Happy Mother’s Day Y’all!

Hope you each have a …

I am 50% DONE now on the Batik Hollyhock Garden Quilt I am hand quilting!!

This shot above is halfway through the 6th row of the quilt… all together there are 11 rows 🙂

I did acquire a new gadget for my quilting frame this week too… from a Missouri Star Quilt deal of the day I bring you a pin cushion that stays on my frame just perfect and holds some pretty sharp scissors that came with it!!

I am linking this fun pincushion and my hand quilting progress to Kathy’s Quilts … come see what all other handies are sharing HERE!

Also … for Mother’s Day I have changed my facebook profile pic to a shot of my needle keeper…

Here are my two little grands I am thinking of today!!!

CJ on the left will soon be 3 and Kaydence on the right will soon be 2 🙂

Besides hand quilting and sewing a bit on a quilt for my son and dil… we have been working on a puzzle…

 And I watched a great Chick Flick on Netflix too!!!

 

But sometimes the above is sooo true… so we go to the nearby beach to see the sunshine in all it’s glory!  This time we also got to see this cool big sail boat!!! 

 So keep smiling my friends!!!

There is so much to smile about for sure and don’t forget to…

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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 …

Butterfly Woven Quilt for Kaydence is ALL DONE !!!

After sharing so much in my last post about HOW I quilted this quilt… I have kept my nose to grind stone and finished the quilting of it 💗

I had lots of fun making this a special quilt for my granddaughter Kaydence… with her first and last initial on the left side of the quilt…

I couldn’t let KC be the only thing on this to identify who it was for though… so I used the nickname her dad and stepmom had given her across the top as well!

I had to draw it all out several times before I was satisfied… but what do you think below now! 🙂

I found that quilting “Bubbles” with back stitches turned out well for both sides of the quilt also… I wasn’t sure before I did it though! lol

And above the label and tag are now on her quilt… I love the finishing though!

Then into the wash and dryer it went… finally ready to show off 🙂

I used a permenent pen and heat set it… and since I didn’t have exactly the right shade of pink to sew down the label… I added a bit of found lace instead!!!

The hearts on the back side of this quilt came to be on Valentine’s day… when the front was complete and needed a backing just a bit wider than this fabric was… so I expanded it from the center and used fabric from my stash and the hearts from leftovers from the front for sweet Bubbles to enjoy and remember her 2 year old present from her Grammy!!! ❤

Linking this slow stitching accomplishment to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday Linky ❤  HERE!

I would also like to wish you all a Happy Quilting Weekend… this is a fun weekend to take time to sew and I am doing just that myself as you can see above!!!

Thanks for visiting and take time to….

Cleaning and Crafting!

Hope you are all having a Happy November so far 🙂

 I got my honey to photo my poor hands…

And I found this cool quote…

I do miss my daily hand quilting time… I have yet to get back to Brandi’s quilt Starlight… Starbright… but have plans on Monday to return to it!!!

The main reason to show you a shot of my hands… is to share how pretty my mothers ring is now… I got it cleaned at the jewelry store and they did a magnificent job!!!

Above is a close up for you 🙂  I am asking for an ultrasonic jewelry and glasses cleaner for Christmas now too!  My honey thinks Santa may accomodate my request! lol

I have been cleaning… the closet is about done… I have some albums to add to my scrapbooking sale pile yet but that is about it….

See how neat and tidy it turned out… if you missed it… here is the BEFORE shot…

See what a mess of stuff it was!!!!

Now it only has 2 things on the floor… our dirty clothes basket and some wrapping paper in a holder 🙂  Yippee!!!!

Next I moved to the bedroom itself… which just needed a good cleaning more than tidying really… and it is done!!!!

Finally I got to go into the sewing room.. wow it was a mess… it had taken lots of hits from the closet as I emptied it and found fabric.. and needed a good tidying overall and a cleaning too…

Unfortunately I was sooo excited to get to this room I forgot to get you before shots… but I could not walk through it!!!  It was a clustered mess of stuff… I haven’t seen my cutting table neat in over 4 years y’all!!!!  4 years!!!!

