Hand Quilting Progress and a Mountain Top Walkabout too !!

While we keep waiting for promised rain my honey has gotten lots of yard work done… we took a walkabout around our wonderful 1 1/2 acres of land and I wanted to share some highlights with you…

 Above is coming down the winding gravel drive to our home…  Look at the tulips in our neighbors yard and purple wildflowers that are all over right now too 😀

Below is following the gravel drive in front of our home and over the Valley River that runs through the side of our yard 🙂

 Here is a far off look at our home… there is a big pond behind it that I have shared in the past …

 Here is the gravel drive continuing and an old corkscrew willow and some other nice trees and bushes…

 And here is that same corkscrew willow from our front porch 😀

 And the view by my front porch includes some hosta and these cute little bell shaped lavender flowers…

 Upon closer inspection and asking google I found out they are a variety of BLUE BELLS!!!!

 And here are some tulips where last year there was only 1 here… this year there are 2!

 And between some other shrubs are a couple others… hope they keep on multiplying in future years too!!!

 Here is a sunrise one morning over my quilting frame … which now brings us to my favorite part to share!!!  PROGRESS!!!!

Quilting and creating with fabric in all ways is an obsession with me… is it with you???  Check out this Bonnie-ism I read this week…

This past week I listened to audio books… another obsession and a new one as it lets me focus on creating with needle and thread instead of watching a screen all the time like movies entice you to.  Before I knew it I had the first 3 blocks of this quilt figured out and quilted!!

 Soon the 4th block joined followed soon thereafter by the 5th!!!

 Here they all are… pic is a tad blurred and the 5th block is still wet a bit but I was excited to roll the quilt!!! lol

 So then I was able to focus on this 2nd row…

 I decided to just stick to the cross hatching I had used on the nature blocks backgrounds for those…

 And here is my progress this morning…

 And my view is going to the squirrel block today… you can see my layout below!

Linking this fun hand stitching to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday HERE … she is asking what challenges we face as we put our stitches in my hand…  Well I am designed my quilting plan as I went last week… now I am just carrying that out as I march up the quilt… but I did have to take out some hand stitches around the nature blocks on the first row as I put in grey thin thread initially on the inner round… now I know I want 2 rows of the navy thicker thread to have them look like windows… Thanks to my bestie for helping me figure out this trick of the eye…

You can see above… the 2 rows of navy around the block help it look like you are looking in a window… and the diagonal stitching around the block also helps conceal it… I am giddy to see this quilt completed soon too ❤  There are 6 rows including Elliana's name as a row… not sure how I will quilt that row yet!!! lol

For the Peacock Party at Wendy’s this week … right HERE…I want to share not just one but 2 ironing surfaces I fixed up!!!  Wendy has a wonderful quilt for sale if you in New Zealand… she doesn’t want to ship abroad on this item… but it is lovely and she shares lovely photos of her work on it 😀

The fabric that is to become ironing surfaces I found on eBay!!!  I found 5 yards of this fab vintage fabric a while back and stashed it … well when my bestie saw it when I shared my vision of it with her on a custom sized ironing surface as well!!!

Here is mine so you know what I am talking about….

Here it is in action too…

Not a typical ironing board you see like the hexi fabric covered board… but a rectangular surface for ironing quilt blocks and binding strips and such… Linking this finish to Julie’s UFO & WIP List for April HERE.

The Anatomy of this ironing surface is some 3/4″ plywood… and an old but still fluffy towel.

 I added snaps to this one and love that instead of making it longer to hang off the side to stay on the board over time…

 I added snaps using a hammer my honey donated to me and this tool I found HERE.  They ship all over the world… I don’t get anything just trying to help you be proficient in making an ironing surface 🙂

 And Ta Dah!!!!  It is done… I added a handle to each of ours to make it easy to move about… she will be storing hers or hanging it up by the handle so I reinforced them by added fabric on the underside of where the handle joins the ironing board cover… I made the handle several layers thick… and made the reinforcement squares several layers thick too… I used french feld seams as well so the only raw seams are inside the towel which I used my pinking shears on to decrease strings when washed.

