June 2018 Already??

Y’all I just can’t believe it was already time to turn the calendar this week!!!!

Hope you are each having a great beginning of summer… we have been getting LOTS of rain… but when June came in… it stopped!  So now to let it all dry out!!! lol

I have been making lots of hand quilting progress in the rain though… both at home and on the go 😀

I am linking this post to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday celebration… she is focusing on projects on the go this week!  So I will start with my hand quilting go project 🙂  Come see what everyone else is hand stitching HERE

This is a little Homespun wall hanging to be…

And here is some outline big stitching I have been doing on it…

My bestie did the raw edge applique for me and sent it to me … I added the borders with leftover fabrics and am FINALLY making it a go project to work on when my honey needs to go to doctor appointments.

My home project has been the Hanover Stars quilt on my big frame though 🙂  I am smiling because I figured out how I wanted to quilt the star squares on this one FINALLY!!!

First I auditioned wavy lines going across the block… but it didn’t sit right with me or my honey…

So THEN I made them symmetrical!  and boom ~ it worked for both of us immediately!

Here is a block stitched up with the chalk remaining so you can see the wavy lines…

In real life it adds a nice amount of texture and holds down the block well for future washings.. without distracting from the floating star and fabric choices…

And here is a look at my set up… my rolling chair is mostly out of the photo and I have the rolling table that holds my drink and sewing needs… and my bose speaker for vids and music sound 😀

Can you see the pond and grist mill in my view above the quilt frame above in the photo??

Here is a close up… sorry the quilting in the blocks doesn’t show up much but in real life it DOES with a fun texture only though  .. I am stitching those wavy lines with a neutral YLI thread!!!

So I am working on catching the sides up to the progress on the center of the quilt and hope to be adding the curlie cue lines on the sashings by this evening… we shall see how much I get done today since the rain has stopped and it is just amazing outside!!! 

Rabbits are eating ALL the strawberries before we get ANY from the garden!!!!  It is so sad that out of our 50 plus plants we may have enjoyed about 10 strawberries so far or less!  But there is a bountiful amount of blueberries, peaches and apples!!! YAY  and they are out of the rabbits reach we think! 😀  It is all a learning curve.. we will add chicken wire around the base of our garden fencing to keep these critters out of our yummy fruit and veggies next year for sure!

I have done a bit of online shopping this week … I bought stuff to make a wall hanging in the sewing room that will camouflage an electrical panel on the wall.. I hope to receive that stuff this week to share with you all next week… very cute though and now out of print.. I had a hard time finding any thing I LOVED and I LOVE this !!

Then we sold a few items on Marketplace and facebook.  One of our buyers asked me to machine quilt this top….

It’s about 70″ x 90″ or so… here is a close up of the center… 

And here is my general quilting plan…

I then also ordered, with $$ they gave me for supplies, the backing and batting for this flimsy.

First I will warm up my quilting skills on a sewing machine by quilting the pillow sham fronts I pieced a few weeks back… then I will have to iron this and prep all the layers for pin basting.

The owner is a sweet lady who had a friend piece it then she washed it (OH MY!) but the seams are very generous so it survived the washing and will get starched and ironed or best pressed and ironed prior to pin basting.  I am happy to do this for her also!  I needed a project to make for someone else and God knew that so here we go 😀

As I stitch I have been watching Craftsy Unlimited classes… I think you can get a week of Unlimited for free if you sign up then you can cancel before they charge you to see if you like it… I ordered mine through my good friend Karen HERE she has a link in her right sidebar to Craftsy Unlimited and it gives her recognition if you go through her link when you order… as she is an affiliate 😀  Doesn’t cost you a thing extra either!

Here is a quilt I saw in a Craftsy class this week:

And look and her border!!!

I have templates for a Double Wedding Ring but have never found a layout of colors I liked… I don’t think I would use a white background but use my civil war kind of fabrics and maybe not patriotic either but what a cool layout of colors in general she did I think 🙂

My honey found me another 4 leaf clover this week…I pressed one so I just enjoyed this one and wanted to take a photo to share the luck with you! 

