Setting Slow Stitching Goals… Do you?

I had hoped when I started hand quilting my honey’s quilt that I would be done in April… well… here we are… I have about 3 weeks until April is OVER! 
And still plenty of stitches to go… So I am setting a short term goal to help me reach my long term goal of COMPLETION and pics of him snuggled up in it 🙂

Here is a spine I am working on… this quilt only has 8 more spines left for me to quilt…

Here is a block I finished yesterday after giving my fingers a few days respite…
It is marked in the upper left corner still because that is what I got done all day yesterday and I took this shot before I started… I was so happy to call this loooong block done 🙂

To the left is that area once quilted and spritzed and dried… and to the right is an outline of the quilting you can follow a little easier..

Now I know the next question you have is why such an intricate pattern on such busy fabrics on such a busy quilt… well.. I wanted a challenge and my honey fell in love with the stencils… and to be honest… I am having a blast doing this knowing how much he will adore it when done!

So here is my slow stitching goal… to have this block and this feather finished by Sunday bedtime… 

Can I do it??? I don’t know! lol
What if I don’t do it??? I don’t do it.
Will I be upset???  No.  Just set better more attainable goals next time.
What do I have to do over the next day and half that I have given myself?  Dinner, laundry, that is it…. my dd has a friend over to keep her busy.  😀

Although… I may go on a shopping adventure with my honey… you see we have a few preliminary shots of my machine Nelly’s new and improved case!  Wanna see??? lol

 Nelly was in a poor beat up case.. but my honey stripped and sanded it and made it all new!  More on that in her own post later though 🙂

See the bases of the Eifel Tower fabric we found that is plastic lined burlap already printed.  We got it at Joann Fabrics near upholstery items… very neat!!!

So then my honey covered her all up!  And made her sing a beautiful song when sewn on too!  We are waiting on some parts to finish her up then I will take her out and give you a proper tour of my newest and last probably personal machine Nelly!

I am linking this post to…
Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy here 🙂  Go see some great quilty goodness in her link up!  Some may even be grunting today! lol

Do you set goals for your stitching and crafting?  Would love to hear how you set goals 🙂
Leave a comment if you will!

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Whooping It Up!

Although I haven’t gotten as much quilting done as I would have hoped…

This is block 9 counting down… and my focus for the day is to finish this block (the white chalk marked swirl left in the upper left hand corner of the block) and move onto some more feathers…. just a couple… then I can do 2 more blocks 🙂

WHOOPing Productivity!

So what have I been up to besides quilting since not much of that has happened? ha! 😀

I took this selfie that I like … how often does it happen that the light and the mood and your clothes and… and… and all line up and you are happy with a pic 🙂  It is now my personal fb pic!

Also this week I have been planning yet another upcoming quilt… so quilting has been happening… just not much on my honey’s quilt! ha 🙂

Truthfully my fingers on my underhand have gotten sore with some of the less expensive fabrics I used that have a tighter weave… but I love antique fabric so I let my fingers suffer for the final look! 

I am very Whoopy about my blog too!  Thanks to all of you I now have 57 followers and have over 60 entries in my upcoming GIVEAWAY!

 If you haven’t entered all 3 times or if you haven’t heard about it yet check out my post and leave a comment… or 3 THERE!  Drawing for the winner is April 14!!!

And WHOOPING my honey’s creativity as he has worked this week on taking this case to my Nelly… she is a 1950’s Japanese clone as well but she zig zags and does buttonholes and decorative stitches… because we found her in a thrift store I was able to sell my new machine!!!

Now her cabinet looks like this!
I am giddy with how her case is being transformed… close ups and more on that reno coming up in it’s own post… when he says she is DONE! lol

 So what have you got to Whoop about?

I am sure you have something awesome that happened this week we could celebrate together…  Would love to hear from you!  Or link up with Sarah by following the link below 🙂

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway all 3 times if you haven’t yet!!

Thanks for visiting 🙂  I am whooping a few secret things right now too… will be sharing more about those next week!

This post was written to post with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict ~ Whoop Whoop Friday here 🙂

Going… going… SOLD and SELLING!

After a couple weeks on Ebay my Janome sewing machine sold last night!