Now look!!!

 My cutting table is clean and tidy… with the exception of those 2 stacks of boards awaiting the pile of fabric pointing to below!!!! lol  This is today’s project btw!!!

 Here is another view of the cutting table with my awesome design wall in view too… I love it!!!

 The boards I showed you above will have wrapped 1 yard and less on them of my fabrics then be organized for my fabric chest…

I also have lots of fabric I have purchased in a lot long ago from an estate sale… a bit of it has polyester in it and will melt into plastic under my vintage piecing iron… so I have organized it in one of my scrapbook drawer organizers repurposed for this job…

I nicely took this shot for you all with a repurposed bubbler we brought into the Florida room… you can see the far end of the Florida room and my color organized fabric drawers too!  The fabric is next to the steamy iron and ironing board for pressing to check for poly mix in each piece before using it in a quilty project!!!  Yippee 🙂

Here is my thought now that I see what all I have available to me in my stash now… I wanna make some pumpkins using yellows to orangy reds in them… Bonnie Hunter inspired this project and here is a pic of her making hers on grey backgrounds into a snuggly quilt… but I want something different from mine… we shall see if that happens this year.. or next! lol

So next up is wrapping and organizing my fabrics in my stash… and fitting them into my fabric chest!!!  This will be an all day affair I think… mixed in I will take breaks and organize and clean our bathroom as I haven’t really given that room any attention yet!

I have gone through lots of old pics and stuff… sorted them to give as Christmas gifts to my kids so they can take their own private walk down our family memory lane… and I found this that I scrapbooked several years back… now I want to frame it!

Getting my Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing was a HUGE accomplishment and one I am very proud of!  My whole family was there to watch me receive my diploma from a wonderful school in Florida (I did this online from Tennessee)  Here is the frame and picture and tassel from getting my degree…

And here is a pic I snapped this morning…. with my honor cords draped over the frame hanging on the wall of our bedroom… I graduated with honors!!!  Magna Cum Laude!!! 

 And I can see this every time I leave my bedroom too!!!  I had planned to hang this in the office when it got repainted and I moved back in… but I think I will hang the scrapbooked photo there and leave the formal frame and honor cords in the bedroom where they are now 🙂

While cleaning the bedroom I came across a stocking I started about 5 years ago!!!  I finished one for Rick but never finished mine!!!  So between working in the house cleaning and organizing and running errands for this and that… I am trying to take time to work on this some too…

I doubt this will be done for this Christmas but it sure is fun to have something to stitch on out in the Florida room while I listen to 2 bubblers bubbling water and enjoy the light breeze fall brings to Florida!

My son James…

Will turn 26 in a few days… in celebration he bought a side by side 4 wheeler vehicle…

Here is a posed shot of his family as he snapped the shot of his new “toy”!!!!  Zach is behind the driver’s wheel and is 11… Heather, his fiance and Zach’s mom is holding Kaydence in the passenger seat 🙂

And here is a shot of CJ ready for Halloween!!!!

So that is quite enough info for one post I think… but I wanted to keep you up to date on why I haven’t had any quilty progress to show here or on fb… I have just been too busy with all else since Matthew the hurricane left our area!

Hope whatever you do today you take time to…

Thanks to Hurricane Matthew… it has been almost 3 weeks now since I quilted!!!

Sorry I have been absent for so long… will try to make this catch up as short and enjoyable as possible!!! lol

I quilted a bit daily until October 4.  That is when we realized Matthew was a big storm… soon upgraded to a Hurricane and would hit on or close to where we lived…

Here was our home on October 5th… we lived without windows in this house a day before we left to evacuate… Evacuation was NOT mandatory for our home location but was favored by the local weather authorities so my honey and I decided we would leave…

Above is a shot of the boarding of the windows… and below is a shot as we said goodbye to our home on October 6… headed to Mongomery, Alabama some 7 plus hours away from us!!! (It was the closest hotel we could find to evacuate to by the time we decided evacuation was our plan !!!