Speaking of my honey, about a week and a half ago he hurt his sciatic nerve on his right side and has had excruciating pain since then.. he was weedeating the river bank that runs through our yard!

When I worked on my go project it was because he finally got to see his doctors at the VA in Asheville about 2 hours from us.  He not only got meds for this pain (steroid dose pack and heating pad) but also got renewed for his oxygen need at night which they delivered the next day !!!  Talk about blessed!!!  We are feeling the blessings this week 🙂

I am 20 pounds lower than when I started my weight loss medication too… so feeling happy about that and loved by my honey who was soo happy I was a nurse and could diagnose his pain issue and knew the right treatment for him to request from his doctors 😀

Until my next post … I have not received in my inbox ANY comments from my last post (and there were several … so I answered them on the blog post itself and hoped the responders got the reply)!!  So I have made comments now need approval before posting hoping this will solve my issue as blogger is making changes I don’t understand!!!  I want to know when you comment so I can respond though!

Make sure you take time out every day to… 

Advertisement

Blessed Memorial Weekend Y’all ~ and a thumble finger cot step by step tutorial!

As this weeks start… it is a solemn long weekend here in the USA… It is a time to remember those that have lost their lives to let us have freedom in America.  So sad it has had to be this way but it is nice to have a national holiday to slow down and remember all that has been lost to give us a democracy.

As I have been pondering this… I have been quilting and also been very busy with other things around the house… so I didn’t think I got that much quilting done to share today… but I HAVE!!!!
I am linking my handquilting progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday … come see what others are stitching up too and just follow This LiNK!!!

 I finished 5 set in triangle areas with heart motifs like above.  And below you can see more than 1.

 And I got the butterfly corner motif done too!!!

Now I am ready to roll the quilt a bit…

 And I rolled it… LOVING THE TEXTURE this quilting gives the solid burgandy fabric 😀

 Here it is all rolled now!  I just needed it rolled just a bit to do some stitching in the ditch in each block…

Any suggestions on how to quilt the blocks?  I am still batting around several ideas… lol!  I am just sooo in love with the quilt and the quilting thus far… so happy to have these stencils from my bestie too!!!

I have lost about 17 pounds recently… I have been very focused on this topic to help me and my knees which have debilitating arthritis presently.. but until I lose another 20 pounds or so no one will replace them… so I am staying fervently on the trail of weight loss!

 I am happy to see photos of my self with all this weight gone from me … and excited to see what 20 more pounds will bring 🙂

that close up above was cropped from this photo below.. on the swing in my happy place in our back yard overlooking our pond!

 Here is the pond and the grist mill/water wheel…

 And here is a great big fish swimming in our pond… this fish watches over the baby fish that swim in this area 😀  Can you see the fish??

We have rainbow trout, bass, and crappie… now sure what breed this one is but it likes to swim near the top and swim slowly too! 🙂

Also this week I got a much awaited for plaque for my sewing room with this years theme on it… Hand painted by an Etsy artisan in California…

 Here it is on my main wall you see as you enter the sewing room….

 and here is a closeup of my fave area of the wall…

Do you collect corks?  I love my ampersand cork collection spot!  Lots of crafts in the future will come from these I do believe… and I have FUN collecting them too:D lol!

My honey was VERY busy this week… aside from overworking and getting sciatic pains he drilled the inner divots out of my walking foot making it an open walking foot now!!!

 And he installed our new dishwasher … the appliances were mainly old in the house when we moved in so they all got replaced with stainless but the dishwasher which was new but white… so now the dishwasher matches the rest of the appliances 🙂  And we LOVE it!

 Last week I offered a tutorial on how to make a thumble finger cot … here is the tutorial I made up in Florida but it is exactly as I do it today… in fact I still have my original roll of electrical tape.. it may cost about $5 at a home improvement store but it is well worth it I think!

The only supply you need is white electrical tape.. I do prefer this Scotch brand and some sharp scissors… I use my thread cutting scissors and it doesn’t dull them.

