Happy Fall Y’all ~ A Giveaway Winner and Sooo Much More!

Fall has always been my favorite season and last night in the USA Fall began!  Leaves are beginning to fall here in North Carolina too… it has been 6 years since I have enjoyed a true fall!!!

 The above wall hanging was inspired by Bonnie Hunter’s string pumkins she did last year 🙂 

I had sooo much fun taking scraps from previous quilt making and from my stash and sewing them together to make pumpkins….

 This year is hangs in our kitchen over our little kitchen table…. we have a HUGE countertop level bar in our kitchen that we use regularly but this is nice too and cozy ❤

 Our weather is cooling during the night and early mornings and a heavy dew is present until mid day usually now… but the afternoons still get quite warm!  Waiting for that evening cool down to start as the trees are starting to lose their leaves with the wind blowing occasionally too.  What is your weather like where you live?  Is it comfy to be outside?? 

I have been inside mainly… working toward a slow stitching finish at my frame!!!

Since this collage.. I rolled the frame for the last time for this quilt…

 When I finish this row I will be cutting the quilt off the frame!!!  SEW EXCITED TO GET TO THAT POINT Y ‘ALL!!!

To the left are my quilting tools… and to the right I am ready for action with my thumble and thimble and a bit of electrical tape wrapped around my pointer finger to increase my gripability! lol

Here is the corner where I started on this row…

 And now I have a lot of wavy lines and black line in the ditch stitching to do … as well as basting that top edge…

I have truly enjoyed every bit of the 4 months this quilt has been on the frame … every stitch was added with love and devotion to me and my honey and our relationship… this quilt will next be shown (hopefully) off the frame .. bound… washed and dried… and on our bed!!!  Yippee in advance 😀 

Linking all this fun slow stitching accomplishments (including that Fall quilt I opened my post with as it is slow stitched too!) to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday link up… There my tribe is gathering today to share their slow stitching accomplishments… whether is it needle and thread like me or other slow hand accomplished work like crochet or cross stitch or embroidery or knitting!  Come see us all HERE!  Kathy even has a new blog header up with her latest finish on it… beautiful!

So everything else I have been up to has been LOTS and LOTS!

First I want to announce the

 Jill is the lucky lady I drew out of the coffee mug!  I have sent her an email… next week I will share what she chose as her prize if it is ok with her 😀  SEW EXCITED FOR HER!!!!

And here is a peek at what is new at MY ETSY SHOP!

Pencil cases for trendy students… mug rugs for any time but perfect for the season we are in and a table topper I hope will find a home soon when I get it quilted and listed as well!!!

And these sets of fabrics are for sale on facebook!

Wowee… I have been sooo busy this week 🙂

So what will I work on next you ask???

The rooster is an EPP project by Violet Craft… 

I have always wanted to try EPP but never found a project that I felt like inspired me.  So this darling rooster I will do in reds and blacks and greys with a tan background to coordinate with a wall hanging still left undone… hopefully I can show you all this stuff next week when I post a blog entry 😀

For now this is my wish for your all…. 

 Do you drink coffee???  Or do you prefer tea or water or something fun otherwise when you stitch???  I love sugar free sweet tea and coffee with a little bit of coconut creamer in it! lol  I would love to hear your favorite stitching beverage 🙂

Until next Sunday y’all…

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Wall Hanging is FINISHED!! And more to share too!

Happy Middle of the Month Y’all!  Fall may finally make it to central Florida’s east coast where I am by next week I hear!  Morning temps in the 60’s are predicted!!!  Yahoo 💖

And I have such a fun finish to share with you all!!

This is probably the most fun I have had making a wall hanging for my foyer yet!!

It all started September 23…

Bonnie Hunter… a scrappy quilter I follow… had been showing some string piecing… and how she turned those paper pieced strips into fun little pumpkins… I wanted to try it!!!  I had never done any improv piecing really….

 Well I loved how my 15 little pieces of phone book finished up and de – papered so nicely so I made a pattern…

 And I bought some border fabric but when it arrived it was short by JUST THIS MUCH!!!

 Well the seller made good but I had to change my mitered border idea to something a bit different I realized…  So I went to my computer and decided to do a search for acorns… they are fallish too!! lol

This is what I came up with…

 And here is the flimsy I soon had… with none of that darling border fabric to spare!!!

 Soon I had it layered up and pin basted it in my kitchen on our rolling island cart… amazing the things that become quilting necessities throughout the house ! lol

Remember my frame is taken up with the quilt for my son and sweet dil… and my hoop has a project in it too…

 Above you can see how I was quilting… but I had areas that needed more quilting in the center too… in the end the only place I used a stencil to aid my hand quilting of this wall hanging fun was on the outer border waves.

