Happy Last Day of March 2019!!

Get a cuppa something yummy and sit for a visit today… I have a fun share today!

Look at this cute bag I saw on Facebook today… that fabric is by Gail Pan for Henry Glass fabrics (she is an Australian designer) and I LOVE it 🙂  How fun is that!

It has been a busy and productive week here at Daisy Meadows and the weather has been totally fabulous!!!  Today we are ending March with a bit of snow though! lol  The snow didn’t stick around but it was quite interesting for sure 😀 

This week I was at this point Monday… I spent all day Sunday slow stitching last week to get to this point 🙂

And on Wednesday I was ecstatic to find myself here…

 Yep… off the frame and hand quilting complete!!  Then time to sew on the binding 😀

 I used Cleo (short for Cleopatra) my trusty Singer 319w for the job.  And added a label to it as well…

And this binding I decided to try the “ladder stitch” I had seen and used on the quilt front for a mending moment where the seam didn’t get sewn well if you recall a couple weeks back me sharing that.  Look how invisible the stitches are though…

 Here is the rhythm of a ladder stitch… it is really a running stitch where you go 1/4″ in the batting layer then pull through then 1/4″ in the fold of the binding and pull through then back down through the backing to the batting… then back up to the batting fold.. until you are done!!

 It made me giddy to make a binding finish I was proud of!!!
 Here is where I was this morning early…. with about 2/3 completed on the binding…
now I am DONE!  Spent most of my Sunday slow stitching it on with that ladder stitch and I LOVE the results of it… Hope you try this method on  your next binding finish…  Linking this to my favorite Sunday stop .. Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday linky party HERE. 

But before I share the reveal lets talk about the life this quilt top has had before getting this far along…

It got “finished” in May 2016… yes… 3 years ago almost… then it was layered with it’s same backing it has today and same batting it has today and put on the frame for quilting… this was the 1st quilt to ever be loaded on my frame too!!!

This was when I realized how wavy the outer border was… never knew it could happen as it never had for me… so somehow it then became a UFO as I moved forward with other quilts and other projects… I remained unsure how this happened and how to fix it. 

Fast forward to our move to North Carolina when it got unearthed in the unpacking and I realized why it had become a UFO… and investigated on Bluprint how to fix the problem… take off the border was the obvious fix and put it back on… consulting my bestie who is my quilting mentor too told me the same thing!

Well I took 3/4″ off the top and bottom borders in length last month when this quilt finally got a seat back on the frame and WOW!!!  I am so glad I did that… the sides were a bit ruffly in spots still but not like the top and bottom… now for the reveal.. now that you can appreciate how this quilt came to be 🙂

 And to see it in context in the kitchen… PERFECTION!!!

I am linking this finish for the month to Julie ~ The Crafty Quilter link up for March HERE .  You can link up 2 finishes to her linky … my second link up will be another most proud moment…

Wrangling my fabric storage got completed this month… this was on my things to do list she gave out in January as a blank and I finished it this month!!!

There is just a bit of my colored fabric scrap separations… and all of my bolts of fabrics (fat quarters and larger separated by color and some by type as well.  I am really proud of utilizing my fabrics for projects like the applique and quilt making I have done since finishing this organization… and putting everything back away… I even organized my cutting table to only have currently used fabrics on it !!!

I haven’t touched the Rooster EPP this week but I bet I do next week 😀

Daisy… our doxie we rehomed to my bestie in the Nashville area… is very happy with her new home situation… it is a great fit for her 🙂  Her granddaughter took this photo and I just fell in love with it!!!

Our Molly keeps me company as I stitch and loves to hang with Rick as he work in his building or relaxes in his recliner… she is full of energy but getting easier to tame these days… she is now 9 months old so still very much a puppy… lol!  But settling in to life in NC 🙂

Now that I have the wall hanging done… I had my honey fold up the quilting frame and I brought back in the PVC frame that holds the wholecloth quilt…

 this quilt has history too… it is now 4 years old in the making of it since I took the first stitches… it is a large queen sized quilt and will grace our guest bed whenever I finish it… it is about 1/3 or a bit more done at this moment.

Here is my current position on the quilting and all the threads I am using! lol ….

