Happy Mother’s Day Y’all!

Hope you each have a …

I am 50% DONE now on the Batik Hollyhock Garden Quilt I am hand quilting!!

This shot above is halfway through the 6th row of the quilt… all together there are 11 rows 🙂

I did acquire a new gadget for my quilting frame this week too… from a Missouri Star Quilt deal of the day I bring you a pin cushion that stays on my frame just perfect and holds some pretty sharp scissors that came with it!!

I am linking this fun pincushion and my hand quilting progress to Kathy’s Quilts … come see what all other handies are sharing HERE!

Also … for Mother’s Day I have changed my facebook profile pic to a shot of my needle keeper…

Here are my two little grands I am thinking of today!!!

CJ on the left will soon be 3 and Kaydence on the right will soon be 2 🙂

Besides hand quilting and sewing a bit on a quilt for my son and dil… we have been working on a puzzle…

 And I watched a great Chick Flick on Netflix too!!!

 

But sometimes the above is sooo true… so we go to the nearby beach to see the sunshine in all it’s glory!  This time we also got to see this cool big sail boat!!! 

 So keep smiling my friends!!!

There is so much to smile about for sure and don’t forget to…

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Hand quilting, Machine piecing, and Designing too!

Since finishing Kaydences sweet Butterfly Woven Quilt… she did receive it and she loved it her parents said… so all is well there!!!

Here is where I have spent some of my Sunday last week!!!

Daytona Beach Shores, Florida!

We have a driving pass to drive on the beach and walk around whenever it is open for driving on… when the surf isn’t dangerous or in the driving path… so that is what we did last weekend… what a great way to rest and relax!!!

My bloggy friend Kathy is talking about how relaxing and restful taking slow stitches is… I couldn’t agree more!  I have picked up a UFO that was sitting beside my recliner and have made a refreshing focus on it this week.  Here it was when I had it pieced and ready to layer and pin baste…

And here it was in my hoop as I started going closely around the “flowers” coming out from the center…

Daisy is always close at hand when I am hand quilting… above I was working on this project on my back porch Florida room (screened porch)… now I have brought it in and am working on it in my recliner in the air conditioning and in the living room 🙂

If you look at this photo above… the flower closest to this writing is not yet quilted around… the other 3 flowers and berries are quilted around now…  This is raw edged applique done expertly by my bestie Connie… I made it into a wall hanging but she did the applique I am not skilled enough to manage! lol

I am using wool batting on this project so once finished and out of the hoop the quilting will really show too 🙂  It will be a while yet as I have quilting for the borders… all to be decided as I go… this is my relax and enjoy project… because that is also Kathy’s theme today for our slow stitching and I am working on this today as well… I am linking my post today to Kathy’s Slow Sunday stitching HERE!!!  Come see what others are slow stitching while they relax and refresh 🌸

When not slow stitching on Sundays and when I need to relax… I have been designing a new quilt with this cool new book I just received.. it is an older book but still a GREAT book for designing borders…. it has 12 different quilts in it too 🙂

These quilts aren’t so easy to make and far more than I would design myself… but they also explain how to add fun pieced border designs to your own quilts… the authors are great precise quilters on their own and together I think they are just FAB!!!!

Judy Martin is the queen of precise piecing log cabin quilts and Marsha McCloskey is the queen of the feathered star pieced patterns!!!  Yippee!!!

In between slow stitching and designing a quilt for my son and his new wife…. I have found ANOTHER ufo to unearth and continue working on piecing on Gloria my Singer 301a!!!

It has been over a year I think since I have worked on this quilt … I had to discover how to piece the “flowers” all over again! lol

Here is 1 flower and a pic of the pattern…

 Here are several finished flowers and the template…

 Here is the booklet the pattern is in… it is full of lots of cool information though and is compiled by Darlene Zimmerman… this pattern is Hollyhock Garden and comes in 2 sizes in this book… but I am designing my own size! lol

 Here is some of the flowers on my design wall…

 This collage of pics shows a better view of what the finish may look like as well as my designing process… so I know how many flowers I will be needing!

 I am making the flowers from batik fat quarters… each fat quarter makes 6 flowers… 3 positive and 3 negative ones… I am using both types in my quilt… the pattern says to use just the positive ones though… I just can’t see wasting those negative triangles though….

 You make strip sets then cut the positive and negative triangles…

Once the 2 sides are sewn together you best bet is to double pin the center to get a perfect flower each time… this is a pic I sent to Bonnie Hunter after her most recent Quilt Cam.. I was just sewing them….

Her quilt cam reminded me of the importance of taking time to pin some things… so I am now!

I need 102 flowers if you noticed that in my notes above… I am over halfway now so hopefully I will start adding the green triangles later this week.

