Kaydence’s Baby Quilt is COMPLETE!

So happy to have this gift of love ready to send to the parents of my new grand daughter-to-be… Kaydence!

Here is what Kaydence looks like right now….

in her mom’s belly 😉  Can you tell I am excited??!!!!

I started this quilt just over a month ago and used Aurifil for all my machine piecing work.  Their 50 weight thread is 2 ply and strong and very thin so it doesn’t change your seam allowance much!

If you are interested in piecing one of these it is fairly easy to design yourself.. just make sure each border between the charm squares is 2 3/4″ to start with 🙂  I got that info after my first border was already cut and sewn on… and my next layer needed a bit of “adjustment” to fit! lol

Here is a shot of the back…

And a close up of the label I embroidered…

As well as the commercial one I add as it has care instructions on the back 😉

The quilt I made for Kaydence was inspired by this Pinterest pic.. that was a dead end to find the originator…

Kaydence’s Baby Quilt went into the washer at 43″ square and came out of the dryer at 39 1/2″ square and cool and wrinkledy as I did use yummy cottons and cotton batting by Pellon as well!

Don’t you love the textures all the hand quilting gives this lovely little quilt??!!  I used YLI and Aurifil 28 threads for the hand quilting and I used a hoop on this whole project too!  So glad I did as well 🙂

I am sure within a year I will be making her something bigger and maybe something I could design with help from her mom!  I would love that!!!!

And to help me be ready to send off this quilt in time for the baby shower in mid April.. my honey took this shot!

Isn’t this adorable on the bear!  These are a few things of my darling daughters that my honey borrowed for props! lol

Well I am off to slow stitch something and maybe do a little machine piecing too… the floor of the kitchen is almost ready for the new tile now… it has been an arduous process for sure!

Until my next post…

Linking this post to Kelly’s Needle and Thread Thursday Here!

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Binding and Scraping…

I love to bind using my Wonder Clips…

See how my needle just slides into the fabric below the Wonder Clip??

I use 7 for binding… just a number that has always worked for me to keep up with….

Here is a close up of what I am talking about too…

When placing the Wonder Clip on your binding place it about 1/8″ from the edge of your binding… and you can stitch away without removing the clip if you like!  Then move them all when you reach the end of the clips if you like!  Makes it a little of a game moving the 7 clips around 🙂

I am really enjoying the binding on this little quilt and am linking this post to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching HERE… 

Also we are still scraping the floor in our kitchen… in a quest for a tile floor instead of the 1990’s vinyl that has resided there since casa del loro was built!

Here was our progress Saturday morning and a good view of our kitchen floor..

We now have over 1/4 of the floor mostly stripped of the vinyl with more soaking and scraping to go to get down to the bare concrete… it will take a bit we think now!  They glued this entire floor in 1990… no floating in that era! lol

Hope you have a happy rest of your weekend… and don’t forget to make time to

Putting on the bow… slowly!

Yep… slowly I am “putting on the bow” of Kaydence’s Baby Quilt 🙂  (It hasn’t found another name).

And “putting on the bow” is a fun way of thinking of hand stitching down the binding (always leaves me sad to see a project end) … now does my post make more sense? lol

A friend in one of my fave hand quilting facebook groups said this recently and it inspired me to finish it… so today I am gonna focus on binding a bit more…

And once I finish sewing on the binding I need to embroider the label and applique it in place…

NOT looking forward to this for some reason and unsure why really… it is an easy process and I am prepared for it… have it all laid out and ready to go… so why the hesitation??? I wish I knew! lol

Meanwhile… around Casa Del Loro we are fertilizing and sprucing from the winter and letting the spring sun bring things back to life here on Florida’s east coast.  You see during the winter things just go dormant… turn old looking and chill… not much new growth… even on indoor plants… it is their hibernating phase I think! lol

While we wait over the next month for the sprinklers and nature to water all that fertilizer in and get back to yard cutting the summer away… my honey has decided to take on a tile setting job for our kitchen floor!  Yep … nice 12″ porcelain that matches all the rest of the tile we bought for Casa Del Loro.  So that will be something I can share with you over the weekend.  We plan to make it a family project and each take a job to make it flow better 🙂

Are you getting Spring fever yet where you live???  Maybe it is all the motorcycles we hear as it is Bike Week here and Spring Break has begun for many who visit as well!