Yippee !!!  I reduced the price about a week ago to $240.00 from $250.  And I offered FREE shipping and put shipping costs into the price of the machine itself to make it an easier transaction 🙂

Yesterday we also got a bid on this beautiful Singer sewing machine with bentwood case…

If you are interested it is an auction that has a few days left with current bid of only $90.00… that is a STEAL for this special machine… see the Ebay listing here for that beauty 🙂  She is a collectors dream because she is very rare, vintage, and she sews great!

Notice I used my fave quilt BACK as a drape under the machine to instill the unique beauty of the cabinet and machine.  lol 🙂

Now here is some back yard loveliness… our weather on Florida’s east coast has been rainy lately but the sun is shining today and even though it is only supposed to get to 73 degrees today I will be happy to have the sunshine to sew by 🙂

Just off the back porch 🙂

Bird Oasis 🙂

The “bird oasis” started with 2 small elephant ear plants… over time we have added some purple queen (in front).. re-homed a concrete HEAVY birdbath to this area … where birds LOVE to groom themselves during the day and I get to watch… this bird oasis is just outside my sitting area in the Florida room 🙂

Behind those big elephant ears is a “bubbler” or water fountain… I have a smaller one inside the Florida room too!  Makes a nice tinkling sound that complements the birds and squirrels playing just outside 🙂

This winter my honey broke that large elephant ear down to babies it had had and posed them throughout the yard…  The pic on the left is the far left of the back yard… and the pic on the right is the far upper right corner of the backyard (I see this area mainly when making coffee in the mornings through the kitchen window 🙂

Then there is that crazy blooming aloe vera… she is at it again… blooms will bust open any day now!

Will we get hummingbirds this time or is it still too cool for them I wonder????

In another little corner of the backyard are these beautiful plants…

They were getting full sun and hating it.. so once rehomed, fertilized and watered they are now THRIVING and beautiful I think!  And they cover my son’s room window where he keeps a window fan in most of the time… win/win!

Here is a close up of the repurposed trellis…

the wandering jew are looking lovely in their pots and the jasmine is a North Carolina variety I think… it is VERY happy now that we planted it and gave it a place to spread out.. 🙂

On the front of our storage building you can see more established wandering jew… it started out as clippings… we only bought one of these plants and now our back yard is filled with them from cuttings!  My honey has such a green thumb!

And if you made it this far in my post… please leave a comment and tell me your fave part of this photo….

It was my fave from this pic taking day last week… 😉

Hope to hear from you and hope these sunny outdoor pics brighten your day wherever you are…

Thanks for dealing with my selling blog posts.. we fix and rejuvenate vintage machines and cabinets… so occasionally there will be a sales ad about that machine.  We do LOTS of research on each machine we purchase to fix and sell.. so we want the buyer to know what kind of machine they are truly getting.  I can’t advertise in a way I can figure out except on this platform… so I appreciate you avoiding the ads if they bother you but assure you my regular posts will still be coming..

As for quilting… well.. I am counting down with 8 1/2 blocks to go and 9 feathers and 3 cornerstones before I get to bind and quilt the cable around the outside border.  Looking forward to finishing this project as several others are starting to call to me 🙂

My honey is re-newing Nelly’s cabinet (my Japanese clone zig zag)  next post should have pics of that process… for now check this out!

my honey working on a cabinet design 🙂

Cheers to a Wonderful Wednesday!

 

Weekend Hodge Podge ~ April 2014

Welcome to my corner of blogland… today I have lots to share! 

So I am calling it a Hodge Podge… I have a bloggy friend who follows someone that does this on Wednesdays… answers misc. questions for fun and to share more of herself with her bloggy friends… so I am gonna do my version this weekend!

What are you passionate about?

Currently I am hand quilting ~ my major passion IS hand quilting right now! I am making my honey a quilt that will be a queen throw size… very large! lol

You can see a snippet of what I am currently working on by viewing my blog on it’s own page instead of in a reader!  My blog header changes every month or so with a pic of what I am working on featured somewhere on it 🙂

Here is block #10 on my count down…

I am now about 3/4 done with this block!  WhOOP!!!

