Celebrations all Around & a Giveaway Winner too!!

Wow !!!  What an amazing week I have to share with you all!!!  I finished this table runner this morning….

In building this table runner I spent precious last moments with my Singer 301a Gloria… linking this finish with Julie’s UFO and WIP finishes for May HERE!

 I love sewing early in the morning with the window open to hear the pond and water trickling there 🙂

I won at bobbin chicken too!

 That was very exciting… and the ending came out with this flimsy measuring about 17″ x 51″ 🙂

It was a fun make and took my mind off lots of other things happening this week.

Today is the 11th anniversary of the day my husband died.  Changing my life path forever.  I am happy today that things turned out the way they did as he was not in good health at the end… but his sudden death left me speechless for a long time.

So to have this completed project in the washer and where I spent my slow stitching hours all weekend …
and now where me and my honey will enjoy a meal this evening is a blessing for sure!  I am linking this awesome project with machine quilting filling but a slow stitching ending for the binding… as you can see to the right>>>  To my favorite blog Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE 😀

I am also linking this project to Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE… I love her blog posts and enjoy linking there too!… The machine quilting was LOTS of fun actually.. I used my tools for marking quilts when hand quilting to mark this for machine quilting.  Click on the photo and i t should blow up for you 💕

On Wednesday…

Gloria bowed out of my sewing room as my honey surprised me with a black early 301 by Singer… Manufactured in South Carolina in October 1952 I officially added Julius my clan of machines 🙂

I celebrated with this photo collage of my 2 main machines…. Julius (Singer 301) and Cleopatra (Singer 319w)…  What an awesome duo they will be !!!  As the story of old goes too 😀

I was still reeling over the excitement of this new addition to my sewing room when I found out my son and his wife had their baby girl Elliana!!!! 

Born at 6:43 am on 5/23/19.  Elliana Marie came into this world weighing 6 pounds and 10 ounces and 20 inches long … Mom and Elli went home with dad driving them yesterday and all is well ❤

So I am a Gram and Rick is a Papa 😀  My heart melts to meet her in person too ❤  Soon I hope!

We bought an area run this week… Molly has decided it is her daytime bed 😀  She is soooo cute rolling around on it like it is a big playground! lol

 Have you seen this panel?  I am looking for where to buy this if anyone knows where it might be found!!!

I enjoyed some times on the swing by the pond this week….

 Sew Relaxing… until Molly comes and gives me a wet willy!!! lololol  She likes being up in the swing too though …

We have this orange blooming bush that comes out this time each year in full blooms… I don’t know that I have ever seen this before… any ideas on what kind of bush this is???

 Here is a view of our pond and home from the other side of the river that runs through our yard…

 And our home as you come up the driveway… on the golf cart these photos were taken 😀

 Not much progress on this front but this will be my BIG PUSH this week… no pun intended ! hahaha

 Here is a fun attachment to free motion quilt on a featherweight 221 we are selling this week on facebook….

 And here is a newer Sew Handy we sold … this one was quite complete and sewed great… The new owner should be very pleased 😀

Now for what you have all been waiting for …

The giveaway WINNER!!!!!

#18 in the 20 comments left that qualified with a return email address:

>>>> YTSMOM <<<<

with her comment…

Sooo… now what will Julius first project be?  Well he sewed together binding for the table runner as a dry run of sorts…. He did a fab job with none of the glitches I had noticed over the years with Gloria so I was happy for that… I am pondering a wall hanging like the one below:

 With a 3d bow like the one to the right 😀

We shall see… my Etsy shop is empty and will be closed officially soon.  So I plan to sell things I make on eBay where we already have a presence for vintage things.  We will see…

I have emailed the lucky winner celebrating my 8 years blogging… I am excited to get her address and get her the winning lot of things 🙂

Have a blessed weekend and remember the true reason for Memorial Day is not extended weekend time for family celebrations but a sobering time to remember lives lost by soldiers who fight for the freedom we have here in this country.  God Bless America!

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Appalachian Delight becomes a flimsy and one more does too!

Welcome to my blog y’all!  It has been a busy yet still restless week of recovery around here… and LOTS and LOTS of rain has been going on!!!