So as I bind and we tile I hope you have a blessed weekend yourself…

SUNNY Slow Stitching Sunday :)

The sun is out in full force on this cool but sunny morning here on the east coast of Florida 🙂

 Wish I had a beach sunrise pic to share with you… but here are some plants from our back yard with the reflection of the sun showing off their beautiful magenta coloring…

Speaking of the sunrise today… did you set your clocks forward if you live in the United States???

Here is a cute pic my friend Connie posted on her fb wall… thought you all might enjoy it too…
P . S.  Starbucks is also a fave for me too! lol

And I am continuing my slow but sure path in the hand quilting department on Kaydence’s Baby Quilt…

Here was the view I woke too…

 Here is my progress this morning and the morning light instead of fake sun lighting the way… you can see the quilting much better I think 🙂

I am basting the outer edge as I do the outer border… this helps nothing to shift with the sewing on of the binding… which may be tomorrow at my current rate!  I currently have just 16 interlocked hearts to stitch before binding can commence on this lovely baby quilt!

Here is an UBER cool quote I found on facebook… I also thought you may agree…

Quilting is Therapeutic for sure!!!  Do you Wish Upon a Quilt sometimes too??

Cheers to a wonderful Sunday to you and yours!

Fantabulous Friday to you!

We are all having a fabulous week here on Florida’s east coast and wanted to wish you all the same… hope this Friday finds you feeling FABULOUS 🙂

UPDATE>>>> This Sunday, March 8, 2015 EST sometime that day Fons & Porter Love of Quilting Facebook page will feature the Valance I submitted to them on a whim!  I am MEGA excited to see what kind of response it gets! lol
Here are the shots we submitted to them…

 So if you would like to see what they post go find them on facebook and like their page or just check their page out on Sunday sometime maybe 🙂  Yippee 🙂

We had temperatures in the 80s yesterday with a nice breeze and my darling daughter decided to do some work in the back yard….

 She concentrated on this area of our patio and didn’t she do a great job of trimming away the deadness that had previously existed there???  Sorry no before pic ..

Then this morning my honey decided to pressure wash it (when he saw these pics! lol

Now look at our outdoor patio!!!

 My honey installed this as there was nothing but sandy dirt to walk out on when we moved in … and it cleans up so nice each time he pressure washes away the winter duldrums… and algae! lol

Meanwhile I know may of my friends and family north of us are having cold and snowy and treacherous weather.. here is a pic recently sent to me of my nieces and nephew enjoying the snowy weather…

The youngest one just had a birthday  🙂

Our azaleas liked the cold snap we had last week and this week we got lots of blooms!

Meanwhile… Monday I made it to the hearts of the outer border…

 Hope you can see them in this pic… this border pattern is 2 1/2″ and I have it set closer to the inner edge to leave room for evenness after binding 🙂

Here it is in my hoop… I have HALF of this done!!!  Yippee 🙂

I am very satisfied with my progress on this baby quilt as Kaydence isn’t due til May!

I have started reorienting myself to the Hollyhock Garden quilt again as well… and I have read the first chapter of the new book I shared with you in my last post.. so I have been quite busy to include housechores and such 😉

Hope you have a fantabulous weekend 🙂
Thanks for stopping in for a visit!
 

Happy March!

Many of you know we live in Florida and I LOVE that!!!  But we live just a few miles from a large tourist destination spot too…. Daytona Beach, Florida 🙂

This is a shot that we will see if we go to Daytona next week as Bike Week is then!  After that is Spring Break starts 🙂  It is a festive place to be for sure…

But we live in a little town south of Daytona Beach called Port Orange … here you can see it on the map…

We are close to interstates… Orlando is about an hour away .. and we are out of MOST of the hubbub from Daytona!  On a clear night… we can hear the races when they are on though!  Very cool thing!!!

So March is a festive time here… it was also the month I first visited Florida when I was 19 years old… It has been a long time coming that I am now settled in a great home in a great bedroom community outside the main busy towns… New Smyrna Beach (a popular beach for locals) is just south of us too!

So now you know a bit more about me and the craziness that spring in Florida brings us 🙂

What do you look forward to in spring?

I have been very busy quilting this week and have made it to 75% completion at the quilting of the outer charm ring… that means just the outer border and edge basting is left for my sweet Kaydence’s Baby Quilt!!!

Here is a shot of the last corner I am going around now…

I also got a book I had ordered this week!

I ordered the hardback version of this book off Amazon and paid a whopping $4.50 for the book WITH shipping !!!  It took about a week to arrive from a neighboring state but that was fine.. it is an EXCELLENT reference and a book to help me continue honing my piecing and quilting skills overall!