This will be a momentary quilting period as I love to hand quilt each day most of the time… This quilt I am working on will be next up on my frame but I am waiting to get it into a proper flimsy finish… almost there (just some machine applique and a couple seams to add the appliqued strip to the quilt body and I am done with it!!!)  … and waiting on batting to come that I ordered last week.  So no rush atm… but I want it done by end of the April or so…

No quilting plan decided yet on this one… ideas anyone???

Linking this near flimsy finish that will be my goal for the rest of this Sunday with Wendy and her Peacock Party HERE… I am surely happy to crow about all the work that has happened between this becoming a flimsy and the quilt getting hung in the kitchen too ❤

Look at this cool artwork decor piece my honey made with his awesome crafty skills…

This actually came from some treadle irons we have been carrying around with no center parts available to make it into a usable treadle base.  We never had the centers only rescued the side irons.  We reckon they are from about 1900 or so. 

Rick came up with this idea from an inspiration online he saw and made it come into being… we sold this one and have another sold when he gets it made up… gives all new life to the cast iron too while maintaining the original patina of the center part 🙂

Here is a great thought I found online this week…  you know the internet can be food for thought in a positive light if you choose it to be…

 We sure are.. and I am glad we are!!!

Thanks for stopping in this week… I hope you leave a comment if you made it to this point of my post… I would love to hear from each of you and thank you personally for the visit time!

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Appalachian Delight becomes a flimsy and one more does too!

Welcome to my blog y’all!  It has been a busy yet still restless week of recovery around here… and LOTS and LOTS of rain has been going on!!!

And now it is our time in most of the USA to lose an hour… so spring forward if you do… don’t forget every clock in the house too! lol

For those of you that aren’t regular visitors to my blog … my honey had his right hip replaced on Feb 27 and came home on the 28th.. Whirlwind major surgery and now he can’t cross his legs anymore either!   Physical therapy started this week and in depth exercising and lots of healing and more independence by my honey is occuring… so all is going well.. but leaving us both rather sleepless still in the whirlwind of so much going on… I think when it is time for our next joint replacement (I have 2 knees that need replacing yesterday or last week even … and what caused his right hip to need replacing may take precedence for the left hip to get replaced next though…. so time and healing of this hip will help us decide which is coming up this summer when he is properly healed from this.

Meanwhile… I have been hand quilting and sewing like crazy!!!!

I got all 4 borders mitered on my Appalachian Delight Quilt…

 And made this collage of all my efforts 🙂

 I used a youtube video by Laura at SewVeryEasy where she actually showed how to make a nice wide border on a signature quilt… with miters… her directs were precise and easy to follow… my mitered border wound up measuring 13 1/2″ wide and 3 yards long… the bottom side was pieced to keep it on on the length of fabric to avoid any waving border syndrome with this one ! lol

Now all the pieces … flimsy top, binding strips already cut, leftover outer border fabic and backing you see peeking out from below the border fabric… are in a basket in my sewing room as it will be mid summer or later before this sees the frame.

With that done and still sleeplessness abounds I started trying to figure out the Rooster EPP project I shared a couple weeks ago…

It is a Violet Craft pattern I bought last year and prepped to coordinate with the spiral log cabin quilt… so mine won’t be these colors exactly.

Here is my kit set up…

 Above you see everything posed on a melamine tray we have in our stash for just such a project… to keep glue from getting on everything and keep it all together.  My portable design wall I thought would do well for a start of organization and a box I bought just for EPP organization from Dollar General stores… 3 layers with the top layer having dividers .  You can see it better below…

 She says you can start anywhere you like but she had intended the pattern to be started with the #1 and progressed to the end… so I am 🙂

 Above you see the back side of the pattern… she uses pictures to designate a fabric color.  I then used my vintage dry iron and a piece of fabric meant to help keep my iron clean as a pressing cloth between the glued piece and my iron 🙂

 In the box in the photo above you can see my planned use of items.  And below in a well cleaned and ready to use meat packing styrofoam dish I have all set up…

 And I am making good progress with all my excitement for a new skill to learn…

My stitches are a bit more obvious than I first hoped … but this is new to me … so off I went to find a great video on Youtube by Sara at SewSweetness on EPP and making a pouch from the pieces of hexi shaped EPPing… I learned a lot more from her than I did from the video she recommended… she is very sweet and knowledgeable!  I have tackled a few more pieces and will share more of BOTH sides of my work next week.  I am much happier with my stitches though as I progress which is expected I would think.

