April and Springtime in North Carolina… Yummy!!

Happy April Y’all!

I have been busy and have sew much fun to share today!!!  

Springtime in April in North Carolina may be my favorite month!!!  We have been here a year now.  Winter is finally behind us and while I didn’t mind winter… it is cool and it was a very wet winter here this past year… they say that is not usual though.  But April has been STUPENDOUS!  Windows open and cozy and I have gotten lots of Hand Quilting done too ❤

Mainly… with the assistance of Gloria my Singer 301a and Cleopatra my Singer 319w I completed the flimsy for Elliana!!!  Elliana is due to arrive the end of May to my son James and his wonderful wife.  They are excited and we are too !!!

 They wanted a wilderness theme and specifically named the animals I put in this quilt… then used a pattern I found on Generations Quilting website HERE to make the chain pattern blocks and designed the rest myself using the excited couples requested colors of a smoky grey navy color, blush pink and silvery grey 🙂  This quilt completion is a goal met for Julie’s UFO & WIP List goal post.. I am linking that that HERE.

Friday I got a delivery of Aurifil for this and future quilts for me and my bestie Connie from Hawthorne Threads…

 That background is some sale fabric I ordered too… it will become a doc bag for traveling for my honey to use for his shaving gear 😀

So while I enjoyed pulling out the Garden Bouquet Queen Whole Cloth this past week… and made great progress on it…

 I decided to focus whole heartedly on Elliana’s quilt…

Can you see that view that I see every single quilting session!!!

So it got loaded & the first row marked with blue water soluble marker yesterday!!!

Here are my gathered supplies for this project for threads and marking and even the binding is done and ready to add…

 Here is a better photo of the first 3 blocks I will be focused on ….

And an important start is basting the edges so that it is hidden under the binding when done… this basting holds all 3 layers together where initially there were flat headed pins….

This trivial seeming edge basting is now something I do on every hand quilted quilt I do… it adheres the edge so that there are no puckers or pleats or waves in the edges when all hand quilting is done and it is time to add the binding… it is just a professional way to quilt I think 😉

I am linking all this hand quilting progress and helpful tips this week to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday HERE and to Wendy’s Peacock Party fun HERE … take a minute to see what each blog linky party has to share!  LOTS & LOTS OF FUN… Kathy is located in cool Canada and Wendy is enjoying the onset of autumn in New Zealand! 🙂

I also have some other things brewing in the sewing room to give me some variety because I love variety :D…  I am making new ironing surfaces and covers for the new ones and the old one.  Also I am making a bag for a customer!  I have also done a bit of the rooster EPP but no photo to share yet… Hopefully next weekend I will though!

My honey has been sick most of the week… he started outpatient physical therapy despite this and we both were sick soon after then pushed on… but he succumbed to more days of feeling under the weather until the weekend.  We are both back on top again… He even fashioned another medallion to sell to a lucky girl 🙂

So I hope you are not under the weather but enjoying April where ever you are… take time to smell the season of flowers blooming near you… or if you are like me … enjoy waiting for the blooms to burst open to share what lies inside!!!

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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 …

Slow Stitching is my SANITY ya’ll!

Looking for just the right opening for this post… I found this …

And wish each of you that came to read my blog today a very Happy Weekend!

I have made very good strides hand quilting this week and have moved the quilt 2 different times!

Here was where I was when I wrote my blog last week…

 But through the day Sunday I made great strides…

 By Tuesday I was here…

 And on Wednesday… Happy Belated Valentine’s by the way…  Isn’t this patchwork and applique someone on facebook shared just lovely!!!!  I hope to make something like this one day…

Meanwhile… I was here on the wholecloth quilting…

 Then I made this progress….

Finally the packing has moved us into our bedroom so now my quilting area is here…

 where the desk used to be attached to the wall! lol

 Here is a view of my quilting area this morning after my second move of the quilt…

 And a close up of where I will spend my quilting allotted time today! 😀

I am loving this project as we are packing and sorting and selling and trashing .  It gives me consistency to turn to when everything else is just “will this go… if so will it fit the u-haul moving truck we are renting?”  That is our question for everything we are taking these days too!