The first photo shows the finger cot on my thumb and the brand of tape I use.  Then cut one piece of tape about 3-4″ long and another piece of tape a couple inches longer.

Cut the shorter piece in half lengthwise and wrap the other piece over itself until it makes a thick 3/8″ or more narrow roll (this is the 3rd photo)

 Now take that rolled up tape and place it on the sticky side of one of the skinny pieces of tape.

Put this on your thumb where you believe you push the needle most often… put the second piece below that but overlapping it … then custom fit it to your thumb to the pieces overlap…

You can take it off when you are done with a sewing session and put it back on the same way just keeping it all one piece now…  Works like a charm 🙂

Happy stitching and don’t forget in this world to …

7 Years Blogging … and WOW look what I am quilting this week!

I want this to be a spectacular 7th anniversary celebration and giveaway for all of you that read my blog each week 🙂  I have a stack of goodies for a giveaway planned for this week… then life stepped in and my week got uber busy!  

An unplanned trip to Asheville and some unexpected other stuff… well we will do the official celebration next weekend if y’all don’t mind!!!

I have made significant stitching progress this week between all the busyness though!!!  It really helps me manage stress QUITE effectively I find 😀 

So I have been getting up early and stitching in the mornings each day. I am linking this progress with other slow stitchers of all kinds at Kathy’s Quilts Linky Party HERE!  Come check out what all the slow stitching gang are up to and add your link if you blog about slow stitching of ANY kind!  We have cross stitchers, knitters, all kinds of hand stitching goes on and sooo much inspiration to be had from all over the globe too!  As for me… I am a recent transplant to a small town in far southwestern North Carolina USA 😀  I LOVE LOVE LOVE living here!

As does my honey of 7 plus years and our pup Daisy Mae of almost 7 years 😀  Here she is above enjoying the sunshine on our driveway !

Here is where my week started with this quilt last Sunday… laying out stencils… gathering a marking pen I could see on my fabrics that would also work with the stencils and making my plan ….

 After doing the marking and picking out some threads… a mix of big stitch and regular stitches… I was ready to begin!!!

 Don’t forget the proper lighting and a good rolling chair if you use a frame… much more ergonomic and effective to get in those strange positions to make even stitches if you have a rolling chair instead of a stationary one…

 Soon I had the first stitches in and spritzed away the blue marking lines to show off this wonderful texture!!!

 Then I remembered this Needle Keeper I had purchased and hadn’t even unwrapped yet so out it came to join my other one on the frame… it stands up off the quilt top enough to hold my hemostats that double as a needle puller when I get too many stitches on the needle or get in a tight spot and need the extra umph to get that needle through thick seams or something… invaluable tool!

Another basic and invaluable tool I use besides a regular thimble (took me AGES to learn to wear one but my fingers and finger nails love me for it! lol) is making a fashioned thimble from white electrical tape from a hardware store!  

Black gums up and leaves residue… they come in lots of colors too … I have found white leaves NO residue and no gumming up either!  So I make a thimble for my thumb from that and it HELPS SOOOO MUCH!!!

 If you are interested in a tutorial on how I make my thumble … just leave me a comment and I can add that to next weeks post 😉

Here is a look from the halfway point back to the beginning mid week….

 And here is a look when I was working on the end of the row….

Excuse my wet spot on the burgandy cornerstone.. I had just spritzed off my marks and wasn’t patient enough to let it dry before snagging this shot for you all… I was ready to roll!!! lol

I rolled on Friday I think…. marking only about 1/6 of the quilt where I planned to quilt at a time as it is humid out and we keep our windows open a LOT here… the weather is GLORIOUS!!!  But that can make all those marks disappear as humidity is a water like thing.  So be careful if you are in a rainy spot of the world and use the spritz away marking pens.  Mark only what you think you will get to in 2 or 3 days is my recommendation. 

So finally rolled soo I was looking at this this morning!!!

