Sewing Sewing Sewing and Raining Raining Raining!!!

It has been raining every single day here folks!  Wow… the Valley River runs through our yard and we are concerned that at this rate the constant slow rain may make it overflow it’s banks!  So to not think about that I have been Sewing and Organizing!!!

Here is a photo of Holli, my friend who has a farm in Kentucky and is a military wife as well… so she dreams of retiring to her daddy’s farm there while they are about to move to Washington DC!!!  She is excited for her husbands new post… and their plans… she may even take this banner she requested with her to keep the farm nearby while 11 hours away!!!

Once I figured out how to make this banner for Holli… personalized as she specified (she sent me a charm pack of her fave fabric and answered some questions for me… I got it together…

 And before I knew it … a bit at a time… it was all working out!!  I even found a needle in my stash…

 meant for elastic threading … that I used to thread the red ribbon in the lace at the top of the banner pieces 🙂

Then I finally mailed it… & she received it on her 3 year quilting anniversary 😀

Isn’t Holli just glowing in this photo… the first photo above of the banner was in my kitchen on a mocked up window… now it hangs on the fireplace at her farm… it may go to DC before it lands in the windows of her sewing room at this same little farmhouse !!!  Glad I made it durable!! lol

So this is one start and finish in the same month for Julie at the Crafty Quilter’s UFO/WIP Link Up… but anyone that follows me knows I have a major UFO that got finished this month as well!!!  I will show this one to Julie as my finish for this month…

Stars Among Us was pieced and borders taken off and redone and quilting plan revamped SEVERAL times before it was a finished quilt… now it hangs proudly in our kitchen on the hanger my bestie brought to us on a visit last fall!!!  See Julie’s Link Up HERE!

See my pages that keep me in focus this year here…

Today I am focusing on organizing and slow stitching …

My first slow stitching focus will be to sew on this new hanging sleeve onto my bulls eye wall hanging…

 We had it hanging on the wall in Florida with a skinny pole and I (for what unknown reason) made a skinny hanging sleeve on this quilt… so now it is time to get a proper hanging sleeve on it… it is made and pinned to the top evenly ready to stitch down as soon as I finish this post.

I spent a good bit of the last of the week organizing my sewing room…

 By Colors!

 See all the organizers from the dollar store I got… and I had to get more to make this work right…

The last photo shows all the scrap reorganizing I have done… and the bit left to do as well.  Much of that is donated scraps from my friends and batting though… this last part will be a true joy to go through ❤

I had all my scraps organized by size … 5 ” 2 1/2″ strips and scraps too… I redid ALL that to color family instead… I had to divide the blues into 3 containers… light, medium, and dark!  I also have a full shelf of blue on the boards I organize with in the closet!!!  I will show you all my closet in next weeks post but here are some of the boards of luan that my honey cuts for me and I wrap fat quarters and larger on…

And here is a whole stack of those boards… 96 to be exact as I keep running out so while I napped one day my honey cut a whole big board of luan into little boards for me 😀

These are now in the sanding process to make sure none of my sweet fabric gets splintered 😀

Each quilter is different when needing to organize… I am glad I have a mentor like Connie who lets me do things my own way and find out what works for me through school of live and learn for yourself! hahaha… she helped me organize like a well known quilter suggests… only for me to realize over time THIS WAY may be better for my kind of quilting.  We will see!!!

Here is my newly recovered ironing board hanging by a hook on the back of my sewing room door … safely hidden until I need it again!

 Here is a little bitty pair of pliers we got in a lot of things the other day… my honey said I could have them for my bag making supplies!!! AWESOME… posed here next to my small gingher scissors so you can see how small the pliers really are!!!

 Waiting patiently is the quilt and fabric for the 14″ outer border to be cut and fit…

 And our sweet Molly in her crate in my sewing room … watching and sniffing all the fabric as I sort it! lol

 She got a name badge with my phone # on it for her collar this week too… we found it from a nice Etsy seller very affordably 🙂

Next up is my awesome progress on the Spiral Log Cabin quilt on my frame!!!!

Taking pointers from a fellow quilty blogger… I turned OFF the lights and lightened this photo up some using my phone camera options….

 I think that shows off the quilting better than I was able to get it before for y’all!