So this is / was our dream home in the Appalachian foothills…

the fairly curvy steep driveway opens up to this lovely view of the home we want to call home.. but inspections are coming back and problems are being unearthed.  So it is not clear but what we do know is that we will be closing this house out midweek and moving up to North Carolina with each other and our pup Daisy Mae… in a uhaul.

Our car is having some manufacturer issues with the transmission… and we are negotiating it’s return before leaving too… so we don’t know if we will be traveling alone following each other or if we will all be squeezed into the uhaul for our journey north…

Someone in one of my facebook groups shared this picture this week.. from Pinterest… aren’t they lovely!

I think we are likely to see cute birds like these in Appalachia country… we shall see!!!

More info to come as we know more too… I will be sharing a Friday or Saturday post on this topic so that next time I share with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching it is only about lovely slow stitching I will be doing not all the angst happening behind the scenes as well.

Please keep this home in your mind and keep prayers for us making the right decisions in your hearts is our request!

Have a blessed weekend and week ahead whatever your focus is.  We are excited to leave Florida in our rear view mirrors however things turn out and return to a land where there are seasons while the beach will just be a short driving vacation away!!!

Now go on over to Kathy’s Quilts blog and see what other slow stitchers are linking up right HERE!

Here is our goal in this move… what is your goal for this month… or this year??!!

Leave me a comment with your response if you like 😀

February is speeding by here!!!

Happy mid February Y’all!  I can’t believe it is the 11th already !!!

After my last post we had a frenzy of showings on our home… then after a showing on February 1… we got a cash offer for our home and we accepted!!! 

The NEXT DAY they had us leave again for an inspection!!!  So to the beach we went 😀

It was windy but warm for the beginning of February… and the tide was out so it was good!  Negotiations after the inspection continued until we settled on the original agreement on February 6 with all things signed… now to find a new home for us to move to!

We had been looking north to get back to seasons and decided Appalachian foothills country would be closer to family in Tennessee and seasonal but closer for beach visits and more moderate climate WITH seasons … with trees and mountains… all the things we miss in flat Florida ! lol

Here is a view from an overlook near the part of the Appalachian foothills we will be calling home…

Click on the pic to make it larger if you like… it is near the clouds though!!!  Lots of ear popping happened on this trip!!!!

Soon we settled on a house but we are waiting on all to be final… so just a few shots of the house to show you what we have in mind as awesome..

 Soon it was the last time we would be entering Florida as actual residents … our trip up north only lasted 2 nights and 3 days but thanks to my honey’s prowess on finding properties online… we found a house we want to fix up to call home!!!

We looked at several houses and went back to this one a total of 3 times before making our decision final… but it has privacy, is newer all around that our current home, it is better sized for the 2 of us and an occasional visitor, plus it has TONS of potential and good bones about it as well!  And we got it for what we could afford to pay from the sale of the house we are selling so it a GREAT 😀

Meanwhile, I have been hand quilting mainly.. I did make up a few Kaleidoscope blocks … but my focus has been packing, washing, moving, and finding our forever home as well… as it should be!

Here is the section of quilting I was working on last post on my Colorful Whole Cloth quilt…

 And here it is laid out on the floor when I turned it to get to the opposite side…

 I am working from the center out… so once I had reached one side completely… I felt I needed to turn the quilt and work from the center that was done… to the outer opposite edge… so here it is back in my PVC frame ready for me to quilt…

 Here I am rotated and making quilty progress…

 And here is where I am working this morning ….

 Here is an overview of all I have done on THIS side 😀

I am enjoying the variety of colors and stitching this quilt involves… esp with so much going on in our lives presently… and this PVC frame hand quilting project will work nicely until my wood frame gets set up in our new home if all goes according to plan on that.  Linking this hand quilting progress and where you will find me on and off today with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday link… come see what other hand stitchers are doing at her Olympic focused Linky Party HERE!