 But when I looked closely at this part here… where the burgandy corner meets the sashing… I knew this wavering edge was NOT what I wanted in this quilt forever…

So I went to my threads I had pulled for this quilt from my thread stash and decided on a big stitch outer line to stabilize AND be a design element on the quilt!

 What do you think??? 

I could have stitched in the ditch with a regular hand quilting weight thread too… but I decided this was just what this quilt needed to me 😀  Hope my honey likes this design decision when he wakes… otherwise I will take out this bit and stitch in the ditch for stabilization in an invisible way once washed…. I have done the ditch stitching on the black thin border using black thread on either side of that black line and it disappears when you look at it.

Next up is a setting triangle motif and swirls and hearts in this cool YLI blue variegated thread! My bestie Connie sent me the stencils from her collection above and below as well as the wavy lines in the outermost border … the rest are from my own stencil stash I have grown over my quilting career!

So if you are new to hand quilting… think about your quilting friends and see if any are willing to “share” their stash with you … likewise think if you would be willing to share  your stash with them!!!  Returning stencils when you are done is very important too!!  Stencils can be readily bought at some LQS’s and online at Quilting Stencils International and also The Stencil Company… I like the layout of The Stencil Company best and prices at both are similar.  I had picked out the same stencils that I borrowed from Connie actually… we both found that quite funny that what I picked out for wanting on this quilt she had in her stash already!!!

I mentioned earlier that we had to go to Asheville unexpectedly this week… Rick needed to visit the VA after he had called them about something so to Asheville we went on short notice… so I grabbed a project I have had lurking in the background but haven’t worked on in ages!!!

 This is a little wall hanging… not sure of it’s measurements but less than 24″ square I would bet… I had layered it with wool batting it looks like and a backing of leftover plaid fabric from my stash… you can see even though it is dark fabri it doesn’t darken the light grey background on the center part though… or dull the yellow of the outer border 😀  Experiment with fabrics you have in your stash for backings… you never know what will work for a project til you experiment!

Here it is just popped out of my 17″ frame as whilst in Asheville waiting I finished outlining the flowers and now need to outline the flower centers and the center star with black variegated thread. then mark and quilt the inner border and outer border after that !  A few more trips to Asheville and I will have this one done… how exciting to make progress on this slow stitching project… thus far I have just stitched with grey thread around the center flowers as I mentioned above so nothing to show a close up of… I have left it out of the hoop to relax from living in the hoop for a year or more already! YIKES … NOT ideal at all!!!

Lucky for me this is wool batting that wants to be puffy and not retain a crease from the hoop I use… my hoop is a heavy plastic hoop that is 17″ across… I LOVE IT… you can purchase one like it affordably at Joann’s online if you are interested… it is large but when I use it I just turn it and work on one side at a time 😀

My bloggy friend Karen wanted me to share photos of a project I am languishing on… my wholecloth!

So here are a couple shots of that project… I am on the second photo working my way from right to left filling in the dark green leaves when inspiration for this project I had worked on a lot until then left me… I got busy piecing and prepping for the quilt I shared at the beginning of this post “Hanover Stars” and quit hand quilting all together for a bit.

While it was nice to give my hands a rest… they are eager and happy to be back to hand quilting… Hand quilting is therapeutic in a way I can’t explain for me… I LOVE IT more than any other hand craft I have done before… I listen to music or watch learning videos on youtube or Craftsy… I splurged and got Craftsy Unlimited 2 months ago right after moving in here and LOVE LOVE LOVE all I can learn whilst stitching away … sometimes I do more watching… sometimes I have to rewind as I have gotten caught up in my stitching progress! lol  It is all good because you can rewatch all you want and LEARN soo many cool things… if you are interested in giving Craftsy Unlimited a try go to my friend Karen’s blog here and click on her Craftsy link and then click on Craftsy Unlimited… I think they may have a free trial but I can’t see any of those things right now… TOTALLY WORTH the monthly or yearly fee though!

In closing… the first photo I shared of the rose comes from this bush…

 Which is right outside my bedroom window….