And now it is our time in most of the USA to lose an hour… so spring forward if you do… don’t forget every clock in the house too! lol

For those of you that aren’t regular visitors to my blog … my honey had his right hip replaced on Feb 27 and came home on the 28th.. Whirlwind major surgery and now he can’t cross his legs anymore either!   Physical therapy started this week and in depth exercising and lots of healing and more independence by my honey is occuring… so all is going well.. but leaving us both rather sleepless still in the whirlwind of so much going on… I think when it is time for our next joint replacement (I have 2 knees that need replacing yesterday or last week even … and what caused his right hip to need replacing may take precedence for the left hip to get replaced next though…. so time and healing of this hip will help us decide which is coming up this summer when he is properly healed from this.

Meanwhile… I have been hand quilting and sewing like crazy!!!!

I got all 4 borders mitered on my Appalachian Delight Quilt…

 And made this collage of all my efforts 🙂

 I used a youtube video by Laura at SewVeryEasy where she actually showed how to make a nice wide border on a signature quilt… with miters… her directs were precise and easy to follow… my mitered border wound up measuring 13 1/2″ wide and 3 yards long… the bottom side was pieced to keep it on on the length of fabric to avoid any waving border syndrome with this one ! lol

Now all the pieces … flimsy top, binding strips already cut, leftover outer border fabic and backing you see peeking out from below the border fabric… are in a basket in my sewing room as it will be mid summer or later before this sees the frame.

With that done and still sleeplessness abounds I started trying to figure out the Rooster EPP project I shared a couple weeks ago…

It is a Violet Craft pattern I bought last year and prepped to coordinate with the spiral log cabin quilt… so mine won’t be these colors exactly.

Here is my kit set up…

 Above you see everything posed on a melamine tray we have in our stash for just such a project… to keep glue from getting on everything and keep it all together.  My portable design wall I thought would do well for a start of organization and a box I bought just for EPP organization from Dollar General stores… 3 layers with the top layer having dividers .  You can see it better below…

 She says you can start anywhere you like but she had intended the pattern to be started with the #1 and progressed to the end… so I am 🙂

 Above you see the back side of the pattern… she uses pictures to designate a fabric color.  I then used my vintage dry iron and a piece of fabric meant to help keep my iron clean as a pressing cloth between the glued piece and my iron 🙂

 In the box in the photo above you can see my planned use of items.  And below in a well cleaned and ready to use meat packing styrofoam dish I have all set up…

 And I am making good progress with all my excitement for a new skill to learn…

My stitches are a bit more obvious than I first hoped … but this is new to me … so off I went to find a great video on Youtube by Sara at SewSweetness on EPP and making a pouch from the pieces of hexi shaped EPPing… I learned a lot more from her than I did from the video she recommended… she is very sweet and knowledgeable!  I have tackled a few more pieces and will share more of BOTH sides of my work next week.  I am much happier with my stitches though as I progress which is expected I would think.

I finished the row of hand quilting I was on last week and rolled the quilt… Now I am at the center and moving over that center to a down hill pace…

 Here I am sharing the border completed on this section and the center marked and started on….

 I actually am at the center of the center now though!  But I must slow down a bit unless I want an empty frame with I do NOT… my next project is a quilt for my best friend … she is piecing it and while all the blocks are done life still happens and she won’t have the sashings and borders done properly for another few weeks I am afraid.  So I am trying to pace my finish on Spiral Log Cabin.

Linking both the EPP and Spiral Log Cabin hand quilting to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post HERE.

I did take these messy sheets for the UFO/ WIP challenge Julie is hosting as a linky party the end of each month…

 And reprinted sheets on card stock and rewrote things I had on this list making better use of my space…

Some of you mentioned rewriting sheets and not keeping track of the completed projects but even if each page grows to the next page or even a 3rd page… I will keep them all to look back at years end and see all I have accomplished 😀

I love the wristlet purse I made and shared last week… it is soo handy and awesome!  Everything has a place in this bag too ❤

Gloria (my Singer two toned 301a) and I pieced a quilt top this week… but I used Cleo my Singer 319w to do the applique zig zag stitching…

 Here is how that panel I appliqued turned out …

 And here is the quilt top flimsy in full…

 Here is the backing folded (had to border it to make it big enough for the quilt top.  Also there is a label and binding already cut there too!!!