 These ironing surfaces (one more to make still as I need a second one for my second frequently used machine…) work well whether you use starch, starch alternative, steam, water spritzers … all that is fine on the plywood, towel, and fabric covers… I washed the towel of the first one I shared above for the first time since I made it almost a year ago… no stains on the wood and I use lots of steam and lots of Best Press and water spritzing too… I flip it over when it gets dirty and use the other side… it was nice to wash it but it was best to recover it as I wanted a fresh look and I got it 😀

Feel free to ask questions about my ironing surfaces if you have them.  I am happy to answer them for you… we do sand the edges of the plywood and esp the corners so they aren’t prickly very well before I add the towel and cover if that helps you… I sit mine on a stool or small table and my bestie is putting hers on a tv tray she has 🙂  Linking these Ironing Surfaces I have made to the End of the Month Challenge by Julie HERE >>>

For now I bid  you all adieu and hope to hear from each of you that made it this far via a message below!  Until my next post…

Advertisement

Happy February … Working towards a Finish Here !!

As we welcome February in I have been quilting by hand quite a bit!!

I want to invite you to look at all my photos and visit my bloggy friend Kathy and consider doing her scrappy football sew along mystery.  Read more about it HERE on her blog today is a link to that blog 😀

I started off the week of snow and very cold temps looking at this…

 And before i knew it is was ready to roll!!!

 Once rolled the left side got marked and started on…

 The pond is now unfrozen and the sun is out and we are back to doing things outside but it is a tad muddy ! So I am careful…

 This morning I took this photo for you…

 And a closer up of where I am… see my bronze thimble there on the quilt??  That is where I am this morning on the quilting… my last swipe of it going across the center part 😀

 So yesterday I pulled out this wall hanging that has a ruffly bottom outer border and started the slow arduous process of taking that border off… repressing it all and sewing it back on… mitered corner and all y’all!!!!

I added these corners without pins or measuring … do not do as I do but learn from this photo… 3 went on fine but one did not and needs removed… I will finish this today during Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and the Peacock Party too right HERE!!!

Are you watching the Superbowl today??  We may or may not … we have no vested interest in it and I go to bed early so I will say I probably won’t ! lol  How about you though… tell me if you are rooting for one team or the other… I do look forward to seeing the stadium in Atlanta that this competition is happening in 😀

I am curious… are you making anything for valentine’s this year?  I hadn’t planned anything… well I did but other things got in the way.  So now it is near and I have nothing made! lol

I did get a photo of the ironing board cover I sent off to my good friend Debbie for her birthday last month!!!

It looks so good and fits so nice to only have general measurements… she loves it and I loved getting the photo!!!

I am anxiously awaiting a charm pack to make a gift requested by a different friend.  She is decorating her sewing room and wanted me to hand quilt her something… but the more we talked we narrowed her real need down to a window dressing across 2 windows that are right together and she looks out of all the time over the farm she lives on when there with her dad and kids too ❤  I will make her a special something fun for that window to dress it up using the 30's charm pack she has in route to me as I write this ❤ 

More to come in a couple weeks… oh but she wants to be surprised so all the info will be happening behind the scenes y’all!  Sorry!  Keep me and my imagination to properly finish this project in your thoughts please… I hope to have it done and delivered before the end of the month!!!

This happened here this past week …

Or can you see it better here ….

I am sharing it  both ways via blogger’s video and directly under that so you might see our SNOW!!!

We live in North Carolina in the southwestern tip of it and had a good bit of snow but not nearly what other’s had!!!  While I was quilting above… my honey was fashioning a return on the chair rail and finishing the pantry he started…

 Here is the pantry… waiting for the tv that will sit on top…

 Here is the whole area so you can see better how important the return on that chair rail was for him to do so nicely 😀

 And after we went to the grocery store and stocked up!!!  It held all we bought and we bought more than usual ❤

After a lot of wondering and shopping about we finally decided a 24″ smart tv from Best Buy was our best bet to fit nicely without looking squished on this pantry… Rick will be able to use his iPad on it or not… and we had have news and such playing in there or casted things from the iPad too while cooking or just hanging out!  It will be as a kitchen should be… the heart of our home as he continues to make little changes … stay tuned 😀

I got this book in the mail this week..

