Busy, Busy Sunday :)

Today has turned from a quiet stitching morning to a mission completing afternoon!  Yipee!

I am ready to start handquilting my Christmas presents…

I have these TWO lovelies both pin basted with bamboo and cotton batting and a cute coordinating fabric for the backing… I am planning a cranberry colored binding to tie in the darker red of the center and outer points… here are the two tops hand pieced completely 🙂

this is the one I learned on…

This is the one I rocked I think!

What do you think?  They are about 20″ across and were pretty easy to hand piece for a first experience 🙂  The pattern is a free download from Fons & Porter here!

So as I do a WHOOP for finishing both of these tops in just a couple weeks… my honey WHOOPs about something else!

He is renewing our shed… first he moved it away from the side of the house using just 2 x 4’s and dowel rod we had left over in the garage.. nothing was purchased for that part… and he used the jack from the van! lol

Then he painted it all white with exterior white paint we bought last month for painting the exterior doors.  We bought a quart of gray and 3 fence boards to make the windowbox and shutters and have leftover wood for further decoration!  WHOOP!

As I write this … guess where he is now.. drawn back to the shed cuz it is looking sooo nice!

Daisy Mae wanted to get in on the camera action even if my honey wasn’t interested 🙂

And if you made it this far… look what I won on Ebay this week… and already got it in the mail!!!!

1940’s feed sack quilt top measures about 65 x 75 now 🙂

Advanced or Improved 9 patch pattern ~ 7″ blocks

some edges are worn 😦

It was so exciting to fulfill a biggie on my bucket list.  Do you have one??? I just wrote about one here…

Hope you have a blessed week and don’t forget about my YLI thread giveaway here if you haven’t signed up yet 🙂

Linking this to:
Kathy’s Quilts ~ Slow stitching Sunday here
Confessions of a Fabric Addict ~ Whoop! here
Richard and Tanya Quilts ~ Link a Finish Friday here
Stitch by Stitch by Merelize here
Sugar Bee Crafts here 

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Learning to hand piece …

is many things but so far Zen is NOT it! lol

I do love it but just differently..

Definitely better than my machine work…

Doesn’t bother the local noises I love to listen to… water feature bubbling, birds, squirrels… my dogs! lol

So I started this adventure on November 3.

Fabrics from her ETSY shop here

Pattern in hand…

I cut all the material to the template size as I didn’t have the special rulers they recommended…  there was a vid but all the tips they gave were for MACHINE piecing… so I called on my best Connie to help me out…

Then I called on the internet when she was sleeping or working to help me out… HGTV has a great 3 part vid of Jinny Beyer “hand quilting” but she is actually piecing… the link isn’t working but you can just go to their website and search for it… sorry!  But it is EASY to find 🙂  And worth the effort if you want a quick and dirty lesson on hand piecing from a real PRO!

Finally between Connie, Jinny and my true grit effort I finished with this beauty of a table topper!  For 6 days of work this is sure like giving birth! lol

 To get to this point I had to glorify in little victories…

Like here… happy with my first stitches 🙂

Happy with my first units…

Going from my beginning triangle unit back to an octagon shaped center…

Back to a triangle…  This was Thursday I think…

Then it became a job… the sides to go on next didn’t fit when I tried… see???!!!

So I stretched one side, gathered the other some and sewed them together so they DID match! lol  If it seems wrong… it probably is…

So out came the scissors and some stitches had to go… time to start this part OVER!

Finally I got to iron the whole thing a take a pic… and because I am so excited you get to see it biggie sized now 🙂  It measures 18 1/2″ x 22 1/2″ 🙂

Ta daaaah!  Whoop!  One top done… now one more to go… I will adjust the pattern for the second one and know where MY problems were with the first one…

What i have learned… don’t leave knots at the corners.. instead backstitch to where you wanna be… less bulk at the corners… I can tell a difference at the point I learned that!

Use good sturdy thread and a sturdy needle you trust… I like it and Jinny said so! lol

Don’t iron until your pieced area is complete.. it will mess up the seams you need to be flipping.. and it will!

Try it then do more research and then go back to it again.. you will be much wiser the second or third time than you are the first… unless Jinny stops by your house! lol

Take time to stretch and be healthy so you can keep going when the road is rough or you aren’t seeing the progress you would like.  Be GOOD to yourself!

Hope this has helped you some if you struggle or desire to learn hand piecing.

I am still a lover of hand quilting overall and look forward to getting a few things I ordered to make the second one a tad easier… will share soon!

Have a blessed weekend!

Linking this learning lesson to …
Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sundays here 
Sugar Bee Crafts here 
Quilt Story here 
My Quilt Infatuation here

And check out my YLI hand quilting thread giveaway that I used in this project and LOVE going on until November 22, 2013 at 8 am EST… here!

Kathi

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