February is speeding by here!!!

Happy mid February Y’all!  I can’t believe it is the 11th already !!!

After my last post we had a frenzy of showings on our home… then after a showing on February 1… we got a cash offer for our home and we accepted!!! 

The NEXT DAY they had us leave again for an inspection!!!  So to the beach we went 😀

It was windy but warm for the beginning of February… and the tide was out so it was good!  Negotiations after the inspection continued until we settled on the original agreement on February 6 with all things signed… now to find a new home for us to move to!

We had been looking north to get back to seasons and decided Appalachian foothills country would be closer to family in Tennessee and seasonal but closer for beach visits and more moderate climate WITH seasons … with trees and mountains… all the things we miss in flat Florida ! lol

Here is a view from an overlook near the part of the Appalachian foothills we will be calling home…

Click on the pic to make it larger if you like… it is near the clouds though!!!  Lots of ear popping happened on this trip!!!!

Soon we settled on a house but we are waiting on all to be final… so just a few shots of the house to show you what we have in mind as awesome..

 Soon it was the last time we would be entering Florida as actual residents … our trip up north only lasted 2 nights and 3 days but thanks to my honey’s prowess on finding properties online… we found a house we want to fix up to call home!!!

We looked at several houses and went back to this one a total of 3 times before making our decision final… but it has privacy, is newer all around that our current home, it is better sized for the 2 of us and an occasional visitor, plus it has TONS of potential and good bones about it as well!  And we got it for what we could afford to pay from the sale of the house we are selling so it a GREAT 😀

Meanwhile, I have been hand quilting mainly.. I did make up a few Kaleidoscope blocks … but my focus has been packing, washing, moving, and finding our forever home as well… as it should be!

Here is the section of quilting I was working on last post on my Colorful Whole Cloth quilt…

 And here it is laid out on the floor when I turned it to get to the opposite side…

 I am working from the center out… so once I had reached one side completely… I felt I needed to turn the quilt and work from the center that was done… to the outer opposite edge… so here it is back in my PVC frame ready for me to quilt…

 Here I am rotated and making quilty progress…

 And here is where I am working this morning ….

 Here is an overview of all I have done on THIS side 😀

I am enjoying the variety of colors and stitching this quilt involves… esp with so much going on in our lives presently… and this PVC frame hand quilting project will work nicely until my wood frame gets set up in our new home if all goes according to plan on that.  Linking this hand quilting progress and where you will find me on and off today with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday link… come see what other hand stitchers are doing at her Olympic focused Linky Party HERE!

Here are some Kaleidoscope Krazy blocks I have been stitching a bit on…

 Here they are as I had cut and paired them up into sets and pinned them… these piles when sewn will bring me to halfway on block construction for this big quilt…

 While sewing these I am trying out leaders and enders Bonnie Hunter style…  making hour glass blocks!!!

 Above are the ones that I trimmed up 😀

And this quote sums up my life right now…

 A Wild Wild ride!!!!

Here is a cool barn quilt block I saw on saved on my computer… while up in the Appalachian foothills we saw lots of varieties of barn quilts… so if we are blessed enough to move there I will be looking for pointers on painting my own to show off on our home!!! Always wanted to do this too soooo awesome to get the house and the chance is all works out 😀

 And who doesn’t love doxie quilts for doxie owners… doxies in sweaters… love this layout and inner border of winding ribbon!!!

 So until my next post….

We are DEFINITELY doing this NOW!!!!

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On your mark… get set… DONE!

Wowee ya’ll!  My last post just a couple weeks ago showed me at 3/4 done… I have now got this view to enjoy!!!

The goal had been to have this off the frame for New Years day … we need to disassemble it for our upcoming move… but this morning I was able to finish the quilting on the quilt that was on this frame and take it all off!!

Now to make up binding and attach it and decide on wording for the label and embroider it on there too… and sew it on!  I am just so excited still though that I am looking at this empty frame a day early if not more !!!

 I worked on this quilt every day as we have packed, cleaned, sold, and gave away things to downsize and prepare for our upcoming move…

Here is a nice shot I took but didn’t date… I think it was 1 1/2 weeks ago though…

 I had lots of questions in my hand quilting facebook group so I made this photo tutorial…

 And shared this one too…

 Someone asked if the chank and Mark B Gone went away easily and they do but I also made this photo to show it! 🙂

 Here is the quilt with just a bit more quilting left to happen in the borders…

And with EVERYTHING marked!!!