And I just found out it is Connie’s fave book too!  She says she loves it as a reference and uses it all the time… It was published in 2000… Do you have this book???  Have I just been in a cave or something!??  lol

Here is the Dedication from the front of the book I wanted to share the last sentence with you especially!!!

Are you looking for something more in quilting… 

more of a challenge … understanding all that goes into it more???  This is a great book about that if you are interested… I will give more of an update as I continue reading this gem of a book…

While I have been busy doing that my honey has been doing yard and house maintenance…

Here is a pic of algae that grows where the trees hung over the roof…

And here is a pic just 1 hour later after my honey used a bleach water and scrubbing mixture to clean it…

Doesn’t that look much better!!!!  Over time the algae would grow and push the shingles off the roof… now that the algae is dead and the trees have been trimmed hopefully we have solved this problem 🙂

And we have a Featherweight Case going up on eBay later today…

We sold a sewing machine complete last week.

So things are rolling along well.

So tell me… what are you looking forward to this month?

I am so happy with my focus for this year… I am setting goals but not getting freaked out if I don’t meet them.. and in most areas I am finding that I am completing more things than when I used a formal list last year!  And I am ENJOYING THE JOURNEY!!!!

So important to relax & enjoy the journey…

As I continue to put in slow stitches today I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching HERE.

Have a blessed week ya’ll and don’t forget to MAKE TIME to….

Feeling Better!!!

This week I have been able to miss out on cold medicine and we have been mongo productive so far!  This follows a week of few accomplishments though! lol

First we cut down two dead trees and piled them up for the city to recycle..

Then we called over some friends and trimmed up 2 trees in the back yard… We don’t think they have ever had much of a trim though…

See!!!  Much more came from our back yard for sure! lol  But it is now ready to be made into mulch and such! 🙂

I managed all the laundry including sheets on Monday and finished ironing some shirts I had been procrastinating… do you have house hold chores you put off???  I try telling myself I can get rewarded with quilting time for getting some ironing done… then I don’t quilt either! ha 🙂  Anyway, finally got it done thanks to encouragement from a friend!

But instead of more quilting time my honey and I decided a trip to the beach would be a fun diversion!  So 80 degrees on Monday and breezy we took the 15 minute drive to the beach from our home and enjoyed ourselves a lot!!!

 Here is our view of Daytona Beach 🙂

And here is a sandpiper who was playing in the surf …

So after sooo much inspiration with cleaning and tree trimming among other yard work… let me share some joys I am seeing in my back yard!

The fuscia blooms above are azaleas … the cold we had last week made our azaleas VERY happy!

And here are some jasmine that is blooming just outside my quilting space!

After such a great day I came home and stitched.. woke up and stitched.. and today I find myself seeing the end of the middle border of Kaydence’s Baby Quilt!   Yippee 🙂

In this shot you may be able to see the light graphite lines…

I use a bright lamp with a “daylight” bulb in it to light the way when the real sunlight is not available.

Once I finish this green border quilting and in the ditch support stitching … I will start working on the outer ring of charm squares 🙂  That will be cross hatched as the inner 2 rings were.

In closing I would like to thank each of you that sent up a sweet thought or prayer for me after Sunday mornings post… as I am sooo much better this week.  I appreciate you!

Also I wish my oldest son a Happy 30th Birthday… He is a blessing to me!

Until my next post remember to …

Still Slow Stitching!

It has been a slow … slow stitching week around here! lol

I have been a bit under the weather with an upper respiratory issue… the cold medicine that helps leaves me a bit foggy headed and it is hard to stitch for long! lol

So earlier this week I was here for a posing shot of her quilt in progress …

 I was working on the second row of cross hatching.  Here are the tools I use with my 16″ hoop…

Cotton thread (this is YLI 40/3 in white), little scissors.. these were my first pair!, and some hemostats to help pull the needle through occasionally (when I put too many stitches on the needle! ha)… and speaking of needles I am using John James 8 Quilting with the YLI and Dritz Quilting Betweens because they are very stiff with large eye is a multitude of sizes in 1 container for the Perle cotton stitching. 

What tools do you like when hand quilting??

Well I finished the cross hatch and moved on to the middle green border on this little baby quilt…

 It is heart and swirl pattern in Perle 12 cotton in white 🙂

And here is a texture shot so you ca see the design a bit easier on camera with the morning sunlight coming in on it 🙂

 And after just moving the hoop I approach the halfway point of this border!  Yippee 🙂

I am linking this hand quilty post to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday HERE 🙂  Where Life is Beautiful today !

