Happy Mother’s Day 2019!

Hope for all the mom’s of people and pets you are having a celebratory Sunday today 💞

It has been a busy week here at Daisy Meadows…

 Our birdhouse we had used in Florida that my dad had built long ago got a rebuild to stregthen it… Florida has left it loose all over and it got a fresh bottom piece too…  Now it is shining proudly in our side yard ready to greet 6 new bird families in the future 😀

Also last Sunday we actually caught some of the crew heading back south on the train tracks from doing their yearly train track maintenance ….

That was quite exciting!!!

Monday kicked off teacher’s week and nurses week… I celebrated both and posted this on my wall in honor of my RN career in the past…

But more nurses do teaching so it was a celebration to both areas of my life 😀

I did finish this block Sunday amidst all the hubbub of activity we had! lol

 Then Monday I rolled the frame to start the week off with Elliana’s name

 I marked out what I thougth I may do but not having losts of experience with appliqued quilting…

I was feeling my way once the crosshatch was marked!!!

Well look how good it is looking this weekend now 🙂

Progress is slow as I have a sore thumb and my thimble rubs it so I am only able to quilt a bit at a time … then a break is required.

Linking this fun slow progress to Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy’s HERE!
and Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE!

If only my fingers didn’t get sore! lol

I finished the bag for my customer this week 😀  She is very pleased with the end result my daughter said and I had fun making it for her so it was a win/win!

Here is a collage showing the inside and the back as well of this Oriole Bag by SewSweetness Patterns!!!

 I included a key fob and 3 different pockets per her request.  The focus fabric elephants were her choice too ❤  I am sharing this finish over at The Crafty Quilter with Julie HERE <<< this has all the makings of a quilt but it is a usable bag lol!

Besides the roses I opened my post with (picked for me by my honey while it was raining!!!)

We recently realized we have some pink azalea bushes here by the front of our yard 😀  Makes me happy to have a bit of pink!

 And we cleaned some of the algae from the pond and I love the reflection pics I take… so I thought I would share this one with you all…

Have a blessed Sunday friends…. thanks for visiting!  I am back to slow stitching after this is posted … how about you??!!

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Happy May 2019!

Well Happy May Friends!

“Make a Beautiful Garden out of Life”

My calendar this year is exquisite… a splurge I found on Amazon but a brand and style I will splurge on again next year I am sure… this month is NO EXCEPTION!  Make a Beautiful Garden out of Life is the quote this month… and how you choose to view life is a choice for sure… so Make it beautiful is awesome I think!

My sewing room this morning from the viewpoint of the doorway looking at Cleo (My Singer 319W) who is mainly working on a bag I was commissioned to make…

My sewing room from this angle is a bit disheveled as I lost a couple screws in process of fixing an error on the clasp I installed on this bag and me and my honey tore the room apart… this is it now back together enough for me to finish the bag… which is mainly on the hexi ironing board right now.. in the last steps of putting it all together… I may spend a bit of time there today but more likely tomorrow and the next day as I wait for the replacement screws in the mail from Hawaii… the person I bought the clasp from is kindly replacing the lost screws at no expense to me… Check her out at Ningbags.com or if you don’t need to buy in bulk but need bag supplies look on Etsy for smaller quantities… I have purchased from her before and she has excellent products and fast shipping too as well as excellent customer service 😀

Baby Elliana is due THIS MONTH so I best get focused on my projects for her for sure!!!

Mainly my focus this week will be making progress on the quilt I am making for her…

 The deer above is quite endearing I think… and here below is the part of that row that is done…

 As you can see from this photo…

I have just one more block and this quilt can be rolled to Elliana’s name.

Linking this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post where she is sharing some wonderful hand embroideries this week HERE!

Also linking to Wendy’s Peacock Party where she is focusing on finishing a project to start a new one HERE!

How should I quilt that row???  Any tips from anyone???