 My honey brought that bud into me in a little glass with water to keep it thriving next to my frame as I quilt 😀

Then out the kitchen window we watch these flowers as they take root and are starting to bloom again from being planted a couple weekends ago….

 And here is a collage of mother nature’s symphony of beauty all around our little acre and a half….

That center shot shows an ancient weeping willow that stands just north of our garden and fruit trees… it is said a bald eagle comes and watches for fish to swim close to the top in our pond so he can swoop down for a feast of fish… but we haven’t seen him yet ourselves.

We have about 50 strawberry plants about ready to start bringing us mature strawberries, we have grape vines with baby grapes, more rose bushes, peach and apple trees, and blueberry bushes in abundance… so exciting to take ride abouts and walk abouts on our land and see the abundance of goodness we will soon be enjoying by hand!!!

OOOh… another thing I learned from a Craftsy Unlimited class by Debbie Caffrey (Cut to It – Designs for Smarter Cutting) and designed myself from that instruction and encouragement were these pillow sham fronts….

I plan to machine quilt them from a walking foot class by Jacquie Gering I also watched on Craftsy Unlimited this weekend!  We will see when and how that turns out 😀

Have a blessed weekend and see ya next weekend for a very fun giveaway I have planned… I will have a shorter post I hope then too! lol  For now please remember to always …

A Flimsy Story… with a Happy Ending!

First I would like to wish all you moms, grandmas, and great grands too a Happy Mother’s Day!!!

I am excited to join my fellow slow stitchers today at Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday HERE… if you do ANY hand work at all come on over there and get inspired at her LINKY PARTY!

I have a Flimsy Story to share and it has such a happy ending I can’t wait to get there!!! lol

Once upon a time there was a bunch of beautiful fabrics and a pattern all cut out and ready to sew!

Slowly and surely with the help of Gloria my vintage Singer 301a I sewed a few of the pieced together… 

And got one red and one blue background star… then I got sew excited a made 59 more!!!

And my new design wall was FULL!!!  Now time to sash them all together in diagonal rows to make a proper center…

Then add some fabrics for borders…

Don’t forget to miter a few times too!!!

And some finesse of leftover bits for the outer border…

And before you know it there is a flimsy!!!

Hanover Stars is born into a quilt top that is 104″ square… since it isn’t yet loaded on my hand quilting frame it is a flimsy… but here is where the happy ending starts coming into play!

Add a wide backing fabric I just love with the era of this quilt…

 Add a bit more batting when the front runs a bit short 😮

 Whip stitch it on with love and care!!

And a quilt is ready for hand quilting!!!!

I will share better photos of my view next Sunday… but for now know that this is where you will find me in our new home finally back to hand quilting at my Hinterberg frame!!!  A different chair (repurposed to my spot) and a new table … occasionally a glass of wine for relaxation and clarification… and I am ready to go!!!

Hope you liked that happy ending! I surely did 😀

Meanwhile my honey has been getting his man cave up and running and organized too!

He straightened out the garage so we could get both vehicles in it… and built a cool workbench and shelf above… he also has a view of the grist mill from his man cave heaven!!!

Here is a view of the outside a few months ago…about 500 square feet big… he is ecstatic!!! 

Here is a view of our neat and tidy garage… our second vehicle on the left is a golf cart we use all around our property!!! 😀

 Here are some flowers we planted below the flag pole this week ….

 And a nice shot of our healthy and growing corkscrew willow in the front yard…

 Out past the pond in the back yard is a garden and we have about 50 strawberry plants left to us by the previous owners!!! WOW 50 plants!!!! 

 They are starting to produce strawberries though and we had a early ripe one this week… soooo sweet and yummy!

Then my honey found me a cool 4 leaf clover in the garden too…

 Wowee!! Do I feel blessed 😀

Finally this quote and this quilting inspired me this week.. I find it sew true!!!

Take time to enjoy the beauty that is all around you… and make time to use your hands to make something amazing this week!  Happy Mom’s Day and happy Sunday y’all… thanks for visiting!

