October 2018 is around the corner!

Welcome to the last day of September 2018!!!

It is just so hard to believe that TOMORROW will be October 2018!!  Fall is here in North Carolina too!!  Cooler temperatures here in the mountains and crickets in the morning and early in the eves too… leaves are starting to fall on some of our trees and a faint yellowing is present on others…. ooooh soooo exciting!  I will take some pictures as this becomes more obvious for you all not in this area of the world to see… but I am so ready for natures show!  Keep your face toward the sunshine y’all… and your glass half full!

On that note I have an ALMOST finish to share and I am linking all this slow stitching post HERE to my good bloggy friend Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching… binding is where I will be today 🙂  Come over and see what everyone else is linking up… Grab a cuppa and enjoy the show and share!!!

Above I finished the quilt close to bedtime and cut it off the frame where it has been pinned since May…  Molly (our shih poo puppy) immediately claimed it as hers to enjoy! lol

So Molly has become my official quilt inspector!!!  She loves quilts even more than our Daisy did… she is so darling with her love of hand quilted quilts too… more than the ones I machine finished (which are few)… she prefers the softer hand quilted ones!

Getting Molly to pose for a photo is near impossible… but after letting her leisurely lay on the quilt as I trimmed up all 4 edges to prepare for adding the binding…  She even posed with my honey for a shot!  SCORE!!!!

Zena has been tied up quilting a quilt … I unattached the quilt mid quilting for her to do a more important task as she is the machine that can use the walking foot most effectively… so now the Cotton + Steel Optical Black cotton fabric… my favorite solid… got sewed on early the next morning…

 I used all I had and had to substitute some other black I found in my stash … all together 11 strips of width of fabric it took to bind this big old quilt!  It is about 109″ square now… I will remeasure it once it is washed and dried in the dryer this week though 🙂

Here I decided instead of the thicker YLI to put the binding on with 50 wt Aurifil in black… I love how it sinks into the fabric too ❤

 I added a label but this quilt was a lot of collaboration between my honey and I and my bestie… in fact 2 of the stencils I used were mailed to me by my bestie!!!  So I think I will add a proper label to the back side bottom as well to document this cool quilt better.

 Here is where I am this morning as I type this….

Here was the flimsy before it got layered and added to my Hinterberg frame…

 Here was the beginning photo I shared on my blog and social media too!!!

 Here are pillow shams I made with the leftovers of the fat quarters and yardage this quilt was made from…

 Here is one finished… we are using them now though…

 And here is how I feel in life right now…

So in other news… as I was finishing the stitching on the quilt earlier in the week… I took a partial day break from the stitching to make this cute table topper…

 And I tried out this NEW TO ME pen ….

It did NOT fade with washing and drying…

I didn’t dry it hard and it did need a quick steamy press for the three dimensional pumpkin stems.  It is added to my Etsy shop HERE and a quite popular addition I must say 😀  And it was fun to make something on the fly of my own design with new fabrics in my stash !!!  It is machine quilted in the center with hand quilting around the edges in the black border ❤

My giveaway winner from earlier this month was Jill who blogs HERE … she chose a pencil pouch from my shop as her prize!

She is going to use this pouch to wrangle her slow stitching crochet hooks 🙂  I can’t wait to see a photo of it in use too ❤ 

Congratulations Jill … she let me know what she was using it for and was so happy to receive it last week and impressed with how colorful it was and how wide it opened to easily see her different hooks 🙂  I am so happy for her!!!

Finally I wanna share a bit about my next slow stitching project… well I guess there are 2… I have a little pillow I am stitching on whenever I am on the go in my “go bag”… it will become my main project and will be completed before my next blog post so I will share it then.  It is just a simple wholecloth pillow I am hand quilting for my honey to snuggle as he sleeps… he has one but it doesn’t match our new decor in the bedroom with this soon to be completed quilt… so I will finish the pillow and make an envelope opening in the back for easy washing of this pillow covering.  The backing will be the same wide back backing you see on the quilt… I had a tad left over!

Once that is done I will start on my Violet Craft  EPP Rooster Project.  I am adding Project to it’s name for the blog because look at this…

It is 8… yes EIGHT pages of cardstock templates to make this rooster via english paper piecing!!!

