Showing off MY space … and some DEALS!

Today I decided it was time to share more of myself with you and show you my space… my main space IS my quilty space too…

I have my fave fb site pulled up “Celebrate Hand Quilting”;)

You can see THE MAN quilt in front of my Fiona (the sewing machine is in the wooden box).  Next to the sewing machine are my most used books and some patterns and a little stash I haven’t put away and some things waiting to be mailed… Beside that with the blue water and red headed mermaids is my ironing board… literally a board covered with a towel for a little softness and a cover!  Works great too!

Above is my design wall… when I sew a lot I move the room around and have full access to the design wall.. it goes to about 18″ from the floor the way it is built.  It is very awesome and handy when piecing and machining for sure!  We are still looking for something to go in the upper right corner of the frame but it will come 🙂

Under that table are lots of plastic bags.. holding nice new fabric waiting to be made into quilts… about 5 projects are here or more! lol

These drawers hold completed project leftovers and yardage I am collecting for a quilt for Daisy… she loves quilts! lol  And all my thread/needles and such… not currently in use items are here mainly!

But this holds LOTS OF STUFF!  And it was a DEAL!!!!

It is a Longaberger basket and holds my paper scissors, my applique scissors, my rotary cutters, some new stuff and old stuff I just bought… ready for using with soon to come projects 🙂  And I paid $1.99 for it at Goodwill in their basket section… it has a hanger on the back and a thick leather strap across the flat back side of it… it is exactly what I wanted and needed!

Then today we were at the Goodwill and my honey spied this….

 It is a little collapsible travel iron with no steam at all!  I am so giddy and it cost a whopping $2.99!!!  It came from Walmart where it had a sticker worth $12.99.  This will be PERFECT for piecing .. I think steam has been my downfall… now no steam available.. (unless I get some Best Press!) lol

I have only gotten a bit done on THE MAN quilt today but still feel confident that I will meet the goal I set out in my last post!   So excited about this now 🙂

How about you.. where do you do you sew?  Have you found any good deals lately?

Love to hear from you & respond to all comments 🙂

Advertisement

Weekend Hodge Podge ~ April 2014

Welcome to my corner of blogland… today I have lots to share! 

So I am calling it a Hodge Podge… I have a bloggy friend who follows someone that does this on Wednesdays… answers misc. questions for fun and to share more of herself with her bloggy friends… so I am gonna do my version this weekend!

What are you passionate about?

Currently I am hand quilting ~ my major passion IS hand quilting right now! I am making my honey a quilt that will be a queen throw size… very large! lol

You can see a snippet of what I am currently working on by viewing my blog on it’s own page instead of in a reader!  My blog header changes every month or so with a pic of what I am working on featured somewhere on it 🙂

Here is block #10 on my count down…

I am now about 3/4 done with this block!  WhOOP!!!

I am also passionate about vintage sewing machines and own 3…

not one Singer in the bunch either 🙂  You can see 2 of my vintage machines in my header… sweet Fiona and reliable Francis… I recently added a zig zagger Japanese class 15 clone I named Nelly to my little group of machines… I only sew to repair things or to piece/bind quilts.. so these machines do all I need!  Check out my post on how easy vintage is to care for by yourself HERE!

Prefer a modern machine??? Check out the Janome I am selling on Ebay here…

gently used and ready to go!

What is your favorite form of social media?

I like facebook best.  You can find me on Patchwork Friends (my own fb quilty friends group) here to request entry as it is closed to quilty folks only… both machine and hand quilting happens there and no advertising or sharing sales stuff… currently doing a QAL:

for which I have these 6 spool blocks done…

I am also a member of other quilt groups on facebook and have chosen to make my facebook page a quilty place to be… so many of my previous fb friends have slowly gone away to make room for current and more appropriate friends to fit the no political stuff policy I am adopting for facebook 🙂

My fave place is a place just for hand quilters called Celebrate Hand Quilting group.  You can request entry here… and Caron or Janet will grant you access if you are a quilty person and this sounds like something you would like go for it because the eye candy and knowledge shared there for hand quilting techniques is nothing short of AMAZING!