So many of my bloggy friends are joining in on sew alongs that have started and other plans… as for me I will read this book for a sew along that will follow Ask Sara of Sew Sweetness on Tuesday evenings on Youtube!  I am looking forward to this fun read… she has 6 different books in the month planned but this is the only one I have agreed to do… more info coming up on Feb 12th on her show.  I had to get the book from the UK but it looks like the perfect read for me and my honey to enjoy as he recuperates from his hip replacement… so that is what will happen with this book I think 🙂

Meanwhile we are wondering about the outer border for Appalachian Delight… a wide (14″) border is now replacing all those littler borders I had planned.

 We decided this taupe print might work best… so later this week we should order this to go own…

What do you think?  The bottom is what we have left from making the cornerstones in the center of the quilt… we want a little something different and are planning to make a fun design hand quilted in big stitch quilting threads on this wide border that will end in the burgandy solid binding 🙂  This will be on our bed when the current quilt isn’t … this will give us 2 quilts at this point… and then I have more things planned for my time at this moment 😀 lol!

I look forward to hearing from each of you and hope you are each living a life you love … I sure am!

Is remains my sign off as we wait for those hyacinth or some buttercups to emerge… but with the frigid cold we have had… it may be a while yet! lol  Kathi

Finishes and Progress to Share … YAY!

Welcome y’all!  Thanks for stopping in and thanks for all your uplifting comments to last weeks post 🙂

I did not make this and I do not have this cute little hanger but both are doable… look how the quilter used little clothes pins to hold up this cute patchwork! 

But I did make this…

And you will see this photo over at the UFO& WIP link up Julie is doing HERE !!

It was a fairly easy sew.. but I had to prod myself to do it! lol  First I disassembled the old one and used the old padding to determine the size of the top of the ironing board… I laid that out on a big counter with my new fabric washed and ironed and pretty side DOWN with the old batting on top.  Then cut out leaving about 4″ all around 🙂

I replaced the batting and added another layer for a fresh topping on my ironing board because this had just been added a year or so ago and was ok still …

Next I decided this cover would have 1/4″ braided elastic to hold it in place… my last ironing board I had used cording with cord locks… didn’t care for it not staying tight consistently… I LOVE THIS FINISH!!!

I first zig zagged the edges then  pressed them down about 1″ all the way around and went back and straight stitched it down… leaving an opening do deal with the elastic.  You can do this a number of ways actually and I snipped a hole in a zig zagged section I fashioned like a button hole on the back side of mine.

All of this stitching you are doing will be hidden underneath but keeps it washable too !!!

Then get out a nice sized safety pin and guide the elastic around from one side all around til it comes back out the same hole … then pin them together so they won’t go in the hole while you form fit it to your ironing board… knot and trim off the tails and poke the knot inside the hole you used… all done and ready to press your next block or iron some clothes! hahaha   I jest there right??!!!  Actually I do iron a bit of our clothing … but not often! lol  I even made another for a friend for her birthday!!!

Next I will turn this 5 yards of vintage fabric into ironing surface covers… 

more on that process next week when I have done it 3 times! lol

Before I even started on the ironing board covers though I I put Cleo my Singer 319W to work sewing on binding to the front of the finished wall hanging I shared a pic of last weekend!

 Here you can see how I measure how much tail to leave between my staring point and ending point to have room to make a perfect join….

 I open the piece I cut off and use it as a measuring device 😀

Then in no time I had the binding hand stitched down on Monday and my honey with his stronger fingers pushed in the corners to hold in our wall hanging in the tobacco showing basket we found 🙂

This is a big part of southern history and this vintage piece is perfect for it’s center in our bedroom 😀  This is my link up for Julie’s UFO and WIP link up I linked to with the ironing board show off.  You get 2 entries to win something fun!!!

