Happy November!

We have been very productive here for November 🙂

I got the sweet buzz on Sugar Bee crafts for my Hammock Quilt Finish… check them both out!

 We cleaned the Florida room out and pressure washed it and reorganized it as we filled it back up.

 Where I am set up for hand piecing now… is the part of the table I set my quilted item on for hand quilting… keeps the dirt and my sweet animals off until they are ready 🙂

Behind me is the design board my honey made me 🙂

We found shelving on Craigslist for free and some for cheap that has really helped us reorganize the garage 🙂

Don’t look at the unorganized shelf… my honey say 🙂

The cabinet is actually one we got for FREE and was originally used at a local city fire hall… it is really heavy and all wood with magnets to hold the doors closed!

 So check your local Craigslist for finds!  I even found some quilting fabric there a couple weeks ago… more on that when I use it though 🙂

My daughter has been busy… greeting Halloween

Getting an eye check up

And hanging with friends 🙂

She also needed a chest so we found this great one … on Craigslist… for $40.00 and it is HEAVY and all wood!

And in her room… the thank you pic we sent to the people that sold it to us for so cheap 🙂

And in doing so she cleaned her room for the first time this month! lol  Okay first time in SEVERAL months… but it was clean that day!  Give thanks for what we can right?!!

Daisy has been frolicking and enjoying the fall sunny day we had today for a bit before the overcast skies returned…. check out the aloe in the top left of this pic too!

My honey made a hangar for the hammock to be stored when we aren’t using it… very cool!

And when we are using it I just finished a quilt to abate the windy days and cooler nights that will be greeting us more and more into winter time for the east coast of Florida!

Doesn’t that look inviting???  I love how “quilty” the quilt turned out!  I will be sharing the blog post about it linked at the beginning of this post to several linky parties!  This is my fave finish so far!  We have slept under it a few nights already… just cuz! lol

When we moved the hammock from it “storage spot” we found a friend finding refuge behind it… can you tell what it is???

a sleeping froggy!

 And finally… I have taken a stab at hand piecing… this is what I have done so far… it will be bigger and better… learning with every stitch.  For the record I started this on November 3, 2013.  I have given myself a month to hand piece and hand quilt what will be table toppers for family Christmas presents… Do you hand piece???  Do you hand quilt???  Would you be interested in classes if you knew someone locally???

Hope you have a completely crafty November and don’t forget to share it all on your blog so we can see what you are up to too!  It is fun to share 🙂

Kathi

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Sister Hammock Quilt COMPLETE!

This wonderful quilt was pieced over 4th of July week 2013.  Read more about my quilting adventures that week here.  Suffice it to say I ended up with this quilt that we pin basted together before my besties visit came to an end!…

Then it sat in line waiting for me to have time to quilt it… hers also waiting but as summer waned she started hers and soon I had to start mine too!  They are sister quilts aren’t they! lol

My formal quilting started September 9 and I completed all the quilting November 3, 2013… so just under 2 months to hand quilt this baby!

The back is fun too… I added a zig zag across the upper middle of the back horizontally… you can see it on the hammock from the back here.

This quilt used bamboo & cotton mix batting that is super soft and shrinks like all cotton but was easy to quilt through as it is thin but drapes beautifully after it is washed (I just finished before this one… a quilt with the same batting the washing made ALL the difference!).

I hand quilted 3 lines diagonally on the colored fabrics in perle cotton white at the center line with 40 wt YLI white hand quilting thread on either side and used my John James needles (I like size 8 betweens :))

Then in the rombuses (the slanted rectangles I made bowties and also quilted the triangles to bring out their bowtie-ness!  I used the 40 wt YLI thread for this quilting… In the above pic you can see where I signed my name to the bottom corner of the quilt 🙂

But I wasn’t happy with how it felt where I had done all this quilting so I added more to the slanted one side and squared other side colored fabrics with a geometric zig zag like this…

Pretty cool all together… and those extra 240 zig zags made the difference for this quilt… It was worth the extra couple weeks going back over the whole quilt to add this quilting… now it is soft snuggly and ready for us to use… on the hammock or in the house 🙂

Okay… now the truth… I wrote all the above while it was being washed and dried… twice!!!

