Stitching… Sewing… Traveling… Shopping >>> We are home!

This last week has been a bit on the crazy side!

My sewing room… as well as most of the house was a MESS!  And we needed to take a trip back to our hometown.  We had LOTS of loose ends and we both have health issues to address prior to and during the upcoming trip as well!

First things First… Clean up around here a bit!!!  Because I needed Gloria for a very important project!!!

With Gloria now ready for the task at hand… I cut out the pattern Sara Lawson wrote for this cross body bag in Large 🙂 … and Small for later use too!  But this was to be a surprise “big purse” requested by my dd for her 20th birthday celebration when we take our trip!

First I printed the FREE PDF pattern for this awesome bag HERE and used her accompanying video HERE and started cutting out pieces and parts … fabrics and interfacing… hoping what I was imagining would come into being in a cool way!  Sara also posts twice weekly shows on youtube and has a fun facebook group 😀

I used the last of the fabrics from a quilt I made my dd and some others from my stash that coordinated.

There is a handy 1 page list of necessities Sara provides to make this cool cross body bag come to life in either size so I took that shopping and started my gathering collection of bag making supplies! lol

Soon I was to my arch nemesis… the zipper!

 SCORE!!!!

Then the purse hardware called a twist lock… I ordered this one from a super fast shipping Etsy shop too ❤

 And sooner than expected… but just in time for our trip to Tennessee… I had the purse complete!

Here is a photo I like the best before getting photos with the recipient!

Meanwhile my honey was in an organizing frenzy in his man cave and in the kitchen!  Check this room out now!!!

It still has some decorating to go… a bit of clutter here and there.. but boy is it looking so much nicer now in our kitchen!!!

Then he got a surge of energy thanks to some medicine helping his back and hip pain and started working OUTSIDE on the bushes!  Here you can see from our front door to the right side of the Lazy Daisy…

 Just beyond these huge shrubs he is trimming is the Valley river and our land continues on above and beyond that until you get to some railroad tracks… they are only used occasionally these days tho!

 If you look at this close up you can see the building up in the top left of the photo… that is our post office for the town we live in… just below that is the rail road tracks and our property is this side of that then! 🙂

You can always hear the rushing of the river on the Lazy Daisy… we love that !!!

Then we got the new hard drive we ordered in the mail… for the one that became corrupted in the Dell laptop… we ordered a faster and more efficient one we thought… but not sure how fast… so it was time to switch them out…

Well let me just say Windows website and chat people were the most helpful place we went for help for free … we are neither one tech savvy… but together with their help and instruction we were able to download Windows 10 and upload it via a USB drive to the new hard drive.  I got frustrated at one section of it and walked away… but Rick persisted and soon he had a NEW and super fast working computer !!!

 It is faster than my new desktop in some ways even!!!

 So here we sit now side by side… his oil cans and our favorite lighthouse wood carving adorning our spots… yep still lots of clutter here too but that is okay… we  will find neat and tidy homes for all our “stuff” 😀

With ALL of this done you would think surely we would rest the day before our trip but no… Rick worked on MORE projects and I made my dd (darling daughter) Brandi a “snap bag” from THIS tutorial I found on youtube by Riley Blake designs.. but I rounded my edges and didn’t use the tape she suggests as I didn’t need it….

This cute bag stays closed unless you pull it open with the prairie points!  UBER CUTE and fast and easy to make.. I quilted this one and boxed the bottom corners too!  Each side of the bag is fussy cut for sea turtle cuteness ❤

Finally it was Friday morning… Rick had cut down Daisy’s big crate to make it Daisy sized and we loaded all we need for an overnight trip to central Tennessee…

And soon we were all at the hotel together and she finally could see all our hard work via iPad photos and vids… and then it was time to open her goodies we brought!

Soon our night was over.. but we did enjoy all waking in the middle of the night for some giggles… Rick is a real jokester and Brandi and I enjoyed his humor … esp at 2 am!!!