We did put our inside furniture mainly up on blocks… and brought in all our outside furniture including my office that was homed on the Florida Room (I bring my computer in each night)!  This is a sad time for us as we are unsure what we will come home to!

We arrived on October 6 very late to our hotel and had a great but small accomodations.. the hotel was called “Microtel”… I didn’t imagine a hotel room could be so small!  But it kept me and Rick and Daisy all free of wind and rain and hurricane conditions for 2 nights 🙂  The staff there was very friendly and accomodating… we did bring some food and drinks with us.. but no refrigerator is available in any of their rooms… they did have plenty of long lasting ice in their ice machines though!

We waffled back and forth whether to return Saturday or Sunday… finally we both felt good about making the 8 hour trek home (going a more direct route than we had to go to evacuate) on Saturday… just a day after Matthew had left… we didn’t have our neighbors info and couldn’t even find out from the power company here if we had power… but forward we went!

Daisy whined a lot on the way to the hotel… she couldn’t seem to understand the car was moving… we did bring her big cushion for a nest on our travels… and the shot to the right is on our trip back home….

We were so happy to cross from Alabama to Florida coming home too!

On our way there my smart GPS that sees accidents and traffic ahead of the path it wants us to go rerouted us so we went from Florida to Georgia then to Alabama!!!
lol

When we finally arrived home Saturday afternoon… Rick wanted to make a quick check alone… so I loaded my arms and prepared for the worst… but the front of the house looked just as we left it!!!

Rick gave our home 2 thumbs up!!!!  If you look behind him there were sand bags at the front door.. he cut all the plywood custom fit to make coverings for all the windows too!!!

And we had POWER!!!! YIPPEE!!!!

The next day I took these 2 shots…  this is the main of the debris from our back yard… our sweet right next door neighbors had cleaned the front of our yard to welcome us home 🙂

We had had the trees trimmed by a professional comany and in doing so left this stump you can see on the left side of the pic above…

Rick then carved into it with one of his routers after I sketched it only the tree stump… “Matthew Oct. 2016″… this way this tree will have engraved in it why it was saved… we saw soooo much debris as we got closer to the coast on our drive home….

We did lose gates to our fences… well they need some major repairs anyway… and the fence that separated us from us and our left hand neighbors came down completely and it was their fence as they have a pool with a screen enclosure.. they say they have no $$ to replace the fence… so that will happen after next years budget starts… that means once the house taxes are paid!!! lol  Rick can do the work but the fencing costs about $1200… so that will take a couple months to save for!!!

Above is Rick doing a check of our roof and giving it a good general sweep of leaves and limbs that can get caught in the shingles… overall we fared VERY WELL!  Our neighbor directly across the street has their main home in Orlando.. so they missed the hurricane but their home didn’t … a tree took out a good part of roofing!  It took the tree trimmers only part of a day to trim all the trees but still we wait to see repairs happening… Rick estimates $30,000 to $50,000 damage to their home from this storm… so we are sooo blessed to have no home damage!

All this has left us very greatful to have a concrete block home with lots of rafters my honey had previously not understood… now we both have a better understanding of why we had this home still and now we don’t plan to sell next year but to continue upgrading this home in general instead… it is only increasing in value.. to us and to Zillow! lol

Below is a temporary fence we put up from our Florida room to the back fencing that is intact… to keep Daisy contained and not have to watch her sooo closely….

 You can see the window plywood here stacked against our out building to dry.  Rick also labeled it for quick access in the future with more screws and a bit too!  The missing fence would have been behind that!  The temporary fence is hard to see but it is in front of all that with the 3 stones at the bottom of this shot…

Our Florida room is now just a gathering spot… I love it even more now though that it isn’t so cluttered!!!!