Daisy, our doxie, was my constant companion as a wagged this project around too!!!

And soon I had a quilt ready for the wash…

In case you were curious… this Fall Wall Hanging…

Is hand quilted and lovely but isn’t funky and eclectic as our theme… so it is up for sale on eBay! lol

Along with these cute drink coasters I made with leftovers from this fall quilt…

And now my foyer looks like this!

 And here are a couple close ups….

I think this project turned out just right… can you see the whimsical stitching in light green thread I did on the turquoise blue center background… I did heart shaped leaves and swirls to fill in the spaces that had too much openness left for the cotton and wool batting I used.  The package said quilt at least 4″ or less apart… so I had to be creative.. & I enjoyed it!!!

Kudos to my bestie for helping me stay creative through this 3 week process of making and quilting this!!!  I couldn’t have done it so fun without her long distance encouragement and ideas exchange 😀

Linking this hand quilted finish to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching  HERE!!!  Go see what other slow stitchers are working on this weekend!

Once that quilt was in the washer I was at loose ends.. and finally settled back in on the quilt on my frame for my son and DIL… soon I was ready to share this pic..

That is row 6 of 15 rows y’all!!! So still a ways to go on this… hopefully by Christmas it will be off the frame and ready to gift though 😀  They are anxious to have it and it is needed in their home they say so that is exciting and keeps me working on it!!

Now I will work on piecing a few projects I have percolating in my brain along with the Kaleidoscope quilt I have cut out… as well as working on a table topper I have had almost a year now and still haven’t done! lol  While I continue to make slow and sure progress on this quilt for them.

I did get a new tattoo of sorts for our vehicle…

I ordered the medium size… but it shows up across the parking lot so it will soon be replaced with a size smaller one! lol  But I do LOVE it!!!  I found it on eBay searching “needle heart decal”.

In the news… which I try not to focus on so much!  There is so much craziness in our country and in the world… so I want to leave you with this thought V V V

Have a blessed rest of your weekend is my wish for each of you… And make time to…

Slow Stitching … So Much to Share!!!

I have had such a good & busy week y’all!!

A week ago I shared a rocking chair we got on Craigslist… it is oak and we only paid the man $25 for it!!!  It is in excellent condition and sits on my honey’s side of our bedroom (my side has a table with our computer on it)… Well I finished a seat cushion and lumbar pillow for this rocking chair you can see in this montage of pics…

And you can read about it RIGHT HERE!  I even hand tied this cushion for extra stability when it needs a wash.. and I think it holds it all together well too 😀

Then I took all those glue basted letters for the “Happy Fall Y’all” wall hanging…

Got them stitched down…
 
 and then added borders and called it a flimsy
 in THIS POST!  I love the design CHANGE of adding the acorn cornerstones too!!!

Now it is time to H A N D   Q U I L T this quilt top… which can also be called a flimsy at this stage.

 Now this is being done hoopless and frameless… it measures about 35″ x 45″ APPROX only…

After taking these photos I have also used some variegated thread in fall colors in the black inner border toward the center…  Looks nice too!

If you look at the last pic above you can see some templates… I have to come back to the turquoise blue background and add some stabilization stitching to it… but I can’t decide on the thread color… so I am holding it off for last! lol

The center of this wall hanging to be… was featured on Bonnie Hunter’s blog on 10/5/2017 am …

I was beyond excited for sure to have her vote of confidence 😀  This has been a really fun project to break away from all the other stuff I have been doing.

I do want to wish all my Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving… I wish Florida had trees that changed colors… esp this early in the fall season.. so enjoy it up there you all!!!

And a little something fallish for the rest of you all…

I sure do love the sunshine too!!!

And for now the quilt is calling me back to take a few more stitches… I will be selling the previous fall wall hanging… if you are interested just send me a message here before it goes on a more public platform … it is all hand quilted too 🙂

It comes with a hanging sleeve on it that lays flat if not in use.. if you choose to use it as a lap quilt for someone special 🙂

Here is a shot of it before I started preparing it for sale hanging in the foyer…

Thanks for visiting me… and thanks for all of you that went back to check out my links to all I posted this week… it was mostly all done by hand and all done with LOVE! 

Linking all this hand stitched love to Kathy HERE for Slow Stitching Sunday on her blog… which is how I spent my Sunday 🙂  go see what everyone else linked up and are thankful for as Kathy is in Canada 😀

So until my next posting…

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!!!

Another row in the books and soooo much more!!!

Happy October Y’all!!!

We have been really busy since my last post a couple weeks ago!!!

I want to link up to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday HERE… so first let me share the hand work I am doing first 🙂

I am happy to report I have finished the 5th row….