And our fireplace has kept me warm on these not cold but cool and wet days… will it quit raining y’all???

After consulting with Connie… I decided the center would be best with an overall design like I did the stars quilt… except this time I wanted something a bit looser so I decided to go with a “baptist fan” design…  Here I am marking baptist fans on the center…

 I made my template with quilters template plastic I had and a hole punch (regular size) at 1 1/8″ from the starting hole.  Then put a pin in the starting hole as in the photo above to let the template swivel without moving the fixed beginning hole.  Then I mark the 5 holes above (odd numbers are recommended for this template)… I got most of my information for this template making HERE. And look how it turned out!!!

 Here I am already rolled and working on the second row…

 Here you can see WHY I chose the green chalk to mark with.. it shows on all the colors in the center of this quilt…

 And here is a good photo of where I am at this moment…  I will be back here later today when the hanging sleeve is on the quilt and it is all being washed 😀

Here is a look at my shangri-la spot in this home… this and my sewing room… okay the whole 1 1/2 acres is my shangri-la spot!!!! hahaha  But this ranks in one of the highest areas in our home I enjoy…

I am linking all this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching party HERE …. and
Wendy’s Quilts and More Peacock Party HERE for lovely hand stitching and photography from down under too!  Please take time to follow the links to each.  They should open in new windows so you don’t lose your place here… then come back .. I have a few more things to share!!!

I think last week when I was sharing our home renovation plans I didn’t well explain what we were doing… here is the kitchen reno that occurred this week…

And a video of Molly figuring out that my honey is really making those noises coming out the end of the 12 foot tube left over from the vinyl we put in the kitchen!!!

and the finished result …

Transitions between the vinyl level and the laminate level still to come but we got oak 1/4″ boards for that 😀  Soo excited to see this kitchen all coming together!!!!

Here is a Singer Sew Handy Model 20 sewing machine we have up for sale this weekend too… it certainly is a beauty and the case in such nice condition is a rarity to come with a working sewing chain stitching hand crank Singer…

We have a Sew handy similar to this one in our collection already… and it has the case just like this one… we love using it and it is such a conversation starter when we have company too!!!

I am reading this book now a bit each day too…

 So as we prepare for my honey’s upcoming surgery (hip replacement on the 27th if you can send up happy thoughts/prayers they would be appreciated) you can see we are staying busy busy busy!!!

Stay in love with your life though and you won’t falter in your plans to succeed 🙂

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Finishes and Progress to Share … YAY!

Welcome y’all!  Thanks for stopping in and thanks for all your uplifting comments to last weeks post 🙂

I did not make this and I do not have this cute little hanger but both are doable… look how the quilter used little clothes pins to hold up this cute patchwork! 

But I did make this…

And you will see this photo over at the UFO& WIP link up Julie is doing HERE !!

It was a fairly easy sew.. but I had to prod myself to do it! lol  First I disassembled the old one and used the old padding to determine the size of the top of the ironing board… I laid that out on a big counter with my new fabric washed and ironed and pretty side DOWN with the old batting on top.  Then cut out leaving about 4″ all around 🙂

I replaced the batting and added another layer for a fresh topping on my ironing board because this had just been added a year or so ago and was ok still …

Next I decided this cover would have 1/4″ braided elastic to hold it in place… my last ironing board I had used cording with cord locks… didn’t care for it not staying tight consistently… I LOVE THIS FINISH!!!

I first zig zagged the edges then  pressed them down about 1″ all the way around and went back and straight stitched it down… leaving an opening do deal with the elastic.  You can do this a number of ways actually and I snipped a hole in a zig zagged section I fashioned like a button hole on the back side of mine.

All of this stitching you are doing will be hidden underneath but keeps it washable too !!!

Then get out a nice sized safety pin and guide the elastic around from one side all around til it comes back out the same hole … then pin them together so they won’t go in the hole while you form fit it to your ironing board… knot and trim off the tails and poke the knot inside the hole you used… all done and ready to press your next block or iron some clothes! hahaha   I jest there right??!!!  Actually I do iron a bit of our clothing … but not often! lol  I even made another for a friend for her birthday!!!