And the living room is emptied back to it’s new normal level and deep cleaned from bringing the outside in during evacuation preparations…

And our sweet kitchen is in order too…

Currently I am working on cleaning out a major mess we call our master bedroom closet!  It is a large closet for sure.. and has been a catch all for past hobbies and memories I didn’t want to deal with….

Thus the reason I really haven’t blogged lately… we have been focused on loving this home of ours 🙂

We moved the computer into what was my daughter’s room.. we now call the office!

But those bright green walls were driving me batty so until it gets painted (soon I hope!)  I have moved the desk to a different location… into the master bedroom!!!! lol

When we did evacuate I took tons of my sewing projects… I didn’t want them ruined if the house was… and this new book I had just received in the mail!

 I am so excited to get done with cleaning and sorting to read it… here is the intro portion I did read!!!!

I am definitely excited to use this book on future quilts 🙂  It seems to address beginners to advanced hand quilters too!!!!

Here is a shot from Sunday of my sweet granddaughter Kaydence…

And here is a shot I found on facebook that is current of my nieces and nephew!

Hope you all take time to enjoy the life God has given you!

Thanks for reading and hanging with me through this drought of writing… more to say in future posts and hopefully some quilting will start SOON!!!!

Hope you had a Safe Labor Day weekend!!

I hope for those in the US… Labor Day weekend was a much needed time to catch up 🙂

I had planned to share this greeting YESTERDAY… but my dd came for a visit and I never got a post written! lol

I have several projects I am working on… but for some reason all my focus has been on Starlight… Starbright… for my daughter’s high school graduation coming in the spring…maybe this is part of my “empty nesting”???  Not sure as I am happy at how she is making her way and she seems happy when we chatted yesterday… and I did work on her quilt over the holiday weekend!!!

Here is a wide shot I took the other day…

 And here you can see more progress in a closer up shot! 🙂  …

Soon I will be moving the quilt to get to the carpenter’s star center 🙂

Also over the weekend I spotted a pic on facebook of my 15 month old granddaughter… KAYDENCE!!!!

She is enjoying some ice cream above… but check out the bib she is wearing… I MADE THAT FOR HER!!!  She is getting tubes in her ears mid September her mom says … so hoping that goes quick and easy!!!

So excited to see something I quilted and made for her to use but never received even notification that it was received … IN ACTION!!!!  So that started my weekend off with happy fireworks! lol

Then I ran across this verse and thought enough of it to share with you!!

Thus I quilt to stay happy and out of trouble! Staying warm with them is a wonderful side effect too!

So what all are YOU working on right now to keep you happy and your family warm???

I almost forgot… the fabric aquisition I shared with you last time??  Well I got 2 more 1/4 yards of more in that line… and I love it!! ❤

See the ones on the bottom are the new ones… the ones across the top are from my initial purchase… I will give OddsnEndsFabric.com a HUGE THUMBS UP!!!!  For taking such good care of this fabric and my order!!!  Check them out if you are in the US online 🙂

I hope you take time to leave a comment and share what you are up to!  Not quilting??  Then share another hand sewing knitting crocheting project you are doing and how it makes you feel to make progress on this project 🙂

Until my next post … Please Love One Another folks!

P. S.  Hurricane Hermine gave us only some wind and rain… none at hurricane levels … we live just south of Daytona Beach, Florida on the east coast and this storm made landfall on the west coast and went northeast after that… so we just prayed for those in it’s path…
Thanks to all of you that messaged us to inquire on our safety!  It was MUCH appreciated to know we were in your thoughts and prayers 🙂

Hot n Humid & Making Hand Quilting Progress :)

It has been sooo hot n humid here y’all… a few meteorological facts…

• This is the 3rd hottest summer on record for the east coast of Florida!!
• We have had only 4″ of rain in all of June and July!!
• Hydration and cooling off inside in the air conditioning is the ONLY way to survive this heat!!
• July has been in the 100’s in the feels like category ~ CRAZY HOT!!!