Today I plan to work on a quilt I am designing for my son and his new wife…

 Above they are in Gatlinburg last weekend when they finally tied the knot!

And after seeing quilts that inspired them I am designing on graph paper something similar to the pic below I found on pinterest in Civil War colors at their request….

I love how the sashing of the charm square fabrics make stars 🙂

I will be adding a fun pieced border from my new to me book on borders to this to make a nice living room snuggle quilt for them as a belated wedding gift… it will be hand quilted once pieced on Gloria!  I am planning an extra long quilt as my son is 6 foot 7 inches tall with big feet … his sweet wife Heather is only 5 feet tall! lol

I have recently printed new pics of my grandkids… thought you may enjoy seeing them…

Kaydence’s new grandma does a great job of sharing pics… and CJ’s mom caught him with a big smile I think as his dad swings him big!!!!

Hope you have a restful and relaxing Sunday y’all!

Please make time to …

Cleaning and Crafting!

Hope you are all having a Happy November so far 🙂

 I got my honey to photo my poor hands…

And I found this cool quote…

I do miss my daily hand quilting time… I have yet to get back to Brandi’s quilt Starlight… Starbright… but have plans on Monday to return to it!!!

The main reason to show you a shot of my hands… is to share how pretty my mothers ring is now… I got it cleaned at the jewelry store and they did a magnificent job!!!

Above is a close up for you 🙂  I am asking for an ultrasonic jewelry and glasses cleaner for Christmas now too!  My honey thinks Santa may accomodate my request! lol

I have been cleaning… the closet is about done… I have some albums to add to my scrapbooking sale pile yet but that is about it….

See how neat and tidy it turned out… if you missed it… here is the BEFORE shot…

See what a mess of stuff it was!!!!

Now it only has 2 things on the floor… our dirty clothes basket and some wrapping paper in a holder 🙂  Yippee!!!!

Next I moved to the bedroom itself… which just needed a good cleaning more than tidying really… and it is done!!!!

Finally I got to go into the sewing room.. wow it was a mess… it had taken lots of hits from the closet as I emptied it and found fabric.. and needed a good tidying overall and a cleaning too…

Unfortunately I was sooo excited to get to this room I forgot to get you before shots… but I could not walk through it!!!  It was a clustered mess of stuff… I haven’t seen my cutting table neat in over 4 years y’all!!!!  4 years!!!!

Now look!!!

 My cutting table is clean and tidy… with the exception of those 2 stacks of boards awaiting the pile of fabric pointing to below!!!! lol  This is today’s project btw!!!

 Here is another view of the cutting table with my awesome design wall in view too… I love it!!!

 The boards I showed you above will have wrapped 1 yard and less on them of my fabrics then be organized for my fabric chest…

I also have lots of fabric I have purchased in a lot long ago from an estate sale… a bit of it has polyester in it and will melt into plastic under my vintage piecing iron… so I have organized it in one of my scrapbook drawer organizers repurposed for this job…

I nicely took this shot for you all with a repurposed bubbler we brought into the Florida room… you can see the far end of the Florida room and my color organized fabric drawers too!  The fabric is next to the steamy iron and ironing board for pressing to check for poly mix in each piece before using it in a quilty project!!!  Yippee 🙂

Here is my thought now that I see what all I have available to me in my stash now… I wanna make some pumpkins using yellows to orangy reds in them… Bonnie Hunter inspired this project and here is a pic of her making hers on grey backgrounds into a snuggly quilt… but I want something different from mine… we shall see if that happens this year.. or next! lol

So next up is wrapping and organizing my fabrics in my stash… and fitting them into my fabric chest!!!  This will be an all day affair I think… mixed in I will take breaks and organize and clean our bathroom as I haven’t really given that room any attention yet!

I have gone through lots of old pics and stuff… sorted them to give as Christmas gifts to my kids so they can take their own private walk down our family memory lane… and I found this that I scrapbooked several years back… now I want to frame it!

Getting my Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing was a HUGE accomplishment and one I am very proud of!  My whole family was there to watch me receive my diploma from a wonderful school in Florida (I did this online from Tennessee)  Here is the frame and picture and tassel from getting my degree…

And here is a pic I snapped this morning…. with my honor cords draped over the frame hanging on the wall of our bedroom… I graduated with honors!!!  Magna Cum Laude!!! 

 And I can see this every time I leave my bedroom too!!!  I had planned to hang this in the office when it got repainted and I moved back in… but I think I will hang the scrapbooked photo there and leave the formal frame and honor cords in the bedroom where they are now 🙂

While cleaning the bedroom I came across a stocking I started about 5 years ago!!!  I finished one for Rick but never finished mine!!!  So between working in the house cleaning and organizing and running errands for this and that… I am trying to take time to work on this some too…

I doubt this will be done for this Christmas but it sure is fun to have something to stitch on out in the Florida room while I listen to 2 bubblers bubbling water and enjoy the light breeze fall brings to Florida!