 Here are some highlights of some personalizing I embroidered on the center top of the quilt for the newlyweds…

 The layer cake I used to make this quilt with…

 A fresh photo of the newlyweds they shared for Christmas…

I think my son looks like a mountain man at 6′ 7″.. and his wife is only 5′ 1″ lol!!!  But aren’t they cute 😀

Meanwhile I have still been aking slow but sure progress on a quilt to be hand quilted!!!

 And dreaming about a wall hanging I like for my future sewing room once we sell this home and find a new smaller home 🙂

Sharing this post with Kathy’s Quilts today… come see what other hand stitchers are linking up on this cool day for most of the USA HERE!

Here is a preview of my focus for 2018….

 And with that… I am out of time for now so will post and answer each of your comments if you are able to accept a reply.

Have a blessed day and a Happy New Year 2018!  Make sure you take time to Love One Another today!!!

3/4 Done with Amethyst Stars and MORE !

Hello All!  Hope you are have a happy holiday season wherever you reside in the world !!!

I have been plugging away at this quilt … Amethyst Stars and am now over 3/4 done 😀

Actually it calculates to 80% complete on the rows I have done but the top edge… that is starting to show when I rolled to Row 12… in this shot…

with the next roll a row of green will then be visible!!!  Stay tuned to see if I finish this quilt up though before the New Year!!!  That is my goal is to have this off the frame before we move!!!

And speaking of moving…

 Our Casa del Loro is officially on the market for sale!!

Here is what I posted on Craigslist before the house went up for sale though in the back yard…

Which left us here….

 Then with some hard work by my honey and our yard folks…. we got it to this 😀

While all this change was happening in the back yard… look who I was hanging out with ….

And I even did a bit of retail therapy for the Season … for myself! lol

I got some hand knit wool socks that are made of a wool that will let me wash them too!!!  I got them off Etsy… just leave a message if you want more info on these!

Now that we are talking again about hand done things… let’s chat about quilt marking…

I am using chalk… both actual chalk pencil and Pounce mainly for marking but some squares are light enough to mark with a blue wash away marker too….

Above you can see the Pounce pad and the chalk pencil as well as my thimble by Clover 🙂

Now you can see the perle cotton big stitched on those lines below!

I am linking all this fun slow stitching progress… and where I will be spending most of my time today as well to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday Linky… see what others are slowly making at her linky party HERE!

When I quilt I occasionally indulge during the holidays in a bit of Peppermint bark by Dove!! Yummm

I love the holiday sayings on them too!!!  Do you have a fave snack you indulge in during the holidays???

Although I haven’t worked on this this week… I have been making a bit of progress on a future hand quilting project… by getting some blocks machine pieced… here are 9 all done and laid out on the carpet….

this is really gonna be a Krazy Kaleidoscope quilt too I think when all done!!!  all but the greys I used are from my existing stash too ~  LOVING IT!!!!

One thing we will certainly miss in our location in Florida is seeing the rockets launch from our back yard… look closely at this shot and you can see the comm trail rising toward that big cloud… it is the trail left by the Space X rocket earlier this week from Cape Canaveral Florida due south of our home 😀

Finally from our home to yours we wish you a Happy Christmas!!!!

Take time to listen to some Christmas tunes… Pentatonix has a new album out and I have been enjoying it via headphones and even on the Bose speaker… quite remarkable what they do with little to no actual instruments but those given to them by birth !

Have a blessed Christmas… please keep our home sale and subsequent purchase of a new smaller home in your prayers and thoughts!  We are excited to start this new chapter in our lives and look forward to sharing the highlights here as well!

Most important we find it hard to remember for most drivers but show your love for one another and have extra Christmas  cheer when driving this Holiday Season!  This seems to be in short supply when shopping and when driving around here anyway!

Blessed Holidays to you all and don’t forget to….

Happy Surprises!

Last Sunday I posted that I planned to slow stitch and just enjoy the day… and I did … until I was awakened by my honey and a knock at our front door!!!

Here I am fresh as a daisy after a great nap and my front door knocker … my Bestie!!!  Connie 😀

She drove over 11 hours y’all!!!!

And a group shot… my honey had no idea either she was headed our way for a few days of quilty fun!!!