I finished the row of hand quilting I was on last week and rolled the quilt… Now I am at the center and moving over that center to a down hill pace…

 Here I am sharing the border completed on this section and the center marked and started on….

 I actually am at the center of the center now though!  But I must slow down a bit unless I want an empty frame with I do NOT… my next project is a quilt for my best friend … she is piecing it and while all the blocks are done life still happens and she won’t have the sashings and borders done properly for another few weeks I am afraid.  So I am trying to pace my finish on Spiral Log Cabin.

Linking both the EPP and Spiral Log Cabin hand quilting to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post HERE.

I did take these messy sheets for the UFO/ WIP challenge Julie is hosting as a linky party the end of each month…

 And reprinted sheets on card stock and rewrote things I had on this list making better use of my space…

Some of you mentioned rewriting sheets and not keeping track of the completed projects but even if each page grows to the next page or even a 3rd page… I will keep them all to look back at years end and see all I have accomplished 😀

I love the wristlet purse I made and shared last week… it is soo handy and awesome!  Everything has a place in this bag too ❤

Gloria (my Singer two toned 301a) and I pieced a quilt top this week… but I used Cleo my Singer 319w to do the applique zig zag stitching…

 Here is how that panel I appliqued turned out …

 And here is the quilt top flimsy in full…

 Here is the backing folded (had to border it to make it big enough for the quilt top.  Also there is a label and binding already cut there too!!!

 Simon is an almost 1  year old child of my daughter’s good friend.  This friend is taking her to GED classes and such so Brandi and her boyfriend Timmy requested a quilt for their 2 kids… above is the younger one’s quilt to be and below is the beginning brainstorming of the older one’s (almost 5) quilt to be…

His name is Jasper and it will be somewhere on the quilt too.

I hope to be quilting these both during the worldwide quilting day next Saturday… what do you plan to do during the worldwide quilting day???

Linking this quilty post to the Peacock Party by Wendy Welsh who is traveling around New Zealand this weekend and knitting a scarf too ❤ HERE !!

Have a great week ahead wherever you are and hope your weather and projects are both enjoyable to you…

A busy and festive time of year !

As December deepens and the end of 2018 looms closer each day I feel an urgency to complete a few things that have been on my “to do list” through the year and just haven’t gotten done for one reason or another… do you do this … feel like that???   So today I am focusing on slowing it down… and even though it is gloomy and cold outside I am going to follow a good friends advice…

That friend also requested to send me a parcel and start a penpal relationship of sorts 🙂  I said yes!

She lives in Tasmania, Australia and travels avidly as well as gardens and sews as well.  She sent me this lovely package of fabrics and a rain hat and a button and a card of interesting things from her area down under.  I am now curating a package for her in return… this is SO FUN!!!  I love enhancing friendships and learning more about others cultures and ways of being as well 😀

At the start of the week I was very focused on bringing Cleo into the fold of my machines.  I shared the waiting for her with you last week…

 And here is my first photo of her… before her paint got touched up and she got a nice once over and polish by my honey….

Cleo is short for Cleopatra… such a dramatic name… and one I want to research more but Cleo she is for certain!   I went onto Singer’s website and found the W beginning serial #’s… and there she was… one of 1.5 million made in 1954.  I also read there were 1500 workers in this Connecticut plant of Singer’s … it was originally a Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine making plant!  Sew interesting!!! 

My honey rewired her as she had had that done wrong… changed the pedal to one I requested … cleaned off excess oil and oiled places he found that had been missed and greased the cam stack she has in place… ooooh … she is soo awesome!!!  We got some automotive paint in gloss black and he touched up a few boo boo spots too!!!  I am soooo blessed y’all!!!!