My son James…

Will turn 26 in a few days… in celebration he bought a side by side 4 wheeler vehicle…

Here is a posed shot of his family as he snapped the shot of his new “toy”!!!!  Zach is behind the driver’s wheel and is 11… Heather, his fiance and Zach’s mom is holding Kaydence in the passenger seat 🙂

And here is a shot of CJ ready for Halloween!!!!

So that is quite enough info for one post I think… but I wanted to keep you up to date on why I haven’t had any quilty progress to show here or on fb… I have just been too busy with all else since Matthew the hurricane left our area!

Hope whatever you do today you take time to…

Happy Birthday America… and me too!

Happy Birthday America!!!

And to me too!!!!

Today I turn 50 years young!!!

Here is a birthday cake my best friend Wendy who lives in Australia sent me this morning too!!!

and here is the truth…

Although arthritis may make me start replacing parts with built ones.. currently I am still all original! 🙂 lol

Now I need your attention for a minute or two…

Take a listen to this acapella version of this song… very cool!!!!  Especially if you are wearing headphones/earbuds! lol
CLICK HERE to open the video in a new tab please 😉  I can’t get the link to show up in the published blog post

Isn’t that just an amazing rendition of a classic American song!!!  I just love it and uploaded it to my phone so I could listen with headphones… I got some for my birthday!!! lol

Today I am focusing today on 2 projects…

My daughter’s quilt here…

On the top right is a birthday card from my 97 year young Nanny!

She is my only remaining living grandparent and she has many grandchildren and great grands.. but always remembers our birthdays with a card and a few words of wisdom along with well wishes!  I love getting a card from her on my birthday!!!!

Also I am making a machine quilted table cover for my honey to use posing his featherweights on that we sell…

I found 3 yards of white on white fabric for a low price on eBay because it had a mark on it that easily washed out! 🙂  I want it reversible and the same on both sides so decided a nice 2″ cross hatch would work best on the whole cloth quilting…

 I used a long ruler and my faithful blue wash away marker.  First I found the center of one side and marked it.. then I took a second ruler with a 45 degree angle on it and marked right and left from that center edge at 45 degrees.. after a few sessions of marking to give my back a break.. I had it marked and layered and ready to pin …

 Above it is ready for pinning.. I placed pins ever 3 squares all over the quilt… you can see in my pic below how I placed them for a stable whole cloth to quilt…

Fiona is a Morse 600 1950’s sewing machine made by Toyota and she is a great quilter to me!!! 🙂

I also am hoping to get back to piecing an upcoming quilt to hand quilt… Singing the Blues is it’s tentative name… no pics of that on my phone presently though… once I get back to it I will share some 🙂

Meanwhile my honey has been making some changes in our kitchen….

We are beefing up and changing the top to a more usable surface on the bar in the kitchen.. here is the cardboard template laying in place…

and here is the plywood countertop base piece in place!!!!

There is some beefing up that needs to take place and my honey is doing a stellar job.. I will show pics in my next post of his hard work and skill on this project 🙂

Hope you enjoyed the song and have a blessed special day for America… if you are in another country I hope you enjoyed the acoustics in the song!

I will leave you with this photo of one of my calendars I use.. made for me by my sweet daughter in law!!!!  Featuring my grandson CJ, me, Brandi, Kayla, and DL… plus some fireworks too!

Happy Dancin’ Progress!

Hello my bloggy friends… today I have progress to show you on most all my current projects 🙂

I am linking this Happy Dancin’ post to Sarah’s Whoop it’s Friday Post HERE!

I have been slowly making progress on my fast stitching project… piecing “Singing The Blues” quilt…  Here are the 4 patches I shared in my most recent post… 128 all done 🙂

And today I can share that all the half square triangles (hst’s) are done!!!  128 of those 🙂

 that was a lot of sliver trimming too… but took care of the dog ears and uneven areas all at once by sliver trimming… so I managed making good progress by completely prossessing groups of 8 charms or 16 hst’s 🙂  Went by in just a couple days that way!

Above is my current work… making Tri-recs triangle blocks.. I am presently cutting the wing triangles as they are just like an odd shaped flying geese block…  this ruler set is on loan from Connie presently also… so nice to use her rulers in this quilt!!!

For a more clearer understand here is a snippet of my pattern with all my scribbles and figuring on it! lol!!