 Simon is an almost 1  year old child of my daughter’s good friend.  This friend is taking her to GED classes and such so Brandi and her boyfriend Timmy requested a quilt for their 2 kids… above is the younger one’s quilt to be and below is the beginning brainstorming of the older one’s (almost 5) quilt to be…

His name is Jasper and it will be somewhere on the quilt too.

I hope to be quilting these both during the worldwide quilting day next Saturday… what do you plan to do during the worldwide quilting day???

Linking this quilty post to the Peacock Party by Wendy Welsh who is traveling around New Zealand this weekend and knitting a scarf too ❤ HERE !!

Have a great week ahead wherever you are and hope your weather and projects are both enjoyable to you…

Winter Blues Remedy Needed…

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

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

 Last Sunday I got it to this point!

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

I was giddy when the sides measured out exactly right !

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

Tah Dah!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Opening an Etsy shop and slow stitching progress too!

That is right y’all!  designoriginalsbykc is now not just a blog and my personal signature but an Etsy shop too…check it out HERE if you are interested in the first few things I have listed!

My goal includes keeping it fun and affordable for my customers… and selling things through the holiday seasons I enjoy making with Gloria…

Our business card I designed to start us out 🙂

 Our stock initially includes these things…

Rounded corner drink coasters with acorns on them 🙂

Hexagon shaped coasters

Pumpkin square coasters too!

I even added a few “action” photos! lol

And a Snap Bag too… using Tula Pink fabric I have had in my stash!

 My honey helped me with some of these photos… even caught him red handed at the end….

But he took these photos before he thought of the above action shot for me! lol

See the snap bag opening by using the triangles 🙂

I also have a hand quilted wall hanging in our shop!  Come on over and take a look following the link I gave ya at the top of this post 😍Before I got the bright idea to actually OPEN an Etsy shop I finished these fun things ….

A fun snap bag to match the wallet I made for my darling daughter!

A proper bed to go in the basket we bought as a spot for Molly in the living room 🙂

 Molly loves her bed too ❤

 She just loves fabric though too… here she is as I create….

 Sleeping in the basket of fabric scraps waiting to be processed into my scrap users system! lol

FINALLY to some relaxing slow stitching now!  This I worked on while my honey had a doctor’s appointment… it will be a new pillow for him once I get finished stitching the design into this wholecloth pillow top….

 It coordinates with our quilt I am stitching too…

I finished this row of swirlies… then it was time for a much dreaded task… adding to the backing that for some reason … even though measured so carefully before loading it initially on the frame… is about 3″ too short!!!!

So I came to Fiona… my Morse 600 straight stitch machine and a bit more portable than my 301…

My honey got her out of her beautiful case to put her on a low sitting table beside my frame to add on a bit of fabric to the backing and I just had to take a photo of her to adore her a bit.

 And her hard at work without breaking a sweat…

 And now… just about 1 1/2 hours from the time I started tearing this quilt off the top of the frame….

 all back together 🙂

This quilt is now 86% complete!!!  Y’all with this backing issue now fixed I am on the home stretch!!  Linking this part of this post to my fave Sunday Stop with other hand stitchers… Kathy’s Quilts and her linky Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<  Come see what others are making with their creative fingers 💟✋

I am planning to work on the wavy lines in this blue row you see above… 😀

My LQS posted this photo Friday… I thought it was cute… so wanted to share it with you all too…

 Hope this LQS photo from Bless My Stitches in Murphy NC gives you a smile!

And now I am gonna get back to slow stitching… praying for a sale in my Etsy shop and working on a few things with eBay too… Have a blessed one you guys and…

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…

A Revival, A Review, A Finish & A Start to share…

Hope you are having happy weather where you are located.. as I write this I hear the birds chirping and see the water wheel slowly turning… life is good here in the mountains 😀

I first want to share my revival… as I waited for the stars to align and begin piecing my next hand quilting project… I decided I must finish a 9 patch sampler I started several years back and only have 4 usable squares of… I always imagined it to be 9 or 12 squares… well Bonnie’s latest block in Quiltmaker make the perfect center square…

And Tinkerbell took center stage!!! lol

Soon I have 8 other 9 patch variation blocks all complete and looking nicely together so I sashed and corner squared them…

into a cute little flimsy… 42″ square is this quilt top and it is now back in the closet with that hot pink sashing fabric to be the binding and maybe an outer border too… we will see when it makes a reappearance for some Tinkerbell loving girl ❤

Now … FINALLY !!!  Time to start the cutting  and organizing for Hanover Stars… this will be a big queen quilt finishing just over 100″ and will be hand quilted and on our bed … SEW EXCITED!!!!