I have been watching my list and marking things off…

While one list is full.. it IS getting marked off little bits at a time. 

My hand stitching finish above is also getting linked up with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday… without her link up I wouldn’t have pulled this out and finished it !!!  HERE 🙂  Come see her free form stars she is hand appliqueing on circles and the circles on squares… all very fun looking to me!!!

Also in the hand quilting progress arena is this…

 Friday I had over a star’s width to stitch the overall design on… well I buckled down knowing this weekend was coming up quick and stitched and stitched and stitched until…

I was ready to roll!  And roll I did and you can see in the lower of the 2 above photos 🙂

This morning I woke with itching fingers to mark and stitch… so I did…

 I use the pink pounce to mark the overall design on the center with my stencil then go over it with the chalk pencil you can see below found on Amazon by Allary company as it is hard to see on it’s own…. Below it is now half marked 🙂

As a note… I did use some of this same pink chalk pencil I have been warned may not come out completely … on the rustic wall hanging border and all came out!!! Now this quilt is holding the chalk longer than that wall hanging did … but I have faith that with soap and warm water and soaking a couple rinses too… I should have a clean and ready to share quilt when done… we shall see!

As you can see also in the photo above… I thought I would have 2 more passes after this one… now I am thinking 1 and a bit more than I can fudge into 1 more pass left so I am now hyper focused to work on this… also

The quilt I have been piecing is now stalled at this point… approx 78″ square!

We have decided… after auditioning SEVERAL borders… 

That we need more of this fabric in 1 wide border… 

This fabric was used in the cornerstones so it is not foreign to this quilt and it is a civil war blue and wheaty tan color.  Have a few yards laying around by chance?? lol  So it waits and marinates for more sewing to happen to it…

I did get a new scissor fob in the mail from my favorite Etsy fob designer … Lauren of Mountain Laurel Designs HERE 🙂

She made this fob short at my request… everything was just to my liking actually… I ordered from her in the past so she knows my style too… I ❤ it 😀

Here is some eye candy I found on facebook this week too…

 And a non traditional take on valentines coming up but I love it!

I also wanted to share a new “personality” I found on YouTube thanks to a friend in my facebook group… HERE is  her take on 3 ways to make the Economy Block… take a watch it will open in a new window so you don’t lose your place here too 😀 

Now aren’t you glad you watched some or all of that .. she is sooo entertaining and informational at the same time!!!

My honey is beating the pain he is dealing with by building us a new and built in pantry in our kitchen… our own design and his own knowledge… here are some photos in process…

Still needs the bottom cross members and doors… those may come today or he may rest and watch tv for a bit today 🙂  He has been working on this the last 2 days leaving me to my own devices like stitching!!!

So where ever you are HOT or COLD weather prevails… is there anywhere it is just nice relaxing weather I wonder???  Australia is very very Hot… North of the Equator we are very very cold all compared to regular weather patterns for this time of year so be safe and careful and watch your pets!

Have a blessed one and thanks for visiting and don’t forget to check out ALL the Links I left for you this week as I …

Settling in at the Lazy Daisy !!

This week has been all about making ourselves comfy in our new home… finally we are close to the end of all the boxes and we are making sense of our favorite things… and finding new ones!

Like this cool deep red tulip that bloomed this week!

and the views coming and going from here just totally rock!

 These photos … unfortunately… don’t do justice to the reality though!!!

We are at an elevation of about 2600 ft… when we lived in Florida we were at an elevation of 3 ft!!!  WOWEE … and every time we go out we see something new … experience a new color … watch as God repaints the sky or brings the clouds down just a bit closer or raises them a bit higher!  TOTALLy AMAZING!!!!

Around here we have been busy… our bedroom got washed and dried and lit back up 😀

 We only had our lights up a month before we decided to sell our home in Florida so they quickly got packed away so they wouldn’t be thought to convey with the house!! lol

The bedroom tv moved to the living room… and the cool vintage cabinet now houses the quilt shop and helps hide cords from the tv and also holds our new sound bar…

 WOW that sound is good when listening to Pandora from the TV too ❤

We got paint for the kitchen …

 It will really make the valances we bought look good… and we got some white paint for the woodwork too !!!