P. S.  My Blog Anniversary is coming up next weekend…7 years y’all!  Come back next Sunday to see how I am celebrating 🙂  You won’t wan’t to miss it!!!

Happy May 2018!!!

Did you celebrate any of early May’s special days???  

I celebrated THIS ONE!!!

I celebrated May the 4th with this view…

Yep!!!  All the blocks are made for Hanover Stars quilt center… Now to get them put together!!! lol

But let’s review if you are interested in seeing how I quickly pieced each these 61 blocks 🙂  As May 2 opened with this view…

Now at block 20 of 20 blue blocks in this round…

I pick out 8 blocks that don’t match but coordinate… and add the center block that is the same throughout the quilt…

Then I take the 4 middle blocks on each edge and add corners to them to “snowball them 😀

 Star points happening here…

 After cutting off the one side and adding the star point to the opposite side and cutting off the excess I have a star in pieces…

 Then I web the block to hold it together and not get the pieces mixed up as I sew them all together….

 Finally!!!  The last block is complete and set into place after being sliver trimmed to size 😀

Next up was to trim down the sashings and cornerstones… I had to coffee stain the sashings to get them dark enough…

The sashings have a story… they started out bright white in fabric color from my stash… I tea stained and tea stained again and dried each time and yet not dark enough to look civil warish like this quilt is.  So finally I got “jiggy” with it and made some very strong coffee and soaked them for about 15 or 20 minutes .. rinsed and dried until completely dry in a hot dryer… now they are finally a color we LOVE ❤

 And trimmed as they had been cut in a tea died color that wasn’t enough… they were then tea died and coffee stained to get the right color from them… and were stringy! lol

 See how those sashings look now though… they really REALLY coordinate with the quilt.. and from my stash!!! 😀

So today I will start piecing the quilt together into a whole center… I have planned borders and we shall see how those work out when I see how big this center works … we want a quilt that is about 103″ square before washing … I have a wide backing that is 108″ and plan to put this on my 109″ wide frame to quilt… so all should be GREAT!!!

I am sooo anxious to get to quilting this quilt though… this is a meme I saw on facebook on a friends page.. it is sooo how I feel too!

lol!

Meanwhile, we have been working in the garden and planting flowers too!  So far we have tomatoes planted (with cages)… a pot set out for a spearmint plant I got that just needs some rich soil for it to grow in …. we have squash, green beans, watermelon and LOOK what the previous owners left for us to enjoy….

Yes we have about 20 or more strawberry plants… we also have blueberry bushes that may be too young to produce but we have about 15 of those bushes… we have peach trees and apple tree too and some grapes to enjoy … all is waking and looking like it will be fun to enjoy this year!!!

And where the flowers got planted… will show a pic of all the flowers next week once they have settled in but for now… our flag pole & a close up of our lone plant waiting for friends! lol

Chrysanthymums start… 

So for now I will close as I have gotten some housework that was neglected as I pieced and planted done… now back to piecing and planting!!!  More next Sunday!!!  Hope you have a great Sunday and spend your week preparing for a wonderful upcoming Mother’s Day too and remember to…

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!!!

Choosing JOY is AWESoME!!!

Happy Sunday Folks!

A facebook friend shared this photo this week… I wanted to open with this as JOY has been a hallmark of this week for me… how about you???

The week for me started with finishing up a bunch of quarter square triangles I had made as a leader ender project… into this 🙂

this is doll quilt sized and may get one more border with cornerstones or applique… pondering it’s completion presently but happy with tis part of it 😀

My honey and I have been working together on the kitchen too… he has been painting a shade by Valspar called “Malted Milk” on the walls with white on the woodwork.  Meanwhile I have been decorating and ironing the curtains we got for that room… it is looking nice!!!

Also in the kitchen my honey made us a built in cutting board from a big piece of butcher block…

He cut it to a customized fit of our sink then cut notches in the bottom of it to hold it in place when we are slicing and dicing fruits and veggies… currently we are conditioning it to get it ready to use !!! Excited to have it ❤

Then as I was scanning blogs and Pinterest between jobs around the house… I saw this!  A Sewing room Bunting on the Moda Bake Shop!!!