 And moved on to row #6  … this makes me 1/3 done with all the quilting on this big quilt 🙂

My son and DiL are sooo excited to get this as they currently are fussing over the available blankets and quilts they have available to use at their home… there just aren’t enough!  Glad I can solve that issue for them.

And I am also excited to report… I have started some hand applique via needle turn glue stick basting.. I am following another blogger at “fabric therapy” and she has a tutorial section on her blog that chats all about this method HERE… here name is Teresa and she is quite witty and fun… I have enjoyed how she does her award winning applique so I am finally starting to get the hang of it 😀

I first did some string piecing to build a fall wall hanging that is whimsical with inspiration from Bonnie Hunter’s string pumpkins posts…

 So here is my beginning…

 oranges/ yellows/ browns and some black for my stems plus plenty of teal blue for my background….

and pretty soon I was having a BLAST making improv pumpkin rectangles .. using a smaller stitch length for easy paper removal was a GOOD THING!!!

 Once I had my 15 pumpkins made I took a break on my back porch and drew out what I now knew my design would be…

 and got the corners and stems cut and put on my pumpkins slowly but surely…

 then filled in the rest…

 And now it was FINALLY time to pick out fabric for the appliqued lettering I had planned this whole project around! lol

 I use Teresa’s method (and Karen does it this way too I believe) with letters all drawn out at actual size on Freezer paper and ironed leaving 1/8″ room around each letter for turning under as I glue…

 then I went to the Dollar General store and found the purple that turns clear school glue stick…

 Soon all my letters were turned under… and I removed the freezer paper as I glue basted them whimsically in place…

 Finally the center of my wall hanging is ready for stitching the letters down!!!

 So as I stitch those down using a binding stitch method on the stiff glued under edges I am sooo happy that it was much easier and less painful from the needleturn I have tried in the past!!!

I have arthritis in my hands and legs/feet/knees/hips that limits my ability to be as nimble as I once was… so now I can add to my projects!!!  So far I am almost done stitching “Happy” down on my words!!!  So that is the extent of hand work… except I did complete 1 binding by hand this week…

I fashioned this Mug Rug for my side of the bed… I shared my honey’s mug rug last posting… it is similar… but for this one I made a North Star with floating points… just a bit different … and a bit smaller than his as my bedside table has more “stuff” on it! lol  I just like that it features a fussy sewn patriotic doxie actually though 😀

Otherwise quilty I had a request from my friend I made the pillow for… to make one for her hubby… they like it as a neck and head rest while watching tv… so now all those hexi flowers are GONE!!!  Yippeee…

His fave colors are red, blue and black… so I made a red white and blue hexi positive and negative… and used a red/blue /black batik for the side and black batik for the backing of his pillow!

I changed out the foyer decor to fall theme…

That was just when I got inspired by Bonnie to make some string pumpkins… wonder what those 7 leftover pumpkins will become?? lol!

I also have gotten ALL of this bowl shown below… it is a LARGE bowl for halloween candy… almost empty and all the pieces and parts of my Kaleidoscope Krazy quilt to be… organized for sewing!!!

 I also used these 2 fabrics… the one of the front is from a friend who lives up north here in the US… she we traded fat quarters or something and I got this… I love it!!!   Then the fabric on the back was 1 from a friend who lives in the outback of central Australia.  She is very kind and sent this a while back with a batch of other stuff… I am adding these to this quilt cutting 😀

 Here is the grey pindot fabric I am using for all my corners… along with some of my sets ready to be mixed … then I thought of that big bowl I could mix them up in!!!

And here they are mixed and in process of getting matched into blocks… I pinned each “block” together to make sure I had good variety and made fun scrappy sets … that quilt is ready to be sewn into blocks now.. 132 of them!

And we are decorating our bedroom still… and painting the walls… notice the wall with the window is light grey… it only has 1 coat of paint… the second coat will come soon…

 I just love this big old rocking chair… we picked it up for $25 on craigslist.. the big painting was $25 from goodwill and the lamp with foot controller to turn it on /off easily was only $9 at a local thrift shop!  Such a fun grouping there now and a nice place to relax in the eves for my honey!

Here on the LEFT is a cute shot I sent my daughter to let her miss home a bit… she is doing well overall in Tennessee though… so it was in jest as bagels are her fave breakfast/snack and I have a mini bagel wiht cream cheese for breakfast most mornings…

The K on the RIGHT was a find at Goodwill for under $5… and looks nice next to my ruler holder in my sewing studio 😀

 This spoke volumes to me so I wanted to share this weeks Bonnie-ism with you all…

 Happy October and Happy Fall Y’all!  Enjoy doing a bit of slow stitching today!!

Do something nice … just because you have the ability to today.. something not expected 😀  Make this world a better place to live in!