The hotel provided a nice breakfast then off to the airport so Brandi could meet with what she believes her destiny is in New York state!!!  So far away but she is 20 now and it is time for her to carve her own life.  I love you my dd!! ❤

We then visited for a good bit with my bestie Connie who came by the hotel after working all night!  It was sooo good to get a great big hug from her 😀

Then we were off to trek back to our home state of North Carolina.. and even though we had only been gone a day we missed it terribly!

We did pick up this cool tall skinny shelf to the left of the TV and quickly filled it up with vintage goodies….

 We found a light oak bread box too…

 and an oak and black shelf…

 That is sitting on our mantle for the time being….

 We also found a few clothes while we were thrift shopping our way home… and this cool quote on wood…

 Finally… to share my handwork during all this busy time I am halfway through the 10th row of 13 rows all together y’all!  I have also been working on Rick’s new pillow top too in the car and in the hotel 😀

 So that is what has been happening here and why I have been so quiet… My sewing room is straightened up once again and ready for the next cool project to pick up on again!  What will it be???Focus on the hand quilting I do believe!!!  lol

For now have a blessed rest of your week and a HAPPY HUMP DAY!!!!  And enjoy all the youtube links and pdf link I left you…

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Tops are being seen Everywhere here… so much excitement to share!

Can you believe it is just 2 days until AUGUST!!!  Wow… this year is flying by for us… how about you?

This week I worked on some swirly bits here…

 And finished up a spool of DMC perle 12 cotton I was using to big stitch them…

 I finished up that much all the way across … rolled the quilt down just a bit and look at my view at 71% completed now!!!

I am now ready to star ditch stitching the upper part and adding in the wavy lines in the blue blocks… then when they are done just TWO that is 2 more lines of blocks to do on this quilt!!!  We will be sleeping under it before Fall is officially here I do believe!  Sew EXCITING 😀

Better late that not at all.. I am linking this great slow and enjoyable stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow stitching Sunday post HERE as I did work on this on and off all last week and this past weekend too ❤

I also have another top with progress…

Daisy’s Stars is a quilt for our pup Daisy to sleep under that will coordinate a bit with the some of the same fabrics I used in the quilt I am hand quilting for our bed… she sleeps at the foot of our bed and under a quilt I made early in my quilty career.. it is getting threadbare now and ready for trips and other jobs… not the foot of our bed! lol 
I know there are some that don’t understand why you would make a quilt for a dog… but our doxie is our kid and we love having her on top of the covers at the foot of our bed… but she loves to snuggle quilts too… just like us… so this will now waiting to be quilted.  I have some batting I found in my stash and a backing I found in my stash… the border was in my stash as was the center parts too… so it is a scrap lovers dream! 🙂

But let me share what I am most EXCITED about this past week to share with you…

 Above… my honey got the computer back up… long enough for me to pull ALL of my pics and documents off the hard drive… he just kept on messing with it on and off until he got that folder opened!!!  I was soooo excited.  Now we have ordered a new hard drive for this laptop to get it back up and running!  ((Hope we can get it installed and Windows 10 back on it!!!))

And then to make the week even more exciting … he decided I needed a sound bar just for my new computer!!!

So above is my set up now… he hung the sound bar with little bunge cords and some black chain he had in his stash as well as some cup hooks that go into the shelf above it all hangs from so no vibration as the bunge cords are rubber and absorb any vibration… it is an LG and was under $80 so a good buy… now my desktop has great sound for listening to Craftsy aka Bluprint and as seen here more Sara at SewSweetness here where I am learning to make bags… like this one I am about to make for my dd Brandi!

This is the Oriole Bag and the directions are via pdf with a pattern for free and a youtube instruction as well.. I will be adding an inside zipper pocket to the one for Brandi and I have a cute front open lock I ordered from Etsy.  Can’t wait to share this finish with y’all!  Then a great friend of mine wants one in the smaller size… so I will learn with Brandi’s and make one for my friend Debbie when her fabric choices arrive next!  Wowee 🙂 

 I saw this cute shirt on facebook this week…

I loved the layout of it… and it kept me up and sewing for sure!