No pics were caught during the cutting stages unfortunately… but here are all the pieces cut and ready to make a quilt…

Then I even took time to make the lines on the back of the little 2″ squares that would be star points in the blocks… 490 of them!!!

During this process the ampersand came in the mail!  My honey painted it as it was hot pink and wouldn’t match the decor and it now finishes out that corner in my sewing room!!!

With life at peace all around and no other projects begging to be completed but this one I could focus on STARS!!!

My honey fell in love with this project too when he saw these stars and soon started on the final project for my sewing room… the design wall!!!!

Meanwhile I got a wonderful tool for my sewing room from a GREAT Craftsy sale….

I love it compared to my Olfa square rotating mat… this one glides around with moderate pressure to turn it… when you push down hard it doesn’t move though… so it won’t spin when you are cutting but will turn when you want it to… easily… see how nice and thick the whole thing is???  Also it is all one piece that doesn’t come apart like the Olfa one does.  So I am sold and happy!!!

Anyone want a gently used 12″ square Olfa rotating mat???  I am looking to rehome it for the cost of shipping only!

I got the idea for the design wall from how my friend Karen at Quilts, etc… HERE did her design wall.  I used 1″ thick insulation board I got from Lowe’s.. my honey cut them to fit the space I had saved for designing… and once “dry fitted”

We worked together to cover them with wide back flannel in a mottled cream color.  We taped it to the back side using duct tape…

Then once well adhered we hung them back into place.. using stars painted metallic red to camouflage the screws and also to keep them from wallowing holes in the insulation boards 😀

Ta Dah!!!  A design wall was born… and used…

Doesn’t it look nice with the progress I have made on this project!!!

I need 61 stars total… right now I am working on blue stars… there will be alternating blue and red ones… with light cream sashing and black print cornerstones 😀  I am loving this project.. then there will be borders too to make it just over 100″ square as the pattern on gives it 96″ and no borders… I have to do something to make it mine ! lol

Above is where you will find me today… sewing in the sunlight by the water wheel and listening to the birds chirping and bees buzzing … LOVE MY LIFE Y’all!!!

Yesterday we took a ride about on the golf cart… I made a collage of all the goodness to share with you from our Lazy Daisy homestead!

Enjoy and have a blessed Sunday!!!  And remember to….

P. S.  Today I share 7 wonderful years 

         of memories with my honey…

                                                         Soo BLESSED!!!

Amethyst Stars… 2/3 complete!!

Can you believe this…

I had to come back to my blog and see when the hand quilting on this big quilt started today…

July 15, 2017!!!

WOWEEE … I am thrilled… I thought it had been a couple months longer! lol

Check out that blog post HERE!!!

Well today I am here to share with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday HERE all that I have been up to… including some delicious shots of my progress hand quilting this intricate pattern 😀  So buckle up and read along my bloggy friends!

Here was the end of row 9 and a shot of the threads this project is taking….

 I am really enjoying the variety of stitching in each of the charm square blocks along the way.

Marking out the rope border is quick n easy with my Pounce pad 🙂

 Soon that and the argyle finish are complete too!

 And as promised a pic of all the threads I am using… Aurifil 28 wt, YLI 40 wt, and perle cotton 12 wt are all present and accounted for here …

Can’t decide yet but I think I will need more of the gold perle cotton I am using for the rope outside border… if so that is the only one that will need to be obtained… unless I need more Ecru DMC for the charm squares… I must order the gold online as it is Valdani and I am unable to locate locally… but the DMC is nearby at Joann’s… so I can pop in there if need be to finish this quilt in the next few weeks!!!

And here is a shot of my frame and ROW 10 … 

I have finished on the outer borders and ready to start the charm squares and stars here now 😀

I hope you each had a great Thanksgiving … me and my honey enjoyed the day immensely…

I heard from my kids and sent shout outs on facebook to those near and dear too!

Here was our table including the place mats I made…

Ready to be dressed with ham and turkey and all the fixin’s…

Yummy!!!  It was really good too.  At this writing all the leftovers have been consumed so we did a good job of estimating our need and not having so much excess food in the house to be tempting… we are still working on weight loss goals and getting in better overall health.

