Tag Archives: joy

Happy July y’all and a stencil tutorial !!

What a Historic Month we are in now!!!

July 4 is actually my birthday 💖…

and when we celebrate our Independence as a Nation here in the USA so….

Today… July 6 is also my Gaga’s birthday… she passed away in 2004 but is fondly remembered each July 6… just 2 days after mine! I like to think we look a bit alike too 😀

Here is a Birthday wish someone left me on Facebook…

for me and my Gaga and you if you have a July birthday too!!!!

Isn’t this a cool mix of applique 😀

Here are a few of my birthday goodies I got…

First from my LQS…

Then I woke on the 4th to find this from my honey 🙂

My post for my facebook friends from a photo I took on our property 🙂

And if you look close.. there is a flag waving far off… that is our post office!!! lol

Here is a current photo of me… with a tag I added on Facebook 😀

And HERE …. I I I I

V V V V

are the photos of the divided caddy I made for my friend Debbie I told you about in my last blog post…She received this yesterday in the mail so I was so excited to share it with you!

It has pockets added to each end for keys and cell phone when she is on the move with her stuff! She loves bright colors and pink and yellow are faves as well as green… I used from my stash only for this … the handles are black wide ribbon from my stash too!!! The insides are also covered in matte vinyl fuse like the one I made for my honey to use for his shaving gear… this one is a bit bigger and much more sturdy though in it’s construction 😀 I am well pleased… this is made by a video on YouTube by Sewspire 😀 Andrea makes making this very easy to understand too!

Before the tutorial… I want to share my progress on the quilt I am hand quilting!!!! I am linking this hand quilting goodness on Sunday to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post … HERE (had computer issues so didn’t link up until 5:30 pm EST USA … sorry!) Go see Kathy and Congratulate her as she enters her 7th year as a Sunday slow stitch linky boss 😀

I am about 57% completed with the hand quilting in these photos…

And here you can see what I am doing in the star blocks with the chalk lines I follow then spritz away the residue of chalk when I have stitched the wavy lines ….

Above you can also see how I am big stitching the swirlies in the sashings…. using a black perle cotton 12 wt.

The swirlies are from a stancil that is a bit LONGER than the space I had to fill … soooooo

This is how you make a stencil fit YOUR space <<< TUTORIAL

Here is my stencil over the sashing… see how the sashing is about 1/4″ shorter on each end than the stencil??

While in the above position… mark the center parts of the stencil… but not the outer parts of the swirlie or whatever your design is… that way the center parts are centered!

Then below you will move each end to the desired spot and line up with the lines already marked… I am using a water soluble marker for my marking…

Here is a closer up view… I am marking the other end now… the stencil does not have to stay straight on the sashing but the end you are marking must be right in place! mark carefully 😀

Now that all parts of the stencil are marked… it is time to fill in the “legs”… the legs are the parts where the stencil is held to the base and left gaps in your swirlie! 🙂

Now you can see my swirlie marked well… downsized to fit my sashing with legs filled in too!

Feel free to click on any of these photos to enlarge them to see those blue lines more clearly… and scroll back up to see the stitched and spritzed away markings of my sashings…

Another consideration I realized after marking the first row of this stencil was the orientation of the swirlies… so I put the center loops facing my blue blocks on all my swirlie designs for consistency… just a thought for your stencil marking too 😀

Now a look at our Lazy Daisy homestead and future and present harvesting…

First here are some not yet ready peach, apple, grape, and blueberry!

And here are some ready to enjoy squash and tomatoes from our garden 😀

Here is a crane we have seen several days recently…

And a closer up view of the sandhill crane… native to this area a friend who lives here told us 🙂

Love these vibrant fuscia / purple conical blooms on this bush!

And a corkscrew willow in full glory!

A look back at our home sweet home…

And the grist mill and edge of the pond where we often stand to feed the fish their high protein floating food 🙂

And a look from the other side of the pond toward the back of our home…

And the back porch with the blooming hostas all in a row!

We finally finally got a North Carolina tag for our Cassie… she is legal and so are we… now true North Carolinians and happy to be that!