I Pinterest for remembering ideas and keep a running page each year of ideas…. here is 2014’s page 🙂

I don’t tweet, or instagram or anything else… I am almost 50 so I feel pretty hip as I am 🙂 HA!

So that was only 2 questions… but I hope this gives you a better feel of who I am… would love to hear any questions you have for me!  I can answer them in next weekends Hodge Podge… and I haven’t even shown you the back yard yet!!!!  So subscribe if you haven’t and come back to visit!

I blog about twice a week usually and cover all aspects of quilting, home reno, beautiful outdoor shots I take from my own back yard, funny moments in our lives, and whatever I need written down to remember… my blog is an ongoing scrapbook of sorts for me!  Hope you enjoy the ride with me!

In closing I have an icon I made below with my motto for 2014!  Read more about what it means here.

Linking this post to Confessions of a Fabric Addict Whoop! Here 🙂
Wish Adam a Happy Birthday by going to where I linked at SEWjo Saturday with Kim Here!
Check out Kathy’s quilt ready for binding at Slow Sunday Stitching!  Here 🙂

A new assignment in 2014 :)

So excited to share with you all that I was accepted as a blogger over at Celebrate Hand Quilting blog here!

Once every couple weeks I will be creating a post about hand quilting just for them… Hope you will check out my latest post there 🙂

Until my next post hope you are starting your 2014 with as much fun as I am 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving my Bloggy Family ~

Today on facebook I posted this as my holiday greeting to my close friends/family…
 

 I am mainly on facebook to interact with the Celebrate Hand Quilting page here and another page I will talk more about later.  I do also play wwf but most of my “friends” are fam and friends back in TN…

But the ones I share my faves and highs and lows is you!  You see I also use this as a journal as I have memory issues… so you get to find more out about me that other blogs so I can keep up with what happened and when just by reviewing posts… lol!  Love you all btw 🙂

So I continue to hand quilt on the second table topper…

Can you see that there are 2 diamonds in the center?

and an over view

And I have gotten it bound… machined to one side and hand sewn to the back… my daughter helped with this!  Very fun 🙂

Then we went on a Craigslist adventure and came home with this!

 It is a beautiful Morse 600 machine made in the 1940’s to 1960’s (still researching it.. may take a while)… got her on a local craigslist for $15!!!  She is HEAVY and all metal and very shiny and sews like a dream… straight stitch only.

This brings me to my latest facebook group called Vintage Sewing Machines… links to all of these will be at the end to make it easier for us both 🙂

I do like to play WWF on facebook… so if you play that and feel competitive look me up!  I keep that leaderboard busy but always looking for new competition 🙂

If you want to see me in my home environment the place I enjoy most on fb is Patchwork Friends… just close quilty friends… some I know.. some I am related to.. and some I have never met .. yet! lol  It is small and quaint and we chat ALL things quilty there.

So to make this easy… here are links to the 3 closed groups I belong to that I would love to see you in sometime if quilting and sewing is your thing..

Celebrate Hand Quilting ~ 1500+ members ~ very active group HERE by Caron Mosey
Vintage Sewing Machines ~ 2000+ members ~ very active group HERE by Starlee Simmons

Patchwork Friends ~ less than 100 members ~ moderate active group but where I feel most at home… HERE by me 🙂

Hope to see you if you don’t already belong to one of these if they fit your lifestyle 🙂  If not check out what boards suite your interests… tell me what you found.. and take a minute to be thankful…

For your Life!  

Have a very blessed day today and forever… be good to you!

Sister quilt Phase 1 COMPLETE!

Welcome from Port Orange, Florida USA 

(near Daytona Beach 🙂

I am Kathi B. Clower!

I have been working fairly regularly every day on making triple diagonal lines on the Sister Quilt or Hammock Quilt … as I have come to start calling it.  I finally finished the gross or major part of the  quilting!  I put in the final diagonal line this morning and planned phase 2!  I started this exactly 3 weeks ago so that is pretty fast for me 🙂

Here is a section from the middle and bottom of the quilt… it is a good sized throw… will have to measure accurately after the quilting, washing and drying is done 🙂

The triple line action doesn’t show much now … but when phase 2 in complete I think the design will be well complemented.