Next I will turn this 5 yards of vintage fabric into ironing surface covers… 

more on that process next week when I have done it 3 times! lol

Before I even started on the ironing board covers though I I put Cleo my Singer 319W to work sewing on binding to the front of the finished wall hanging I shared a pic of last weekend!

 Here you can see how I measure how much tail to leave between my staring point and ending point to have room to make a perfect join….

 I open the piece I cut off and use it as a measuring device 😀

Then in no time I had the binding hand stitched down on Monday and my honey with his stronger fingers pushed in the corners to hold in our wall hanging in the tobacco showing basket we found 🙂

This is a big part of southern history and this vintage piece is perfect for it’s center in our bedroom 😀  This is my link up for Julie’s UFO and WIP link up I linked to with the ironing board show off.  You get 2 entries to win something fun!!!

I have been watching my list and marking things off…

While one list is full.. it IS getting marked off little bits at a time. 

My hand stitching finish above is also getting linked up with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday… without her link up I wouldn’t have pulled this out and finished it !!!  HERE 🙂  Come see her free form stars she is hand appliqueing on circles and the circles on squares… all very fun looking to me!!!

Also in the hand quilting progress arena is this…

 Friday I had over a star’s width to stitch the overall design on… well I buckled down knowing this weekend was coming up quick and stitched and stitched and stitched until…

I was ready to roll!  And roll I did and you can see in the lower of the 2 above photos 🙂

This morning I woke with itching fingers to mark and stitch… so I did…

 I use the pink pounce to mark the overall design on the center with my stencil then go over it with the chalk pencil you can see below found on Amazon by Allary company as it is hard to see on it’s own…. Below it is now half marked 🙂

As a note… I did use some of this same pink chalk pencil I have been warned may not come out completely … on the rustic wall hanging border and all came out!!! Now this quilt is holding the chalk longer than that wall hanging did … but I have faith that with soap and warm water and soaking a couple rinses too… I should have a clean and ready to share quilt when done… we shall see!

As you can see also in the photo above… I thought I would have 2 more passes after this one… now I am thinking 1 and a bit more than I can fudge into 1 more pass left so I am now hyper focused to work on this… also

The quilt I have been piecing is now stalled at this point… approx 78″ square!

We have decided… after auditioning SEVERAL borders… 

That we need more of this fabric in 1 wide border… 

This fabric was used in the cornerstones so it is not foreign to this quilt and it is a civil war blue and wheaty tan color.  Have a few yards laying around by chance?? lol  So it waits and marinates for more sewing to happen to it…

I did get a new scissor fob in the mail from my favorite Etsy fob designer … Lauren of Mountain Laurel Designs HERE 🙂

She made this fob short at my request… everything was just to my liking actually… I ordered from her in the past so she knows my style too… I ❤ it 😀

Here is some eye candy I found on facebook this week too…

 And a non traditional take on valentines coming up but I love it!

I also wanted to share a new “personality” I found on YouTube thanks to a friend in my facebook group… HERE is  her take on 3 ways to make the Economy Block… take a watch it will open in a new window so you don’t lose your place here too 😀 

Now aren’t you glad you watched some or all of that .. she is sooo entertaining and informational at the same time!!!

My honey is beating the pain he is dealing with by building us a new and built in pantry in our kitchen… our own design and his own knowledge… here are some photos in process…

Still needs the bottom cross members and doors… those may come today or he may rest and watch tv for a bit today 🙂  He has been working on this the last 2 days leaving me to my own devices like stitching!!!

So where ever you are HOT or COLD weather prevails… is there anywhere it is just nice relaxing weather I wonder???  Australia is very very Hot… North of the Equator we are very very cold all compared to regular weather patterns for this time of year so be safe and careful and watch your pets!

Have a blessed one and thanks for visiting and don’t forget to check out ALL the Links I left for you this week as I …

Winter Blues Remedy Needed…

Y’all I am suffering from a terrible case of the winter blues mixed with the remainder of the flu bug I had last week.  Antibiotics are finished… steroids are done … but I have no get up and go!!  I am a glass half full girl though… so I pulled this from the archives and it is my motto today… gray skies and all!

So as I battle the January blah’s (I lived in Florida for the last 5 winters!  I don’t remember this being an issue there!)  I am trying to stay busy each day.  I spent some time with Gloria this past week sewing on Appalachian Delight!

