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… 

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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 …

Slow Sunday Stitching and Photo Challenge… Yippee!

I am sooo excited is is FINALLY Sunday y’all!

Time to head over to Kathy’s Quilts HERE and see what this photo challenge and slow stitching is all about!!!  Here is my camera!  An iPhone 6 I have had for over 2 years 😀

 It is part of a wristlet style wallet that is my go everywhere hold-it-all wallet that I slide out of that outer protective case when at home and snap shots like all the ones below!

Here is the goal of today’s shooting… my hoop is a 17″ plastic hoop with a ridge around the center that makes it hold the quilt in it quite nicely… in it is a wall hanging called Homespun Wall Hanging that is my travel project and aside from the quilt I am working on … is my now longest waiting to be worked on UFO in the house… It was made up for me over 3 years ago I think by my best friend… then I added borders a couple years ago and layered it up with excitement to start and finish it quick.
Then it sat waiting for it’s turn since I don’t sit in the recliner it sat next to anymore due to my arthritic knees needing replacement.  I sit in this chair and have this view instead! lol

See the hoop to the left…
It has now been made my travel project for when we make trips north of here looking for a new home… we have our home up for sale presently and every now and then we will be making trips north in search of more seasons and less hurricane weather!  So whilst I wait to find the right time to spend with that one… I am working on my oldest UFO in a PVC frame my honey made me before I got the big wood Hinterberg frame that has now been disassembled and packed for this upcoming move!

Here is the quilt I shared last week… sitting out to be enjoyed before I stuff it in a cotton pillowcase and pack it for our move….

 Now I am working on a colorful wholecloth I have had pin basted and worked on in that hoop for a time now I am putting it in the PVC frame for a faster finish as I can work on a larger area at a time and my arthritis and frame quilting gets along better ! lol

Here are the colors of thread going into this project…

 The pink sewing machine charm is actually a needle minder given to my by my good friend Debbie one year in the past… I LOVE IT!  I never knew such a device existed but it is just a heavy duty magnet on each side of the quilt that attract to each other to hold them together topped with a charm of your preference… this one reminds me of the giver too!

See how nicely it holds my needle spot for me 😀

 Above is a shot of my frame when I am stitching watching “When Calls the Heart” on Netflix… such a sweet show in this day and age of so much crazy stuff on the television channels… this one is one you can share with young viewers or enjoy by yourself… I enjoy it by myself 😀

And below is a close up of the hand quilting I imagined and completed whilst watching this series on Netflix….

Here is a shot of where I am this morning… almost ready to move the quilt in the frame!!!

I wish you could feel the texture all this quilting makes on this quilt!!!  It’s legal name is Garden Bouquet Whole Cloth Quilt… and it is quilt sized… I did change the edges you will see by next week to be scalloped.  I will have to make bias binding for this one because of that!!!  But that is a ways off still.. about 1/3 done with this one so far working out from the center that is completely finished.

And here is a series of 3 shots of close ups of my hand quilting for you to enjoy!

While featherweight 221’s have been taking a back seat to our home selling focus lately… we found one local on Craigslist and are in the midst of parting out right now as it was in poor cosmetic shape but so nice to find an older (1936) featherweight to spend time with that was working too!!!

So take some time and visit around at Kathy’s… and take some slow stitches today whether it be quilting or some other way of getting needle and fabric together… share what you are up to at Kathy’s with a pic to join in her Photo Challenge… or just leave me a comment about what YOU are up to!!

Remember most of all though to …

Hand quilting, Machine piecing, and Designing too!

Since finishing Kaydences sweet Butterfly Woven Quilt… she did receive it and she loved it her parents said… so all is well there!!!

Here is where I have spent some of my Sunday last week!!!

Daytona Beach Shores, Florida!

We have a driving pass to drive on the beach and walk around whenever it is open for driving on… when the surf isn’t dangerous or in the driving path… so that is what we did last weekend… what a great way to rest and relax!!!

My bloggy friend Kathy is talking about how relaxing and restful taking slow stitches is… I couldn’t agree more!  I have picked up a UFO that was sitting beside my recliner and have made a refreshing focus on it this week.  Here it was when I had it pieced and ready to layer and pin baste…

And here it was in my hoop as I started going closely around the “flowers” coming out from the center…

Daisy is always close at hand when I am hand quilting… above I was working on this project on my back porch Florida room (screened porch)… now I have brought it in and am working on it in my recliner in the air conditioning and in the living room 🙂

If you look at this photo above… the flower closest to this writing is not yet quilted around… the other 3 flowers and berries are quilted around now…  This is raw edged applique done expertly by my bestie Connie… I made it into a wall hanging but she did the applique I am not skilled enough to manage! lol

I am using wool batting on this project so once finished and out of the hoop the quilting will really show too 🙂  It will be a while yet as I have quilting for the borders… all to be decided as I go… this is my relax and enjoy project… because that is also Kathy’s theme today for our slow stitching and I am working on this today as well… I am linking my post today to Kathy’s Slow Sunday stitching HERE!!!  Come see what others are slow stitching while they relax and refresh 🌸

When not slow stitching on Sundays and when I need to relax… I have been designing a new quilt with this cool new book I just received.. it is an older book but still a GREAT book for designing borders…. it has 12 different quilts in it too 🙂

These quilts aren’t so easy to make and far more than I would design myself… but they also explain how to add fun pieced border designs to your own quilts… the authors are great precise quilters on their own and together I think they are just FAB!!!!