I am also passionate about vintage sewing machines and own 3…

not one Singer in the bunch either 🙂  You can see 2 of my vintage machines in my header… sweet Fiona and reliable Francis… I recently added a zig zagger Japanese class 15 clone I named Nelly to my little group of machines… I only sew to repair things or to piece/bind quilts.. so these machines do all I need!  Check out my post on how easy vintage is to care for by yourself HERE!

Prefer a modern machine??? Check out the Janome I am selling on Ebay here…

gently used and ready to go!

What is your favorite form of social media?

I like facebook best.  You can find me on Patchwork Friends (my own fb quilty friends group) here to request entry as it is closed to quilty folks only… both machine and hand quilting happens there and no advertising or sharing sales stuff… currently doing a QAL:

for which I have these 6 spool blocks done…

I am also a member of other quilt groups on facebook and have chosen to make my facebook page a quilty place to be… so many of my previous fb friends have slowly gone away to make room for current and more appropriate friends to fit the no political stuff policy I am adopting for facebook 🙂

My fave place is a place just for hand quilters called Celebrate Hand Quilting group.  You can request entry here… and Caron or Janet will grant you access if you are a quilty person and this sounds like something you would like go for it because the eye candy and knowledge shared there for hand quilting techniques is nothing short of AMAZING!

I Pinterest for remembering ideas and keep a running page each year of ideas…. here is 2014’s page 🙂

I don’t tweet, or instagram or anything else… I am almost 50 so I feel pretty hip as I am 🙂 HA!

So that was only 2 questions… but I hope this gives you a better feel of who I am… would love to hear any questions you have for me!  I can answer them in next weekends Hodge Podge… and I haven’t even shown you the back yard yet!!!!  So subscribe if you haven’t and come back to visit!

I blog about twice a week usually and cover all aspects of quilting, home reno, beautiful outdoor shots I take from my own back yard, funny moments in our lives, and whatever I need written down to remember… my blog is an ongoing scrapbook of sorts for me!  Hope you enjoy the ride with me!

In closing I have an icon I made below with my motto for 2014!  Read more about what it means here.

Linking this post to Confessions of a Fabric Addict Whoop! Here 🙂
Wish Adam a Happy Birthday by going to where I linked at SEWjo Saturday with Kim Here!
Check out Kathy’s quilt ready for binding at Slow Sunday Stitching!  Here 🙂

I have a surprise for you!

Welcome 🙂

With all we have been up to lately rehabbing sewing machines and such we found ourselves craigslisting and thrift shopping for older sewing machines that needed help!  We have seemed to be on a roll and my honey so enjoys it… and I reap the rewards of his labor! lol

Anyway, while thrifting locally we bought this beautiful zig zag machine that has 13 decorative stitches… for less than $13.00!!!  $12.78 with tax! lol  For my honey to fix and then sell for seed money to start a side business and expand his new hobby.  Ha!

I fell in love with her… the more research I did, the more I liked her… then he sewed on her.. it was LOVE!  For both my honey (as he lovingly repaired her unoiled parts and frozen gears and figured out her broken bobbin) and also I realized THIS machine would be my Janome replacement!

He and I decided Nelly would be her name… after her brand name Nelco. 

Nelly is a light seafoam green and white and is cast iron.

Nelly’s cast iron body was made in Japan… she is a “Japanese Clone”.  Then she was shipped to the US for branding and assembly.  For Nelly that meant St. Louis, Missouri!  And she is extra special with all her added features so they called this model a “Centennial Series”.

I love that Nelly is a Japanese import like my Fiona (she is featured on my blog header :).

My Fiona ~ Showin’ off her new spool doilies my bestie made for her!

These machines were all made in the early 1950’s when there was a loophole in sewing machine patenting.  Most of the machines made in Japan during this time are straight stitch machines… a few zig zags and even fewer like her with extra metal cams built in for the buttonholes and other decorative stitches!

 
So now I just gotta clean up the Janome and take posing pics to sell her so we have money for my honey to buy machines to SELL! lol  Anyone want a great deal on a Janome 8077 sewing machine?  lol

Hope you have enjoyed meeting Nelly… she is still getting cleaned up… as you can see in this pic…

Used to raise and lower the feed dogs on Nelly!

But I couldn’t wait to share!  I will only have 3 machines… I can’t use more than that! lol

Have a great rest of your week!