Slow Stitching Weekend… and MORE!

This weekend my friend Wendy, who lives in Australia, has been hosting a weekend Sew-In.  I have managed to get quite a bit done!

At the beginning of this weekend…

 And yesterday morning….

 And a bit more current shot of this hoop full of flowers….

Now I am working on the back hatching from the ribbon up … back hatching is what I call doing all those lines behind the flowers that are sewn with the natural thread 😉

Linking this great slow stitching progress to Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching  HERE!

But wait … there is more!!!!

Here is the Bulls Eye flimsy… I have cut borders to add…

 And MORE!!!

So you have already “met” CJ…

But on May 31 at 0030 this year Kaydence was born to my son James and his wife Keashia…

She was 7 pounds and 14 ounces and 19 1/2″ long… perfect!

 Above she is in her bassinette wrapped in a receiving blanket my friend Connie made for her arrival!!!

So excited to be a Grandmommy to 2! 🙂  I feel very blessed for sure 🙂

Have a blessed weekend.. until next time…

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A Thimble Story…

Once upon a time… I decided to try a thimble and a friend gave me a cute little plastic open thimble she had an extra of.. I found I could use it but the open top left it a bit floppy during long use though…

But it let me know a thimble COULD BE an option!!

So I went to JoAnn’s looking for a metal thimble that had an open top like the plastic one did but more sturdy … I like to quilt lots of curves and that is active quilting! lol

No go there but when we got home I did find just what I as after at Walmart online only.. so I ordered it on May 15.  Finally… after calling the shipper and waiting some more it showed up yesterday!!!!

Connecting Threads currently has this on sale under $10!!!!

I immediately had to play with it… and it was a tad large!  Yippee 🙂  I had been concerned my arthritic fingers would play havoc in finding a thimble to even fit like the plastic one had!

The adjustment “wings” were so sturdy once moved it was a breeze for MY HONEY to get it sized to my liking! lol  It is not easy or “floppy” adjustment.   That is why my honey had to use his expertise to help me size it.. I imagine if you don’t have a handy honey you could use pliers which is how he got involved in my quest for a good fit.

Well the fit is excellent… take a look at my first curves with a thimble on 🙂

And here is a backed up view of my last space to quilt until this circle is complete!!!

I am really pleased with this…

Also this flimsy is now backed up to a work in progress as I am adding borders to it I have decided..

And just looking at this pic again reminds me how much better it will be with the border to finish it off 🙂  I am very excited and will start this process as soon as I finish the whole cloth hoop I am on… it will go inside to “rest” and I will find energy in the wall hanging transformation!!!

Stay tuned… and guess who only visited once this week we were sooo busy….

He turns 1 on June 6 so stay tuned to the birthday loot we have for him… Rick is gonna wrap it for me in a box he can play with as the contents are clothes and a book! lol  But it is what he needs!!! 🙂

Well.. I am off to put in some more stitches with my thimble!  Hope you enjoyed this Thimble story! lol  Pun intended! 🙂  Linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching… as I hope my Sunday is full of hand stitches!!!

Happy Mother’s Day Ya’ll!

Hope you each have a blessed Mother’s Day 🙂

Unfortunately it has been another stressful week around here…
But all is well now… so let me fill you in 🙂

Monday my honey has had allergies that we thought had gone to pneumonia so we started getting aggressive with home treatments we had available… unfortunately Tuesday he was feeling even worse and running a fever so he finally (after 4 years without one) decided he was ready to see a doctor here!  Yippee I thought…

Well he is a veteran of the Army… so going to the VA for the first time in 4 years is a bit tough to do we found out… you must register your move to the new state first (we moved from Tennessee 2 1/2 years ago).  They did check his basic vitals and took a quick history and started the transfer process but sent us to the nearby emergency room for the antibiotics after a chest xray confirmed pneumonia was the cause of his nasty cough and fever….

Well.. at the hospital they found his lungs clear… and because he has had open heart surgery about 5 years ago they wanted to keep him overnight for a long overdue cardiac workup…

 So me and Daisy held down the fort overnight! lol 

She refused to sit in his chair which she sits in all the time when he isn’t normally… but she knew something was wrong… so we prayed and tossed and turned… finally morning came and I could get Brandi off to school and return to the hospital to see what this day had in store for us all…

The cardiac PA came in and informed us he would be going to a medicine stress test… which turned out to be a harrowing event of a test.. if you ever have to have one.. but once over gave us valuable info like his heart and arteries are all in GREAT shape!  So why the cough and fevers???