Those place mats got made just in time before it was time to pack up the sewing room in prep for selling our home and moving a bit north… that is our goal anyway! lol

We also got to watch a rarely shown episode of Leave it to Beaver on Thanksgiving…

It is called “The Scrapbook” and it was the final episode… not sure why they don’t play it when they play all the others over and over… but this episode and one other we hadn’t seen played Thanksgiving and we were thrilled!

My son James and his wife (the ones the Amethyst Stars quilt is for)… built themselves a new table over this holiday weekend too…

 Above was them working on finishing it up and below it is in their bedroom ready to give them respite!

Doesn’t it just look amazing!!??  I LOVE that he got some untapped handy genes somewhere/somehow!

So here is my sewing room today with my latest sewing machine project I fiddle with when I need a diversion from hand quilting and packing more stuff up….

Gloria… my Singer 301a is doing a fine job of precisely piecing the hexi centered blocks… I need quite a few to make us a quilt for our bed though… lol!

My 401a and fabric chest and cutting table and ALL OF MY STASH (meaning Bonnie Hunter’s … On Ringo Lake mystery is getting printed for making once we are relocated!!!) is packed away except for what you see above!!!!  We couldn’t believe how many boxes it took to wrangle my sewing stuff … and I am NOT DONE YET!!! lol  I have sewing items in EVERY room… but by the end of THIS DAY TODAY those should all be boxed and ready for a new home somewhere north where seasons again exist 😀

Please keep us in your thoughts/prayers as we look for God’s will in our move north of here… are you doing Bonnie’s mystery this year??  I would love to hear about that too!!  I am a HUGE fan and this will be my first time to try out her mystery 😀

Hope all is well for you and yours!  Please take time if you like to go visit the others who are linking their slow stitching hand done projects at Kathy’s quilts today and remember until my next post to…

Scraphappy Saturday ~ A Flimsy Finish!!

This is my first time to participate in Angela’s Scraphappy Saturday linky HERE.. and a machine stitched scrappy quilt top aka flimsy may be a GREAT reason to join in on the fun!!!

Meet Gloria… my favorite child… I do have 4 real kids… but they are grown and gone into their own lives… Gloria lives for the moments I use her… and she loves new adventures 😀

So after being tempted by the fun Bonnie Hunter with scrappy pumpkins… on her blog and quilt cam sessions…

I decided to finally use a phone book… I think I had about 6 saved for the perfect sizes!!! lol

So quicker than I imagined I had 15 scrappy pumpkin forms made… 

Next it was time to come up with a plan… my plan had been to set these 5 across and 3 down.. but these were too cute to be mass produced and quickly sashed!!! LOL

So soon whilst sitting on my back porch… aka Florida room (it is screened and has a water bubbler)  It is a fUN place 😀 … I had this pattern…

 Just using graph paper and pencils… and then I picked 8 of my very favorite and SCRAPPIEST pumpkins 😀

Next it was time to turn them into more a pumkin looking object and remove the phone book paper from their backsides… because I had been studying paper piecing for A WHILE before attempting it! lol  I knew to shorten my stitch length on Gloria to make paper removal easier… sure enough it was off in a FLASH!!!

And I had the beginnings of my pumpkins emerging… Hey a couple even had their stems!!!

And before I realized it I had filled in all the blank spots until I was at a stopping place for the applique..

 Appliqued letters… did I really plan MY FIRST APPLIQUE… on my FIRST PAPER PIECED SCRAPPY Project?? !!  HAHAHA  YEP 😀

So to my fabric chest I went and picked out this shade of golden yellow for the words…

 And to the blog Fabric Therapy and Teresa’s Tutorials HERE for assist in how to best applique my letters!  I printed out “a few” pages of instructions too! lol

 After a couple emails back and forth … she was most gracious… I had my letters planned out and cut out of freezer paper and ironed to the front of my fabric leaving room to trim out the 1/8″ around each letter for turning under with glue stick (this is Teresa’s method and I really like it)!!!