I plan to outline each shape and add highlights where they will look best as I do this outlining of the flowers, bird, birdhouse and name… but I am thinking about keeping with the same wide crosshatch I used on the deer background… maybe a bit wider or a bit narrower… I am unsure!  If you have ideas for this area please leave me a reply below or email me directly using the info under my sidebar 🙂

The flower is from a plant we trimmed back and harvested the first bloom of the year from… and the photo was taken this week to update my facebook profile pic. 🙂

Molly celebrates 11 months old this week… so I made this photo collage to share on Facebook this month… she is a joy at this point.. and is settling down nicely … most of the time! lol

We gave her a trim this week and she did a good job standing still while we both worked on her for almost an hour !!  Then we followed that by a thorough bath and drying session… she is less tolerant of drying her face with the dryer but okay for her body… she loves being clean though!  We are glad for that!!!  She refuses to let us clip her nails so off to a vet she will go this week for that 😀

This week I plan to get proper pics of this elephant themed bag I am making & plan to share that next week with  you.  I hope to have a good amount of the next row done on Elliana’s quilt if not be on the last row… My cuticle on my right middle finger that I rest my thimble on has been sore this weekend so I trimmed away the sore stuff and have been not so patiently waiting for it to heal as we do yard work and I work on the bag while I long to make more headway on this quilt… I am afraid baby Elliana may arrive before it is complete!

For now keep Elliana and her parents in your thoughts as her mom is quite uncomfortable now and dad is anxious for this time to be over end of the month himself.

Send me your ideas for background fill on Elliana’s name for the quilt please!  Much appreciated in advance for both requests!!!

Blessed Easter Sunday Friends!

I received the sweetest card in the mail on Friday… it made me smile so big too….

This came to me and my honey from a dear friend … how nice and timely it was to receive it for us 🙂

We have had a busy week here but mainly I have been making headway on just 2 projects to share…

Here is the squirrel I was starting on after last weeks posting….

 And a hand quilting facebook group has a daily challenge going from the 15th of April to the 15th of May called #month of stitches… so of course I had to join in to keep me stitching each day 😀

This is the next block after the squirrel…

 And finally the block to the far left side of this row…

 Then the week was coming to an end so I took stock of the blue bells by the front porch looking so beautiful still… and even with rain coming down each day this weekend they stand tall… AMAZING!!!

 In the middle of the week I focused on working on a Oriole bag for a friend of my daughter that was commissioned a bit ago…

 Here is a close up of the main parts… They are drying from being Scotchguard coated to keep it clean longer 🙂

Next week I should have it done and ready to mail to the recipient… I think she will be pleased !!!
Linking this progress to Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE … Check out Wendy’s post for the most amazing quilt she is hand piecing together 🙂  And a new quilt along Jen Kingwell has planned too!

I rolled the quilt then…

 And have been working on these 2 blocks here….

I am so pleased with my quilting progress here as it is LOTS of work and it is moving along at a clip thank goodness… the next quilt will arrive this week too!!!!  Linking this cute bear and more to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching Linky Party HERE … where Kathy is putting the binding on a project she will share in total tomorrow on her blog and has some scrumptious hand iced cookies too ❤

I am planning a new bag for my darling daughter Brandi… a backpack purse!!!

 Here is a look at the inside and back of this bag design but the one above is more her design likings…

 We disagree on which Tula Pink print would look best on the flap of this backpack purse… what do you all think???  Can you say Left or Right???

If it helps these are the other fabrics she has picked for this bag… all that could change but her fave print of all these are the violet purple ones  but she enjoys the yellows too…

Here is a color wheel I got last week… violet/purple is just across form the yellow colors too… so that didn’t help us much… anyone with ideas??

 So as we look at life through Easter Sunday eyes… do you dare to take a step doing the right thing or in the right direction of your life??? Sometimes the right step is scary!  Does this make sense to you??

Think about it as you stitch this week… does this apply to you??  It certainly gave me food for thought this week!

I continue to listen to books on my headphones as I quilt and do housework etc… I am really enjoying a break from videos and movies too… my mind is more active listening to a book and imagining the characters… do you find this to be true if you have read or watched the same shows and compared them???  I have watched a bit of movies available on Hallmark NOW this week though and enjoy the POstables for sure!!!  I am watching the 10th of 12 shows as they become available to me 🙂

Meanwhile… Be in love with ALL of your life friends… and have a Happy Easter Sunday!!

Playing Catch up ~ A New Quilt is in the Frame!!

I missed blogging last week because my best girlfriend came for a quick visit…

Connie lives about 4 hours from me and because her life is so busy.. she had not yet been to our home!!  She visited at least once a year when we lived near the beach but not since we moved to the mountains… so she left us with this souvenir shot of her visit on an old oak tree 🙂

While she was here she worked on some hand quilting… while I finished up the stitching on this purse for our friend Debbie!