You can see above in this snippet that I have drawn out each of the 2 blocks that make up this quilt.  I will need to make 32 of each and have collected my blues according to how many are needed.. I need to count my darks but still waiting on friend donations for some of those!! I want this quilt to be full of fabric memories for me and my honey and our inner circle of friends that have fabric stashes too!!! lol

Also notice in my scribbling above that I have broken down each block into it’s basic parts.. these will just go together like a 9 patch would actually 🙂  Once I get all the blocks ready for their places!!!

I am collecting charm squares but the blocks consist of 4 1/2″ blocks.. well the charms work perfect for pieced blocks .. but I will be trimming them all for the plain blocks that have no piecing to a nice 4 1/2 “… I am VERY VERY VERY VERY glad I bought a Omnigrid 4 1/2” square ruler now just prior to starting this quilt… I am using it a LOT!!! lol

As I go from working inside during the heat of the day on this piecing… I pass right by this!!!

Gosh how I wish I had time to start quilting on this beauty!!!  This Spiral Log Cabin is going to be a wall hanging in our living room when finished on a focus wall as you walk into the house… I have the binding cut for it and Brandi’s quilt also…

But it is waiting to be turned into binding… at least it is cut though 🙂 lol!!!!

The black fabric is a solid like that thin inner border and will really set off the quilt I think… AND the zig zag is much more modern and will really add that final bit of pizzazz to Starlight.. Starbright for my daughter who is 18 almost! 🙂 

Which brings me to the main focus in my days lately…

I am in the middle of block 6 here … out of 9 big 28″ blocks total!!!

I am very happy that with all going on here otherwise I am making steady, even if slower than I like, progress on this project.  My daughter will be gone most of the summer so I will be really working to finish it before her return.

So that is why I am walking past my beautiful new quilting frame with the awesome wall hanging on it waiting for stitches to bring it to life… I must current focus on the quilting for my daughter’s! 🙂

Also going on….

We got and rehabbed and sold a Singer Featherweight this past week… it is in transit to it’s new home as I write this.  Here is a shot of my honey shining up the case a bit…

he works miracles with these machines and cases when we get them!

Also last week we got to see the Delta Rocket go up… we are about 50 miles (give or take) north of Cape Canaveral where they launch most of the rockets these days…

We watch it live via satellite feed online and once all is cleared and it launches we go into the back yard and watch it ascend!!!  That is a cool perk of living where we do I think!!!

My wallet was breaking down and I love having my phone and wallet combined with a wristlet strap… so I found this much nicer and all leather wallet to hold my iPhone… 

 But I had to purchase the wristlet strap separately off an Etsy store… lucky it was a very similar color they called indigo but I would have called navy…

I was able to pick the hardware on it so it matches my wallet in antique gold hardware so I am very happy now!!!

Notice there is just a pocket on the right side of this shot… the phone I took this shot with slides into that slot… so it is now WAY easier to access just the phone for photo ops etc… than it was before!  So happy I got this and spent the time finding the leather wrist strap too!

Before I close… thought I would share some highlights from June 6… CJ, my grandson, came over on his birth day and we all hung out… I got a very cool candid shot of him!

 I love this shirt his mom Kayla had for him… and check them out below crafting together!!!

 She painted his age in wood letters … a little tradition she enjoyed when he turned one so she wanted to do again for his two year old birthday.  Here is how they turned out…

 the wood letters are on the top… and the outline from painting them got filled in by CJ Papa.. my son DL!  So it was a family focused project that ended with the letters painted like this!!!

I forgot to put something there for reference on size when I snagged this shot… but they are about 5″ tall and more than 1/4″ thick for sure!  And soooo cute!!!

And check out what my honey found for us to give this sweet young man for his second birthday!!!!

Mega Blocks to aid in dexterity and problem solving all in a wagon he can use for whatever… I love it!  And I bet he will too… can’t wait for his next visit!!!

My honey got a hankering for one of those desserts you see pop up on facebook that look so yummy and easy you wanna try it out… do you know what I mean????

Well my honey found one he wanted to make so off to the store we went for “supplies” to make a Mocha Frappucino Pie.  It only has 3/4 cup cold coffee in the whole pie… so not a big caffeine boost but YUMMMY!!!!  Here is a slice… I couldn’t resist taking a bit before my hand could get to the camera! lol

Well … I am Happy Dancin’ a lot in this post… hope you have a pleasant Friday and a relaxing weekend doing things you enjoy with those you love the most…

Until Sunday when I have a hand quilting tip to share…

Busy June ~ Time for a catch up!

So sorry ya’ll that I have been MIA… but I am back!!! lol

Unfortunately, I must share some sad news.. there was a terrorist shooting here in the US close to our home in Florida… it is less than a block from the hospital my daughter goes to!!!!  Wow!!

Please take time to Pray for Orlando Florida today if you would… this is so devastating for us as it is for the whole US!!!