I washed it the first time on cold gentle and dried lightly in the dryer.  The second time however, I washed it on warm and used heat to dry!  Wow is it lovely now 😀 and sooooo soft!!!  I did use color catchers in both washes/dries but there wasn’t much color absorbed… and the white stayed nice n bright!  Check out this photo montage 🙂

 with my signature and last but not least the year completed!

From the back….

 The back is Hoffman fabrics white with white polkadots!  They wrinkled differently and gave the back a pebbly appearance… super cozy too!

This is a quilt for general use but mainly for our hammock out back… so pics there were needed before I could post this! hehe 🙂

Another cool fact about this quilt… my bestie finished and washed hers THE SAME DAY I did!  Isn’t that cool… so they were made together and “birthed” together and each are being loved by us!  Love that 🙂



I plan to link this finish to:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict here
My Quilt Infatuation here
       & Featured here
Richard and Tanya Quilts here
       & Featured here

Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sundays here
Sugar Bee Crafts here

If this is your first visit to my blog read my most recent post to get to know me better… here 🙂  I love comments so please leave one to let me know you were here!  Or email me directly here.

Have a blessed November… more on what we have been up to otherwise coming very soon!

Kathi

Hand quilting and enjoying the beauty around me :)

As I hand quilt I sit in my screened in porch and enjoy my back yard… I have shared it and have had positive feedback… let’s see how things are looking now 🙂

 The wandering jew are really growing in this wagon… here is a look from the other side too!

And the one that started with bits from the trash is THRIVING!

Even the one that didn’t want to grow is doing well with wet feet and plenty of sun since we moved it to the post 🙂

 that is our Carolina Jasmine finally taking off at the bottom and winding it’s way up the post… much fuller than my pics 2 weeks ago for sure!

The aloe that we moved to a corner of the yard to let it run and play is blooming again 🙂

our big cactus corner…

a view from the side

the blooms are dripping nectar!

Their true colors 🙂

 As for the smaller cacti… they are flourishing in their newfound space.  The pot my honey made a couple years ago for me 🙂  I weeded them this past weekend…

 And watered them while my honey cleaned the hammock for use VERY soon!

 My honey even made it a place to live when we aren’t using it with a pulley and leftover parts he had in the garage!  Doesn’t it loo nice here 🙂  It is on the side of our storage building safe from falling leaves and more stains to clean! lol

All the while I am working on the quilt we will snuggle under this winter while no bugs are about to take away the enjoyment of the great outdoors 🙂  in our own back yard!

Now I know you come here for crafting more than scenes of my backyard so check out this layer cake (10″ squares precut) that my daughter is gonna use to make her first quilt top out of over Christmas break… I think I am more excited than she is! lol

I am over 60% done with the final quilting design on the quilt on my table… I don’t use a hoop and am soon to finish this so I can start my first hand quilted project!  Yipee!!!  More to come on that!

Have a blessed week and thanks for stopping by!

Kathi

A view of the BACK side :)

This sister Hammock quilt has consumed me folks… so sorry it has been over a week since I wrote!  I have had lots and lots going on personally and just haven’t gotten to quilt as much as I like… however today I have a surprise!

You get to see my BACK side! lol

In a bit I will share the front quilted and cute but for now… check out the chevron I pieced into the back and painstakingly hand quilted!

This is another view… the chevron was pieces toward the top of the quilt 🙂  I did enjoy adding it and am glad I did but just will think twice about handquilting through all those potential layers!

See the stitching and binding details that you can make out in this photo??  It feels sooo quilty front or back!

And in it’s future home sweet home the right side up now 🙂

Putting on the binding on this one proved a bit of a challenge and a lot of God!

I ended the binding I had made when I pieced the top and usually have about a yard left over the way I measure… well here are the leftovers I had!

5 INCHES!!! How blessed is that to have just enough without digging into my stash!  Yipee 🙂

During the binding process I had to pull out the electrical tape and cut a piece to fit a tender spot from the recent job of binding I had just finished and not yet healed from I guess… anyway.. back to the tape I went!

Now I am working on some detail stitching..

Using a decorated safety pin to mark my place in the quilt :).  That should take me less than a week then into the washer and dryer it goes… probably a couple passes with a towel thrown in to scrub it good… then time to grab, go to the hammock, and ENJOY!