Soon I had the letters trimmed out of the fabric and my tools and technique were taking shape…

 I had 3 words to applique “Happy Fall Y’all!”  Happy was tedious I will admit.. I was tense… but by the time I got to Y’all! … it was MUCH MUCH more fun actually and relaxing 🙂

 Once all that glue stick was good and dry I removed all the freezer paper that remained and glue basted the letters in place with the Roxanne’s Glue baste I had had for (ahem) quite a while waiting to applique or learn to … lol!

 Here is a quick silly snapshot I took of my word “Happy” appliqued down…

 While appliqueing I watched Netflix… these 2 shows were quite entertaining and not distracting to my train of thought as I learned this new skill…

And here I have most all done but the last 2 characters to applique down… when I could focus on it it went quickly… and applique is a great take along project for sure!!!

 Once I finished all the applique I finished the inner turquoise blue sashing edges to let the pumpkins breathe appropriately before adding other borders… but before I added more borders…

I had to rinse out the glues that remained in this piece… they are ALL water soluble…

I rinsed them in a very clean bowl and let it soak initially about 30 minutes… I was cutting borders and straightening up a bit in the sewing room whilst this was going on…

 After several water exchanges until it didn’t get cloudy anymore… it was time to dry it… and wouldn’t you know it had been windy all week long… not a breeze to be found now… so I set it up in front of the fan between a couple chairs… simple ingenuity! lol

 Once dry I added a thin black border to bring out the pumpkin stems… then added the strips of what would be the outer border… this fun candy corn green border…

But it was missing something… hmmm

Fall isn’t just pumpkins… acorns I had been seeing on some quilting sites too!!!  So I downloaded some images of acorn patchwork from google and fashioned my own from a leftover pumpkin rectangle… and added a bit of pumpkin stem fabric for their caps 😀

 And soon I had what I was happy to label and call a Flimsy Finish!!!

 Then to the kitchen area… to open up the rolling cart…

 as a pinning station!!!

 Layered there with cotton/wool batting and some yardage that was 5 or 6 years old for backing.. a black/white / grey print I didn’t get a shot of…  ready to hand quilt!!!

Come back tomorrow and see how I quilt this baby 😀  Currently this is my foyer wall hanging for fall.. I love it but it just isn’t our style anymore… we are evolving I think! lol

 So take time today to …..

 Do something unusual or unexpected… I will try and do the same… don’t forget to follow the link at the top of this post to see what scrappy fun others are up to for Scraphappy Saturday!!!

Slow and Loving Stitches Here!!!

Happy Sunday Y’all!!!

 This week I have had a very busy week to be slow stitching… but I find the beginning of a project busy as I gather supplies and make final design decisions on the hand quilting…  So I have been to the beach a few times!

We also were celebrating here more this week… my honey celebrated his birthday this week!  This was a pic I posted on facebook 🙂

 My bestie Connie took a couple of good shots of us when she was here… nice to have an ocean background as that is our fave place of late!

There is NOTHING to me besides hand quilting that equals beach visits for therapy of the soul!!!

Speaking of stitching let me show you the progress I have made slow stitching on this beauty Amethyst Stars…

I shared this planned stencil to use on the outer border…

 Here is where I marked it with Pounce Chalk… and enhanced those markings as I went along with a chalk pen I have…

 Here is the right side stitched up…

 Here is the joined area… this is a directional stencil… so because of that at the center of the sides, top and bottom I have a “join” area to deal with… which I prefer actually so it is all good…

 And here is that joined area stitched and cleaned and dry 😀

 Here is a fun photo I caught in the early morning one day this week too…

 Thought you would enjoy that shot! I love catching the stitching in different light.

Here is the inner border in the design I had planned… and argyl-esque look with 2 colors of perle cotton in use here…

Here is a shot of the “Argyling” I did… it looks oh so cool in real life.. I hope that is captured in these photos taken with my iPhone though! lol

Now I have rolled the quilt yet again (yep that is twice in a week!!!) and have ordered some stencils… I get stencils from 2 different places… The Stencil Company and Quilting Stencils International.  Both can be google searched and ship in the USA as well as overseas for a price I think!  I had exhausted the fun charm square sized stencils from the first place so I checked out the second place… I am now patiently… NOT… waiting for my stencils to arrive via mail.

