From not much to share to a Birthday Post FULL<<< Come see !!

Sorry to have missed last Sunday posting as Sunday’s are my regular day to post.  I did have one regular reader inquire to me if all was fine and it was… just didn’t have much to share in my humble opinion… I will leave a short post in the future if I plan to not post anything of substance though 🙂  Thanks !!!

But today I have LOTs to share to make up for missing last Sunday !!!!  First of all my blog just got an update… do you like it???

AND >>>> It was a Birthday Celebration week here and my bestie came for a much needed visit!!!!  So grab a cuppa something yummy and come join me for a bit please 😀

In prep for company… and part of the reason I didn’t write to you all last week… our home got a DEEP clean.. with it just being me and my honey and Molly our Poo Shih… we keep a clean house.  But every now and again it is nice to do things like get the shelf above screwed into studs so it can hold our favorite old new sewing machine I shared in my last post.  It sure is nice around here though… my sewing room even got touched in the may lay of cleaning!!!  From this…To this to even more cleaning I didn’t capture by photo!!!  




Molly got a deep cleaning too AFTER a good grooming right here at home 😀

Above is Molly… showing off for the camera and hoping we would let her drive the golf cart… she loves going around on the cart with my honey too ❤

Not sure if they show much as we had some rain that brought them down but look at this cool hydrangea …

Loving all the colors available in this one at the bottom of a mountain where our water comes from.. varying pH levels in the water that gets the roots??? lol

With the sewing room cleaned up… I decided to try my hand at a mini art quilt for Connie as an extra birthday present for her… Her birthday comes first on the July 3… then mine on July 4… then my honey on July 20… so we enjoy celebrating together every year 🙂

These little snippets of fabrics were leftover bits she sent me with a square of white background as a teaser of what I would be quilting soon (referring to what it in my frame NOW)… I have held on to these bits looking for way to repurpose them back to her…. Confetti quilting won out!

 With some Steam a Seam 2, tweezers, sharp scissors, a pattern I made myself from a line drawing, and some patience and imagination… I soon had this ready to mount on white “grout” fabric….

I had a scant long piece of the backing fabric so watched a couple videos and chatted with Connie and soon had this art piece quilted and single layer bound as I didn’t have the width for the regular double layer binding…

Here is the back of this 6 1/4″ finished square of love!!!  I did the quilting on Cleopatra my Singer 319w using white Aurifil 50 in the top and bobbin..  I did hand sew down the label diagonal edge and the back of the binding but I had prethought that part and pressed it into shape before applying it so sewing it down went easy with clips 🙂

And here are the birthday girls…  Connie on the left and me holding our birthday cake on the right…

The pink roses Connie brought to add to the ambiance.  The little vase of flowers is what we picked in our yard prior to Connie’s arrival …

 Here is my birthday pose on the 4th…

 And me and my honey got fun goodies from my bestie and bestowed great goodies on her too!!!

 Let me share my lot of goodies as that was the main lot of photos I got! lol

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Birthday time… Maybe not my age sharing specifically but just celebrating being alive!!!!

My honey got me a wonderful daisy card with a deep meaning and private message inside…

 My bestie topped off her gifts to me with this cool fronted card and a nice message inside 😀

 Among other things I got this great pin cushion bought from a seller on Etsy named “SeaPinks” – her name is Jenny and I sent her a special thank you for this beautiful craftsmanship… it is only 3 ” or 4″ around and 2 1/2″ or 3″ tall… perfect to hold my needle and pins for binding at my computer area 😀

 Then a magnet that my bestie has a pink version of… to commemorate our mostly daily chats on her way to or from work….

 It found a place in the bottom corner of a little quilt pattern I hope to start soon 🙂  It is on the wall hanging by my things to do list! lol

 She also included some of these cute bobbin minders that hold the thread in place on  your bobbins so they don’t become a mess…  LOVELY!

Once birthday celebrations were completed… we slept and then started on sugar cookie making!!!

Connie stayed up past my bedtime to make dough on the 3rd… then on the 4th we made cookies all afternoon…

She had previously taken a “cookie class” with a sugar cookie decorating expert of sorts… it was great fun for me too !!!!

