IRMA left us busy!!

So we made it through Hurricane Irma …. her eye was said to have been just 85 miles to left of us… so we were on the destructive side… but we only had minor fence damage and lots of debris to clean up and un hurricane protect the house! lol  We have been soooo busy!!  And in between cleaning up and straightening up my hand quilting needles have been on FIRE!!!

First let me share this dramatic pic of a house around the corner from mine… isn’t this crazy looking!!!

Hey y’all!  Lots of good stuff in my last post on Monday 9/11… HERE <<<  check it out if you missed it 🙂

I am almost done with row 4 on this quilt and ready to fly through row 5…

After my last post sharing my new frame lighting I found at goodwill… several mentioned moving the lights to behind the frame… and it works nicely!!!  Here it is with that set up >>>>

At row 7 or 8 I will have to change the direction of the chain on the outer border too 🙂  That seems exciting to me for some reason… a halfway point in the quilting to be sure is coming SOON!!!

I finished the pillow for my honey I shared on Monday…

Some of the comments included how much stitching I did for a pillow but if you knew my honey… the recipient of this his 3rd wholecloth hand stitched pillow… you know he appreciated each stitch I put in… and I did it mostly during the hurricane prep… so it gave me something constructive to do when the weather people were preaching gloom and doom and uncertainty!!

Linking all this hand quilting fun to Kathy’s Slow Stitching sunday HERE!!!  Come see what everyone is stitching today!! ❤

After finishing that pillow… I machine quilted this pillow and mailed it off on Tuesday…

The recipient was so happy with it that her husband wants one too… in other colors of course and no flowers please! lol   She says it is perfect for watching tv and supporting your head and neck!

What a nice thing… she wanted to pay for it but she is a great friend and I can’t imagine accepting $$ for something like this for a friend. 🙂

I got some new fabrics… after doing some de-stashing on a facebook group and eBay I am re-stashing some stuff I like better now 🙂

Also the cutting mat is new!  I needed one desperately … as the old one was dulling my blade!

With some other fabrics I recently received I made my honey a mug rug for his side of the bed…

 And we have been focused lately on decorating our bedroom… so here are a few snapshots of that…

We are so excited with our new bed frame… a sleigh bed and our new beachy decor…

Next will be to paint the walls a light grey color… and I am planning a quilt that will fit the new bed frame better…

so I got this book…

  and am using this online tutorial by Jordan Fabrics on youtube 🙂

 of course I have my own plans but it includes using a certain ruler by Marti Michell… so I also got that when I bought my new cutting mat… so I am ready set GO!!! for this quilt to start piecing… as soon as the light grey background fabric comes in… that is due MONDAY!!!!

Meanwhile I hand quilt to make headway on that project!!!

Here are some exerpts from the new book I got.. it is an older book and I paid just about $5 with shipping by doing a google search for the best price when a facebook friend told me about it.. it is full of vintage patterns and EASY directions on how to make them !!!

 Also… this week my Nanny (my dad’s mom) turns 99!!!!  This coming weekend they are throwing her a party but she is in Tennessee… so I will not be attending but I sent her a sweets present and a cool card.. I will call this week to wish her a happy day too ❤  99 years old is so amazing and still of sound mind too!!!

 So this week Bonnie (who has a quilt cam today on facebook at 2 pm EDT) posted this and I wanted to share it here if you don’t follow her… Bonnie Hunter is soo inspirational when it comes to quilting and quiltville quotes too!!!

Do you realize YOU are in charge of how you feel???

Hope you have a good week and thanks for the visit here… please leave a comment if you made it this far 🙂  And I hope your week is as blessed as we feel having made it through Irma!!!

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September 11! Hurricane Irma has left the area y’all!

We won’t forget….

 But we must move forward in America!  So this is my rememberance… to have a post today… but I was gonna write a post anyway if not for this reason to let you all know…

Today is also my niece Hayley’s birthday!!!! ❤

We made it through Hurricane Irma in one piece… a bit of fence damage but that is about it!!!  Here was an early update I shared on facebook!  That is where I posted updates for the many who were concerned about us and others in the area 🙂

Yippeee!!!!  This was the largest hurricane to ever make landfall in the US EVER!!!!  Crazy large and it is still quite windy and rainy but at least the hurricane I can report has been downgraded to a tropical storm now!!!

 So as we prepared for the hurricane… and whenever I had a nervous anxiety ridden moment that wasn’t filled with preparations….  I quilted by hand!!!

Here is a great shot when I was mostly done with the quilting on the pillow top… the texture is sooo cool!  Here is the pattern on the left… I found this on google search for wholecloth pillow patterns….

 Once I had the pattern I printed it on a regular piece of printer paper … cut that into a bit larger than a 1/4 of the pattern chunk of paper and enlarged it to make the pattern come out to 8″ square per 1/4 pattern piece to give me a 16″ square pillow pattern once taped all together…

I taped this all together as I just suggested and then taped this to a glasstop table… underneath the table I put a unshaded bare bright light and turned off all the ambient lighting in the room… I could then see the pattern through the table and onto the fabric.

I did tape the pattern to the table… then taped the whole piece of fabric cut to size for the pillow top on top of that.  Then I simply traced it with a mechanical #2 pencil 🙂

 Once I finished tracing it I untaped it all… put the shade back on the lamp! lol … and layered up the pillow top and stitched it with some YLI dusty blue 40/3 thread I found that looks simply tone on tone with this fabric my honey chose.  He likes little stitches and not big bold stitching… so that is what he got with his snuggly pillow!  And here is the finish !!!!

 The back of the pillow is a pocket opening for the pillow form to easily slip inside.  I did use Palmolive dish soap on the quilted portion of this pillow before washing it in the washing machine.  I scrubbed it in well over the pencil marks… soaked it all in a bowl for 1 or 2 hours with warm water… then scrubbed it again with the remaining Palmolive still in the fabric and rinsed it well.  Then washed it and dried it in the laundry with other laundry thrown in with it for balance… and tah dah!!!
Overall I am very happy with this project 🙂

Next I focused on making use of some orphan blocks from the hexi quilt I made and gifted to a good friend… now I have this pillow I machine quilted uniquely ….

 I love the backing fabric too!!!

I was inspired from the free Craftsy class I watched on Labor day when they had free classes to watch…

I watched 3 classes all together that day… but this was BY FAR my fave of the one’s I viewed 🙂  I like Jaquie Gering’s style… so if you are looking for some walking foot quilting inspiration and have the desire for an online class I recommend this one!!!

I shared my lighting find in my last post…

and I have gotten back to my frame for some quilting and trying out the lights during the hurricane!  Once I finished the 2 pillows I shared above.

Someone had commented when I shared the lamps shot that maybe I should put them behind the frame… well I am still unsure that this will work unless I do as I am doing below using 2 lights! hmmm….

 Here I am working on row #4 now!!!

 And here is a quilted friend we rescued this week….

So I found this rescued quilted doxie a home with our most precious vintage items… it is a Jim Shore pup… very cute and not like anything I have seen before… my honey found it! lol

 The photo above is now my cover on facebook too!!! ❤

Up next I am waiting for a template to come in the mail that has been delayed by the hurricane to start on a quilt in this pattern called Roundabout….

 You see my honey wants a LARGER quilt for our bed since we changed bed frames! lol  He is right though… so I will get to work on it!!!

As I quilt away on the quilt on my frame I find that in a quilt soon will come this quote!  It is soooo true!!!!

So for now from Florida’s east coast… I wish you all well and don’t forget to make time to show you…