Unsure.. they called it an upper respiratory infection and started antibiotics and sent us home!  Yippee 🙂

A little worse for wear… as he didn’t sleep well either without his usual bed partners! lol

So by Wednesday evening we had mapped out a tentative NEW DEAL!

We started Thursday out.. after a fairly good nights sleep had by all right here…

Isn’t this just gorgeous!???

We moved near the beach to go there often… but found life “too busy ” to “have time” for the beach.. now we are making time we decided…

So every morning we are gonna take a nice walk on the beach… start getting in better shape and enjoy the nature and beauty that is a mere 10 minute drive from our home!!!!  We are truly blessed to be this close!

We are also changing other things in our lifestyle… cutting back on bad habit items and improving what we eat… and we are doing it together!!!!  I love that!!!

In the meantime… when we got home from the hospital Wednesday we had a package waiting from my bestie Connie…

She sent me a couple new quilty themed t shirts for an early birthday surprise and something for me to hand quilt that she pieced for me…

 

I love this wall hanging sooo much!  It measures 32 x 32″ currently… trying to decide if I chould add a bit of border to it before I start the quilting once my supplies all arrive…

Here is a quilt she has finished on a tan background fabric instead of my grey above… and you can see all those layered edges of the circle parts will curl up once washed…

 I will call this the Bulls Eye Wall Hanging I think.. at least for now… “Bulls Eye” is the name of the pattern she said & she has the book the pattern came in…and I sent her the beginning of the grey background fabrics.. she did all the rest!!!! Isn’t that a wonderful gift!!!!

Here is the thread I will use on the circle “bulls eyes”…

It is Perle 8 cotton by Valdani .. I am trying it for the first time on this project that won’t get much wear as it will be enjoyed… 

I also ordered buttons to go in the center of the bulls eyes… so that will add more dimension.

Finally I will quilt with a layer of cotton batting AND a layer of wool batting on top of that before adding the flimsy to make the sandwich.. it will be VERY dimensional when done I do believe!

Here is a pic of my honey showing it off against our kitchen wall light grey walls…

I just can’t convey how excited I am to receive something made by Connie especially for me… I have never been gifted a flimsy special made before and didn’t expect to feel so honored!  But I really do!!!

Finally it was the end of the week… Friday when Brandi got home from school she announced she needed to be taken across our little beachside town to the art studio to pick up a piece that was on display she had made in art class at school!!!!  “Sure” I said…

Little did I know that her piece was in the center most highest position in the place being shown off for all to see!

So here is a collage I made from that Friday afternoon visit to the Art Haus!  She calls this piece “The Vanished” as the pic to the left shows a moon with a wolf howling and on the opposite side of her vase is an empty moon.. 

You see this vase had a special purpose for being made… her father had been cremated when he died 7 years ago and we had just celebrated his birthday May 3 with those blueberry muffins and the birthday song too!  Now she had possession of all semesters hard work and inside this URN will go most of the remaining ashes.. she is mongo excited to have this.  It does sit in the living room and looks just like a decorator piece… Wolves were his fave animal and one she enjoys looking at too… so the top also has a wolf formed on it… the whole thing is made of clay and the etched with designs all commemorating memories she has of her dad!  Isn’t this awesome now that I have shared the back story??

Then CJ came over to play… hadn’t seen him since Monday because of our mega crazy week!

And I actually .. late in the week accomplished quite a bit of quilting progress… FINALLY! lol

So all I have left in this hoop to quilt now is the back hatching… and I only have about 2 hoop moves to make before I have finished this section completely on the quilt!  Yippee 🙂

By the time I finish this hoop or these hoops.. as the case may be.. I will take a break and start the Bulls Eye Wall Hanging… it will be nice to take a break and really start quilting a bit.. although the perle 8 cotton won’t be much fun and 2 layers of batting sounds less fun.. but I am just so excited none of that is a deterrent at this point… 

I also have some crazy background quilting ideas for Bulls Eye… so stay tuned when I start that as I will mark the background before sandwiching so I can see the pattern I have planned!!!!

