this week and start stitching on these blocks… I have so many ideas floating around about HOW to stitch on them to enhance the design best… I don’t know what will wind up happening… if you recall I had thought I would use a stencil but in the ditch surrounding each bear claw has won out… now to decide on inside the bear claw blocks!

 You can see better in this photo… I am halfway across the quilt already… so if I have a low key week otherwise… I should be rolling mid week or so…

In Kathy’s post she shows how she binds her minky backed quilts… I love  her technique… I will be binding a minky backed quilt for Jannessa later this week or next week… I am excited to work on this for her and to experience minky as I have shied away from using it!  It may be fun though!!!!

I had a check up with my doctors this week and got good reports from both of them!  Yippee !!!

February I will be starting an official bullet journal for sewing and quilting and other creative adventures I have thoughts of in 2020… I am loving these sheets I am making…

But want to take it further.  So we will see!

My thought this week is to be real… be genuine … BE YOURSELF … others may be more willing to be themselves around you too!

So until next week when February will finally be here and the long month of January will be behind us… take care !!!

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Happy Sunday January 2020 ~ Ringing in a New Week!

January is an odd month… comes on quick but last a looong time as you adjust your vision to include new things or jump start lost habits.  As for us… we buy a fresh bulb flower in January…

This past week was a real roller coaster but we made it through and my honey even surprised me and bought a miniature daffodil plant to enjoy for now and plant later… AND he bought the Raggedy Ann an Andy partner that looks like he is from the same era she is from … mid 1960’s !!!

I really needed these boosts this week… now to give sweet Ann a new outfit and some new striped socks too… those will be a project you see coming up in the future… Andy is a smart dresser so Ann needs to step up her game a bit and get a rejuvenation session … Jannessa will help me she promises!!! ❤

Last Sunday I enjoyed slow stitching alternating with block making for the Beads table runner I planned to make…

 Here is a close up of 1 block… made with strip sets is how Donna Jordan shows it made… I didn’t use her sizes but made mine smaller blocks to make a more desirable sized finish for my needs…

 And for the table in our kitchen… a couple of smaller placemats were pieced.

 By working through the week when not slow stitching… I got all but 1 seam and the final border completed…

Friday I had it all together & handed this flimsy runner with batting and backing to Jannessa.  She is going to fmq it for us to enjoy ❤

 I will use that deep burgundy for the binding… our kitchen is mainly the barn red and creamy tan colors… but we have a quilt in there (my spiral log cabin quilt) that this will look perfect close to.

Friday when Jannessa came over to pick up the table runner we took time to let her pup Max visit with Molly… we also made coordinating bracelets pooling our resources of glass and nicer plastic beads!!!

My honey had found the 2 silver hearts (one in each of our bracelets) in the fish vendor cart when  we got it home.  Jannessa loved them as much as I did so we made them a stand out on our bracelets 😀

I am definitely blessed with good friends… my blog prize winner from December was Penny or as other readers may know her as Little Penpen.  She loved the winnings and then proceeded to make me this sweet thank you gift….

 I received it on Saturday and promptly called and thanked her and caught up with her too ❤  It is a pattern by Kathy Schmidt and is a Hare and Needle… so stinking cute y'all!!!

I then signed it for her with initials and year… and sewed circles to the back for hanging…

 Look how beautiful it looks in my room !!!!

 Thank you Penny for making my day with your sweet hand stitches just for me!!!!!

Molly got a groom and a photo shoot earlier in the week while we ran to Asheville for doctor appointments at the VA for my honey….

She looks so great scissor trimmed and nails ground short.  She is so good for the groomer too we are told!!!

Most every day I wake early and spend the early morning hours hand quilting… this is my zen and my fave place to be… I enjoy machine projects intermittently and it gives my hands something different to do as well.. but I never get bored hand quilting!!!  Appalachian Delight is no different!!!

 Pictures I took this week as a spritzed away the blue markings once quilted and let it dry… giving this great texture to the outer border of this quilt…

 Here is where I will be today… getting the corner done…

 Here is a look back at where I have been….

 And a close up of THIS MORNING….

 And my set up that lets me tiptoe around in the mornings without waking anyone as I stitch with my headphones on…

 this week I finished this book on audio books from the local library.

 I thought since the service is free I could listen and quit if I didn’t like it… so I did and you know what… Michelle Obama is a wonderful speaker and had lots of great info to share in this basically nonpartisan look at what it was like to live life in her shoes.  And what an interesting life she has lived thus far y’all! 

I have kept up with my calendar this week… I am planning to switch to bullet journaling in February when I can get myself a dot paged book that is small enough to not take up much room to keep handy.  Or maybe I should keep printing these sheets and put them in a notebook… 

Any calendar fanatics out there have a preference????

At Jannessa’s request I joined a 9 patch a day club on facebook.. it is quite an international group and has me pondering 9 patch variations like this one for a possible future quilt …

 Hoping to find the pattern for this one but look at that quilt closely.. the light and medium blues give you an awesomely intricate background pattern in the quilt… friendship stars… churn dashes… all kinds of patterns within patterns and basically it is 9 patches with some hst’s and solid squares too to make it come out so mind bendingly cool!!!

I did one of those silly things on facebook yesterday… it is like reading a horoscope or something 😀  This hits quite close to home for me though!!!!

This has been a chatty post .. hope you have enjoyed it … so much hand work here I am linking it to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching… my fave blog to visit on Sundays >> right HERE <<

I will chat more next Sunday… for now I sing cheers for a cap on a very busy week and a hope that the coming week that looks busy will be relatively quiet in reality.

Next Sunday I should be into the next phase of quilting … the blocks !!! Come back then!!!!