Choosing JOY is AWESoME!!!

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!

 Hope you enjoy flowery shots too… here are some near our front door that were begging to be photoed 😀

Whew… that was one very busy week and I didn’t include ALL we did… just the highlights I caught on film! lol

Hope you have a week filled with JOY and …

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The Lazy Daisy and Sewing Adventures too !

While Spring on the calendar started a while ago… it is just now springing up here in the mountains of North Carolina! 

So Happy Spring Y’all!

Here is a view of our pond and the back of our home on a panoramic shot…

The building on the far left is our pump house… then those big trees across the pond are Bradford Pears that have bloomed and now turned green 😀 … the grist mill or water wheel with house is next then my honey has his “mancave”… a 500 sq ft building for all his woodworking and home reno stuff to be stored… plus stuff for the garden and plantings all over this property… finally is a greenhouse and outdoor storage from the mancave.. and the Valley River is viewed on the far right… it is a busy stream that never dries up… we are thinking that is the difference between a creek and river! lol

In our pond (about 1/4 acre large) we have rainbow trout, bass and crappie in there… we realized this week when feeding the fish… there is a nursery where the active grown fish don’t go and it is overseen by a grandma fish who is quite large (over 2 feet long!!!)  The fish we feed are from 1 foot to 20″ long themselves… and they all look quite healthy.. we have yet to find one floating!!!  But it is all a learning experience…

Above is a video of feeding time on the hascienda!  Enjoy 🙂

Onto sewing adventures… first are the curtains I made for the bedroom…

 they are 2 layered and have raw edged covered with binding….

I copied them from the curtains left in the sun room portion of our living room…

But using fabrics from my stash that would coordinate with quilts we have and that I will be making… my goal is to have a quilt to change to for each season 😀  We shall see how long that takes!!! lol

Now that you have seen the sunroom curtains… look at the new leaders I have for my quilt frame…

They are olive green and off white stripes running the length of the poles… I have directions on how much to cut them for proper use… I had a wider fabric than typical quilting cotton so I got to adjust these a bit which I like… makes it easier to load and unload when done!

Someone had asked about my quilt frame on Facebook… it is a Hinterberg wood frame with 3 metal poles.. a 3 pole frame is the easiest and most user friendly to use for hand quilting.  The front pole holds backing  layer of your quilt sandwich… then the top and batting layers get attached to the 3rd pole and pulled taute once the bottom of these 2 layers is attached with heavy straight pins to the backing… This picture may make more sense than my explanation

So if have a 3 pole frame of any brand… try this way of loading … I get great tension with no issues 😀  And there is no pin basting with this hand quilting frame… BUT I have used this frame to load a quilt for machine quilting too to pin baste for that… it is so much nicer than crawling on the floor… small quilts can be taped to a countertop to pin baste… but large quilts twin or bigger… you need a way to baste or a frame like this to not need to pin baste.

Now to my sewing room reno… I have a few craft boxes to unload still but all the sewing room boxes are unloaded and my room is full of fun!!!!  Here is a peek in the door just off the living room now…

 And here is a panoramic view showing 3 sides of my sewing room…

My cutting table is waiting for a large cutting mat… my cutting mats are all gouged up… I had replaced my Olfa cutting mats with Fiskars only to realize the quality was NOT the same… so I have an Olfa 24 x 36 on order now to fit my cutting table and get it in order…

Above the cutting table is my ruler holder my honey made me several years ago from plywood… it works sooo good!  Next to the right is the closet I will show you in depth below in pictures… it holds all my fabric and notions and batting and stores my scraps and books… LOVE THIS CLOSET!!!

next is the window with a great view of the river and my honey’s man cave… with pics of all my friends with friendships to span a lifetime! 🙂  To the right of the window is a chest I want replaced in the near future that holds my hand quilting marking pens/pencils/chalks… and threads specific to hand quilting as well… plus a few patterns and some glue baste I may use in the never future! lol.

Around from that is Zena my Singer 401a and the Quilt frame my honey made… it has a vintage chair for it now where in the old place it had a stool I couldn’t stand so we left it behind for someone else to enjoy… then my one and only Ott light that I simply move to my sewing spot of the moment… right now I am working on Gloria my Singer 301a… making apple core table topper!!!

Now don’t miss my “k” thread and bobbin holder and the organizer shelf below it… to the right will be my design wall… more on that when we make it but Zena has the flannel for it on her cabinet!!! lol

Above is my closet in snipet shots for you to enjoy… the top right is the next big quilt to go in the frame… for our bed!  My sewing room sign that hangs over the door to this room… and sooo much other fun stuff… we spent under $200 on all the wood and screws for this closet reno … and boy was it worth it.. ALL my stuff is in one room now!!!  Except my hand quilting frames of course! 😀

And now to my darling new project… a string of apple cores !!!

These are about 4″ finished size…

 These are waiting to be joined up… I do a few at a time as it is fun but a bit tedious too!

 I am using THIS tutorial for machine piecing my apple cores… she is a bit hard to listen to BUT WORTH THE LISTEN!!!  If you are interested in trying this project grab a charm pack or some 5″ blocks and a template and lay it out first 😀

Have you seen a corkscrew willow?  Or have you seen a conehead evergreen like the one to the right???  I love this home!!! ❤

 And of course my honey is enjoying the first mow on his completely renovated John Deere… had a deck painting, new blades, spindles, oil, spark plugs, air filter, seat, and leveled… it is now mowing so nice and making a sweet fresh cut grass smell in our home 😀

Now that it is raining he is focusing on painting…

the bottom half of the wall was a pastel green that belongs in a baby room or something… that was the color of our walls all over.. now we have a nice linen color covering them.  A little yellow a little peach and a very light color called Malted Milk and totally elegant with the white chair rail… here is a photo of the wall with the white touched up and all the wall painted and cut in 😀

Well I think this is quite long enough for now… if you would like pointers on making a apple core by machine just ask and I will post more on this next week when HOPEFULLY I will have a finish to share with you all as well!

Have a happy Sunday all and remember….