Here she is after SHE had a little nap after her travels… hand quilting a wall hanging/ future baby quilt for someone very lucky…

 Daisy loves Connie and was by her side most of her time here… we also got another quilt layered… for her oldest daughter to snuggle once HAND quilted…

 We took a tour of the beach too…

 But the waves were up and still lots of trash on the beach from Irma so no driving on it this time.  Then we visited all our fave restaurant.. .a local restaurant and had a belated birthday celebration while we were there…

We also got pedicures while she was here… all in all a lot of quilty and friend soaked loving fun we had for 4 full days and 4 nights… sleeping here and there and quilting LOTS!

We chatted a lot while she was here about goals and plans … for us each… and Rick and I decided now that she had made this spontaneous visit and closed some loose strings really during her visit it was time to get a move on moving to cooler climate and getting our seasons back… so we spent a lot of time researching and came out with some answers…

We want a log cabin style home and we want southern North Carolina area… so we are moving forward and listing things on local sell groups and eBay too… so far we quickly sold these 2 things..

 And this was bought by a lady who will pick it up on the 6th of November… as she was on a Caribbean cruise when she contacted me and made the purchase via Paypal!!!  WOWEE 🙂

Facebook spotting of my son Mike… with my brother and his kids!

Can you believe too that in this next week we will enjoy costumed kids… and adults in a tradition we call Halloween… greet November in … and change time too!!!  Back to Standard time!!!

 My honey and I have been very successful selling things so we went and bought paint for a fresh coat on the house… but this wasn’t mixed right so we had to return it and have a remix….

 Meanwhile… I have been hand quilting ROW #7!!!!

 Here are charms #4 and #5 freshly spritzed and scrubbed clean of the chalk markings…

 And if I didn’t believe this before with all the changes and surprises happening around here I believe it now!!!

And here is a cool “Chrome Locomotive” as it was named… that we saw while driving around our town the other day!!!  Wouldn’t it be nice to have this traveling home for vacations???!!!

Well… time to get back to quilting this morning for me… and who knows what the rest of the day will hold as we have lots of things on local swap shops as we are clearing out the clutter and excess preparing our home to go up for sale. 

I am linking this hand quilting post up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching linky… come see what everyone is Slowing Down and Stitching!!!  HERE <<<

Keep our sanity in your thoughts and prayers PLEASE as we prepare to change all we know as “normal”!  So for now remember to …

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 ….

Happy Sunday Catch Up!

Happy Sunday Y’all!

Hoping your day is Peaceful like this cool ocean shot 🙂

We have had a very busy week here at Casa Del Loro… 

But first I want to share progress on my hand quilting of Starlight… Starbright…

I am finally on the last block of the queen sized quilt and so happy about that!!!

Linking this progress to Kathy’s Quilts Sunday Linky Party HERE <<<

Yesterday I got the left side remarked…

I am using a Mark-B-Gone water soluble pen for this… I don’t like the fine point but love the regular tip size available at my local Walmart now that they have started selling fabric and notions again!!!

I had initially marked with the stencil and a mechanical pencil… but several areas require remarking now for more continuity in the stippled stars and moons… so I am doing that free hand in blue 🙂

Most of my time this week has gotten eaten up with redefining our living room space at Casa Del Loro!!!  Kathy talks about your view while stitching.. well this will be my view when this quilt is finished… it was NOT zen at all… but now it is!!!!

We got rid of the chair and ottoman and the sleeper sofa we had (all heavy big furniture that crowded our space)… and now we have a much cooler looking recliner set we found in very nice condition on our local Craigslist… and it is sooo roomy now!

Here is a collage I made of our sweet Daisy in my honey’s recliner peeking over the edge…

Then yesterday I found this on our local swap/shop Facebook group for only cheap!!!!

I love the scene that is painted on this real glass and wood window.. .it measures 32″ x 32″  🙂

Here is a view a bit further back…

I will enjoy daydreaming at this window once I start working on the quilt below it.  Our living room has very few windows but 2 nice skylights that let in light .. so I thought this would be a fun way to add some nature to a fairly closed in room !

I also splurged and got a pedicure this week with fall colored nails!!!

Initially I felt guilty .. but I have very bad arthritis in my feet and legs and the massaging they do was heavenly for sure!

Today I plan to slow stitch away on Starlight… and be happy I have a few true friends in my life too!

How many true friends are you lucky enough to have?  I can tell you at 50 years young… I feel a true friend is very hard to come by and very LUCKY to have!

Have a blessed week y’all! And make sure to let those you trust know it!  I encourage you to take time to …

Happy National Ice Cream Day in the USA!!!

Did you know there was a National Ice Cream Day in the USA???  It was started by President Ronald Reagan!!