So excited ya’ll … to end this week up!  But I must calm now and work on back hatching lines and using my thimble as I foudn on the curves of the flowers and leaves getting great stitches was near impossible so the thimble my friend Kathy gave me has been waiting patiently for me to learn more about have accurate stitches WITH the thimble! lol

Have a blessed Mother’s Day if you are a mom/mum 😉

Until the next time I can make time to chat…

Feeling Grateful :)

Happy Monday my bloggy friends!

After a rough week last week (thanks for all your supportive messages!  They each meant so much!) and not much handquilting in the may-lay … I have picked up my hoop over the weekend and this morning too!

So that quilt is moving along… and other projects are moving along in needing to get done!!!  So I hope this week has less stress…

I also want to thank each of you for your thoughts and prayers for me last week.. I could feel them… the problems are with my almost 17 year old daughter… and this is something I came across.. thought I would share here…

if only teenagers could grasp the truthfulness in needing to compare a future mate to the ideal mate for them!

So in the meantime I have been enjoying some great photos from my best friends and wanted to share it with you too…

This hand quilted baby quilt as made by my bestie Connie!

The pic on the left shows the hand quilted detail while the quilt on the right shows personalization stitched by hand and an excellent wrapping job 🙂

And here is sweet baby Emily born just a couple weeks ago and had her first professional photos taken on it…

 Then my other best friend Wendy celebrated the 2015 Patone color …

And made this flimsy…

That she then quilted and posed with a couple of fun bears for the blog show associated with the blog party!

The texture shows up some in this pic but it is astounding with all the shots she has sent me as this quilt was in production… it also is all hand quilted in Wendy’s own freehand style… she is VERY talented 🙂  This quilt also won her Viewer’s Choice award which came with a credit to a fabric shop here in the states.. she can’t wait to cash it in as she loves their fabric selections!

Here was Wendy’s second Pantone entry… 

It is a great table runner for a friend… and she had the border fabric in her stash already!!!

Wendy has a blog you can check out more on these 2 projects HERE!

May is a month that has many bittersweet memories for me and my daughter… please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers… Tony died in 2008 and we still miss him every day.. Sunday was his birthday so we are trying a new tradition and celebrating only his birthday this year….

With one of his fave breakfasts… blueberry muffins… but these were gourmet style and completely by scratch.. I will have to get the recipe from my dd if interested… but it includes yogurt and lots of blueberries too! lol

My honey has the flu (:( BOO!) currently, and my daughter is giving me gray hair (almost 17!)… but today I am ready to see my little buddy CJ…

And continue putting in some more hand stitches & taking time to share my gratefulness with all of you!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  Have a blessed week!  Until next time…

Why do you craft?

I have been crafty all my life I think… but since I found quilting in 2011 I have fallen so overwhelmingly in love with it… and I found this pic recently that really sums up how I feel about it…

You see my grandmother quilted a bit.. the only one in my family I remember quilting anyway… and me and her were very close as I was growing up…

So even though I didn’t quilt with her I feel her presence with me… and I remember her embroidery tips and such.. such a beautiful memory for sure as my grandmother is now gone from this earth.

So my questions to you are ….

Why do you craft ??  

What is your favorite craft??  

Why is that your favorite??

My favorite craft is quilting.  I hand quilt for the enjoyment of it.  It is therapeutic for me!

Now it is your turn… leave your answer in the comment area below so we can all share your passion with you !

Until my next post..

Sunday Slow Down…

Sunday mornings I love getting up early (my regular time is about 4 am.. lol) and enjoying the peace and quiet of a quilty Sunday morning… here is my view today 🙂

Not too much progress since I moved the hoop yet… I am hoping today will change that!

I am linking this to Kathy’s Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching.. as that is where I hope to be today 🙂  Stitching slowly and loving it!!!

I hope you check out Kathy’s post today too.. she is chatting about beading and embroidery and quilting all together.. very fun post for sure!

I have also made a few design decisions on the wall hanging..

I will take this block and use it in 2 vertically pieced halves on either side of it…

It is a free paper pieced pattern with instructions I found on the internet via Goggle and was directed to a lovely blog post with lots of photos too!  Yippee 🙂

Then I have a nice sewing festive fabric for sashing and borders!  So this may come together… we will see how my “3 little geese” block turns out.. I doubt it will be as nice as this one but I will make it fun anyway! lol

Also, I found out my bestie Connie is making huge strides on a wall hanging for my home.. here are the parts all stacked up… she will mix them up and assemble into a flimsy and send to me for quilting!!!