This will be a project!!!!  So I pulled out the project tote my bestie Connie made me several years ago for projects that need a place to be laid out and organized on the go…

I even invested in a spool of Bottom Line polyester thread to keep my stitches as hidden as possible.  Connie also sent me a video of thread basting the hexies but the author of this pattern recommends glue basting with fabric glue because the pieces are mainly odd shaped.  After seeing this … and the hexies in this project are a bit larger than what Connie uses too… I have the fabric glue and will use it.  The tape runner is the author’s remedy to hold the back side of the fabric temporarily to the template… she says it won’t stick to the fabric permanently and it is similar to her recommended type… so I should be good there… It was from my paper scrapbooking days! lol

The pattern can’t be used to make to sell… but after seeing how many pieces this will take for a 20″ square finish… I think I will be fine making one for us and having fun with it alone…

 I will also be sorting my “scrap users system” I adopted from Bonnie Hunter into colors instead of colors and neutrals then sizes … With my new endeavors I find I need colors specific scraps not size specific scraps more for my Etsy shop makings.  I have a big bin in my sewing studio that needs to be sorted so I will start there… and end with these boxes relabeled into colors with a could neutrals bins maybe … maybe one dark and one light neutrals… hmmmm.

 So my question this week is about this sorting I will be doing this week in prep for the rooster start after I complete the binding… that is my sole focus until it is in the washer!!!!!!!!!!

Do you sort your fabric scraps?  How do you sort them if you do??  Do you use any type of scrap users system???  I know Bonnie does hers by size AND color but as you can see from my photo above.. I don’t have the scrap volume Bonnie does… but I am heading there as great friends are sending me scraps for my making … so I need to get a handle on this.  Please send me a photo if you will to my email HERE or leave a comment explaining your system if you have one… Thanks All for visiting!!!

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Happy Sunday Y’all!  Thanks for stopping in as well!!!  From the North Carolina mountains to you I wish you all well!

The views here are amazing and birds are always out chirping and singing happy songs!  We just love it here 😀  And this Bonnie-ism really seems appropriate today to share with you all…

Have you designed a life you love???  It can be quite tricky to accomplish I agree!

It has been a busy week here at the Lazy Daisy 🙂
 Last Sunday I spent time hand quilting and designing this wholecloth pillow from stash and leftovers of the quilt I am quilting currently…

 Why does my honey need a new snuggle pillow??  Will #1 his current snuggle pillow is getting worn… and #2 I made these cool pillow shams and the current snuggle pillow he sleeps with just doesn’t coordinate… it is cool batik colors and as you see… this calls for more warm muted colors…

 I used some tips from a Craftsy Unlimited class to make the Friendship Braid pattern on these pillow shams… the rest was all my design though 🙂  I love creating things in this environment!

I also am FINALLY a North Carolina citizen with voting priviledges and all!!  I am waiting for the official driver’s license to come in the mail… for now I have this paper ID to show my pride in my forever home state!

 I have been looking for this pattern and after successfully getting my driver’s license we made a run to Walmart down the road and in waiting for my honey I found this pattern…

 Yahoo!  It is for making memory bears… I can’t wait for the opportunity to make one with this pattern too!!!  Have you seen/made this pattern yet???

Also this week my honey got a close up on one of our resident FROGS!!!!

 He was by our water wheel… his favorite place to hang out… but rarely will he let us get close enough to get photos of him….. Yay!

I got 2 different orders of fabric… first came some backing and batting I ordered for the charity quilt I will be machine quilting later this week… I shared the quilt top last week….

 And I got this cool fabric to make a wall hanging for my sewing room!

My deal with myself is though… I must finish the pillow for my honey to snuggle before I bite into this next project… and I haven’t started to hand quilt his pillow top yet! lol  So it sits on my ironing table waiting for me to finish 1 to get to the next!!!!

After chatting with a good friend who machine quilts a lot… I decided to invest in some pool noodles at the dollar store for pin basting on the big island in our kitchen … I will be pin basting all 3 layers following a youtube video by Melanie Hamm.  She explains the process in 5 minutes and includes info on spray basting if you choose that.. I don’t but pin basting is my fave way to layer up a quilt for any type of quilting… I will be using Zena my 401a to machine quilt as that has the walking foot on it 🙂

The above photo is 2 pool noodles per “pole” and each pole has a long piece of quarter round to make it stiff and long … my honey came up with that idea!  I was gonna use mop handles we had picked up at the dollar store… so now we will return those and use what we had… being ingenious is my honey’s favorite talent btw! lol

Finally we are getting to my favorite part and where I have spent a good bit of my week…

 Hand quilting IS sooooo powerful…  I have made lots of progress too!!!

 From marking with my pounce pad (check out a YouTube video by Leah Day if you are interested in trying this method)… to stepping back and realizing I am 1/4 done with ALL the quilting on this quilt!!!

 Here is a close up of my current progress point….

 And here is a long view…

So all this hand quilting goodness I am linking up with other hand work lovers over at Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday linky party… Come on over HERE and see ALL this different kinds of hand work going on today all over the world!!!