So that is how it feels here… but is hasn’t stopped me from making hand quilting progress!!! lol

You see my current quilt stays on a frame in our Florida room which is OUTSIDE in a screened in porch with fans all around.. 4 movable fans and 1 ceiling fan to be precise! lol

Okay enough lol-ing… time to show off what I have been up to on block 7 of 9 on Starlight .. Starbright!  Here is a long shot…

And here is a close up of what I have left to quilt before moving this quilt.

I am sooo excited with the slow but steady progress I am making!!!!

Soon I will be moving the quilt around to reposition it for blocks 8 and 9!!!  Which is the END!!! Yippee!!  I have plenty more hand quilting to do once this project is done…. so stick with me 🙂

Linking up to Kathy’s Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching where other slow stitchers gather to share… are you knitting or embroidering or quilting ??  Come check out the hand stitching that is going on all over the world… right HERE!  And then…

Here is my daughter and my granddaughter in 1 shot… my dd is in Tennessee visiting!!! 🙂

Sometimes we get so busy we forget to smell the roses laid out before us.. so take time to appreciate YOU today!!

Thanks for stopping in and have a great Sunday y’all!  And Stay COOL!!!!

Busy June ~ Time for a catch up!

So sorry ya’ll that I have been MIA… but I am back!!! lol

Unfortunately, I must share some sad news.. there was a terrorist shooting here in the US close to our home in Florida… it is less than a block from the hospital my daughter goes to!!!!  Wow!!

Please take time to Pray for Orlando Florida today if you would… this is so devastating for us as it is for the whole US!!!

 Thanks for your compassion here!

On a happier note today … June 13, 2016… is National Sewing Machine day!!!

Feel free to copy this and post it on your fave social media spot 🙂  Or pin it for fun too!

So will you be sewing for the special day ??  Will you be using this mechanical ingenuity?? lol

I hope to!

I have been working on parts to blocks… for a quilt for our bed.

So far you can see I have lot’s of 4 patches complete and over half now of the half square triangles I need too!  Next up will be some specialty ruler blocks… I am waiting on fabric from my friends though… this is a memory quilt of sorts as I am using a LARGE variety of charms to make this quilt…

And more have been added… and will be added to this eclectic mix of blues 🙂  I am loving this and so is my honey so that makes me VERY happy!!!

Recently Connecting Threads had their cotton/wool batting on sale by Hobb’s Tuscany… I bought a king sized one just for this quilt for only $29!!!  I bought a queen and a tad of some  other things to get me free shipping… and now I just wait for it to arrive later this week! 🙂  Yahoo!!!!

Here is my sketch of what this quilt will kind of look like if you are interested!

I love drawing out my quilty creations on graph paper… sometimes I used colored pens/pencils etc… sometimes I just need to get an idea out with perspective that the graph lines give me 🙂  How you design your quilts to be??

I have added quite a bit of information since this photo was taken… this quilt is 32 each of 2 blocks… the 54-40 or fight block and the shoofly block 🙂  I may add a pillow tuck to the top or I may finish it to be a cover only… not sure yet… but I am building this with lots of extra quilty knowledge under my belt since our last bed quilt (it was my first quilt to make! lol)

On May 31 my granddaughter turned 1!!! 

And soon after… on June 6… my grandson turned 2 years old!!!

So this Grammy has had a busy month for sure!!!

I have been making only slow hand quilting progress it seems… but soon will move it and share a shot with you all…

Mainly we are getting ready now for my bestie Connie’s upcoming visit… she is coming down from Tennessee for 5 days and 6 nights!! I am sooo excited to see her … we chat almost daily … but not the same as spending time face to face for sure!!

Well, as we chat I am thinking of tons of things that need to be done.. so I will wish you well for now… and will promise to write more soon!  

Have a blessed week my bloggy friends!!!  No matter the violence in the world around us we must remember even MORE today than before that Life is precious and …

So much to share from this week! My frame is LOADED!!!!