I do wish there were local hand quilting outlets… I live 1 hour from a big city but there is no hand quilting shops near me … so most of my shopping is done online.  So I wait PATIENTLY! lol

As I wait I am using the stencils I had in my stash/or had ordered from the first mentioned place anticipating my need for charm sized stencil designs.  In this shot you can see my markings from a stencil to the far right charm square…

 And in this shot you can see that charm square is now stitched … as are the 3 stars …

So how many different threads am I using on this quilt all together you may wonder??! hahaha… let me share this shot with you then…

Yep, I am using Aurifil 28/2, YLI 40/3, Valdani 12 wt perle I get from the Rusty Crow online shop, and DMC 12 wt perle cotton too!!!  Each different brand has it’s own texture though so just like using lots of fabrics can make a quilt scrappy.. using lots of different types of threads can make it more scrappy in it’s finish too… I only bought a couple of these for this quilt… the rest if from stash!  I LOVE THREAD!!! lol

And here is my Pounce marking pad…

It comes in white, blue and pink … there is a good video on YouTube by Leah Day showing how to properly use a pounce marker… there is a definite learning curve to this way of marking… and when you “charge ” it to use you have to whack it against something pretty firmly and it makes a startling noise to others around who may not be expecting it! lol  So if you need a quiet environment or quilt with others in the room work out a communication for when you are charging your pad to mark is my advice 😀

I have a Facebook group that I started several years ago… it hums along usually but of late has been languishing… so I am trying to resuscitate it…

 Here is the group name and the Facebook header I just put up this morning 🙂  I have been so preoccupied with my honey and his health and my own health concerns… I am just getting back to keeping up with things I enjoy like this Facebook group ❤  If you are interested in quilty talk and sharing in a small group setting… as to join in this group if you like!  Would love to get to know you each better… if you aren't already in my group that is.

Also to add to my productivity this week I straightened my sewing room quite a bit…

 The top shot is my 401a (on the left) ~ Zena, and my 301a ~ Gloria ready for action… you can see my design wall and ironing surface there too… then below to the left is my cutting surface and it is MUCH tidier.

My bestie gave me that cool wood ruler organizer/holder over a month ago… I finally made a space for it and put a note she left me LAST summer on it along with my small cutting mat and my most commonly used rulers 🙂

To the bottom right is a collage I made of my next project coming up to piece and thus the reason my sewing room needed this tidy.  I now have all the major cuts made to this Christmas wall hanging… you can see the red and green and white with grey fabrics I am using… this will be a wall hanging for the foyer when the season arrives I am hoping!  While I was ordering the white/grey fabric during a clearance sale online… I found some remnant pieces I felt needed to be added to my existing stash to enhance it! lol  They will be used on a future quilt I am planning also!

Here is a closer up shot of my 401a… Zena… with the cool pin cushion my bestie gifted me for my birthday… I sent it to the lady on etsy that fashioned it from vintage stuff … and filled it at my request with walnut shells!  It is weighty and useful… I LOVE LOVE LOVE it ❤

Here is a cool way to use art to decorate and say something meaningful too that I found on Pinterest I think.  I sent it to my daughter but it has spoken to me also…

 I haven’t heard from my daughter since the 4th of July (my birthday) .. hoping all is well with her and helping her to see a silver lining if life isn’t working out as she thought it might!

For now I encourage you to each …

Stitch and enjoy… come over to Kathy’s Quilts to see what others are slow stitching this week too… that is where I will be posting this too!!   HERE is a direct link to make it easy for ya! 🙂  She has a fun interpretation of this too… this is just mine because it has the ocean in it!!!💕

Y’all … there is PLENTY of meanness in our world of late… please be the change in your area… I will be in mine by showing my love to others… won’t you try it too?!!!  

Have a blessed Sunday and a great upcoming week and grab the opportunity to make a difference around you!

Slow Stitching Sunday Yippee!!!

I can’t believe it have been a month since my last post… live has been sooo busy I didn’t realize… so sorry my bloggy friends!

Here is a great pic to express my regret for keeping you out of the loop!

From our beach to yours.. happy season change… for us it is Summer… and for Australia I think it is officially winter now!!! This shot shows how empty the beach can be early in the mornings 🙂

My honey has been in and out of the hospital this last month… here is a pic we took after his most recent hospital stay where we got a diagnosis finally…

When my honey goes into the hospital I go too… and stay nearby having been a cardiac nurse for so many years I navigate the medical world and medical words for him… and this time for me!  He has tracheomalacia or a floppy airway most commonly found in newborns… why he got it we can only conjecture… the cure is unknown and probably just to fix the floppy airway for a stable airway (aka a tracheostomy) but for now we are using a CPAP machine most of the time to assist his breathing and keep that airway open!