And here is a patriotic view from my foyer … all hand quilted with buttons making a star shape in the blue… I enjoy having made this quilt and caught this shot this morning to share with you!

This week has flown by for me!  I have stayed very focused on Starlight.. Starbright!!!!

First I will share my happiest moment yesterday when I took this shot…

Which makes me 2/3 complete on all the quilting!!!   YIPPEE!!!!!!

Slow stitching is the ONLY way I could produce such a cool stipple… and I love using such bold colors to quilt with on this quilt!!!

When I started quilting this project the last day of February I thought I would be done by the time my daughter returned from her summer vacation… she is gone to Tennesse for 5 1/2 weeks… to be home first part of August to prepare for her Senior year of high school starting soon after.  But this quilt still has more time needed devoted to it and a bit more time.  I don’t want to rush and leave poor stitches or incomplete areas.. I want all the quilt to be contiguous when I finally see it in full complete!!! lol  And for when I gift it too!

I am hoping to find a special short verse of some sort.. to add to the label I will put on the back once the quilting is complete… 

Any ideas y’all???!!!!

So I have now started on Block #7 on this quilt for my daughter… here is a shot I took this morning…

I am hoping to have this block done by end of the month or when Brandi gets home 😀
Each block finishes at 28″… it takes for frame moves to finish a block.. this one may take 5 as I will have the outer border to get also as this is an outer corner block.. 🙂

Linking this portion of my blog post to Kathy’s Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching HERE… the remaining post is an update to those that follow me whilst I am writing a post for linking! lol

Anyone is welcome to read and enjoy but Kathy prefers we link only hand quilting items and below are home reno pictures and stories… Have a happy slow stitching Sunday Y’all… that is my focus for the day also! lol (Kathy talks about focus in her post too.. hope you go take a look today!)

My machine quilted finish got used this week…

My honey uses it to cover the table and blend in with the backdrop.. it makes the black cases and Featherweight Sewing Machines just pop with black against the white background.

Here is a close up of just the quilt and backdrop….

So I will call this successful!  lol  It has a few puckers at intersections but those mainly disappeared with it’s first washing and drying… so as it get’s used and washed more it will continue (hopefully) to hide these areas as machine quilting is just not my joy! lol

Also this week my honey has been working on the bar in our kitchen and I went on a walk down memory lane to the house we first moved into… before we started giving it some personality! lol
Here is a pic from the real estate ad….

Notice the kitchen on the left… see how there was a doorway and a pass through window??? What were they thinking!!!

So we improved it fairly soon after we moved in to this …

Although the bar wasn’t super sturdy or even very functional… Rick improved it by opening the doorway up and the wall between the doorway and the pass through was checked and NOT load bearing.. 🙂  Lucky my honey is very smart with home reno!!!

Well now he is putting the finishing touches on the bar … but look at this long shot I took this morning… how the opening to the kitchen looks now!!!!

If you scroll back to our original kitchen from 1980… it was dark and not a part of the house… now our home is very cool and interactive … I love the open concept we have been able to capture here 😀

So let’s look more closely at the process of turning the flimsy half wall into a functional sturdy bar that really integrates all the spaces in the main of our home…

Adding a perpendicular shorter length wall was integral to getting the wall to be sturdy…

 That wall is screwed into the tile then down into the concrete.. there is NO JIGGLING of the bar at all now!!!

Then he added 2 pieces of plywood to make the shape of the top and covered it with the beautiful formica we got online (lucky there as it was more perfect and completely different in person than it was when we chose it online)!!!

This is a good shot of the variegated greys in the formica and how well it matches those 1980’s existing formica covered dove grey cabinets in the kitchen! lol

Once the bar was made he surrounded it with wood edging and stained it to coordinate with the living room ceiling fan and other woods in our home … lots of secret stuff happened during this step!

My honey has had many professions in his life and home reno guru is one of them… he had many high end clients and saw and made many high end dreams come true so when we plan a project like this… he does the very best to make OUR dreams now come true.. on a tight budget! hahaha!

 Check out the cart we found speaking of budgets!

This rolling island cart (we havent’ decided what we should call this piece… any ideas???) was found on our local swap on facebook and cost us a whopping $30 cash and gas to go get it (10 minutes from our home to theirs!).. YIPPEE!!!!  We were planning a cart very similar to this one… with heavy duty lockable casters and we had planned to use the remaining formica for the top of it but this one has nice butcher block wood top!!!