It is made mainly with homespuns and is machine pieced.  I will quilt it with big stitch quilting using dark grey perle 8 cotton …

VERY EXCITED about this project coming up!

Otherwise this week we have sold a featherweight..

Here is my honey caught during his photo shooting… lol

And he also took shots of my scrapbook cabinet..

It is now for sale on eBay 🙂

Then yesterday my daughter got “fixed up” to go to a birthday & slumber party and allowed me a photo shoot!  What mom can resist that from their almost 17 year old!!!  Check her out !!!

The center one is my fave.. but she liked the smaller shots too.. so I combined them and used Picasa on my computer to make the collage 🙂

And I got a little something special for Kaydence… it will go in a package with other things I am collecting to send for after she is born…

 Check out a close up of my cousin’s embroidery …

She has an Etsy shop too!  She made this custom for me and I am very pleased with it!

So you can see some of why stitching just hasn’t been happening… here’s hoping we all get some hand stitches in today!!

Happy NTT Thursday!

NTT??  Yep… Kelly hosts a fun and quilty linky on Thursdays called NTT (Needle & Thread Thursday)… I love her linky… check out the other linkers HERE!

Today I am sharing some whole cloth tips… many are inspired to try this type of design for hand quilting as it looks deceptively easy…

Here is where I started Sunday…

And Monday I got the stems and flowers done…

And did that ribbon as well on Tuesday…

Then by Wednesday night I had finished the cross hatching background 🙂

Tah Dah!!!!

I am really enjoying this.. but it is a slow process.  And understanding the hand quilting basics leaned with patchwork stitching definitely helps.

When you stitch a wholecloth you are making all the design on a piece of fabric… all the lines I am stitching on now will be washed away when I am finished leaving only my colorful thread and the natural color of my whole cloth.

I would love to answer any whole cloth questions you have.. please comment with questions 🙂  I answer every comment personally!

While I have been stitching on this my honey is adding wainscoting to our living room and hall.  We had it in the foyer and dining room… he did that there as well!  It is labor intensive for sure and pics will come in a future post.

Also… I have had company while stitching…

CJ came to play yesterday!!!  Yippee 🙂 

CJ is my handsome grandson if you haven’t met him here yet!

Finally I have a request… I need HELP finishing this wall hanging. 

I plan to tea dye the middle embroidered square to help it match the off white vintage fabric I used for my background color of the spools.  But I need filler on each side of the embroidered square… would you put little stars or small spools or flying geese??? So many ideas I have… do you have any suggestions???

Thanks for stopping in!!! 

Until next time remember to…

Pincushion Reveal & Whole Cloth Update :)

Thanks to all of you that voted for your favorite Pin Cushion design for the little cast iron truck.  This will be a much used pin cushion.. so I wanted it to look fun and be functional…

What do you think???

I also ordered some ultra fine pins for it & for my future quilt piecing adventures

and I think I will love them!  They also have glass heads so they are ironable! Yipee!!!

Linking this cute pin cushion idea to Karen at Sew Many Ways linky party HERE!

While we were running errands this week we say the funnest thing ever…

Yep… if you see that dog… on the Hog… you are right!!!  Wouldn’t you love to be that dog!!! 🙂

Also this week I got to visit with my oldest son DL and CJ too!

CJ loves his Papa… and his Papa loves him 🙂  And we found a steal on a play pen for nap times here too!  And you know me… pediatric nurse.. I had to get him a few age appropriate toys too…

So next time they call for a babysitter we will be ready without them having to bring half their house with him 🙂  Yippee again!  And aren’t his cute baby cheeks just so kissable in this shot??!!! lol

Now on to the best stuff of the week.. 

My progress with the colorful Whole Cloth quilt… amidst my busy week I am learning to balance a bit more and have made so much progress I am ready to move my hoop now 🙂

Here are a couple close ups of my work for you to enjoy…

 The heavier blue areas in the top of these shots is where I needed to see the stitching lines better… some of them are quite faded from sunlight and time… remember this was a estate sale find for $8… so I will be happy to mark some along the way when necessary!  I am so blessed my friend Connie found and got this for me 🙂

I love the texture created when a section is all quilted.. it feels sooo cool too!  Very soft and supple for sure!!!