 Molly is watching out for me as I stitched it all together too! lol

And here is the finish…

 It was Priority mailed this past week and already received and put into use!!

Also Connie brought gifts when she came including this cool quilt hanger that my honey installed in our kitchen…

 She also left us some apple juice bottles that are glass and she uses the leftover glass bottles for flower vases… well we loved that idea!!!  So my honey went into our yard and made me a vase for the computer area…

And once I got my quilt loaded in the frame … He also filled another vase with more flowers when I napped one day!!! 🙂

Here he is suprising me with flowers on a day I didn’t feel so good…

 And here they are posed from the opposite side of the jar on the quilt I am working on intermittently 😀

And last night it was to freeze here… so this was the last of the flowers from our yard … so I wanted to share their delightfulness with you all!!!

Molly is now officially 4 months old !!!

 And after celebrating her birthday with a nice bath!!!  We prepped our guest room for Connie’s soon arrival… I love this quilt but soon I think it will be time to wash it one last time and send it to it’s destiny… to be with my darling daughter (dd) Brandi ….

She chose this quilt top and the quilting plan and colors … I just did the work! lol

Once I finished the bag for Debbie… while Connie was here I started prepping the Rooster EPP project …

 And even got out the organizer I had bought for this project too…

Pulled fabrics from my stash… and that pin cushion on the neutral fabric on the left… a gift from Connie too!

 Glued the templates to the fabric as the directions called for using scrapbooking adhesive I had in my stash 😀

 Soon my pattern had MY colors in place of the makers colors… so it will match the vibe in our home…

 Here is a close up of that sweet hexi pin cushion Connie gifted me too …

 And long after Connie was gone back to her home and her crazy busy life… I finally got it all organized!!!

Now to find the time to work on it some more… time to glue baste down all the edges with my Fons and Porter fabric glue sticks.

I removed the doggy themed border fabric and not jiving cornerstones and made this more civil war looking with remaining fabric left from Roberta’s quilt finish….

 Daisy’s Stars is now “Stars Among Us”  Tutorial to the scrappy star blocks is on my blog HERE.  It is truly more of a memory quilt we will use on the foot of our bed in honor of her… as none of this coordinates with Connie’s decor! lol

I chose these stencils … both I have never used before… for this quilt…

The left for the border and the right for the body of the quilt where the stars are 🙂

With batting and backing already pulled long ago for this quilt loading went quick…  First was the backing to put on the 2nd rail and the bottom rail… winding it twice to make sure all was straight…

Then the top and batting were added first to the top rail and rolled on (twice as well) …

 Until they were going on straight and even…

 Then pinned to the backing at the bottom rail and tighted all up….

 Now I am ready to mark and begin quilting once I baste the bottom edge!!!

 Molly is my steady companion when I quilt… she tries to squeeze her growing body in this little box… so I traded it out for a larger box but she teethes on everything right now.. so don’t know how long that will last !!! lol

 Soon the bottom border was all stitched in place…

 And I am now making great headway on the slow stitching of this crazy triangle pattern from my stencil!!!

 Here is my set up.. early each morning I bring in the day slow stitching…

 And here is how I am marking these designs.. with pounce chalk and with a piece of pink chalk in a marking tool…

I am linking this fun slow stitching … where I will be today and every day… with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Squad of hand work specialists HERE!  Come see what others are doing following the link and if you blog come join the party too ❤

This week Bonnie Hunter posted this Bonnie-ism…

 And I received all this wonderful fabric in fat quarter form…

 Then I organized it with some in my stash like this…

 And checked value like this (Batman is for sale and was just a quiet space to rest your eyes between the colors at the top and those same fabrics in value only in black and white at the bottom! lol

 All in hopes of making 16 big 14″ blocks of log cabin bear paw blocks like this…

 So this weekend I cut out the log cabin blocks in medium and light with red centers to keep the home warm 🙂

 And here is a close up of my piecing plan per bear paw block… with the first 4 log cabins pieced on Gloria the Glorious 301a!