Then we found this cute shopping cart…

 It is just perfect for the dishrags my bestie made for us… and we use regularly at the kitchen sink!

Then lights came from our power company… they have a program to provide you with up to 15 LED 60 watt soft white bulbs… we think these are GREAT!  We installed 8 immediately in the living room ceiling fans!!! 

The remaining ones will be used in Rick’s shop when he replaces the fluorescent buzzing lights for regular bulb holders with these energy efficient LED’s for great light out there!!!

I have been in a making mood as we are settling in here…

Using my stash… I made valances for the sewing room…

 And my honey hung my “k” thread spool and bobbin holder….

 I made the same valance again for the other window in my sewing room…

 I went to the LQS (local quilt shop) … Bless My Stitches in Murphy, NC and got…

 a ruler, some glue stick refills for applique time, and some fabric that soon found a purpose…

 As a ironing board cover in my sewing room.  I just had to have this cute daisy fabric and peachy color seemed right and vintagy at the same time!

I used ALL the fabric they had on the bolt in their clearance section ….

To make the ironing surface cover and… a hat… lol!

 No… not an Easter bonnet y’all but a trash basket of sorts…

 See…

 I used the bag given me at my LQS and made a customized trash basket to hold my scraps and thread tails until I dump them in the “to be burned” trash or for plastic etc… separate to go to the dumpster.

Someone on facebook wanted to know about my ironing board.  It is actually a piece of 1/2″ plywood that sits on a wooden stool….

 There above you can see the stool and below is a close up of the layers… I used a thick cotton fluffy towel that had gotten discolored so wasn’t being used anymore and repurposed it into being sewn shut on 3 sides into a kind of pillowcase that fits tightly around the board… then measured that with my cloth tape measure and made the outer ironing board cover so I can move it about and flip it over if one side gets dirty or something…

I love this style and in fact this is my SECOND ironing board as the first one was just smaller than I wanted so I had my honey make this one a bit larger than a fat quarter laid out flat and it is perfect for ironing fabrics, a small cutting board sits there at times… or works in progress rest at the top of it whilst I am piecing things and ironing those pieced items down on the bottom half!  Perfect !!!

Another thing we LOVE LOVE LOVE IS ….

 the view AND feeding our fish in the pond every day!  They LOVE to eat too 😀  And that water wheel NEVER gets old either… a perpetual water feature that never stops!!!

 Daisy loves to go out by the fish and enjoys all the wildlife our new home attracts!!!

We even have a  log cabin near us that is very vintage… it was a train engineers cabin when the train came by here…

Now there are tracks but no train anymore… to bad… we would like it if they revived the train 😀

I am now making curtains for our bedroom… more on those next week.  As I type this I am getting more shelves in my sewing room closet… so maybe an uber organized photo of all my sewing notions, accessories and fabrics next week!

Remember to be kind y’all!  It takes no effort to be kind!!!

 And also remember to…

Slow Stitching Sunday Yippee!!!

I can’t believe it have been a month since my last post… live has been sooo busy I didn’t realize… so sorry my bloggy friends!

Here is a great pic to express my regret for keeping you out of the loop!

From our beach to yours.. happy season change… for us it is Summer… and for Australia I think it is officially winter now!!! This shot shows how empty the beach can be early in the mornings 🙂

My honey has been in and out of the hospital this last month… here is a pic we took after his most recent hospital stay where we got a diagnosis finally…

When my honey goes into the hospital I go too… and stay nearby having been a cardiac nurse for so many years I navigate the medical world and medical words for him… and this time for me!  He has tracheomalacia or a floppy airway most commonly found in newborns… why he got it we can only conjecture… the cure is unknown and probably just to fix the floppy airway for a stable airway (aka a tracheostomy) but for now we are using a CPAP machine most of the time to assist his breathing and keep that airway open!

