50% Complete is in Sight for the Swoon hand quilting project!!!

Welcome to my Celebratory Sunday post this weekend 💖

 I have been steadily hand quilting all week this week!!!  Monday I did visit with my friend Jannessa some though…

She brought her Singer Featherweight – Centennial Edition over and her new vintage darning foot and gave it a thorough work out fmq-ing the wall hanging I worked on all week!!!

 And here is a fuzzy photo of her wall hanging I made and she finished up with her special stitching style… I did hand quilt the outer edge swirls… and stitched down the binding around the hexi shaped wall hanging 😀

 More to come on this later on as it was actually a secret project I have worked on and Jannessa offered to help me with the fmq ending… then I surprised her with the gift of it to keep … she hung it on a wall in her kitchen where she sees it every day 💞

I have also been working just a bit on my squares for the crochet quilt to be…

The rest of the week I focused on remembering to use my thimbles and hand quilting my bestie Connie’s queen sized Swoon Quilt …

and THIS is the reason for the celebration!!!!!

I am linking this blog post therefore to my fave gathering of hand quilters:
Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE where she is sharing a mini hand stitching retreat she enjoyed!

And to hand quilting and stitching lovers down under in New Zealand:
Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE where she also chats about guilds and shares a few lovely quilts from her endeavors there 😉

Last but not Least… my newest Linky of hand quilting enthusiasts include all these bloggers in  Hand Quilt Along Links in purple… click on a name to open a new tab and see their latest blog post 🙂
         This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post                    every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would                like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.
          Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen and Kathi

I started the week here….

I had to open my camera app to see exactly how I had quilted the medallion on the upper right of the above photo! Haha

Soon I was on the middle Swoon block completion…

Then somehow by chipping away at it daily … esp in the early mornings in the quiet coolness of upcoming autumn season approaching… I was marking the last swoon 😀  YAHOO!!!!! 

Molly our poo-shih who is about to be 15 months old now… kept me company sitting on her “house” 🙂  She can see me stitch from that spot! lol

 Here is the last of this row quilted…

 I am using Aurifil 28 wt and 12 wt threads for this project  🙂

Here is a look from a few steps back before rolling the quilt in the frame….

 And after the roll and moving my chair and table back to the left side to start there after this break ❤

 Celebrations are for milestones in big hand quilting projects…

 When I finish my next path these marks … which denote the center of the whole quilt … will be spritzed away… so I am right at 50% complete now on this big Swoon quilt 😀  Sooner than expected Connie will be sleeping under it.  I started this into the second week of July <<<<

 Above is where I will start on the fun quilting in the sashing.  The quilting on this quilt changes with each pass so there is no boring parts really!!!  The swoon blocks are 24″ finished and each took 2 fat quarters plus background fabric to make… LOTS OF FABRIC FROM HER STASH WAS USED TOO ❤

I got a new book this week…

 It is a group of “divas” who gave their take on different vintage block patterns… all done in civil war prints… I am sew inspired by this book too… each block has multiple different finishes 🙂

I was so excited about my celebration time I updated the header on my facebook group.  It is a closed group but if you email me here I will be happy to send you a link to ask for admittance… 

This group is for avid quilters of any skill level from all over the world… and we celebrate in a closed group setting so our projects can’t be seen publicly .. in case they are show worthy or surprises for someone outside the group.  It is small group as I had planned it to be.

I saw this and the first photo I opened with on facebook this past week and saved them to share with you all… 

 be thankful for the life you have y’all!!!

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Zoom… zoom… zoom <<< Come and see!!!

After such a very hot last couple of months here in the southeast US… we are beaconing in September with cool morning breezes and enjoyable evening chats outside 🙂

Do you like surprises??  

Is September apt to surprise you in any way???

I have had a productive and positive week …  how about you?  What stands out in your week as memorable??

Surprise #1…

My Kaleidoscope center of the quilt in progress for the guest bedroom is in 1 piece and it measures the same across the center vertically as it does horizontally!!!  YAY 🙂

Below is a 1 1/2″ ish of fabric for a  floating border I will add to make the orange peel applique blocks surrounding this panel here… 

be based on a standard 5″ unfinished block… Here is a “map” of the plan for this quilt…

 The center circle swirl area is the designation of the kaleidoscope blocks 5 across by 5 down … current measurement is 43 1/2″ square 😀

The orange peels will be these kind of colors now…

This is an orange peel pattern… the “football” shape is appliqued in your fave method to a 5″ square centered diagonally… then all those 5″ blocks are made into 4 patches where the points meet in the center….

…And then those 4 patch blocks make rows that surround the center Kaleidoscope 🙂  Isn’t the above photo quilting fun!!!!

I will then add a outer border to 3 sides from a new (to me) book I got in the mail a couple weeks ago… I read about this book on Karen who blogs HERE post a few months back.  I bought a used version on Amazon and am not disappointed at all!

Linking this fun quilty progress to the Peacock Party with Wendy HERE <<<

Intermittently I have been working on a secret project…

Gathering Supplies…

 Piece by piece making confetti then placing that fabric on the sticky surface I cut out….

 Finally to the binding in my front yard on a glorious evening as I big August adieu!!!

This is a project I can share more on later… my friend Jannessa is getting the finished project when it is released by Lisa Capen Quilts of YouTube fame HERE & who’s pattern and instructions this brainstorm was for!!!

Last to share is the ongoing hand work I do that keeps me sane >> hand quilting on Connie’s Swoon Quilt… last week I shared THIS photo as I turned the quilt in the frame…

 And I was focused on this area right here on the left far borders…

 And then it was finally all stitched there….

 And I scootched over to the first swoon and the big stitching after completing the in the ditch stitching for support was my next focus…

Hoping this week bring me MUCH MORE time to hand quilt … I sew enjoy it !!! LOL

Linking this slow stitching and all that binding I have done in the last week too to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday HERE <<<<

I did finish the binding and washed and dried this quilt and finally took good photos of BOTH quilts for these brotheres…

Seems I have been hopping all over the place this week and now I see why.. I have… but I have also taken time for myself and my friendships… with my honey and all my Patchwork Friends and those I know through my blog even!!!  Do you have good friend(s) in your life???  Each one fills a different need within me … I am soooo blessed!

I sure hope you feel blessed too!  Please take time to leave me a comment and choose a question I asked along the way to answer or sound off with a comment 🙂  I appreciate your time in leaving one!!