Update for those of you following my honey’s sciatic pain… he did a steroid dose pack and muscle relaxers and heat this week and took it easy… the hardest part… and is not much better once the steroids finished up so we will be calling his primary doctor on Monday!

Also his newly acquired oxygen concentrator has a yellow flashing light… we thought we had solved the issue with a bit of water in the line… but this morning it is flashing again!!!  So we will be investigating both issues this week….

Keep him in your thoughts this week please!!!!

I will be making a comment first as soon as I post this so hopefully all your comments will come to my inbox today (that was a solution offered by another blogger last week)… otherwise if you don’t hear from me and you are nice enough to leave a comment on this post… come on back later and see if I saw it yet… I comment on EACH post every time! I love comments 😀

Have a blessed day and remember to…

7 Years Blogging … and WOW look what I am quilting this week!

I want this to be a spectacular 7th anniversary celebration and giveaway for all of you that read my blog each week 🙂  I have a stack of goodies for a giveaway planned for this week… then life stepped in and my week got uber busy!  

An unplanned trip to Asheville and some unexpected other stuff… well we will do the official celebration next weekend if y’all don’t mind!!!

I have made significant stitching progress this week between all the busyness though!!!  It really helps me manage stress QUITE effectively I find 😀 

So I have been getting up early and stitching in the mornings each day. I am linking this progress with other slow stitchers of all kinds at Kathy’s Quilts Linky Party HERE!  Come check out what all the slow stitching gang are up to and add your link if you blog about slow stitching of ANY kind!  We have cross stitchers, knitters, all kinds of hand stitching goes on and sooo much inspiration to be had from all over the globe too!  As for me… I am a recent transplant to a small town in far southwestern North Carolina USA 😀  I LOVE LOVE LOVE living here!

As does my honey of 7 plus years and our pup Daisy Mae of almost 7 years 😀  Here she is above enjoying the sunshine on our driveway !

Here is where my week started with this quilt last Sunday… laying out stencils… gathering a marking pen I could see on my fabrics that would also work with the stencils and making my plan ….

 After doing the marking and picking out some threads… a mix of big stitch and regular stitches… I was ready to begin!!!

 Don’t forget the proper lighting and a good rolling chair if you use a frame… much more ergonomic and effective to get in those strange positions to make even stitches if you have a rolling chair instead of a stationary one…

 Soon I had the first stitches in and spritzed away the blue marking lines to show off this wonderful texture!!!

 Then I remembered this Needle Keeper I had purchased and hadn’t even unwrapped yet so out it came to join my other one on the frame… it stands up off the quilt top enough to hold my hemostats that double as a needle puller when I get too many stitches on the needle or get in a tight spot and need the extra umph to get that needle through thick seams or something… invaluable tool!

Another basic and invaluable tool I use besides a regular thimble (took me AGES to learn to wear one but my fingers and finger nails love me for it! lol) is making a fashioned thimble from white electrical tape from a hardware store!  

Black gums up and leaves residue… they come in lots of colors too … I have found white leaves NO residue and no gumming up either!  So I make a thimble for my thumb from that and it HELPS SOOOO MUCH!!!

 If you are interested in a tutorial on how I make my thumble … just leave me a comment and I can add that to next weeks post 😉

Here is a look from the halfway point back to the beginning mid week….

 And here is a look when I was working on the end of the row….

Excuse my wet spot on the burgandy cornerstone.. I had just spritzed off my marks and wasn’t patient enough to let it dry before snagging this shot for you all… I was ready to roll!!! lol

I rolled on Friday I think…. marking only about 1/6 of the quilt where I planned to quilt at a time as it is humid out and we keep our windows open a LOT here… the weather is GLORIOUS!!!  But that can make all those marks disappear as humidity is a water like thing.  So be careful if you are in a rainy spot of the world and use the spritz away marking pens.  Mark only what you think you will get to in 2 or 3 days is my recommendation. 

So finally rolled soo I was looking at this this morning!!!

 But when I looked closely at this part here… where the burgandy corner meets the sashing… I knew this wavering edge was NOT what I wanted in this quilt forever…

So I went to my threads I had pulled for this quilt from my thread stash and decided on a big stitch outer line to stabilize AND be a design element on the quilt!

 What do you think??? 

I could have stitched in the ditch with a regular hand quilting weight thread too… but I decided this was just what this quilt needed to me 😀  Hope my honey likes this design decision when he wakes… otherwise I will take out this bit and stitch in the ditch for stabilization in an invisible way once washed…. I have done the ditch stitching on the black thin border using black thread on either side of that black line and it disappears when you look at it.