I also saw this sweet memory bear… remember I bought a bear pattern a while back… well a friend wants some made… I may use some of these ideas… a pic of him on one foot.. his dates on the other foot and a sweet saying on the belly.  These are just ideas though… nothing firm yet… but wanted to share with you all here 😀

 And we had some neighbors come fish in our pond… and look what Johnny caught…

 This is about a 20 pound fighting … brown trout!  How he caught him we aren’t sure since he is so big!!! lol  All that daily or near daily feeding of high protein food and not many fishing our pond … makes for big healthy fish!!!

 My honey took him back to his house with his son and his magnanimous fish and watched Johnny clean and prepare the fish in the river for cooking… he wrapped it once prepared in aluminum foil for dinner that same night!  Uber cool we say!!!

I saw this little meme on Facebook this week and though how apropos it was to me and my honey:

 What are your adult goals!???

And a favorite Bonnie Hunter saying I saw just the other day… really TRUE!!!!

 Well that catches me up with each of you for this week.  Hope you have a blessed week.  If you made it this far please take time to say hello in a message below!  I love hearing from each of you ❤

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….

September is Speeding By!!!

Can it already be mid September?? Wowee !!!  We have been busy here.. how about you?

I am working on hand quilting this block in my memory quilt for a dear friend…

I have also updated my computer and speaker… to a Dell and a Bose respectively.. and am loving them both!  I even got a cute new mouse that coordinates with my new blue Dell!  🙂

I got new glasses and a new hair do as well…

It is a bit of a mess here but I love it … and so does my honey!!!  So that is nice 🙂

I also got my dd her Christmas present… a quilt top she fell in love with on eBay…

As many of you know.. piecing is not my favorite part of making a quilt… the hand quilting is… so I will enjoy hand quilting this next spring for her to enjoy but gifting the top with backing she chose from a host of wide backs I showed her… I am excited for her to receive this and know it will soon be quilted for her.. maybe she will want to help me even!!!!

Mostly we have stayed busy with featherweight and 301 sales… currently we have 2 on eBay…

and one of facebook… UPDATE>>> this one is sold!!!

We are very blessed our “business” is going well too!

Hope your September .. is it coming into autumn or spring where you are?? … is going well.. and hopefully not feeling as fast as my own is 🙂

Now that I have caught up with all of you I am now ready to…

Hope you are doing some of that too!!!

Hello September :)

Hello my bloggy friends and…

 It is hard to believe life has been so fast forward for me that I haven’t shared with you since MID AUGUST!!!!

Hot and humid here… how is your weather???

As we welcome September 2015 into our lives… I am still stitching on the same dress on the memory quilt I was in my last post.. stitching is getting done… just not at a fast pace.. lol!

I have now not only updated my computer to Windows 10 .. but a new computer I got for my dd for her final 2 years of high school and into college (will she do that?? lol) .  I updated it to Windows 10 as well.  Windows 10 is So EASY to navigate… the negative to Windows 10 is if you have anything pirated on your computer… it does remove that stuff… I don’t so all is good for me 🙂

The BIG SURPRISE was a gift to me from my honey!

I got a new computer too!!!!

It came with Windows 8.1 but I quickly and easily (after 3 restarts of the computer) got Windows 10 on it as well.. and transferred all my pics and docs to it as well!!!  For now we are keeping that old computer as it does still work… just VERY slow at it these days! lol

I will say of all the computers I have owned DELL has BY FAR the best customer support available 24/7 but on the first call I was assigned to a team there and they have called me to check my status and answered emails and voicemails promptly.

Are you in the market for a new computer ???  Check out Dell and this one was a factory refurbished one we got for half off retail but with all the expertise of help that a new one comes with and it flies on the internet and processing multiple pages too!  Thanks for offering top quality products dell and very affordable too!

Hope September brings you pleasant weather and calmness before the frenzy that seems to ensue for everyone as Christmas approaches…

Until my next post…(hopefully not making you all wait 2 weeks or more this time! lol)