Here is Connie having fun as we prep to start the decorating!!!

 And showing off a doggie bone with a chevron design ….

This flower was my idea taken from watching her play in the sugar frosting….  Then using that yellow pointy ended tool I drug the color out and in to make my own kind of flower design…

 I also decorated a couple of thimble cookies (part of our gift to Connie had been cookie cutters in sewing theme shapes ).

And a flower that looks more like a pink ball with green chicken pox! lol

All in all… although I couldn’t hold up to her expertise in decorating… I had lots of fun and my honey enjoyed being a taste tester too !!!

So previously Connie has been sending me photos of her finished fabric squares with crochet edging she is making…

 To say I am smitten pales to my actual feelings of “I want to make one too!!! ”  So in cleaning up my sewing room I cut 80 sets of squares just the right size she shared with me to make this cool block.

Above… I measured and marked with blue water soluble marker where the the center motif quilting will occur and where the blanket stitch legs would be to make the perfect amount down each side for a square finished quilt…  and below is how the back side looks…

 I have 2 rows of stitching on that block as I didn’t understand the instructions Connie gave me fully… so once I saw that block … I made 2 more blocks that she took with her to work out the crochet pattern for later on when she can spend time teaching me to crochet the edging on each block.

Below is my marking guide and the first 2 blocks I made and hand stitched closed with batting in the middle for cozy finish…

 And this is where I am this morning on that project… it will hang out as I finish each of the 75 remaining blocks as a side line project for me to hand stitch… this hand stitched blanket stitching is being linked to Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE <<<<  Go check out the other linkers and the cool mystery quilt she is making from the Quiltmania mag…

 Here is one more shell stitch finished block finished quilt…  You can find that quilt on a blog and someone else has made a YouTube series on it as well.  We are not actually following the video instructions … we just got our basic ideas from the blog HERE <<<<

 This was another quilt I found in the same vein while searching Pinterest and Google for crochet fabric quilt… It is when I decided I wasn’t the shell stitch kind of girl but more the crochet style Connie added to mine with the squares 🙂

Connie is pondering making a pillow from her finished blocks now too then jumping over to my quilt block design as it crochets a bit faster and may be more durable with use instead of being a toe catcher design like the lacey bits of the photo before this one 😀  It is all personal preference. 😀

But my fave project is Connie Swoon Quilt hand quilting in my frame… This has been a nearly daily worked on project and what I am linking to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday linky HERE.  Go link up as Kathy has been under the weather using her hands for reading and puzzle working this week so she could use some inspiring posts to link up!!

Here I am almost near the end on the middle row which is where I was with my last post I think…

 And a close up of the final border before rolling to the last run of the 1st row of 4 rows of these big 24″ swoon blocks…

 And rolled and set up on the far left to move to the right for this row of stitching…

 I love this shot I got in a dark room with the morning sunrise ambient light coming in the blinds…

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen and Kathi (that is ME!)

 that is the center swoon block above… the beginning of the final swoon of this row is below 🙂

 I am loving the water soluble pens I got in a pack of 10 from Amazon too… they write clear and crisp and disappear with a sprints of water… below is that area all clean after stitching and spritzing and leaving to dry overnight…

 Look at this sweet cotton yarn cloth Connie crocheted me just for my quilting marking removal ❤

 It hangs out on my lamp beside my chair… here I am close to the end of this row.. soon… very soon I will be rolling on to the next row of swoons!!!  While I am stitching I have started listening to a new audio book on Audible.com… it is my fave audio book club.  This is a story of the royal gown makers and their stories… very interesting to listen to as I stitch!!!

Do you need to make Double Fold Bias Tape and don’t have the handy gadgets they sell online and at big box stores… measure and make your own… look at this made from card stock and easy to iron on without burning anything!!!!!

I hope you have found this long post entertaining and glad you got your cuppa before you started reading and enjoying… please take a minute to leave me a note… I would love to know what your fave part of this long birthday celebrating post was 😀

Have a blessed week and stay warm/cool depending on where you are while reading this!

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