…And after this unplanned 3 month blogging hiatus…

I have a catch up post to share with you all… I have been thinking of all my regular readers 🙂

First I want to dedicate this post to my good friend who is now in heaven… Kathy Porter.. she passed in January from ovarian cancer… her death was not sudden but did hit me hard… she was a very sweet quilting and blogging friend of mine.  If you knew her please pray for her family she left behind like I have been !!!

Over the Christmas season I found this photo on Facebook .. my grandmother (will be 99 years young this September!!!) with my brother and his family 🙂  It is now on my refrigerator! lol

Now let’s get into some quilty business… I worked very hard all of November and December and on January 4 I finally finished so we could sleep under what is now known as “Chain of Diamonds” quilt…

 And here it is on our bed 🙂

I designed this myself but was inspired by this quilt called Emily’s Wedding Quilt found in a Fons and Porter magazine/website 🙂

We have since added a quilt I made with my bestie Connie a few summers ago from a book she had.  It lived as a throw and backdrop for featherweights for those years… and now it will be for Daisy to sleep under!!! lol

Yahoo 🙂   These are BOTH hand quilted btw … I am so happy to see these both going to good use now in our daily life!  A fresh start for sure!!!

Soon after finishing these I decided to start sewing my stash up into quilts for 2 twin beds we have in our 2 guest rooms… this summer we are expecting friends and family to come for visits and I wanted real quilts on the beds … but my poor hands were worn out from Chain of Diamonds quick quilting … so my honey sat me down and had a chat with me and it was decided that these 2 quilts would be machine quilted on my newly fixed up 401a Singer from 1952 😀  WOW honey thanks for getting her back into running condition … mending got done and quilting to do after that… all my piecing was done on Gloria my 301a from 1956… she is an excellent straight stitcher…

You see to the right of this machine is my ironing station… and to the left is my design wall… so it all works soooo nicely… she sits in a Queen Anne style #40 Cabinet… and is quite at home here 🙂

Hopefully this will give you a better idea….

Notice also the “k” thread spool and bobbin holder my honey made and gave to me over Christmas 🙂

So to work I got making half square triangles from a Missouri Star Quilt pattern I watched on youtube called a Herringbone Quilt…

I used some 10″ batik squares and creamy light yardarge I found in my stash…

 and made fresh friends with Zena to machine quilt this using a vintage walking foot I found

that Bonnie Hunter had recommended as a better choice for these vintage machines in a quilt cam session I watched…

And this is how it turned out!!!

Hope you can see the machine quilting on this one… I followed the zig zagging of the quilt overall and love how it finished … it is about 76 x 100″ done 🙂  A nice LARGE twin just as desired!

Just needed 1 more quilt and I had this panel I wanted to incorporate in a design…

then I found THIS blog post with a free pattern on it… I used a jelly roll instead of 3 1/2″ strips from yardage… and made mine scrappy instead of color blocked as they did in this shot of theirs…

This is also a Wedding Quilt! lol  I don’t know if I have attraction unknown to that or what!  But again, I was inspired and used some of their directions but I cut and pasted the pattern to make it my own…

I did take a few more pics of this one along the way… it went from this with 1 jelly roll I bought on sale and yardage I had in my stash…  (the center fabrics came from Connie though! lol)

To this fun flimsy!!!

And here is the Wavy Sea Turtle Quilt getting quilted on Zena my 401a…

To make this finished quilt about 74 x 90″ when done…

 and a close up so you can see the quilting better 😉

So I am finally up to February.. and I am working on an all new project… did a bit more mending of stuff that needed mending while Zena was being so agreeable… you see before my honey fixed her she was breaking thread for no reason no matter what he or I did! lol  I guess she just needed a time out or something.. I actually bought a Singer 347 for my zig zagging needs but it just wasn’t heavy duty enough… so after the holiday was over my honey spent 1 on 1 time with Zena and now she is EXCELLENT!!!!

This project I am working on now is my first time working with 1930’s reproduction fabrics… I followed a Moda Bake Shop recipe for Simply Woven HERE to make the center and added a couple borders and this is what I finished with… on Gloria my 301a of course 🙂

My top ended up at 46″ x 60″… nice size for a 2 year old and her daddy to enjoy snuggles together 🙂  And on Valentine’s day I added a pieced back with 2 little hearts in the piecing…

I love those little hearts a lot!  HERE is a close up with directions on how I made them with leftover 2 1/2″ strips ;)… they don’t show off enough here but once they are properly quilted from the front in the overall pattern I have chosen they will be more fun.

This quilt will be for the 2nd birthday of my granddaughter Kaydence…  So 2 hearts on the back.. there will be 2 on the front also in the border quilting.. The pic to the right is a fun shot I caught… the one below is a pic I took just for this post… and for my facebook followers too 🙂 

I will tell you that it sure it AWESOME!!! (after having to machine quilt 2 quilts) … To be back at the frame HAND QUILTING again y’all!!!  This Hinterberg frame we bought as a kit and my honey built into a frame really is…

My Happy Place!!!