That is probably lots of Greek to you too… and that is simplified!  Sorry guys… but your THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS are appreciated as we navigate this path.. I want my honey to stick around a while longer and he wants to stay here too… for him a tracheostomy is NOT something he wants ever… so his natural airway needs to get stronger if possible or the breathing machine needs to be helpful in helping him rest well at nighttime!  So that is what has kept me so busy lately… my honey has had his own personal nurse! lol

Meanwhile… our first night at the hospital in a town over an hour away.. I came home to find carpet torn up and my quilt I have been working on torn partially out of the frame…

 So I finally… almost a month of looking at it later… made time and energy to get it back in the frame properly… and now I am making slow stitching progress once again!!!

I am linking my slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Quilts Slow Stitching Sunday… I have missed you all … my fave linky so go check it out HERE!!!

While that quilt was in an “unquiltable” state… I had to keep myself occupied with something and reading wasn’t gonna do it so I worked on my son James and his new brides’ quilt…

Above you can see the new “Strip Stick” I found via a friend’s youtube vid and requested more info… they are available in sizes too… I found this size fits my needs for now!  And it fits my pressing surface well… it aids in ironing seams open which is what I was doing as I watched a quilt cam with Bonnie Hunter 😀

And I finally have the center finished between doctor and hospital runs with my honey…

Next up is the pieced border that is framed on the inside by a “floating border” and on the outside by a anchoring border and the top will be an official flimsy!!! lol  Getting ahead of myself though… the pieced border will take a bit of thought… review of the pattern I made… a video instruction… and some good old fashioned math…

 And don’t forget comedic relief like that my honey provided below! lol  Thanks to our Daisy dog for being the comedy… she is pretending to be a lab in this shot! hahaha 🙂

While the video tutorial I purchased helped me figure out the basic way to construct the pieced border… it did NOT help me figure the math correctly… for that I am glad math was a subject I “got” in high school and college… So I will not mention the name or where I purchased this video when looking to make this certain style of pieced border but I don’t regret the purchase really either…

I plan on leaving feedback once I have a flimsy to share and am complete… here are shots of some of my progress thus far though…

The inner border also called the float border to this pieced border as it will give the custom fit it needs for the quilt… is a bit skinnier on the sides finishing at 1″ on each side while the top and bottom finish at 1 3/4″ each… This float border is vanilla fabric like the first row of sashings are on the outer edges of the center of the quilt… so should all veg together  🙂  I hope so anyway!!!

I have the top and bottom borders complete on the pieced borders now and they fit as they should.. today when I am not slow stitching I will be constructing the side borders.  Once both are together and tested in place I will add the vanilla float border and see how they really fit… maybe have all this done and the flimsy finished by next weekend???  No promises on that… EVERYTHING depends on my honey as his need to be hospitalized again until we have a home plan that is stable for his airway! and his health overall!!!  Here is my pattern again though… how I planned it to be looking! lol

And here are a few pieces I had left over from the center and my triumphant start on the pieced border after watching the video and reviewing my own plan above! lol  This WILL BE HAND QUILTED once it is a flimsy too 🙂  That was requested by my son’s new wife in the early planning stages!!

Here is an updated shot of me I took… it now resides as my facebook profile pic 🙂  This was the end of May though…

Here is my 301a Gloria who has made my work on this quilt top.. Amethyst Stars… so enjoyable and a great destressor for me 🙂

And here is a “new” thrifted ironing board… with a cover I made after watching some youtube tutorials…. along with a new iron I got too (my old one had leaked so much the ironing board was all rusted under the cover that was stained and falling off! lol

I have had this fabric for some time … waiting for the right project for it… now I have this fun cover to look at every day and interact with when ironing needs to be done properly on a board instead of my quilting ironing surface!!!  I love the cradle it has to keep the iron off the ironing board itself… and a new iron does not leak!!! Yippee 😀

Well… that is about all I have time for today… Thanks again for your coveted thoughts and prayers for us and the VA medical team my honey has…

Remember to …