 Here was my inspiration block found on Pinterest and shared there by the Stashing Sisters…

 If you are into log cabins…mine are not quite as intense as theirs… but I think it will work!!! lol

In closing this long post… I want to reward you with a glimpse of the Valley Eagle!!!  A bald eagle that lives in this area but we had never seen him… until the day before we got these photos and this day too…

 Here is my dd… now in Kentucky with some of her tribe.  We have a growing friendship now that she is grown up…she is in the center with Jasper the 6  year old sitting on her back! lol

So until my next post … NEXT SUNDAY!!!!  Have a blessed week and…

Stitching… Sewing… Traveling… Shopping >>> We are home!

This last week has been a bit on the crazy side!

My sewing room… as well as most of the house was a MESS!  And we needed to take a trip back to our hometown.  We had LOTS of loose ends and we both have health issues to address prior to and during the upcoming trip as well!

First things First… Clean up around here a bit!!!  Because I needed Gloria for a very important project!!!

With Gloria now ready for the task at hand… I cut out the pattern Sara Lawson wrote for this cross body bag in Large 🙂 … and Small for later use too!  But this was to be a surprise “big purse” requested by my dd for her 20th birthday celebration when we take our trip!

First I printed the FREE PDF pattern for this awesome bag HERE and used her accompanying video HERE and started cutting out pieces and parts … fabrics and interfacing… hoping what I was imagining would come into being in a cool way!  Sara also posts twice weekly shows on youtube and has a fun facebook group 😀

I used the last of the fabrics from a quilt I made my dd and some others from my stash that coordinated.

There is a handy 1 page list of necessities Sara provides to make this cool cross body bag come to life in either size so I took that shopping and started my gathering collection of bag making supplies! lol

Soon I was to my arch nemesis… the zipper!

 SCORE!!!!

Then the purse hardware called a twist lock… I ordered this one from a super fast shipping Etsy shop too ❤

 And sooner than expected… but just in time for our trip to Tennessee… I had the purse complete!

Here is a photo I like the best before getting photos with the recipient!

Meanwhile my honey was in an organizing frenzy in his man cave and in the kitchen!  Check this room out now!!!

It still has some decorating to go… a bit of clutter here and there.. but boy is it looking so much nicer now in our kitchen!!!

Then he got a surge of energy thanks to some medicine helping his back and hip pain and started working OUTSIDE on the bushes!  Here you can see from our front door to the right side of the Lazy Daisy…

 Just beyond these huge shrubs he is trimming is the Valley river and our land continues on above and beyond that until you get to some railroad tracks… they are only used occasionally these days tho!

 If you look at this close up you can see the building up in the top left of the photo… that is our post office for the town we live in… just below that is the rail road tracks and our property is this side of that then! 🙂

You can always hear the rushing of the river on the Lazy Daisy… we love that !!!

Then we got the new hard drive we ordered in the mail… for the one that became corrupted in the Dell laptop… we ordered a faster and more efficient one we thought… but not sure how fast… so it was time to switch them out…

Well let me just say Windows website and chat people were the most helpful place we went for help for free … we are neither one tech savvy… but together with their help and instruction we were able to download Windows 10 and upload it via a USB drive to the new hard drive.  I got frustrated at one section of it and walked away… but Rick persisted and soon he had a NEW and super fast working computer !!!

 It is faster than my new desktop in some ways even!!!

 So here we sit now side by side… his oil cans and our favorite lighthouse wood carving adorning our spots… yep still lots of clutter here too but that is okay… we  will find neat and tidy homes for all our “stuff” 😀

With ALL of this done you would think surely we would rest the day before our trip but no… Rick worked on MORE projects and I made my dd (darling daughter) Brandi a “snap bag” from THIS tutorial I found on youtube by Riley Blake designs.. but I rounded my edges and didn’t use the tape she suggests as I didn’t need it….

This cute bag stays closed unless you pull it open with the prairie points!  UBER CUTE and fast and easy to make.. I quilted this one and boxed the bottom corners too!  Each side of the bag is fussy cut for sea turtle cuteness ❤

Finally it was Friday morning… Rick had cut down Daisy’s big crate to make it Daisy sized and we loaded all we need for an overnight trip to central Tennessee…

And soon we were all at the hotel together and she finally could see all our hard work via iPad photos and vids… and then it was time to open her goodies we brought!

Soon our night was over.. but we did enjoy all waking in the middle of the night for some giggles… Rick is a real jokester and Brandi and I enjoyed his humor … esp at 2 am!!!