 Last Sunday I got it to this point!

And over the week I sewed together all those half square triangles I had made as I made the Bear in the Cabin blocks…

I was giddy when the sides measured out exactly right !

I pinned them in place and sewed them on … adding top and bottoms in place too…

Tah Dah!!!!

Now don’t look at the mess underneath this quilt top in the making… that is part of my issue with winter time blues! But isn’t this looking spectacular so far!  Just like my pattern I had drawn out that I shared last week.  These Bear in the Cabin blocks look so nice framed by the burgandy with the blue diamonds at each intersection… My honey is not a lover of scrappiness like I am but he is liking this too… thank goodness since this is for our bed! lol  With all this progress on this quilt I want to link to my friend Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE!  Come take a look at her post… she did her own thing putting together the blocks of Bonnie Hunter’s latest mystery quilt… I LOVE her original take on this!

The pages I shared last week for you to print off I filled out while I have been trying to get my get up and go to get up and go…

Julie did a great job designing this list… as you can see I used mine for crafts AND quilting… I can list out what needs to happen and am already dating things as done on the borders of Bear in the Cabin… aka Appalachian Delight!  Wonder how I will get things marked off when this winter blah leaves!!!

I did do a bit of organizing amidst the knee pain I am dealing with and low energy issues…

This organizer I found very affordably ($20) from Target.com… ordered it one morning and it was delivered the NEXT DAY to my home via UPS.  We live very rural and no big stores like Target are near us… I have ordered from them before but never have I had such wonderful and fast service!  I look forward to buying another one of these organizers … they are made my closetmaid… and while not top quality for the price the organization and adding a few screws to their product adds the stability needed… I love it … all my bag making supplies are now organized on the back of my closet door where I keep my fabric stash in the sewing room!  SCORE!!!

I pulled this off facebook.  A girl made this sweet iPad cover from a pattern…. isn’t it precious!!!  Inspires me to want to do some applique and some embroidery too!!!

 That make by her encouraged me to finally make a cover for my honey’s spool table he designed….

My honey’s first initial is in the center… he didn’t want it puffy or pieced… he wanted a plain wholecloth design and he loves the finish… it is civil war fabrics left over from the quilt I am making now 🙂  He chose the fabrics that went into this make.  I made it washed it and dried it … no ironing needed even!!!!

Finally I want to share where I have spend some of EVERY long winters day this week… slow stitching on this never ending quilting project! lol

 Above is the start of the bottom of the 5th row of stars… and below is the middle of that row.

 You can see that wooden holder on my quilt… that holds my cell phone so I can watch youtube and Bluprint videos as I stitch… sometimes I listen to Pandora music instead… but this is a contraption I wanted and my honey made for me last year that I love!

 Here was my view this morning as I close in on the end of the bottom of the 5th row on my quilting frame!!!  Progress is real here y’all!

 So I continue marking some and stitching those chalk markings… then marking some more!  I am linking the slow and steady progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post where other like minded stitchers gather… come see what everyone is linking today HERE 🙂

Here was a fun item we got in this week and sold and mailed to it’s new owner…

 This little sewing machine was a child’s hand crank from the 1950’s… this one is an oddball as it has blackside parts all over it .. not only is it painted black which is a common color for these machines… but uncommon is the black metal it is made of.  This was common in the 1940’s due to war time efforts needing the silver so they made the metal black where possible.   Rarely do you see this carried into the 50’s.. wartime was over and remaining blackside parts got used here and there… so we were able to sell this to a collector of items like this… nice to see it go to a home it will be appreciated for it’s unusualness though!

Early last week when it was raining non-stop we noticed in the warmer wet weather we had some buds coming up next to the front door….

 Well they went back down into the freshly laid mulch now as the winter cold and wet has hovered so long they decided to wait to be identified but a friend of mine thinks this could be the beginnings of hyacinth blooms… we sure hope that is what they are!  This flower bed held hostas and they had overtaken the bed.. so we may find surprises in beds like this one around this property we now call ours… will keep you posted!

Please keep me and this winter blues issue in your thoughts and prayers… just by identifying it finally I am feeling better already.  If you are suffering a similar issue… talk to others about it like I have or call your doctor … get out and seek sunlight and healthy foods… I am doing all of this already.  But talking about it here is surely helping and your thoughts and prayers will help me have a better week I just know!