That is probably lots of Greek to you too… and that is simplified!  Sorry guys… but your THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS are appreciated as we navigate this path.. I want my honey to stick around a while longer and he wants to stay here too… for him a tracheostomy is NOT something he wants ever… so his natural airway needs to get stronger if possible or the breathing machine needs to be helpful in helping him rest well at nighttime!  So that is what has kept me so busy lately… my honey has had his own personal nurse! lol

Meanwhile… our first night at the hospital in a town over an hour away.. I came home to find carpet torn up and my quilt I have been working on torn partially out of the frame…

 So I finally… almost a month of looking at it later… made time and energy to get it back in the frame properly… and now I am making slow stitching progress once again!!!

I am linking my slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Quilts Slow Stitching Sunday… I have missed you all … my fave linky so go check it out HERE!!!

While that quilt was in an “unquiltable” state… I had to keep myself occupied with something and reading wasn’t gonna do it so I worked on my son James and his new brides’ quilt…

Above you can see the new “Strip Stick” I found via a friend’s youtube vid and requested more info… they are available in sizes too… I found this size fits my needs for now!  And it fits my pressing surface well… it aids in ironing seams open which is what I was doing as I watched a quilt cam with Bonnie Hunter 😀

And I finally have the center finished between doctor and hospital runs with my honey…

Next up is the pieced border that is framed on the inside by a “floating border” and on the outside by a anchoring border and the top will be an official flimsy!!! lol  Getting ahead of myself though… the pieced border will take a bit of thought… review of the pattern I made… a video instruction… and some good old fashioned math…

 And don’t forget comedic relief like that my honey provided below! lol  Thanks to our Daisy dog for being the comedy… she is pretending to be a lab in this shot! hahaha 🙂

While the video tutorial I purchased helped me figure out the basic way to construct the pieced border… it did NOT help me figure the math correctly… for that I am glad math was a subject I “got” in high school and college… So I will not mention the name or where I purchased this video when looking to make this certain style of pieced border but I don’t regret the purchase really either…

I plan on leaving feedback once I have a flimsy to share and am complete… here are shots of some of my progress thus far though…

The inner border also called the float border to this pieced border as it will give the custom fit it needs for the quilt… is a bit skinnier on the sides finishing at 1″ on each side while the top and bottom finish at 1 3/4″ each… This float border is vanilla fabric like the first row of sashings are on the outer edges of the center of the quilt… so should all veg together  🙂  I hope so anyway!!!

I have the top and bottom borders complete on the pieced borders now and they fit as they should.. today when I am not slow stitching I will be constructing the side borders.  Once both are together and tested in place I will add the vanilla float border and see how they really fit… maybe have all this done and the flimsy finished by next weekend???  No promises on that… EVERYTHING depends on my honey as his need to be hospitalized again until we have a home plan that is stable for his airway! and his health overall!!!  Here is my pattern again though… how I planned it to be looking! lol

And here are a few pieces I had left over from the center and my triumphant start on the pieced border after watching the video and reviewing my own plan above! lol  This WILL BE HAND QUILTED once it is a flimsy too 🙂  That was requested by my son’s new wife in the early planning stages!!

Here is an updated shot of me I took… it now resides as my facebook profile pic 🙂  This was the end of May though…

Here is my 301a Gloria who has made my work on this quilt top.. Amethyst Stars… so enjoyable and a great destressor for me 🙂

And here is a “new” thrifted ironing board… with a cover I made after watching some youtube tutorials…. along with a new iron I got too (my old one had leaked so much the ironing board was all rusted under the cover that was stained and falling off! lol

I have had this fabric for some time … waiting for the right project for it… now I have this fun cover to look at every day and interact with when ironing needs to be done properly on a board instead of my quilting ironing surface!!!  I love the cradle it has to keep the iron off the ironing board itself… and a new iron does not leak!!! Yippee 😀

Well… that is about all I have time for today… Thanks again for your coveted thoughts and prayers for us and the VA medical team my honey has…

Remember to …