 I loved the “create” sign and the font they used so I went to the directions and printed off the necessary pages and read their directions but made it a bit my own… whilst shopping online I found this ampersand too… it will go on the wall as part of this too… read on to see how!!!

 Back to the bunting… I made all the flags and found our hamburger press was the perfect size for the circle and gave me nice circles….

 and soon I had this all ironed and ready to sew down all the edges … in case I ever want to wash it I wanted it not raw edged … so all is enclosed or zig zagged or topstitched or both! 😀

 I used Zena my 401a for all the zig zagging around the circles and letters… she did a GREAT job!!!

 Then I used some of my honey’s lawn mower pull cord to be my cording to hang it by!!!

 Now looking at the above shot … the ampersand “&” will go just to the left of the quilt sign and will be painting a dark red metallic paint we have just waiting on it to arrive this coming week….

Meanwhile I got a donation from my honey’s wood shop… these drawers!!!!

 So those black little drawers I have used until they are not very functional anymore as they were so full are now replaced and these are nice and roomy presently with threads like YLI colors, perle cotton in another drawer, marking pens and pencils in a drawer, just all sorts of sewing and hand quilting stuff I use regularly so it needs to be here 😀

Here is a view of my room… waiting on the ampersand and 1 more thing to make it a complete shot!!!

I am just SEW Happy with this room for me 😀  I never imagined I would have something this exciting to go to each day and work on things!

Speaking of working on things… this morning I finished up joining those apple cores…

Now they need a Best press soak and good steamy press then I will add borders and see where that takes me… since sewing it together it is kind of small for the purpose I made it for… so it is going into a time out for a bit… I wanna start on the quilt for our bed now… it is FINALLY time to do that!!!

Here is all my fabric to use for that project…

And below is the pattern I will be making….

Mine will look a bit different but all my fabrics are civil war repro colors… very country looking… I even have batting and backing… and if you recall last weeks post showed my frame is ready for this quilt!!!  I am MEGA excited to have something in the frame.

While I do have the wholecloth in my PVC frame… my mojo for this quilt has faltered presently… hopefully this week I will put in a few stitches and start working on getting callouses built back up on my fingers as it has been worked on very little since the move!!!

The BEST part of my week was a quick trip to visit my bestie who needed a boost of JOY in her life!

And we successfully got a smile back on her face 🙂  So it was worth the 4 1/2 hour drive each way 😀

I got to catch this photo as my honey fed the fish one day this week… Daisy at his side!  SWEET!!!!

 And look at this crawfish we found at the water inlet of the pond!!!!  It is HUGE and looks more like a lobster!!! lol

 My new rolling table for quilting got stained and wheels added to it this week… I am MEGA excited to have this table for my quilting stuff to sit on as I work on the quilt for our bed in just a few weeks!

 Hope you enjoy flowery shots too… here are some near our front door that were begging to be photoed 😀

Whew… that was one very busy week and I didn’t include ALL we did… just the highlights I caught on film! lol

Hope you have a week filled with JOY and …

Unpacking and getting settled in our Shangri-La we call the Lazy Daisy!!!

Wow y’all! It has been exactly 1 month since my last post I realized when I went back to review my last post… so sorry for the delay but we just moved into our dream home!!!!  Check out this view …

This is a completely different home than the one I shared in my last post… it has been a very crazy and busy month for sure!!!

First let me say all went well with the move out of Florida…

Here is our “plenty big enough” 17 foot uHaul

 Here is our “not quite big enough uHaul” and the Nissan Rogue getting filled up too…

Now you can see our uHaul… with me following in the SUV … leaving Florida officially for the last time!!!!  Yippee 😀

And as I mentioned… the house I had shared with you before is NOT the one we wound up with… it had MANY issues so during the time we could walk away we chose to do just that and found this little morsel of awesomeness….