Hope you have a blessed quilty weekend… thanks for visiting!

Kathi

Progress to WHOOP about :)

We have had a very productive and busy week around here and I am so excited to share it all with you… 🙂

I am about 75% done with the quilt til the binding goes on… there is still more stitching to do but I am quilting completely on the borders and gonna finish filling in the colored areas I decided to quilt to be DONE with it… so here is a pic or two 🙂

You see my honey is in a hurry to be snuggling under this quilt… so he is rushing my handwork.  I compromised by not rushing… just doing things in a bit of a different order…

This quilt has definitely been an adventure but I LOVE LOVE LOVE where
it is taking me right now and we are gonna use this quilt like crazy VERY soon!

He helped me pose these cute yard ornaments that just can’t take the Florida heat so we keep them in our Florida room… I thought I could share them with you… aren’t the bee and the ladybug cute as can be???

Here is a close up of the work I am doing… marking a little and stitching a little … going pretty fast really!

And I found a love note the other day… my honey LOVES ME!

And a peek at the back of the quilt… with a bit of the chevron showing across the top 🙂

The front door make over is making progress… but errands and other things have been calling us away… so far he has sanded the door and put 2 coats of paint on it plus done some other work I don’t pretend to understand! lol

You can still see 2 colors… so my honey says a couple more coats should give us a more even finish we are going for 🙂

I haven’t started the hand piecing yet and my honey will continue to work on the front door area as time allows… as for today… we have a clean car!  My honey washed it top to bottom!  Yipee 🙂

We also scored some really nice wire shelving for VERY cheap on craigslist so my honey is making room for that to go in as well.

Have a blessed weekend… this is linking up to Sarah’s Confessions of a Fabric Addict here!
AND Karen at Sew Many Ways here!

Kathi

Decisions…. Decisions :)

So many decisions to make recently… but slowly I am making my way through this quilt and through all the decisions too…. some of the decisions were about this quilt…

Does it need even more quilting when I look at this pic???

And when I look at the back it just doesn’t look quilty enough 🙂  Sooo, at my bestie’s, Connie, urging I set out to design something for this odd space… slanted on one side and straight on the other… hmmm…

So “auditioned a couple here…

The bottom row has 4 zig zag style lines and the top has only 3… but it matches the 3 diagonal lines right next to it!  Instant winner in my book… so when it doubt…. again .. quilt it out 😀

what the final blocks will all look like 🙂

Next up I got this delicious fabric to learn hand piecing with…

using this pattern 🙂

Now to get up the courage to cut this beautiful fabric and make no major faux paux 🙂 lol

Another decision made was to storm coat the front and back doors with bright white semigloss paint… currently they are a light mushroomy gray color…

Wait until the after shot of this area 🙂  I am exciting at what skill my honey has is working magic 🙂

Got any recent decisions you have made that you would like to share ??? Would love feedback on what you are up to as well!

Have a blessed weekend!

Kathi

Casa Del Loro Update ~ Fall Tune up :)

Around here has been pretty busy lately doing fall tune up activities around the house 🙂

First we gave the main bathroom new paint and a new floor!

View from the door from the hall

One of my sons uses a lot of towels for his showers 🙂

These are the true colors in that room now… with nice new trim too!

Then we moved to the back yard for a little rearranging and rehoming of plants from the summertime 🙂

The mexican petunias got a trim and one bloomed just for me and you!

The baby cacti are growing… including those aloe babies 🙂

The mama aloe is happy so we moved the tall cactus over by her… they aren’t happy about it yet though 😦

 The pot of wandering jew is completely from clippings… we have more below in our wagon we trucked with us when we moved and finally found a place for it and the cute bee!

Finally found a great place to plant the Carolina Jasmine a friend gave us 🙂

 Then my honey decided the front needed a little tlc too… so we painted the lighting out front.. we have 2!

a carriage light got a new paint job 🙂

as well as inside the front porch 🙂

All the while I will take quilting breaks and I am now almost 1/4 done with this Hammock Quilt… this should be a fairly fast finish I am pleased to report!

about 12% done here….

see my signature!  Will add the date just before I bind it 🙂

So what are you doing around your hacienda for fall?  Any projects going on?  I would love to hear what YOU are up to!