 Thanks for your compassion here!

On a happier note today … June 13, 2016… is National Sewing Machine day!!!

Feel free to copy this and post it on your fave social media spot 🙂  Or pin it for fun too!

So will you be sewing for the special day ??  Will you be using this mechanical ingenuity?? lol

I hope to!

I have been working on parts to blocks… for a quilt for our bed.

So far you can see I have lot’s of 4 patches complete and over half now of the half square triangles I need too!  Next up will be some specialty ruler blocks… I am waiting on fabric from my friends though… this is a memory quilt of sorts as I am using a LARGE variety of charms to make this quilt…

And more have been added… and will be added to this eclectic mix of blues 🙂  I am loving this and so is my honey so that makes me VERY happy!!!

Recently Connecting Threads had their cotton/wool batting on sale by Hobb’s Tuscany… I bought a king sized one just for this quilt for only $29!!!  I bought a queen and a tad of some  other things to get me free shipping… and now I just wait for it to arrive later this week! 🙂  Yahoo!!!!

Here is my sketch of what this quilt will kind of look like if you are interested!

I love drawing out my quilty creations on graph paper… sometimes I used colored pens/pencils etc… sometimes I just need to get an idea out with perspective that the graph lines give me 🙂  How you design your quilts to be??

I have added quite a bit of information since this photo was taken… this quilt is 32 each of 2 blocks… the 54-40 or fight block and the shoofly block 🙂  I may add a pillow tuck to the top or I may finish it to be a cover only… not sure yet… but I am building this with lots of extra quilty knowledge under my belt since our last bed quilt (it was my first quilt to make! lol)

On May 31 my granddaughter turned 1!!! 

And soon after… on June 6… my grandson turned 2 years old!!!

So this Grammy has had a busy month for sure!!!

I have been making only slow hand quilting progress it seems… but soon will move it and share a shot with you all…

Mainly we are getting ready now for my bestie Connie’s upcoming visit… she is coming down from Tennessee for 5 days and 6 nights!! I am sooo excited to see her … we chat almost daily … but not the same as spending time face to face for sure!!

Well, as we chat I am thinking of tons of things that need to be done.. so I will wish you well for now… and will promise to write more soon!  

Have a blessed week my bloggy friends!!!  No matter the violence in the world around us we must remember even MORE today than before that Life is precious and …

Whooping on a Friday about Starlight… Starbright and sooo much more!!!!

Hello my bloggy friends… sorry I have been consumed in my life and not writing to you all! So let’s recap what has been going on around here to keep me so busy!!!

Quilting on Starlight… Starbright is going WELL!!!!

I am now at the halfway pinnacle of quilting on this lovely quilt… I hope to be done by mid July.. but we will see… she will be home and expecting it completed on August 3!!!  Linking this Whooping Moment to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict Whoop Whoop Friday Post HERE <<<

I was VERY excited last weekend when DL, Kayla and CJ dropped by and gave me this photo…

 From their elopement day!!!!

Above is Kayla in her beautiful wedding frock and her son CJ cheesing for the camera as they are ready to depart in the Jeep DL rented for 24 hours… he proposed when he arrived with the Jeep for her (her fave type of vehicle is a jacked up Jeep like the one in the photo above)… we live in a tourist’s mecca and a Jeep dealership here rents Jeeps like this for 24 hours at a time…

So my son DL proposed on an eve in March and the next day is the photo above and the cool frame they put together for me below from their wedding day at the courthouse!  They hired a friend to photo them after the ceremony… we had been anxiously waiting these photos… I think the photographer did a RAD job too!!!

If you look in the photo collage above… the top right is a silly photo with CJ playing with DL… then DL and Kayla are holding a sign Kayla designed and wrote on that says “The Byrum’s”  and a great family photo on the bottom of the collage!!!!

It sits front and center in my living room presently and since none of my other kids are planning a wedding anytime soon (that I know of anyway! lol)  it will probably stay there for a bit too!

I am gearing up for a new piecing project… a new bed quilt for our queen sized bed!!!!

The planning for this yet unnamed scrappy quilt is in full swing!!!!

This is an adaptation of Fons and Porter’s pattern called “Emily’s Wedding Quilt” that I found in a free PDF downloaded book… however it is just 2 blocks alternating and instead of making them the pattern called for size of 9″ I am making my blocks 12″ finished and changing up my outer border to just a simple white sashing… “Singing the Blues” is a name that has been coming to me… but I am just not sure.

The story of why we need this quilt and why I am actually bumping other projects I had planned… and holding off a bit on starting the quilting on the wall hanging that is on my new frame… to start a new project is simple… our current quilt… my first quilt to make… is worn out!