It is a bit worn but not terrible… so my honey will strip it by sanding it down to fresh wood and restain to match our bar edging… then the house will have this wood color throughout mixed with white wainscotting and light/med grey walls… neutral but classy!!!

Here is another shot I took this morning…

My honey let the stain cure then is adding layer upon layer upon layer (very light layers) of varnish to give this bar it’s final step for a long life… then the blue painters tape can come off and we are free to enjoy it!!!!

And ideas on decorating this space??  It needs something next to the wall… and maybe a table topper in a circle or hexi on the hexi part of the bar… what do YOU think???

Also this week we had to replace our post light in the front yard.  Another thing for my honey to do.. using his electrical skills! lol

You see when the yard folks came around to mow they were on a loaner mower as their was being fixed… not acclimated to the subpar loaner mower they hit our post and the light fell off! lol

No harm done though as we found one inexpensively that I really liked… so before long after the little incident… we had this shot to share with our mowing friend…

And this morning I caught it at sunrise while the light was still on for you to see!!!

So Casa Del Loro has had a good tune up… We may take a break now.. not sure.  There are many things we still want to accomplish before Brandi returns from her summer break.

So now until my next post … be safe!  And do a good deed today.. just because you can!!! 🙂

Progress ~ On all fronts :)

Sorry I haven’t shared with you all yet this month!  But progress has been happening here!!!

First let me share my hand quilting progress… for this sharing I will be linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE …

Above is my progress a week ago…

And below is what I am working on this week…

I am about half done or a bit more presently with this area 🙂   On the quilting for this quilt I am over 30% now !!!!   Progress!!!!

And did you notice the little pink and white cameo of a hand crank machine attached to my quilt??

It is a NEEDLE KEEPER!!!!  Given to me by my friend Debbie!  I LOVE it too!

The cameo has a strong magnet on the backside and then you take the second magnet and put under your quilt… the magnets are VERY strong too and work well to hold my needles while quilting 🙂

I haven’t made any new progress on my Log Cabin quilt I pieced into blocks last month… but that will soon meet my cross hairs and get webbed together 🙂

I am trying to figure out my inner border… so that stalled me a bit then a need came along that took all my attention…

Oven mitts…

See how small the center ones are compared to the 2 new ones I completed this past week!

I altered the original pattern I found from Crafty Gemini on Youtube… and made it BIGGER!

I think it turned out well the second time around… it made up easier and washes well and works wonderfully well… so with this fabric I decided to make some very good friends who just bought a new and maybe their final home … so a house warming gift was in order!!!!

Here is my pattern made out of plain cardstock I use in the computer printer…

and here is their first oven mitt…

It was great fun making them and I really got to test out my 401a… these Singer sewing machines from the 1950’s that were all metal just rock!!!!

Well Robin had recently mentioned she would like me to make her a quilt for her KING SIZE bed!  Oh my… no time yet for that… so whilst sewing the mitts I planned a cute loving pillow for Robin… she is still healing from open heart surgery and having some complications in her healing…

I did a bit of hand embroidery after I machine quilted both the front and back panel of the pillow… Her fave colors she said are green, red and white… and I think this pretty fabric fits the bill perfectly… Yippeee!!!!

Soon I had them all ready to wash and  mail off to them at their NEW address 🙂  ..

I am excited as they should receive them in Monday’s mail!!!!

So that is why I haven’t had time to catch you all up… hope you understand… I have been busy! lol

I also bought a little flag for our front door this week…

 And here is a perspective view of our front porch at Casa Del Loro ….

Also… I was excited to find out…. I won a bloggers linky party loot!!!!

 Here is a close up of the fabrics…

And HERE is a link to her LOVELY blog!

The fabrics are a fat eighth bundle… she got a fat quarter bundle and divided it to share with one lucky linker… I was it!!!!

You see I love doing giveaways… but I never WIN!!! lol  So I was giddy to win this and coming to me from the UK!!!!  I love long distance fabrics in my stash the most for sure!!!

So what is next??!!

I will be piecing a BOM by Wendy at Wehago Designs >>>> HERE!

You can surely join in if you are interested… we are in our 4th month of 9 patch variations BOM.. each month is a surprise provided by Wendy with all the cutting and piecing specifics to make a 12″ finished block!!!!

She provides hand piecing and machine piecing tidbits too!  Awesome 🙂

I have more to share but I suspect this is enough for this post… I will not be away so long… continue to send up happy thoughts for my right hand to heal from some broken fingernails… so I can pick up the pace this coming week on my hand quilting progress!!!