Here are some Kaleidoscope Krazy blocks I have been stitching a bit on…

 Here they are as I had cut and paired them up into sets and pinned them… these piles when sewn will bring me to halfway on block construction for this big quilt…

 While sewing these I am trying out leaders and enders Bonnie Hunter style…  making hour glass blocks!!!

 Above are the ones that I trimmed up 😀

And this quote sums up my life right now…

 A Wild Wild ride!!!!

Here is a cool barn quilt block I saw on saved on my computer… while up in the Appalachian foothills we saw lots of varieties of barn quilts… so if we are blessed enough to move there I will be looking for pointers on painting my own to show off on our home!!! Always wanted to do this too soooo awesome to get the house and the chance is all works out 😀

 And who doesn’t love doxie quilts for doxie owners… doxies in sweaters… love this layout and inner border of winding ribbon!!!

 So until my next post….

We are DEFINITELY doing this NOW!!!!

Making good progress here on my Colorful Whole Cloth Quilt and MORE!

Happy Slow Stitching Sunday to you all!!!  I am happy to be linking up magnanimous progress today at Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday Celebration day… check out all the linkers HERE 😀

Before I share my AWESOME progress this week I wanted to share this Needle Nanny  / Needle Minder / Needle Keeper Notion that so many of you asked about last week.  This one was gifted to me by a great friend…. but I have made them as well since receiving this one!

Here is how it works with craft magnets on either side of the quilt and attached to a flat backed bauble of your choosing.  I have even added a craft magnet to a magnet… just make sure you put happy sides together before adding hot glue ! lol

Glue the magnet to your object of beauty then put a magnet happy sides together on the other side of your quilt … they will hold on to each other THROUGH your quilt sandwich!!!!  Tah Dah 😀  Hope this helps you make or to at least understand how they work!  I also use mine to hold my thimble onto my tilted frame… keeps it from rolling off this way because it has the lip avoid the rolling! 🙂

This week I think I hadn’t made much progress until I looked at last weeks blog post and WoW!!!!

Here is where I am this week!

I started here just moving the quilt in my PVC frame….

 I did take a peek at how much was left and it was one more move in the frame to get to the cool border!!!!

 So once I determined how much was left I decided to make this quilt even more my own and not leave what I call the “honeycomb” sections open to be puffy once washed but to fill them in like this…

 Doesn’t that look sooo cool??!!!!

I did that using these items…

 I used my honey’s medication for his inhaler that has a convex top side to leave an indention on the quilt once rubbed in well…

 Like this … can you see!!??

 Then using colored chalk lead in my mechanical pencil I marked that indention… then quilted it …

Here is a section that is now completely done….

Here is the whole edge with the wavy outer border…

 And here is either side to see better is you like… I think you can click on the pics to get a big view if you are on a computer 😀

Here is where I am this morning though…

I hope you can see the circles I will be working on today… I have 2 more sections this size to do then I can move to a different side of the quilt!  Oh my!!!! Very exciting!!!

Many people have asked about the blue lines that come premarked on this whole cloth quilt as well… do they really come out after all that work… well go back and look at some of my shots but I am spritzing and erasing as I go so YES they do come out… but best to soak in the washer for a bit I think.. and that is what I have heard as well from other hand quilters who have done this sort of whole cloth quilt.

Here is a fun pic I made for a hand quilting group… maybe you will like it too!

So whatever kind of project you are investing your time in… use your own creativity to make it your own I say!!!

Here is a cute Solar Dinosaur we found at Dollar Tree this week!  It keeps me smiling as we make our way around our town…

And here are some blocks I have also been working on this week when I am not slow stitching on this quilt….