I have been inspecting this quilt and trying to convince myself that it would be okay… but the process of making a quilt to a flimsy, then hand quilting and binding it and washing and using it will be about 6 months in reality… so moving it up the ladder now is what I am doing… Increasing it’s importance as we will soon be sleeping under something store bought if I don’t get this show on the road!! lol  Yuck!

So I am collecting 5″ charm squares in light, medium and dark blues for the quilt blocks…

I have assigned a place for each shade of blue… here on the right you can see a row of what I have deemed light… then 2 rows of medium blues (these will end up all being cut to smaller pieces in the block making process) and finally some dark navy blues (these will be centers of each block so no duplicating here)….

And since I took that shot of the quilt I have added lots more info to that sheet of paper… I have counted how many hst’s I need to make and how many tri recs angles I need to cut… how many 4 patches to make…

I am mixing these blues with steel grey by Kona and Optic White 🙂  I think this quilt is gonna be very cool and hold lots of memories of quilts made in the last 5 years too!!!!

Currently I have about 2/3 of the total amount needed to get busy with the piecing… I want to have all the blues together before I start in earnest on this project… I have some close friends sending me some blues for this quilt also… add more meaning to it for sure!!!

I have NO IDEA how I will quilt it… but I do know it will be quilted on my new frame and after the wall hanging is finished…

So I have to get Brandi’s quilt done and yet still devote some time to the wall hanging daily as well as block making or block part making each day… must get more organized I think to meet these goals along with house chores and other things that take up my days and nights…. lol!

Also… I have been having some thread breaking issues with my 401a Zena… it has gotten so bad that I finally decided time to replace her … my honey finally agreed and now there is a Clarinda in the house!!!!

She is a beautiful two toned blue… she has a matte finished bed and body and shiny top hat area… She is 1 year younger than me as I was born in 1966 and her manual is dated 1966 copyright but all the 347K’s were made in Great Britain for only 1 year.

Here is all that she came with… but her blue color doesn’t show below I don’t think like it does more truly in the photo above…

Clarinda had a big wad of lint UNDER the bobbin case area under the hook actually… so my honey has put lots of TLC into getting her running for me… we found her on eBay through a resale shop for sale and made them an offer which eventually we agreed to a price… I am happy with the deal but wish my honey hadn’t had to devote so much time to getting Clarinda ready for me to use!

I hope to have a shot of here not in the portable case or in a state of repair on the table but in the queen anne cabinet Zena currently resides in… I think it will make a beautiful “dress” for Clarinda!

As for Zena… she has a strong motor and is a good machine otherwise so she can be parted out for others to replace parts on their 401’s 😉

Come on back on Sunday… I plan to hand quilt this weekend and JUST GOT IN 2 new thimbles to compare and contrast for you all!

So have your thimble questions ready!!

Hope you have a blessed Friday and a Great Weekend too!!! 

And remember… no matter how rough the road may get from time to time… 

So much to share from this week! My frame is LOADED!!!!

So happy to be here to share with you all this week… I want to start out with happy wishes to all my Mom readers…

Seems this may be an international holiday too!  Canada, Australia and the US all celebrate today!

I am linking this post to my Canadian bloggy friend Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<
     PLEASE take a look at her awesome blocks she is constructing presently and showing off progress on her blog today 🙂  I really am enjoying watching this project come to life!!!

I have an updated pic of my grandkids to share on this day also!!!!

Here is Kaydence at 11 months old… her mother is in the background too 🙂

Aren’t they both just beauties!!!??  She is an awesome mom and DIL also!

Kaydence turns 1 year old on the last day of May !!!!  She lives in Tennessee where we are all from… so I doubt I will be seeing her before she turns one… but I love finding shots of her!!! lol

And here is a cool shot I found from March 2016 of CJ with his dad… my oldest son DL 😀

CJ will be 2 years old on June 6… so less than a month! 🙂  I am very excited about this as he lives near me and I may be seeing him around then also!  They will honor him on this birthday with his first HAIRCUT! lol

And here he is playing with the little wagon in our Florida room 🙂  xxoo

As for me??!!!  I have been sooo busy!

First some update shots of Brandi’s Starlight ~ Starbright Quilt I am working on in my PVC frame 🙂  Last week I was almost 1/2 way through the 4th block of 9 on this quilt…

and I shared the photo above as my progress to be… well by Tuesday I had moved the quilt in the frame…

Today I took this shot…

I have taken off some time from hand quilting this to work on finalizing my Spiral Log Cabin Flimsy and get it ready for hand quilting…

Here is the whole framed up part for you to see on this 4th block progress…

So if you can tell I am in the bottom left hand corner presently… and should make it about halfway across today… as this quilt will now be my focus… my daughter’s 18th birthday is end of July and I want this done when she returns from a summertime trip she is taking! 🙂

These blocks are each 28″ so it is hard to get bored or tired of this quilting… if you love hand quilting… and taking time to share pics with you helps me chart my progress too!  Halfway through the 5th block will be halfway… I am anxious to see that come about sooner than later! 🙂

So what has been keeping me away from quilting on Starlight ~ Starbright??

