Blessed Easter… Slowing down & "BE-ing"!!!

When was the last time you just “were”… that is what is meant by “being” 🙂

Ponder what Easter means to you today as well.. instead of rushing to wake and rushing to quilt.. this week I have pondered this holiday weekend and slowly welcomed it to me … how nice it has been!!!

When I did wander outside my bedroom this is what greeted me…

Happy Easter to me was my first thought… how blessed I am to live in Florida and it is just us 2 here now ( all the kids are doing their own things) … and God is watching over us… it is nice to finally be in a place where I can “Just Be” as Kathy shares today an article on this subject HERE… I am linking to her blog also with my hand quilting progress from this last week…

 Above you can see the “legend” of sorts I have made for myself… I had 94 flowers to quilt plus the triangles in between!  This legend came from a mini drawing I did then enlarged on my printer a couple times until I got it big enough to see and use a highlighter to color in the finished parts…

Today I am watching episodes in Season 5 of “Call the Midwife”… I love this show and will happily wait till season 6 is released in the fall sometime… I sure hope so anyway!!! lol

In order to get this far I had to come up with a design for the bottom border… none of my stencils worked… or were the right size… so I had to think of something on my own… I am not very imaginative so I pulled out this book I keep in my library for just such occasions…

 I got this off Amazon… it has been my most “go-to” book I have in my quilting library I do believe!

I flipped to borders and found one I liked…

 Then I filled up my printer with a few sheets of cardstock and printed off the “orange peel” part in larger sizes until I got it large enough!  this is trial and error for sure though…

Once I got that shape large enough.. and cut away the curliques I didn’t care for for this quilt border…. I decided it needed a circle or something … but then I couldn’t find my “perfect circles!” lol  so I found this circular object that was just the right size and put a circle of tape on the back to make it stay in place for each move …

 And ta-da… here you can see the first few done… along with my own basting at the edge and quilting 1/4″ in across the top!!!…

Here are the tools I used to mark this border… if you look closely you can see this border is marked now… but I just use a Dritz Mark B Gone marker that spritzes away once stitched with water…

Here are a couple of finished “flowers”… I am using Aurifil 28/2 thread I had in my stash of threads…

Aurifil 28 wt and YLI 40/3 wt are my go to threads for hand quilting… I enjoy perle cottons too and used a white 12 wt perle for the border I was sharing above… but am sticking to the lighter weight Aurifil throughout the center of this quilt.  Quilting design of the flowers I decided and the centers needed something so they wouldn’t puff up… both the flowers and triangles needed that extra bit (thanks Wendy for your advice here .. spot on!)… so with my quilting plan in hand I am moving forward slow and steady!!!

I have also been pondering a new project that is coming up for me…

Last year we donated some kid stuff we had to a fledgling local charity… she gave us a tshirt for our donations… instead of using the tshirt to wear I offered (once I got caught up) to make her a banner from the tshirt… using the tshirt as a center for it.  The founder of this charity loved the idea then 🙂

Well that charity has grown quite a bit since them… I remain an anonymous donor and am now gonna exchange this first tshirt for her newer more streamlined logo tshirt and make that banner… no time like Easter to make you realize charities you serve deserve your time as well!!!  This will involve imagination, experience, and machine quilting though.. so should go together quick once I decide what I am gonna do with her on Monday!!!

Meanwhile this sits right where I left it last week when I finished cutting…

And I have marked about 50 or so of these little 1 1/2″ squares so far with glitter pen…

That part is so fun and relaxing… but I wanted to make progress on the hand quilting because when this quilt gets finished to a flimsy I KNOW I will want to quilt it up for my son and his wife to enjoy as quick as I can.. so I am making headway first on Batik Hollyhock Garden… about halfway I figure I will get bored or need a change.. I will then pick this up and run with it… that PLUS I am a bit gunshy about some of the parts of this quilt… you know each quilt is a learning adventure and this one is no different… lol!  I will share my learning points as I put it all together down the road.

As for today.. I will hand quilt only… also working out some today on my new recumbent bike I got last week….

 It is a fun way to relax my joints and back after hand quilting a while and it is sooo quiet too… lol!

So hope you take time to “be” today and have a blessed Easter day as well… Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice… and was glorified by His Father to rise up again… so now you can show your appreciation by “be-ing” today!

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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 …