And in closing…

A bit of patriotic quilty inspiration I saw online this week!!!

A Very inspirational saying to add to your thought process today as you leave this post and do your own thing…

A wish from me and my honey to you and your household ❤

Thanks for visiting !!! Have a blessed weekend 🙂

Choosing JOY is AWESoME!!!

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Happy Sunday Folks!

A facebook friend shared this photo this week… I wanted to open with this as JOY has been a hallmark of this week for me… how about you???

The week for me started with finishing up a bunch of quarter square triangles I had made as a leader ender project… into this 🙂

this is doll quilt sized and may get one more border with cornerstones or applique… pondering it’s completion presently but happy with tis part of it 😀

My honey and I have been working together on the kitchen too… he has been painting a shade by Valspar called “Malted Milk” on the walls with white on the woodwork. Meanwhile I have been decorating and ironing the curtains we got for that room… it is looking nice!!!

Also in the kitchen my honey made us a built in cutting board from a big piece of butcher block…

He cut it to a customized fit of our sink then cut notches in the bottom of it to hold it in place when we are slicing and dicing fruits and veggies… currently we are conditioning it to get it ready to use !!! Excited to have it ❤

Then as I was scanning blogs and Pinterest between jobs around the house… I saw this! A Sewing room Bunting on the Moda Bake Shop!!!

I loved the “create” sign and the font they used so I went to the directions and printed off the necessary pages and read their directions but made it a bit my own… whilst shopping online I found this ampersand too… it will go on the wall as part of this too… read on to see how!!!

Back to the bunting… I made all the flags and found our hamburger press was the perfect size for the circle and gave me nice circles….

and soon I had this all ironed and ready to sew down all the edges … in case I ever want to wash it I wanted it not raw edged … so all is enclosed or zig zagged or topstitched or both! 😀

I used Zena my 401a for all the zig zagging around the circles and letters… she did a GREAT job!!!

Then I used some of my honey’s lawn mower pull cord to be my cording to hang it by!!!

Now looking at the above shot … the ampersand “&” will go just to the left of the quilt sign and will be painting a dark red metallic paint we have just waiting on it to arrive this coming week….

Meanwhile I got a donation from my honey’s wood shop… these drawers!!!!

So those black little drawers I have used until they are not very functional anymore as they were so full are now replaced and these are nice and roomy presently with threads like YLI colors, perle cotton in another drawer, marking pens and pencils in a drawer, just all sorts of sewing and hand quilting stuff I use regularly so it needs to be here 😀

Here is a view of my room… waiting on the ampersand and 1 more thing to make it a complete shot!!!

I am just SEW Happy with this room for me 😀 I never imagined I would have something this exciting to go to each day and work on things!

Speaking of working on things… this morning I finished up joining those apple cores…

Now they need a Best press soak and good steamy press then I will add borders and see where that takes me… since sewing it together it is kind of small for the purpose I made it for… so it is going into a time out for a bit… I wanna start on the quilt for our bed now… it is FINALLY time to do that!!!

Here is all my fabric to use for that project…

And below is the pattern I will be making….

Mine will look a bit different but all my fabrics are civil war repro colors… very country looking… I even have batting and backing… and if you recall last weeks post showed my frame is ready for this quilt!!! I am MEGA excited to have something in the frame.

While I do have the wholecloth in my PVC frame… my mojo for this quilt has faltered presently… hopefully this week I will put in a few stitches and start working on getting callouses built back up on my fingers as it has been worked on very little since the move!!!

The BEST part of my week was a quick trip to visit my bestie who needed a boost of JOY in her life!

And we successfully got a smile back on her face 🙂 So it was worth the 4 1/2 hour drive each way 😀

I got to catch this photo as my honey fed the fish one day this week… Daisy at his side! SWEET!!!!

And look at this crawfish we found at the water inlet of the pond!!!! It is HUGE and looks more like a lobster!!! lol

My new rolling table for quilting got stained and wheels added to it this week… I am MEGA excited to have this table for my quilting stuff to sit on as I work on the quilt for our bed in just a few weeks!