Have a blessed Sunday and remember .. no matter what this is ALWAYS true if we look for it!….

As a P. S. I would like to wish my daddy a happy birthday today!

Under my Needles… Success!!!

Ya’ll… I am so excited to share my most recent piecing… I plan to link this to Sunday Stash #54 over HERE so come take a look at what others are linking… all using acquired or stash fabrics 🙂

I wanted to show off how I planned this log cabin using 1 of these jelly rolls (acquired) AND some stash fabrics added in for variety…

Here is a better view of the fabrics in the jelly roll I chose to acquire! lol

And here is how mine is looking so far…

I organized my logs randomly within each length and color on this foam board I had laying around the house… and separated the jelly roll as you can see here to get going with this…

I have had LOTS OF FUN (waaaay more than expected for sure) piecing this and am so pleased that my progress is sooo much like my vision for it was.. in fact I think it looks cooler than expected…

Now my honey wants to rearrange a few of the blocks yet still keep this design… then I will add a pieced border followed by a wide border of some cool vintage fabric I found… for the pieced border I saved some of the jellyroll strips that had repeats in neutral black and red for my inner border… not sure yet how that is gonna work out! lol

This has been a fun project so far and I like that my family is getting involved too!

Under my hand quilting needle has been this!!!

And below is a close up of the border… on the right side of the pic above…

Success!!!!  Now it was time to move the quilt in the frame… now my view is fresh and when I finish this frame full…

I will be 25% completed with this quilt!!!!!

Before I close… look at our new cozy kitchen table with a nice lamp overhanging it now… 

This is becoming a favored spot by ALL in our home 🙂

Hope you have a blessed week and remember….

Wild and Crazy Weekend!

Sew excited to share with you all today 🙂

I have completed several of the red and neutral log cabin blocks and this is my design wall currently…

 Isn’t this turning out cool!!!!

Here was the colorway of the pattern…

And here was my coloring over it with Paint program…

Here is the jelly roll I used called “In Stitches” by Maywood Studios…

My inner border is a continuation of the quilt pattern in a larger strip size than used in the logs… My outer border will be some 1930’s vintage fabric I recently found on eBay… I set the colors with salt and vinegar soak then hand washed it… no bleeding!!! Yippee 🙂

 Above it is a bit rainy out so my honey set up a makeshift clothesline in our Florida room 🙂  The Florida breezes had it dry in no time too!

Here is a close up of the pattern…

This fabric is 35″ wide selvage to selvage and I got 2 yards for under $20 in 1 piece.. this is almost an unheard of deal I think and will really add to this wall hanging I believe.. 🙂

Meanwhile…
One the hand quilting front I have not accomplished much over the weekend…  I sustained an injury to my middle finger on my right hand… when my nail broke off into the quick… so I had to quilt only with a thimble for several days as it healed… but this morning I finished the remaining areas like these on this second big block… and am off to add the wheel stitching in 🙂

So I should have some yummy pics in my next post of progress on this project!

This weekend we put our dining table up for sale and it sold within an hour!!!

It was a fine table actually but just didn’t fit our style as it is modern and we are vintage… and it was tall chairs that weren’t as practical… also as large as it was it didn’t lend itself to game playing etc.. that I have fond memories of growing up… so it was time for a change in our home here 😉

We got this one!

A table that comfortably holds 8 chairs.. and look at the chair backs… they are engraved with a cool design..

Here is a view of the table with the leaf in it…

But here is how we decided we wanted it for now…

And here is a better view of how cool the table top looks…

The center of the table holds a very special vase to our family and a circle doily for now.. I will make a centerpiece from a special block Connie appliqued for me.  Here is a close up of the flower in the vase…

for us this represents what this week is about in our christian history.. the death of Jesus.

Never fear though.. I have a white one waiting to replace it next week as He will be Risen!

Here is a shot of the adjoining area where we have a secretary…

From this angle light was NOT my friend… but you can see how well the chairs of the table coordinate with the color of the secretary…  Here is a better shot of the top of the secretary…

And if you didn’t catch the close up of the vase… it has a Mickey Mouse engraved into the swirls… we also have magician Mickey Mouse on our secretary 🙂 lol!

See!

So that is all we have been up to around here.. coming up will start the remodeling of our kitchen and adding a proper bar to the ledge there… Watch my honey’s skills in that department… as I continue to sew and create for our home and for friends and family!

Have a blessed day ya’ll and remember…