These blocks (40 of them ) represent about 1/3 of the quilt to be for us to use… it is going to be a cool quilt I think when finished but kind of a Bonnie Hunter style scrapiness to it 😀  Speaking of Bonnie… did you catch her Quilt Cam yesterday afternoon?  Check that out HERE on her blog post this morning if you are interested!!!  She is actually lining up to be near me tomorrow but the class is full and my wallet doesn’t have $$ budgeted for her this time… but hopefully once we are relocated closer to her neck of the woods I can catch a class of hers in real time!!!  Have you ever seen someone you adore in real life?  What was it like??  I saw Jenny Doan of MSQC a few years back… she is as adorable in person as she is on youtube if not moreso… I saw her trunk show and HIGHLY recommend you seeing her trunk show too if you ever get the chance!!!

As for facebook groups… I do have one…

We chat about hand and machine quilting and piecing there… It is a closed group so you are safe to share your hidden objects and ask questions or share advice and progress as you make it.  It is a small group under 100 people and I plan to keep it small.  If you are interested in being part of this style group then click HERE to ask for entry.  Right now I am asking what everyone plans to focus on for February 😀

I hope you have a blessed end of January and welcome February with open arms!  Make sure you …

along the way too!  Until my next posting… Happy Quilting!

Slow Sunday Stitching and Photo Challenge… Yippee!

I am sooo excited is is FINALLY Sunday y’all!

Time to head over to Kathy’s Quilts HERE and see what this photo challenge and slow stitching is all about!!!  Here is my camera!  An iPhone 6 I have had for over 2 years 😀

 It is part of a wristlet style wallet that is my go everywhere hold-it-all wallet that I slide out of that outer protective case when at home and snap shots like all the ones below!

Here is the goal of today’s shooting… my hoop is a 17″ plastic hoop with a ridge around the center that makes it hold the quilt in it quite nicely… in it is a wall hanging called Homespun Wall Hanging that is my travel project and aside from the quilt I am working on … is my now longest waiting to be worked on UFO in the house… It was made up for me over 3 years ago I think by my best friend… then I added borders a couple years ago and layered it up with excitement to start and finish it quick.
Then it sat waiting for it’s turn since I don’t sit in the recliner it sat next to anymore due to my arthritic knees needing replacement.  I sit in this chair and have this view instead! lol

See the hoop to the left…
It has now been made my travel project for when we make trips north of here looking for a new home… we have our home up for sale presently and every now and then we will be making trips north in search of more seasons and less hurricane weather!  So whilst I wait to find the right time to spend with that one… I am working on my oldest UFO in a PVC frame my honey made me before I got the big wood Hinterberg frame that has now been disassembled and packed for this upcoming move!

Here is the quilt I shared last week… sitting out to be enjoyed before I stuff it in a cotton pillowcase and pack it for our move….

 Now I am working on a colorful wholecloth I have had pin basted and worked on in that hoop for a time now I am putting it in the PVC frame for a faster finish as I can work on a larger area at a time and my arthritis and frame quilting gets along better ! lol

Here are the colors of thread going into this project…

 The pink sewing machine charm is actually a needle minder given to my by my good friend Debbie one year in the past… I LOVE IT!  I never knew such a device existed but it is just a heavy duty magnet on each side of the quilt that attract to each other to hold them together topped with a charm of your preference… this one reminds me of the giver too!

See how nicely it holds my needle spot for me 😀

 Above is a shot of my frame when I am stitching watching “When Calls the Heart” on Netflix… such a sweet show in this day and age of so much crazy stuff on the television channels… this one is one you can share with young viewers or enjoy by yourself… I enjoy it by myself 😀

And below is a close up of the hand quilting I imagined and completed whilst watching this series on Netflix….

Here is a shot of where I am this morning… almost ready to move the quilt in the frame!!!

I wish you could feel the texture all this quilting makes on this quilt!!!  It’s legal name is Garden Bouquet Whole Cloth Quilt… and it is quilt sized… I did change the edges you will see by next week to be scalloped.  I will have to make bias binding for this one because of that!!!  But that is a ways off still.. about 1/3 done with this one so far working out from the center that is completely finished.

And here is a series of 3 shots of close ups of my hand quilting for you to enjoy!