Judy Martin is the queen of precise piecing log cabin quilts and Marsha McCloskey is the queen of the feathered star pieced patterns!!!  Yippee!!!

In between slow stitching and designing a quilt for my son and his new wife…. I have found ANOTHER ufo to unearth and continue working on piecing on Gloria my Singer 301a!!!

It has been over a year I think since I have worked on this quilt … I had to discover how to piece the “flowers” all over again! lol

Here is 1 flower and a pic of the pattern…

 Here are several finished flowers and the template…

 Here is the booklet the pattern is in… it is full of lots of cool information though and is compiled by Darlene Zimmerman… this pattern is Hollyhock Garden and comes in 2 sizes in this book… but I am designing my own size! lol

 Here is some of the flowers on my design wall…

 This collage of pics shows a better view of what the finish may look like as well as my designing process… so I know how many flowers I will be needing!

 I am making the flowers from batik fat quarters… each fat quarter makes 6 flowers… 3 positive and 3 negative ones… I am using both types in my quilt… the pattern says to use just the positive ones though… I just can’t see wasting those negative triangles though….

 You make strip sets then cut the positive and negative triangles…

Once the 2 sides are sewn together you best bet is to double pin the center to get a perfect flower each time… this is a pic I sent to Bonnie Hunter after her most recent Quilt Cam.. I was just sewing them….

Her quilt cam reminded me of the importance of taking time to pin some things… so I am now!

I need 102 flowers if you noticed that in my notes above… I am over halfway now so hopefully I will start adding the green triangles later this week.

Today I plan to work on a quilt I am designing for my son and his new wife…

 Above they are in Gatlinburg last weekend when they finally tied the knot!

And after seeing quilts that inspired them I am designing on graph paper something similar to the pic below I found on pinterest in Civil War colors at their request….

I love how the sashing of the charm square fabrics make stars 🙂

I will be adding a fun pieced border from my new to me book on borders to this to make a nice living room snuggle quilt for them as a belated wedding gift… it will be hand quilted once pieced on Gloria!  I am planning an extra long quilt as my son is 6 foot 7 inches tall with big feet … his sweet wife Heather is only 5 feet tall! lol

I have recently printed new pics of my grandkids… thought you may enjoy seeing them…

Kaydence’s new grandma does a great job of sharing pics… and CJ’s mom caught him with a big smile I think as his dad swings him big!!!!

Hope you have a restful and relaxing Sunday y’all!

Please make time to …

Sunday Slow Down…

Sunday mornings I love getting up early (my regular time is about 4 am.. lol) and enjoying the peace and quiet of a quilty Sunday morning… here is my view today 🙂

Not too much progress since I moved the hoop yet… I am hoping today will change that!

I am linking this to Kathy’s Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching.. as that is where I hope to be today 🙂  Stitching slowly and loving it!!!

I hope you check out Kathy’s post today too.. she is chatting about beading and embroidery and quilting all together.. very fun post for sure!

I have also made a few design decisions on the wall hanging..

I will take this block and use it in 2 vertically pieced halves on either side of it…

It is a free paper pieced pattern with instructions I found on the internet via Goggle and was directed to a lovely blog post with lots of photos too!  Yippee 🙂

Then I have a nice sewing festive fabric for sashing and borders!  So this may come together… we will see how my “3 little geese” block turns out.. I doubt it will be as nice as this one but I will make it fun anyway! lol

Also, I found out my bestie Connie is making huge strides on a wall hanging for my home.. here are the parts all stacked up… she will mix them up and assemble into a flimsy and send to me for quilting!!!

It is made mainly with homespuns and is machine pieced.  I will quilt it with big stitch quilting using dark grey perle 8 cotton …

VERY EXCITED about this project coming up!

Otherwise this week we have sold a featherweight..

Here is my honey caught during his photo shooting… lol

And he also took shots of my scrapbook cabinet..

It is now for sale on eBay 🙂

Then yesterday my daughter got “fixed up” to go to a birthday & slumber party and allowed me a photo shoot!  What mom can resist that from their almost 17 year old!!!  Check her out !!!

The center one is my fave.. but she liked the smaller shots too.. so I combined them and used Picasa on my computer to make the collage 🙂

And I got a little something special for Kaydence… it will go in a package with other things I am collecting to send for after she is born…

 Check out a close up of my cousin’s embroidery …

She has an Etsy shop too!  She made this custom for me and I am very pleased with it!

So you can see some of why stitching just hasn’t been happening… here’s hoping we all get some hand stitches in today!!