That is a view from the road leading to the house… it is between 2 mountains in the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina 😀

Here is the house… and I get my very own clothes line to display quilts on or… to dry laundry on 😀 … and a great big shop to the left 🙂

Here is an overhead view of our pond home…

And here is a view of the back of the house…

One of my fave spots is right here…

 This swing and the pergola are just amazing to me… a great place to watch the sparkly pond and fish in it!!!

The grist mill or water wheel as some call it… is quite unique and amazing… my honey (the engineer) wants to hook something up to it and make it make energy for us 😀  We shall see how long that takes to make a generator of sorts out of this grist mill…

Here is a video showing the grist mill working too!!!

It is very cool… and we found out from a neighbor the pond and grist mill, home and out building were all designed over a 25 year period from 1 man who owned it … then he sold it to the couple we bought it from.  We plan to keep it for as long as we are able to care for it!!!

This is our Lazy Daisy hangout… our Shangri-la of sorts 😀

This property is 1 1/2 acres of bliss… we have peach trees, apple trees, blueberry bushes, rose bushes of several sorts, forsythia, burning bushes, grapes, lilies, buttercups, corkscrew weeping willow, weeping willow tree, and more to enjoy as the seasons come and go year after year… so I will be learning how to preserve all the fruits in the most healthy way that we may enjoy them as time goes by… we have this spring house if I can figure out how to make preserves and jams…

See this spring house holds all our spring fed water stuff and keeps it out of the weather so none of those pipes freeze… all the water coming off the house is diverted away via piping the original owner installed.  The folks we bought the homestead from were plant officials so they really spent time tending the outdoors.. we will enjoy the outdoor spaces this home offers … but will put some time and effort into interior maintenance needs and making the home feel less disjointed.

The master bedroom for instance is small and the bathroom off it is smaller… so we have opted for the largest bedroom as our master and the hall bath as our main bath to use… It has plenty of space… there is a bedroom off the living room that will soon be a sewing room for me … and my honey can use the living room to fix up featherweight sewing machines and I will have my quilting frames set up there … by these windows and this fireplace…

It is a gas fireplace.  Rick plans to put a wood burning fireplace in his shop (outbuilding).  So that will be nice too… it is a vinyl sided building matching the house but has a single garage door opening and windows… best of all it has a tin roof though… so we will go out there in summer rain time and enjoy the sound of rain on the roof 😀

As for quilting … I am in full on withdrawals at present!!!

I haven’t quilted a stitch since we left Florida.  But I have visited some nice LQS’s

and found a great place to buy some civil war fabric lot  of fat quarters someone was destashing!!!!

I fell in love with this pattern for these civil war fabrics….

I won’t have mine laid out just like theirs but similar 😀  My honey is enamored with old style quilts and I love the repros I was able to attain for a song!!!  Once my sewing room gets set up I will start on this project for our bed.  I will add a outer border to make it just a bit larger too … we like a roomy queen quilt!!!

Presently we are enjoying a queen air mattress I bought for visitors… in the living room as we clean the house and carpets (only in the bedroom are carpeting).  As we make this home our own.

I am currently pinching myself that this is all ours to enjoy as long as we can keep up with all it needs… did I mention there is a substantial garden space and greenhouse too??? WOW … really except for electric and tv/internet we could easily be off grid here… we don’t even get USPS here at our house… we have to go down the road to the post office where we have a po box!!!!

So as we enter Slow Stitching Sunday I hope to be getting my slow stitching whole cloth found and started back on in my PVC frame.  We are still looking for pots and pans… vacuum sealer and other kitchen stuff too…. but it will all be found eventually 😀

Thanks for keeping us in your hearts and minds as we complete our transition.

Hope you have enjoyed this pic heavy post!  Have a blessed week and I hope to be back next week with good hand quilting progress to share…. I will have to grow back my callouses as they have disappeared in the last month!!!

I am taking my own advice to you all… living a life I can LOVE ❤

P. S.  While I love this sentiment for this year… the pic with my signature will change to a mountain view I think… this is my heart now and am NOT missing Florida at all… just a few good friends who still reside there!