Here is her first photo with her in her new dress… a trapezoid Singer case…

 And a view of her top half and her excellent decals…  the decals led me to naming her too ❤

 And because she is a 3/4 machine she is a few inches short of fitting.. so my honey took some wood and make a little shelf in there… it is the perfect place to store her bobbins and a pin cushion 🙂

 I rearranged my sewing room as well before she was brought in… my honey helped me as he is really the decorating sense between us… and I am slowly moving some decor on the walls around as well…

And here is a photo I plan to hang in the blank spot over Cleo….  the 2 that got together to surprise me with this smooth stitching machine !!!! 

Here is the back of the finished wall quilt I machine quilted on Zena as her final act of service for me.

She is now stored safely in a closet of our home waiting for her next purpose in life… helping my daughter learn to create when she is ready!!!

The binding is the diagonal striped fabric I shared a swatch of  last week.  It came one day and this little quilt was hanging the next day!  Here is the photo of it hanging behind our little Christmas tree 🙂

 And a few photos of our Christmas tree…

 And a final side photo to show off the trapuntoed quilting I did on the wall hanging.

 Now before I move on… let me tell you… if you ever get a chance to sew on a Singer 319w… DO IT!  This is the most powerful yet gentle and even keeled sewing machine I have ever stitched on!!!  One stitch as a time or fast and furious… she can do it all!  Thick or thin… I love it ❤

Her next job will be to make my honey a new wallet as the wallet I made him a few weeks back is going somewhere else to be re-homed… he requested a few revisions for his personal taste… so I will accommodate those requests on my new Christmas present Cleo!!!

We added some new ornaments to our stash of Christmas displayed ornaments this year… the star at the top is new as well!

We got a Santa glass blown ornament with glitter accents from the year we got together…

And if you look to the bottom right of Santa you will see a small daisy painted ornament.  There are 6 of these in the set and these are in memory of my honey’s sister who died of heart problems too early in her life.. she holds a dear place in his heart and memories!  So these commemorate her 🙂

Finally are my 2 favorite shots… lights on … and lights off on the right… I love Christmas twinkle lights for sure!!! ❤

I got several rounds of fabric in this past week as well… here is some fabric for replenishing my Christmas stash a bit…

 All of that is vintage and it is various designers before designing fabric was trendy.  Here is a photo of things I want to make this month before Christmas….

And here is my first focused work…

 And once they are sewn and turned right side out with different threads and ribbons pulled to go along side this little wall hanging tree creation…

 Buttons pulled from my stash to adorn it…

 Stuffing each triangle is a slow and steady process… I then hand sewed all the openings closed…

 And then hand sewed all the junctions together where the triangles meet….

Now I am to sewing the buttons on over the junctions… and this is my hand sewing focus today… so I am linking this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching HERE!  Kathy is quilting on a many year old ufo with great pleasure today!  She and her grand dog are 😀  Go check out her blog post and other linkers posts too!!!

I have made some other slow stitching progress earlier this week but due to lots of things the end of the week no slow stitching on the quilt Stars Among Us has happened… Monday starts a new week though 😀

Here is a close up of my progress this week… I went from the border to the mid point of this row…

 Meanwhile… our pup Molly went from this….

 To THIS!!!!

 In one day!!!!  Tomorrow she will celebrate 6 months old too !!!

 I have a pair on gingher pinking shears up for sale… they are like new and are $25 to include shipping in the USA.. nothing wrong with them as you see the cutting in the photo 🙂

I acquired these things this week…

 The fabric, Best Press, and small rotary blades were a great sale Craftsy was having and I ordered through my friend Karen’s affiliate link you can find at the bottom of THIS blog post.

Here is a close up of the 40 different fat quarters I picked up for about $33 all together

 They fill gaps in my stash just right too… the top one is fun prints and the bottom one is tone on tones 🙂

And our Christmas cactus we picked up earlier in the week is doing GREAT!!  It gets good sun in the sewing room window 🙂

 I got this new shirt… Mountain Mama… and a long sleeved winter shirt too

 And a hair cut myself as well!!!

So it has definitely been a BUSY week at Daisy Meadows 🙂

How about you… have you been busy this week and if you have is it because it is December and you are tying up loose ends or because you have just been busy  or has it been holiday related???!!!  Inquiring minds want to know!!! lol

For now I wish you a Happy Holiday season and a very Merry Christmas to come.  Thanks for visiting ❤