While featherweight 221’s have been taking a back seat to our home selling focus lately… we found one local on Craigslist and are in the midst of parting out right now as it was in poor cosmetic shape but so nice to find an older (1936) featherweight to spend time with that was working too!!!

So take some time and visit around at Kathy’s… and take some slow stitches today whether it be quilting or some other way of getting needle and fabric together… share what you are up to at Kathy’s with a pic to join in her Photo Challenge… or just leave me a comment about what YOU are up to!!

Remember most of all though to …

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend in the USA :)

My blog has been so quiet all week.  Here in the US it is a Holiday Weekend…

For us Thanksgiving is a long weekend of food, family and shopping sales!!!

Although Thursday is the nation wide Thanksgiving Day each year… we celebrated with food and family on Wednesday evening with a big pot of my homemade chili… Yummy!!!

I have done shopping with a little fabric purchase… some 10″ squares of beautiful Christmas fabrics… and a new seam ripper… I call Jack… aka Jack the Ripper! lol (my daughter lost my previous one…)

Also we bought a new vintage 1890’s sewing machine!!!  Pics to follow when we receive this beauty 🙂

Here is a CLONE of it that we currently own… Circa late 1800’s also…

This one is a Kruse Sewing Machine Company chainstitcher 🙂  And it sews such a nice chain stitch too!  Can’t wait to see what is different from a real Willcox and Gibbs versus this clone we now have!

But mainly over this holiday weekend I have been stitching!! Slow and fast stitching combined…

First was some slow stitching on my Garden Bouquet Whole Cloth quilt…

I have sewn on it every day for a few hours… and that is a lot of back hatching quilting too!!!

Back hatching is what I call all these straight lines in tone on tone stitching..

Until I finally found another bow…

If you look at my previous post last Sunday (yes it has been a week since I last posted & I have been so busy stitching…)  It looks similar to this hooping above… but this is 1/4 way around the quilt… slow but sure progress is the key to finishing a project though… now it is back on the back of the chair it temporarily homes at as I stitch other things that have deadlines…

So my fast stitching was Friday and Saturday in between slow stitches I finished this flimsy…

The center block is embroidered with the recipients name and birth statistics… here was a close up I shared when I finished that part last week…

And here is the backing I pieced for this flimsy…

Very fun and Whimsical… kind of like the front of the quilt 🙂

So yesterday, Saturday, I got it all layered and pin basted and today I started my day by auditioning different stencils for the center block…here is the one I decided to use..

And here it is marked with a blue spritz away marker…

And here is the cute recipient also known as my granddaughter… She will be 6 months old tomorrow… hoping her mom posts a new pic of her then!

So that is my weekend!  How has your weekend been??

Linking this quilty slow stitching progress and the beginning of a my latest slow stitching to Kathy’s Quilts… Slow Stitching Sunday Linky party HERE!  Come on and join in the fun if you have some slow stitching to show off.

Me… I will be slow stitching all day on Kaydence’s fun quilt!  Hoping to have it done by Christmas!!!

Hope you have a happy Sunday and can ….

Weekend progress exposed! :)

Happy Sunday friends!

Hope you are each having a peaceful and restful day!

I have been up since 4 am stitching away on my Garden Bouquet Whole Cloth Quilt… I am now on my second hooping this week of this quilt.. Let me show you the first hooping… I shared this photo of my beginning spot on my last blog post..

This is a 17″ hoop and it has lots of real estate that needed to be quilted … but I managed to finish this hooping in just 3 days 🙂

And moved my hoop to the right for my next area to quilt…

And now that area is ready for the back hatching to be done!!!

I love the colors in this quilt… I wish they photoed better… the background hatching is all tone on tone off white… but the flowers and leaves and stems are all different colors consistently 🙂  I love it!!!