Notice above… I have wireless headphones… quilting helps… and a glass of sweet tea on the table beside my chair (table rolls and my honey made me a few years back… chair I got at Walmart for $70) and my fave lamp to the right moves around the quilt with me and it’s a fun gooseneck ( it came with an attached torchier part too but my honey took that off as it was useless really for my needs.. $15 at Walmart)… I have a second one of these lamps but one is all I need presently 🙂  The shade is painted to make it opaque so it doesn’t blind me as I quilt and points all the light at my work also!

I hope to catch up to each of you between posting this now as well as sharing Sunday…. when we can all see what you are slow stitching over at Kathy’s slow Sunday stitching linky HERE where she is sharing a favorite podcast and how to bury machine quilting threads in a tutorial link 🙂

I haven’t been reading many blogs during my hiatus… since about the time I quit blogging because I got so immersed in quilting… and now I am on a timeline as I am having a necessary knee replacement surgery in March just next month!  Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers for a quick recovery and painless healing!!  

I wrote this post on Friday and read over it this morning adding this photo in to show you how I am doing the center… 

With baptist fans from THIS great tutorial!!!  I made a template from some template plastic I had and punched holes with a tiny hole punch I had saved from my paper crafting days… I am marking with a blue water removable marker 🙂  More on this in my next posting !!!

I look forward to hearing from you all… have a blessed day and until my next post.. hopefully sooner than 3 months from now!!! lol

And in this time of turmoil in the US as a whole… as well as the world overall… remember to…

 Every Day & Do Something Nice to Someone Else Friends 🙂

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A Slow Stitching May Day !!

Happy May Day to you my bloggy friends…

I hope you are making time to stitch at this wonderful time of year 🙂

I sure am!!!

Earlier this week I finished this cool wall hanging… it is a mix of slow and fast stitched quilting 🙂

This was a wedding gift for my oldest son who eloped with his beautiful bride last month.. so a bit belated but they didn’t seem to mind! 🙂  You can read and see more pics on this quilted finish HERE 🙂

Also my honey and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary yesterday!!!!

 Above is the photo I post on my facebook page 🙂

My daughter made me a bracelet… I enjoy a stretchy bracelet on my wrist… when I get nervous or anxious I play with it! lol

So she made me a rubber band version in colors I chose… I think it turned out quite nice too!

Since finishing the wedding wall hanging I have refocused on Brandi’s Starlight ~ Starbright quilting though… nice and slow!!!!

Here was my progress exactly 2 months since I started this quilt… I am on the 4th block of 9 presently….

 Here is a close up.. use my needle minder to orient yourself to where this is in my frame if you like 😉

 Here is a fun slant on my progress…

 And here is a straight on view…

 I am currently big stitching around the top of the star…

 And here is my remaining part to quilt today and tomorrow probably 🙂

I am also working on my Spiral Log Cabin quilt again… I have the center now bordered with a thin black border that brings my measurements up to the right size for the next border…

 and here are the flying geese that will make up the next border … in progress on my ironing surface! 🙂

While I have been working on all these things my honey has been busy constructing a Hinterberg Hand quilting Frame 🙂  YIPEEE!!!!!

It started with some specialty parts and machine cut wood pieces in a box we ordered a few weeks ago as soon as they became available on their website…. then the instructions explained what wood to buy and how to cut it… it was all Greek to me! lol  but my honey is a master woodworker with things like this and he figured it all out…

Here is a picture of the raw wood being held in place to get our first idea of what the end would look like…

And here it is laid out on the floor.. the small parts have already gotten stained at this point…

Here it is now stained and top coated… 

This actually took several days to get the wood cut and detail cut and sanded all down… then stained… cured… and top coated and cured.

It still seemed fast to us though… It is NOW ready to use once we buy the poles for it next week!

I know it is long… we made it as big as the instructions called for so it would be versatile.

We also have more “tweeking” to do to give me side tension ability etc… Lighting and a good chair are necessary too… but instead of thinking of all that… 

I would rather dream of that Log Cabin being done so I can load it in this frame!!! My first quilt to load in it!!!

Well… I have shared quite a bit… if you made it this far CONGRATS!!!   Hope you were entertained!

If you have a similar hand quilting frame and ideas on how to load a 3 rail system the easiest please let me know.

Also I am planning to buy the leader fabric for the poles next week also… thinking I got a lot of zig zagged edges to keep the fabric from fraying over the years too!  Oh well, it is all worth it in the end!!!  

Hope you have a blessed Sunday and Cheers to Slow Stitching with MUSTER…

Speaking of mustering… check out Kathy’s Quilts blog today and see what that is all about and what fun hand work people are linking right HERE!

Remember… no matter the highs or lows each day… even each minute… Life IS Beautiful!!