Hope however you spend today you are able to get a few quilty stitches in.. happily I feel more like stitching today..

I will start back on a piecing project next week… if you remember my Hollyhock Gardens quilt 😉

I also have chosen my “charity project” for the year… Last year I made a quilt for a friend with a new diagnosis of cancer.  She loves the quilt!  So stay tuned as more of my next quilt I will make for all my cost with no expectation of payment… just a gift for someone in need !  I am excited about this!!!

Do you try to touch lives of those around you with your crafty gifts?  I would love to hear your stories!!!

Linking this post to Karen at Sew Many Ways LInky Party HERE as well 🙂
Hope you have all Blessed Stitches today 🙂

Kaydence’s Baby Quilt Update ~ Center DONE :)

I am so excited all the center of Kaydence’s Baby Quilt is done 🙂  I finished up this morning!

I love how the Perle 12 white cotton thread looks in the raspberry batik border 🙂  And the cross hatch will add lots of dimension to the charm squares when washed…

Do you think about how you quilt will look when washed when you are planning your quilting design?  

Do you think of support stitching when making your quilting design plan?

I had several convo’s after my last post on support stitches… this is like “stitching in the ditch” or stitching 1/4″ away from a seam … either of these extra stitch types will add “support” to your quilt and your quilting design!

I try to plan my quilting design as I am making a quilt so I can iron the top the way I want my ditches… so in this flimsy…

I ironed all my seams toward the borders … knowing I would stitch with white thread “in the ditch” (the ditch is typically the side without seams in it so it lays lower after washing if stitched there).

Here is my stitching in the ditch on the center square…

I chose this pic to show you how the right side of this seam (where my needle is) is the “ditch” side of the seam… it lays lower as the seams are nested on the left side of the seam 🙂

Here is a close up where you can see the cross hatched center well and how I dealt with my corners…

I think it turned out totally fabulous and I hope as I continue working on this quilt I continue to get warm fuzzy feelings growing for this little baby girl to be!

Have a blessed day whatever you do… hope you make time to take a few stitches if you can!

Slow Stitching and LOVING IT!

Earlier this week I finished piecing this cute little 42″ square flimsy for my first grandchild to be… due the end of May 🙂  You are welcome to read more about that in my last blog post HERE 😉

 And here is a side view of that flimsy on my design wall… isn’t it fun!

 Here is the backing I pieced as well… their theme is Owls…

 I think I got that going on in this girly quilt!! lol

So next up is MARKING the quilt top for this quilt to be…

 I used graphite (like pencil lead but I think it washes out easier) and white ceramic lead as well for the darker blocks… if you look closely at the pic above you will see white orange peels drawn on the raspberry border 😉

Well I finished that up Valentine’s Day morning ….

 Here is what me and my dd woke too…

I got the chocolate that is a tradition for me and my honey >>>>>>

<<<<<<<<My dd got candy, chocolate AND a balloon too!  Thanks to my honey and me 🙂

So now with all the marking done and Valentine’s being enjoyed my honey kindly offered to help with the pinning process… he knows it is my least favorite part but vitally important to a nice square quilt in the end 🙂

Here is a close up I took during pinning of the cross hatched center I am just finishing and again you can see the light white lines here better for the orange peel design in this border.. I will be using Perle 12 cotton for that in white as well 🙂

 And by 1 pm I had this quilt in the hoop!!!!

 I also got a couple of deliveries yesterday… I have been wanting a Kwik Klip to see if it aids in the pinning process… unfortunately that and the new brass pins I got were delivered AFTER this quilt was done with that… so it will be ready for a test run on the next quilt I pin baste! lol

 Here is my progress this morning … all the cross hatched center is done and I am now doing the support stitching around the square 🙂 

 Next up will be that luscious raspberry border!!!

Thread wise I am using YLI 40/3 in white for all the charm square cross hatching… I am using perle 12 cotton in white on the raspberry border and a gorgeous raspberry thread I shared in my delivery shot from yesterday… my fave for hand quilting… Aurifil 28/2.

Do you have fave things you use when hand quilting?  

I love thread so much my honey is making me a storage case for all my thread… I don’t have a ton of it.. but I think I will! lol

Today I am linking this hand quilty blog post to Kathy’s Quilts .. Slow Stitching Sunday as she encourages us to share hand quilting!