After seeing so many traditional whole cloth quilts done all tone on tone.. I am glad I am giving this whole cloth the Colorful Quilting Treatment! lol

I have also been working on the Fall Wall Hanging…

Above is the Fall Wall Hanging laid out on my design wall… then I cut the inner borders and threw them up there with the pieces… all the quilting has been decided for this quilt so I am cutting borders based on the designs I will use to fill them 🙂

So here is my inital design including the inner border above…

And here is the outer border and binding planned…

And here is my progress so far on this flimsy in the making…

So I bought the pinwheels and the pumpkin embroidery in a lot on facebook.. the “pumpkin spice” shot cotton solid looking fabric is heavenly to work with so far 🙂  I had heard it frays a good bit… but I haven’t had those issues… this is Kaffe Fasset shot cotton I got via Fabric.com 🙂  Very pleased with their service, shipping, and selection too!

I hope to link this to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.. even though adding borders to the flimsy isn’t super slow or the idea of it… I have been working studiously on my colorful whole cloth and I think that qualifies 🙂

In the meantime I am still waiting on fabric for Kaydence’s quilt to arrive… hopefully Monday it will and all this will go back on hold and I will focus on her cute quilt! 🙂  Yippee!!!

Hope you have a happy Sunday whatever you do and make sure to take time to…

Shifting gears…

I can’t believe it is Wednesday.. I have had such a busy and productive week!!!

I have been focusing my week on the center block embroidery in the center quilt block above…

Here is a close up of the outline stitch I used…

and today I got that FINISHED!!!

I am using pink variegated Valdani 12 weight thread for the embroidery in the green areas 🙂

Then I got the center part all sewn together once I re-ironed the center block.  I then added an orange border that needs mitering and cut the outer border that I thought would fit for mitering but it won’t 😦

After pondering what to do… I called my bestie Connie who sent me that green fabric and she had enough to send me cornerstones in that same green fabric 🙂  Yippee!  But that means that this project is on hold until USPS can deliver.. Saturday or Monday at the earliest I would think!

So I have decided to dive into a couple of other projects… my Colorful Whole Cloth (aka Garden Bouquet Whole Cloth Quilt) will be my hand quilting project…

Here is my first hooping of that 🙂

And I will start piecing my Fall Wall Hanging… here is my intro shot of that project…

I bought some fall pinwheels in various fabrics/colors and some shot cotton that will be the solid in my pattern above… I am excited about this project too!  It will hang in our foyer next fall probably at this point.. but will be nice to have an Autumn Wall Hanging in the foyer for sure!!!

So that is what is going on in my quilty life… What is going on in yours??

Would love to hear from you!  Please leave a comment if you can 🙂

Hope you are having a blessed day!  And remember to…

A stopping place… and a FRESH start :)

Yesterday morning I put the final stitches in this hoop of flowers on my colorful whole cloth quilt…

I think this is between 1/4 and 1/3 done now.  I looked back and this quilt was started on March 19, 2015…

And here is a nice texture shot showing a bit more of the flowers…

So with that at a good stopping place with June 8 being the beginning of my rest break…  I have turned my focus to 2 newer projects 🙂

First is to mark for hand quilting and sew buttons to the center of each circle on this Bulls Eye flimsy…

The center was made by my bestie Connie… I added the borders with fabric I found for the backing and had plenty to throw the needed borders on it…

it will measure about 36″ square I think once washed… but that is a bit ahead…

Today I will mark it for hand quilting… add those buttons… then layer it and pin it! 🙂

I am very excited as this smaller project (about 40″ square now) will pin easily and be a pretty quick stitch too I think.. so sooner we will enjoy this deliciously textured finish I have planned!

Also I have been doing some design work on a UFO I have had for a couple years and actually had forgotten about it! lol

Here is what I have currently completed…

 And here is a mock up I made of what I plan to add to call this one a flimsy….

So the flying geese on either side of the center are paper pieced… that will be my first on this project.

The black border shown will actually be a dark grey Moda fabric left over from the Bulls Eye Wall Hanging 😉  I will also bind it in that same fabric I think!

So lots of work yet to go on this… it may wait for more attention until Connie comes in just a few weeks time now…

Hope this week finds you being productive and happy about it!

Until my next post…