Have a blessed weekend 🙂

Kathi

Sister quilt Phase 1 COMPLETE!

Welcome from Port Orange, Florida USA 

(near Daytona Beach 🙂

I am Kathi B. Clower!

I have been working fairly regularly every day on making triple diagonal lines on the Sister Quilt or Hammock Quilt … as I have come to start calling it.  I finally finished the gross or major part of the  quilting!  I put in the final diagonal line this morning and planned phase 2!  I started this exactly 3 weeks ago so that is pretty fast for me 🙂

Here is a section from the middle and bottom of the quilt… it is a good sized throw… will have to measure accurately after the quilting, washing and drying is done 🙂

The triple line action doesn’t show much now … but when phase 2 in complete I think the design will be well complemented.

The plan is to quilt in the rhombuses a squared figure eight and fill in the bow ties.. kinda looks like the bow ties are being reflected in the white space…

I wanted to get jazzy with the thread color but that doesn’t work because my backing is white… so I will use my lovely YLI 40 wt hand quilting thread for this part of the project… I debated also using a backstitch instead of a typical quilting running stitch…. but after a trial run I like the quilted look I think… how about you?

The blue lines will go away with the wash… and the humidity I quilt in… so I am only adding them a quilting amount at a time 🙂

UPDATE:
A few blocks of the Hammock Quilt done 🙂

And the bottom right corner completed with my name added (date will be added when I finish quilting before binding)….

The 13 year old UFO quilt I finished and mailed has been slept under and cuddled under with the grandkids and thoroughly blended into everyday life… that makes THIS worth it to me 🙂  Is the time you put into your craft worth it???

 Also…. My daughter is getting ready for her first high school dance… check out how cute she is …

Before I know it my baby will be going to PROM!

Hope you have a blessed week… back to quilting I go… Phase 2 will be FUN!  120 blocks of it! lol

This blog is linked to Celebrate Quilting Blog Hop for Fall 2013 … check it out here!  You will see lots of fun quilty stuff there 🙂 
Kathi

Hammock quilt update!

So I started hand quilting triple diagonal lines on this quilt September 10.  Relived September 11 as I stitched and have watched chapters of my life change and close and open since I started.

I am now one half done with the diagonal lines and decided I needed to see her in all her glory right now… to ponder my next steps.

with a close up of the diagonal stitching I have put in…

And a pic of the back…

I loved making the chevron for the back and piecing it in but I am not enjoying hand quilting over it and will think twice before using a pieced back like this in the future… one seam or two for a traditional pieced back is fine.. but this pieced back has much more bulk to quilt over by hand 🙂

I plan to use YLI varigated 40 wt quilting thread for the white spots… add some whimsy and fun to this quilt front and back 🙂  What are your thoughts???

Hope you do something productive this weekend!  I will if you call quilting productive! lol

Kathi

Whoop! Whoop! My exciting week :)

Hope you are having a happy end of the week and planning a fun fall weekend… Fall is official in just a couple days!  Temperatures a cooling a bit on Florida’s east coast and quilting is in full bloom… along with my back yard 🙂

I finished quilting and sent this quilt to it’s owner.  She recieved it Tuesday 🙂

Here it is in full view 🙂

And here is a close up of the quilting on it… fairly heavily hand quilted 🙂

 

She loves it and is sleeping under it as I write this 🙂  Yipee!  Whoop!

Wanna know the specifics on this quilt???  Check out this post 🙂

So what is next???

I started on my “sister quilt” as it has a sister … me and my bestie Connie made quilt tops together this summer and now I am quilting mine and she is also quilting hers… both by hand 🙂  Whoop!  She is almost done with her quilting and I just started mine… they both have lots of love being sewn into them… read more on this quilt here.

And finally… I took a little shopping trip to JoAnn’s… got me lots of fun colors of hand quilting thread by Coats & Clark… YLI just doesn’t have enough color selection and this is my second fave thread …

I plan to use the lighter blue/teal on this quilt in all the white spots… follow along and see what happens 🙂

Planning to link this finish up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict here & Richard and Tanya Quilts here  & Sew Many Ways here 🙂
Hope you have a great weekend…

Kathi