So happy to be here to share with you all this week… I want to start out with happy wishes to all my Mom readers…

Seems this may be an international holiday too!  Canada, Australia and the US all celebrate today!

I am linking this post to my Canadian bloggy friend Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<
     PLEASE take a look at her awesome blocks she is constructing presently and showing off progress on her blog today 🙂  I really am enjoying watching this project come to life!!!

I have an updated pic of my grandkids to share on this day also!!!!

Here is Kaydence at 11 months old… her mother is in the background too 🙂

Aren’t they both just beauties!!!??  She is an awesome mom and DIL also!

Kaydence turns 1 year old on the last day of May !!!!  She lives in Tennessee where we are all from… so I doubt I will be seeing her before she turns one… but I love finding shots of her!!! lol

And here is a cool shot I found from March 2016 of CJ with his dad… my oldest son DL 😀

CJ will be 2 years old on June 6… so less than a month! 🙂  I am very excited about this as he lives near me and I may be seeing him around then also!  They will honor him on this birthday with his first HAIRCUT! lol

And here he is playing with the little wagon in our Florida room 🙂  xxoo

As for me??!!!  I have been sooo busy!

First some update shots of Brandi’s Starlight ~ Starbright Quilt I am working on in my PVC frame 🙂  Last week I was almost 1/2 way through the 4th block of 9 on this quilt…

and I shared the photo above as my progress to be… well by Tuesday I had moved the quilt in the frame…

Today I took this shot…

I have taken off some time from hand quilting this to work on finalizing my Spiral Log Cabin Flimsy and get it ready for hand quilting…

Here is the whole framed up part for you to see on this 4th block progress…

So if you can tell I am in the bottom left hand corner presently… and should make it about halfway across today… as this quilt will now be my focus… my daughter’s 18th birthday is end of July and I want this done when she returns from a summertime trip she is taking! 🙂

These blocks are each 28″ so it is hard to get bored or tired of this quilting… if you love hand quilting… and taking time to share pics with you helps me chart my progress too!  Halfway through the 5th block will be halfway… I am anxious to see that come about sooner than later! 🙂

So what has been keeping me away from quilting on Starlight ~ Starbright??

First I cut and shared my starting progress on a flying geese border for this quilt center to get adorned with…

 Here were my flying geese in production…

 I used the Easy Angle ruler and Companion angle ruler to cut these and all turned out PERFECT!!!!

 Above are the 40 flying geese I needed… and below is how I set them on this quilt center…

 Then I used the “neutral fabric” from the flying geeese and cut borders for the quilt… this took a couple days as it went on fairly easy but lots of seams for sure to mind while sewing….

I must say I love the end wall hanging for our living room though!!!

And this flimsy will be the first to adorn my newly finished Hinterberg Hand Quilting Frame my honey & I finished this week!!!!

Last week I shared the frame shots while it was being made… but this week I am sharing it adorned with the flimsy above!!!

First though… I want to share the quilting frame in place… it is 10 feet long and that can be a no go for some quilters as space is an issue for something this long… but check it out!!!

Here you can see our living room… I am standing in the dining room/kitchen area to get this shot…

 And can you see the frame peeking out over our mussed up sofa?? lol

 Here it is!!!  Waiting on the poles to come on payday! lol

 And with the metal poles in place (it is electrical conduit… very stiff and unbending really!)

Here is a shot from the day after the leader fabric arrived and was washed, dried, ironed, torn to length for a nice square piece of fabric… then divided per the directions that came with the frame into 3 pieces….

 I chose a horizontal stripe fabric as a suggestion from a bloggy friend with a similar style frame… she said hers came with it and it helps her pin it straight… I am sooo HAPPY I DID THIS also!!!!