Next up is a setting triangle motif and swirls and hearts in this cool YLI blue variegated thread! My bestie Connie sent me the stencils from her collection above and below as well as the wavy lines in the outermost border … the rest are from my own stencil stash I have grown over my quilting career!

So if you are new to hand quilting… think about your quilting friends and see if any are willing to “share” their stash with you … likewise think if you would be willing to share  your stash with them!!!  Returning stencils when you are done is very important too!!  Stencils can be readily bought at some LQS’s and online at Quilting Stencils International and also The Stencil Company… I like the layout of The Stencil Company best and prices at both are similar.  I had picked out the same stencils that I borrowed from Connie actually… we both found that quite funny that what I picked out for wanting on this quilt she had in her stash already!!!

I mentioned earlier that we had to go to Asheville unexpectedly this week… Rick needed to visit the VA after he had called them about something so to Asheville we went on short notice… so I grabbed a project I have had lurking in the background but haven’t worked on in ages!!!

 This is a little wall hanging… not sure of it’s measurements but less than 24″ square I would bet… I had layered it with wool batting it looks like and a backing of leftover plaid fabric from my stash… you can see even though it is dark fabri it doesn’t darken the light grey background on the center part though… or dull the yellow of the outer border 😀  Experiment with fabrics you have in your stash for backings… you never know what will work for a project til you experiment!

Here it is just popped out of my 17″ frame as whilst in Asheville waiting I finished outlining the flowers and now need to outline the flower centers and the center star with black variegated thread. then mark and quilt the inner border and outer border after that !  A few more trips to Asheville and I will have this one done… how exciting to make progress on this slow stitching project… thus far I have just stitched with grey thread around the center flowers as I mentioned above so nothing to show a close up of… I have left it out of the hoop to relax from living in the hoop for a year or more already! YIKES … NOT ideal at all!!!

Lucky for me this is wool batting that wants to be puffy and not retain a crease from the hoop I use… my hoop is a heavy plastic hoop that is 17″ across… I LOVE IT… you can purchase one like it affordably at Joann’s online if you are interested… it is large but when I use it I just turn it and work on one side at a time 😀

My bloggy friend Karen wanted me to share photos of a project I am languishing on… my wholecloth!

So here are a couple shots of that project… I am on the second photo working my way from right to left filling in the dark green leaves when inspiration for this project I had worked on a lot until then left me… I got busy piecing and prepping for the quilt I shared at the beginning of this post “Hanover Stars” and quit hand quilting all together for a bit.

While it was nice to give my hands a rest… they are eager and happy to be back to hand quilting… Hand quilting is therapeutic in a way I can’t explain for me… I LOVE IT more than any other hand craft I have done before… I listen to music or watch learning videos on youtube or Craftsy… I splurged and got Craftsy Unlimited 2 months ago right after moving in here and LOVE LOVE LOVE all I can learn whilst stitching away … sometimes I do more watching… sometimes I have to rewind as I have gotten caught up in my stitching progress! lol  It is all good because you can rewatch all you want and LEARN soo many cool things… if you are interested in giving Craftsy Unlimited a try go to my friend Karen’s blog here and click on her Craftsy link and then click on Craftsy Unlimited… I think they may have a free trial but I can’t see any of those things right now… TOTALLY WORTH the monthly or yearly fee though!

In closing… the first photo I shared of the rose comes from this bush…

 Which is right outside my bedroom window….

 My honey brought that bud into me in a little glass with water to keep it thriving next to my frame as I quilt 😀

Then out the kitchen window we watch these flowers as they take root and are starting to bloom again from being planted a couple weekends ago….

 And here is a collage of mother nature’s symphony of beauty all around our little acre and a half….

That center shot shows an ancient weeping willow that stands just north of our garden and fruit trees… it is said a bald eagle comes and watches for fish to swim close to the top in our pond so he can swoop down for a feast of fish… but we haven’t seen him yet ourselves.

We have about 50 strawberry plants about ready to start bringing us mature strawberries, we have grape vines with baby grapes, more rose bushes, peach and apple trees, and blueberry bushes in abundance… so exciting to take ride abouts and walk abouts on our land and see the abundance of goodness we will soon be enjoying by hand!!!

OOOh… another thing I learned from a Craftsy Unlimited class by Debbie Caffrey (Cut to It – Designs for Smarter Cutting) and designed myself from that instruction and encouragement were these pillow sham fronts….

I plan to machine quilt them from a walking foot class by Jacquie Gering I also watched on Craftsy Unlimited this weekend!  We will see when and how that turns out 😀

Have a blessed weekend and see ya next weekend for a very fun giveaway I have planned… I will have a shorter post I hope then too! lol  For now please remember to always …