First I cut and shared my starting progress on a flying geese border for this quilt center to get adorned with…

 Here were my flying geese in production…

 I used the Easy Angle ruler and Companion angle ruler to cut these and all turned out PERFECT!!!!

 Above are the 40 flying geese I needed… and below is how I set them on this quilt center…

 Then I used the “neutral fabric” from the flying geeese and cut borders for the quilt… this took a couple days as it went on fairly easy but lots of seams for sure to mind while sewing….

I must say I love the end wall hanging for our living room though!!!

And this flimsy will be the first to adorn my newly finished Hinterberg Hand Quilting Frame my honey & I finished this week!!!!

Last week I shared the frame shots while it was being made… but this week I am sharing it adorned with the flimsy above!!!

First though… I want to share the quilting frame in place… it is 10 feet long and that can be a no go for some quilters as space is an issue for something this long… but check it out!!!

Here you can see our living room… I am standing in the dining room/kitchen area to get this shot…

 And can you see the frame peeking out over our mussed up sofa?? lol

 Here it is!!!  Waiting on the poles to come on payday! lol

 And with the metal poles in place (it is electrical conduit… very stiff and unbending really!)

Here is a shot from the day after the leader fabric arrived and was washed, dried, ironed, torn to length for a nice square piece of fabric… then divided per the directions that came with the frame into 3 pieces….

 I chose a horizontal stripe fabric as a suggestion from a bloggy friend with a similar style frame… she said hers came with it and it helps her pin it straight… I am sooo HAPPY I DID THIS also!!!!

I also marked the center of the fabric “leaders” on each pole with a permanent marker to mark the centerpoint… you use this to mount everything and not have it cattiwaumpus on there! lol

 Finally… after several tries and then a good nights sleep and a good pressing of my flimsy and this was ready to go back on the frame without any wrinkles or lack of tension… it just flowed on when I was fresh and took my time! lol

So remember this if you try something new like this… try it really when you are at your most astute…

I do want to give a HUGE SHOUT OUT in this post to my friend Wendy!  Find her blog here where she is currently showing her BOM for May.. a very cool block… including directions for assembly of this “Puss in the corner” block! >>>>> HERE <<<<<<

You see this frame wouldn’t have been on my radar and I would have still been using a hoop only for these bigger quilts had it not been for her encouragement and the way she is soooo versatile with her frame too!  She has a Hinterberg frame built from a kit like mine is… and the company just recently had some kits made up for sale… I got this one just about 6 weeks ago and look at me now!

Wendy has encouraged me and my honey along in this process and shared pics and info about her frame and how she uses it best with all she has learned over the years… I am blessed to call her my friend for sure!!!

And before I let you go… check out what my daughter found last week at a neighborhood yard sale!!!!

 this little foot stool fits neatly under the chair it now sits at… but isn’t this doxie life like on the tapestry!!!!  I fell in love.. now this shot was taken after a good washing (years of dirt on this one when it was brought into the house!) and it had dried overnight.

But check out Daisy now next to that doxie foot stool!

 I thought she was looking like a model sitting next to her likeness!  We showed it to her and she barked at it! lol  Wonder what dogs really think.. how they interpret what they see with lack of some colours??!!

Enough pondering with you for today I think.. Have a blessed Mother’s Day wherever you are and remember no matter what…

Spiral Log Cabin ~ Piecing Progress :)

Happy Friday Folks!!!!

Check out my Design Wall today 🙂  I am sooo excited!

Last Friday I shared that I was gonna start my first log cabin quilt… a Spiral Log Cabin Wall Hanging is how it will finish.. it is for our living room focal wall as you enter our home 😀

So how did I accomplish this with just this at my disposal?

First I found a piece of foam board that was holding a puzzle we have yet to make a frame for and found a new place to store the puzzle… I made sticky notes for each size of log I needed to make and I even used different colored sticky notes for dark versus neutral logs…

but truly the different colours weren’t really necessary! lol  Oh well … made it more interesting a task anyway in the prep work!

Then I separated my jellyroll… I only used 1… sold the second one within 1 hour of advertising it too!  Yippee 🙂

It is important with a Log Cabin pattern.. because you are sewing so many small pieces together to make a square unwonky block to make your fabric as unstretchy as possible… I was using a jelly roll which is WIDTH of fabric cuts… when a log cabin is recommended for LENGTH of fabric cuts that do not stretch at all…  So I used Best Press…

My method was to best press all the jelly roll strips just prior to cutting them into logs… I spritzed the Best Press on each fabric piece and let it rest for a bit…then ironed it dry and it was quite crisp… made it easy to cut and easy to sew!