The plan is to quilt in the rhombuses a squared figure eight and fill in the bow ties.. kinda looks like the bow ties are being reflected in the white space…

I wanted to get jazzy with the thread color but that doesn’t work because my backing is white… so I will use my lovely YLI 40 wt hand quilting thread for this part of the project… I debated also using a backstitch instead of a typical quilting running stitch…. but after a trial run I like the quilted look I think… how about you?

The blue lines will go away with the wash… and the humidity I quilt in… so I am only adding them a quilting amount at a time 🙂

UPDATE:
A few blocks of the Hammock Quilt done 🙂

And the bottom right corner completed with my name added (date will be added when I finish quilting before binding)….

The 13 year old UFO quilt I finished and mailed has been slept under and cuddled under with the grandkids and thoroughly blended into everyday life… that makes THIS worth it to me 🙂  Is the time you put into your craft worth it???

 Also…. My daughter is getting ready for her first high school dance… check out how cute she is …

Before I know it my baby will be going to PROM!

Hope you have a blessed week… back to quilting I go… Phase 2 will be FUN!  120 blocks of it! lol

This blog is linked to Celebrate Quilting Blog Hop for Fall 2013 … check it out here!  You will see lots of fun quilty stuff there 🙂 
Kathi

Celebrate Hand Quilting Blog Hop

Hi! I am Kathi and I am a hand quilting addict… I only do the other parts of quilting to get to the hand quilting 🙂 

Welcome to my blog… I love to blog about quilting, crafts, and home renovation projects we do here and there… we recently moved to Florida from Tennessee and love the relocation… it has bloomed my creative spirit…

This is a sneak peek at the fourth quilted project I have done… this one is overall design by my daughter Brandi who is almost 15 years old… it was then graphically designed by Keely… Connie’s art major daughter, machine pieced by Connie (a very accomplished quilter who loves to piece quilts but not quilt them!!!), and quilted and bound by ME!

Hand quilting is by far my favorite part of quilting… I even enjoy hand sewing the back binding in place over machine 🙂  For this quilt I quilted with black thread in the ditch with my fave John James 8 needle and used white around and in the dolphins.  Then I stitched waves across each row with swells and waves with perle 12 light grey DMC thread and a between needle for the larger eye 🙂

My friend Connie that did the quilt top used interfacing applique to get the great shape on the dolphins and then stitched it to the quilt top so with the 2 layers there the black and green shouldn’t show through after washing 🙂  She plans to share her exact technique with me when she visits in a few weeks!

So finally a show of the whole quilt waiting to be bound…

The final measurements await but it is about 60″ x 64″…

And here is the signature block that is on it’s way in the mail to me now from Connie!

The names are kind of like a bracelet Connie said and the hand is mine made a little smaller to show the wording!

EXTRA!!! EXTRA!!! READ ALL ABOUT IT!  Binding has begun

Now take a look at this beauty!

This aloe vera was at our home when we bought it this past December sitting in a corner outside and looking sad… we repotted it in a pot my honey had made for me the previous year and added some cactus soil… then after some tlc it has started to bloom!

The bloom or blooms in this case can be yellow, orange, or red and attract hummingbirds… doing research online we found out only happy and more mature aloe vera’s bloom.  This one ooks like it will be orange but we shall see… This plant sits right outside my blogging area … so I watch it every day and smile 🙂  Hope it smells nice when it blooms! lol

Finally, let me show you something unique my honey made… read more about it here… but check this out!  Great father’s day gift idea… made from clockworks and an old saw blade that wasn’t usable anymore 🙂

Hope you have enjoyed this blog hop… now keep on going and see what other hand sewn goodness you can find.  Also you can find ME here and my facebook page “Patchwork Friends” here that is for all kinds of quilters!  Just request an invite so our projects aren’t public 🙂  In June we are having a quilt party!  Come join the fun!

Have a blessed day!

Kathi