So make sure you make time to take care of yourself and to…

2019… in like a lion !!

In North Carolina we welcomed in the new year with rain and storms… many had flooding too!  I got a mongo chest cold as well which sent me to the doctor’s office last week praying for relief!  In like a lion…

Despite how I was feeling as 2019 dawned into existence…. I found this cool watercolor to depict how I wish I felt! lol

And a little messenger pic moment about midnight on New Years when I couldn’t breathe much so I wasn’t sleeping either!

Now to look back on this past week… with antibiotics, steroids and breathing treatments all under my belt it has been fairly productive even with being sick… we sure didn’t get out too much! lol  We were sick after all and didn’t want to spread the germs!!!

We got Christmas all put away.. even our cute snowman got dried off finally to store until next Christmas season!

Gloria and I spent some quality time together….

 We webbed this top using THIS Quilt Cam tutorial by Bonnie Hunter as a reference to remember some of the finer points…

 In order to do this well I had to reset my 1/4″ seam guide… I use my clear ruler and roll the needle down to the scant 1/4″ area on my ruler once the seam guide is generally in place….

 As you see from this view looking more down on the throat plate….

You cannot count on those measurements on the graduated throat plate to be accurate… use some sort of seam guide to assure your 1/4″ seam .. this is MY favorite style!

Here is a reminder of the Bear in the Cabin quilt I am sewing together the center of just now…

I don’t use any fancy stuff to graph out my quilt designs.. I use graph paper and pencils and colored pencils and pens to guide me and fabrics laid out … for instance in this photo I thought my cornerstones would be yellow… but in reality … we chose a confederate blue color for them! WOW 😀

I am linking this fun progress to my friend Wendy’s Quilts and More from New Zealand… Peacock Party Link…
HERE… she is having a party this year to celebrate 5 years of blogging and who knows what else but mentions prizes for linkers… I am all for a good New Zealand style prize! lol  And I love Wendy’s quilting both hand and machine like me she has it all together!!!  COME LOOK and her cute table runner she is sharing and link up too!!!

Whilst I have been recovering from this chest virus… I have been surfing blogs and enjoying this process of planning my attack on projects when I feel better… part of this process has been organizing myself with a list I found on another blog too at Julie of the Crafty Quilter HERE …

Now if you notice at the top of my page I have “Quilts” added below UFO and WIP List for 2019.

Well the reality is… my sewing room is doing multiple jobs these days with crafts, Etsy shop, quilting, bag making… wowee!!!  So I need to fix it up to work better for me and in the meantime I have been stockpiling things for non quilty projects in this room too… I need to list them out.  Like that wristlet I want to make that I mentioned last week… none of that is on here!!!  But for now this is a good start… until this cold is officially finished and steroid haze is out of my system 😉

I hope you find Julie’s page easy to print off to organize yourself… but maybe you don’t have so many projects going on… 

You may like to then focus on my favorite Sunday stop… Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers.  Kathy has 3 slow stitching goals for this year to share… aside from getting my top into one center piece and start figuring out the hst border that is next… I will be wholly focused today on my hand quilting project by the fire place…

Here was my view New Years morning….

And my view yesterday!!!!

 Finally feeling like getting it done…

 And I finally got it rolled !!!!!

I can see the top of this little quilt… that seems large right now as the quilting is slow going on this one… lots of seams to deal with!  And so much other stuff in the path! lol  So come on over HERE before you leave to Kathy’s and read about her goals for 2019 and see what other slow stitcher’s are linking up to 🙂

All of the links I have shared here should open to a new window so you don’t lose this information while browsing around.  Hope these links are helpful and found interesting by you 🙂

I hope you are each enjoying this crazy weather we are calling January here in the USA and that you are staying safe no matter where in the world you live… I have heard down under while we are having unseasonably warm and wet weather they are having hot and humid weather !

Thanks for stopping in… thanks for taking time to leave a comment too if you do… it is much appreciated and adored to have the honor to chat with you for a minute ❤  

How did your 2019 come in??? Like a Lamb or a Lion??  Meanwhile comment and tell me your motto for 2019 as well if you have one… I am sticking to this one this year for now 😀