Here are my first 4 log cabin blocks up close…

And the 4 I just finished this morning…

I liked this second grouping best as it seemed more scrappy to set the tone for the scrappiness I desired for this wall hanging to be! 🙂  So the pic at the top is probably the final placement on all the blacks in my pattern…

Now this next week I will focus on cutting enough red (the neutral logs are ALL cut) logs to make 16 red and neutral blocks!  Yay 😉

I want to send a special thanks to Wendy for gifting me this book by Judy Martin…

also included in the photo is a little book I got myself by Sharyn Craig… both are very ingenious quilters and these books hold many patterns but more important together they hold the secrets that really are making this log cabin quilt successful!

Linking this post to Sarah’s Whoop whoop Friday Linky Party HERE <<

In the meantime … I have made it 2/3 of the way through quilting my second Carpenter’s Wheel block on Brandi’s Graduation quilt.  Here is a close up!

 Can you see the red big stitching around the star pieced diamonds??

I am really enjoying the diversity in these 2 projects currently.

How many projects are you CURRENTLY working on?  I like 2 I think.. as I dream of more to come… I try to keep track of where I am in each.. I have more WIP;s… but currently working on projects.. 1 piecing and 1 hand quilting is good for me 🙂

Also, I got to keep my grandson CJ yesterday…

he will be 2 years old in June!

Isn’t he a cutie with his silly face on… trying to grin at me! lol

Have a blessed weekend and remember that…

Christmas 2015 Review….

On Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas with 3 of my 4 kids.  It was a total BLAST and a SUCCESS!!!

Then the next 2 days we just laid around! lol >>> Even Daisy Mae got worn out from all the Christmas Eve excitement!

My nephew and nieces got their Christmas presents and sent this cute shot of them getting it! 🙂

They sent me a Starbuck’s card and my daughter an iTunes card… but she doesn’t use iTunes and I don’t use Starbuck’s much these days… so we traded… we each got a $25 gift card now to enjoy and USE!!!!

Here is a candid shot of my oldest son DL.. with Kayla and CJ 🙂

It is such a precious shot to me I wanted to share it… fun family times with a toddler giving kisses is sooo sweet!

DL made me a dimensional canvas with my 2016 theme featured on it…

And I LOVE It!!!!  He is very creative and rarely does he use those skills these days … so I was happy to know the creative spirit hasn’t left him! 🙂

This is what I sent him to inspire something completely different

 but featuring teal and orange my fave colours 🙂

Then Kayla presented me with a wrapped booklet of some sort… what could it be???

A personalized (made just for me!!!!) calendar she made using pics of all of CJ’s life… and those in his life too!

On July she even featured me for my birthday !!!!  I will be 50 this year folks 🙂

Grammy K is me!!!  I love this page the most…

And this cool calendar has found a place for now in my sewing room… maybe I will mount both items in there… hmmmm  Probably yes.. but must consort with my honey over this decorating plan and just how to lay it out on the wall to look most visually appealing 🙂

Here are a couple shots of my youngest 2 kids… while they were celebrating with family on Christmas Day 🙂

Mike is 21… he is quite the jokester in the family and hammed it up on this second photo! 🙂

He and Brandi have a great relationship though and for that I am very happy !!!

He lives not far from us and stays busy with work.. and just being an independent young man!

Now many things I “got” for Christmas were timed with when they were needed… like the wonderful computer I upgraded to in August of this year… my honey bought this for me from his featherweight sales profits…

Dell has EXCELLENT customer service and support… I have been most pleased with this purchase as well… but my honey didn’t stop there! lol

He also got me a cool wireless Bose speaker to go with the new computer!!!!

It is little as you can tell by the paperback book posed with it… that is my current FAVE READ!!!  I love learning more about Australian culture too… this book shares a bit of that and a great adventure too!

It was wonderful to have most of my kids with me for Christmas Eve .. and to have Christmas Day as a nice quiet relaxing day to appreciate the birth of our Savior.  Maybe this will be our new “tradition”???

I didn’t get to see James or Kaydence… they remained in Tennessee and James’ work is very taxing so a trip either way just wasn’t working out!  But Kaydence did get her quilt and her parents LOVE IT!!!!  I will post more about that soon 😉

I have lots of fun projects coming up … ending this year with some UFO finishes and starting some fun new projects as well!  Hope you will take time to sign up and follow along with me… 

As always your comments to my posts are definitely desired!!! 🙂

I do hope however long you get to enjoy Season you make sure to also….