I also marked the center of the fabric “leaders” on each pole with a permanent marker to mark the centerpoint… you use this to mount everything and not have it cattiwaumpus on there! lol

 Finally… after several tries and then a good nights sleep and a good pressing of my flimsy and this was ready to go back on the frame without any wrinkles or lack of tension… it just flowed on when I was fresh and took my time! lol

So remember this if you try something new like this… try it really when you are at your most astute…

I do want to give a HUGE SHOUT OUT in this post to my friend Wendy!  Find her blog here where she is currently showing her BOM for May.. a very cool block… including directions for assembly of this “Puss in the corner” block! >>>>> HERE <<<<<<

You see this frame wouldn’t have been on my radar and I would have still been using a hoop only for these bigger quilts had it not been for her encouragement and the way she is soooo versatile with her frame too!  She has a Hinterberg frame built from a kit like mine is… and the company just recently had some kits made up for sale… I got this one just about 6 weeks ago and look at me now!

Wendy has encouraged me and my honey along in this process and shared pics and info about her frame and how she uses it best with all she has learned over the years… I am blessed to call her my friend for sure!!!

And before I let you go… check out what my daughter found last week at a neighborhood yard sale!!!!

 this little foot stool fits neatly under the chair it now sits at… but isn’t this doxie life like on the tapestry!!!!  I fell in love.. now this shot was taken after a good washing (years of dirt on this one when it was brought into the house!) and it had dried overnight.

But check out Daisy now next to that doxie foot stool!

 I thought she was looking like a model sitting next to her likeness!  We showed it to her and she barked at it! lol  Wonder what dogs really think.. how they interpret what they see with lack of some colours??!!

Enough pondering with you for today I think.. Have a blessed Mother’s Day wherever you are and remember no matter what…

What is your favorite season?

Mine is Fall… Tennessee Fall to be exact…

Didn’t this turn out just LOVELY!!!

I will do a formal post on this very soon.. but I am just giddy to share this shot… and the journey that led to this finish deserves a post all it’s own…

So yes, Fall is my favorite season.. What is yours???

Since I finished this quilt with fun hand quilting … then washed, dried, and hung this beauty… I am linking to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post… HERE!

Now I have switched gears and started marking my daughters’ graduation quilt!!!  In 1 year and a few month she will be graduating from high school!!!

So she got this flimsy for Christmas…

she picked it out online as just a flimsy so that I could hand quilt it done for her 🙂

So after some fits and starts and erasures… I have a pattern going and I currently have 2 of the 9 carpenters wheel stars marked…

but check out how the white background is getting stitched…

I do hope you can see the meandering star and moon pattern I am marking on the white background…

On this quilt I am marking with graphite, white chalk & white ceramic lead size 0.09 mm… this will all wash out when I am done but is safe for the quilt as it shall take me several months to stitch all this… I am choosing to mark the quilt before layering because the designs are so involved and I need the straight lines drawn neatly for me when I quilt… will go MUCH faster for me 🙂

Her idea is… I stitch all the black/grey areas in white thread (YLI) and all the white background meanderings in black thread (YLI)… then we will add some dark red (Valdani Perle 8 cotton) big stitching to the stars to make them pop a bit… very exciting and different from anything I have ever done and VERY QUilTy when finished! lol

In the meanwhile, my friend Wendy is getting a Double Wedding Ring Template Set!  I am very excited about this as I have always wanted to do this pattern… so I bought the template set as well!  It is by Marti Michell and will be a project in the future for me..

I am in a fb group for DWR designs and see lovely eye candy there…  so many ideas!!!

Once I finish the 3rd carpenters wheel and star I will be making Kaydence some bibs with both Zena and Gloria!  Here are some of the fabrics I have pulled along with the perfect thread I found in my stash… and a cool pattern I found online…

 Here is the cute recipient of these bibs to be…

I am blessed to call her my granddaughter for sure!

Here is my inspiration to encourage my design…

I found this one for sale on Etsy 🙂

So I best get back to marking… this sweetie needs some handmade bibs !!! lol

Whooping up all this accomplishments and plans with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict HERE

Have a blessed weekend and always remember…