I have a couple secret projects coming up

.. and I have resurrected my Spools quilt top and will be finishing it…

would love your feedback on what I should use on the sides???  flying geese maybe…

should it have a small outer border??? 

I am also planning to tea dye the center piece so it matches the antique white of the spool blocks..

So quite a busy week ahead!  For today though I will happily be moving my hoop and working on secret projects! lol  And I will be linking this post with Kathy at Kathy’s Quilts.  She is talking about having a project tote.. I have 2 actually that I use all the time but have no shots of them.. Check out her slow stitching linky party HERE!

Hope whatever you do today you find time to…

A Great Kind of Week…

It has been a great but very busy week here around Casa Del Loro…

And I FINALLY found a new chair last weekend!

I was so excited to do my endless search on Craigslist and this time hit paydirt in an ad without a pic… but the description that caught my eye… so I sent an email and he responded with a pic .. off we went and got it!  We plan to put a new seat on it but it is great as is… see my desk and quilting area now..

My new chair is MONGO comfy which is GREAT and I love having my hand quilting nearby.. you can see I have done a bit of work since this pic…

To this pic…

I just have that background cross hatch to do now 🙂

Linking my quilty progress to Kelly for NTT (Needle and Thread Thursday) HERE!

I also got this cute little cast iron truck this week which was GREAT…

 So I then auditioned fabrics for the back of it… to make it into a walnut shell filled PIN CUSHION!!!

Which of the 3 above is your fave for the back of this cool truck?

Monday and Tuesday were filled with errands and house keeping chores… because on Wednesday we had a full day planned to do other stuff which turned out so GREAT!!!

In the morning I had 2 quilty friends come for a visit and we chatted a LOT and quilted a bit…

 Meet Debbie (sitting) and Kathy 🙂  We had a bunch of fun!

Then me and my honey decided between rain drops to go for a beachside walk….

But the tide was all the way up.. so no driving was allowed…

Since we came for a walk anyway we just walked onto the beach….

And NO ONE was there!!!

It was sooo surreal to be on the beach during spring break and only the birds were our company initially.. by the time we left a few people were noticed … but very cool altogether for sure 🙂

Then Thursday I got to not only meet a new person in my life… his name is CJ!!! Ya’ll this is SUPER GREAT!!!!

 CJ is my oldest sons… fiance’s son.  However they have no wedding date.. so future posts will just let you know … I am claiming him now as my grandson! lol

Isn’t he cute sleeping here!  He took a nice nap while he was visiting and we had a fun playtime too!

Hope you are all doing well!

Until next time…

New Blog Header & Wholecloth PROGRESS too :)

Time for something less busy on the top of my blog.. hope those that follow me take time to look at my blog outside a reader format 🙂  I enjoy all the blog headers I see by viewing my fave blogs actual blog!  How about you?

Do you read me from a reader format or in full screen enjoyment?

We have been busy around the house this week and today I felt thrilled to share one of my fave pics as the new blog header.. this whole cloth is a long term project for me as I may not finish it til close to Christmas…  You can see the backing for this quilt in the pic above…

And here is our bed currently…

A close up of the pillow in the center I had to replace as the original pillow got worn out… so a new pillow cover it was if you recall from last November’s adventures 😉

And here is a pic of the whole cloth on the bed…

Our bedroom currently is very bland but will probably be the last room we redo … pondering wall color as I stitch with so many colors of thread on this whole cloth…

 

Above is a great shot to show my progress on the quilting… not as much as it has felt like for sure!  But will be so beautiful when all done… thanks to YLI and Aurifil threads…

This bowl sits by a great new pic I got of my brother and his family just on Easter!!  They say they are LOVING their quilt still too!  I am sooo happy!

Did you know today April 10, is National Sibling Day??  It is an unofficial holiday but I think I will send my bro a text.  He is my only sibling!

And a shot I posted in my fave facebook hand quilting group was the header yesterday…  they change in this group fairly frequently but I was stoked to see a nice shot as the header and realize I made those stitches!!! lol

I will be sharing some about the vintage machine in my header in my next post… as this is all the time I have for now.. the whole cloth is calling me!!! lol

Linking this slow stitching progress on Slow Stitching Sunday to Kathy’s Quilts HERE!

Have a blessed day and until next time please…