The hotel provided a nice breakfast then off to the airport so Brandi could meet with what she believes her destiny is in New York state!!!  So far away but she is 20 now and it is time for her to carve her own life.  I love you my dd!! ❤

We then visited for a good bit with my bestie Connie who came by the hotel after working all night!  It was sooo good to get a great big hug from her 😀

Then we were off to trek back to our home state of North Carolina.. and even though we had only been gone a day we missed it terribly!

We did pick up this cool tall skinny shelf to the left of the TV and quickly filled it up with vintage goodies….

 We found a light oak bread box too…

 and an oak and black shelf…

 That is sitting on our mantle for the time being….

 We also found a few clothes while we were thrift shopping our way home… and this cool quote on wood…

 Finally… to share my handwork during all this busy time I am halfway through the 10th row of 13 rows all together y’all!  I have also been working on Rick’s new pillow top too in the car and in the hotel 😀

 So that is what has been happening here and why I have been so quiet… My sewing room is straightened up once again and ready for the next cool project to pick up on again!  What will it be???Focus on the hand quilting I do believe!!!  lol

For now have a blessed rest of your week and a HAPPY HUMP DAY!!!!  And enjoy all the youtube links and pdf link I left you…

Tops are being seen Everywhere here… so much excitement to share!

Can you believe it is just 2 days until AUGUST!!!  Wow… this year is flying by for us… how about you?

This week I worked on some swirly bits here…

 And finished up a spool of DMC perle 12 cotton I was using to big stitch them…

 I finished up that much all the way across … rolled the quilt down just a bit and look at my view at 71% completed now!!!

I am now ready to star ditch stitching the upper part and adding in the wavy lines in the blue blocks… then when they are done just TWO that is 2 more lines of blocks to do on this quilt!!!  We will be sleeping under it before Fall is officially here I do believe!  Sew EXCITING 😀

Better late that not at all.. I am linking this great slow and enjoyable stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow stitching Sunday post HERE as I did work on this on and off all last week and this past weekend too ❤

I also have another top with progress…

Daisy’s Stars is a quilt for our pup Daisy to sleep under that will coordinate a bit with the some of the same fabrics I used in the quilt I am hand quilting for our bed… she sleeps at the foot of our bed and under a quilt I made early in my quilty career.. it is getting threadbare now and ready for trips and other jobs… not the foot of our bed! lol 
I know there are some that don’t understand why you would make a quilt for a dog… but our doxie is our kid and we love having her on top of the covers at the foot of our bed… but she loves to snuggle quilts too… just like us… so this will now waiting to be quilted.  I have some batting I found in my stash and a backing I found in my stash… the border was in my stash as was the center parts too… so it is a scrap lovers dream! 🙂

But let me share what I am most EXCITED about this past week to share with you…

 Above… my honey got the computer back up… long enough for me to pull ALL of my pics and documents off the hard drive… he just kept on messing with it on and off until he got that folder opened!!!  I was soooo excited.  Now we have ordered a new hard drive for this laptop to get it back up and running!  ((Hope we can get it installed and Windows 10 back on it!!!))

And then to make the week even more exciting … he decided I needed a sound bar just for my new computer!!!

So above is my set up now… he hung the sound bar with little bunge cords and some black chain he had in his stash as well as some cup hooks that go into the shelf above it all hangs from so no vibration as the bunge cords are rubber and absorb any vibration… it is an LG and was under $80 so a good buy… now my desktop has great sound for listening to Craftsy aka Bluprint and as seen here more Sara at SewSweetness here where I am learning to make bags… like this one I am about to make for my dd Brandi!

This is the Oriole Bag and the directions are via pdf with a pattern for free and a youtube instruction as well.. I will be adding an inside zipper pocket to the one for Brandi and I have a cute front open lock I ordered from Etsy.  Can’t wait to share this finish with y’all!  Then a great friend of mine wants one in the smaller size… so I will learn with Brandi’s and make one for my friend Debbie when her fabric choices arrive next!  Wowee 🙂 

 I saw this cute shirt on facebook this week…

I loved the layout of it… and it kept me up and sewing for sure!

I also saw this sweet memory bear… remember I bought a bear pattern a while back… well a friend wants some made… I may use some of these ideas… a pic of him on one foot.. his dates on the other foot and a sweet saying on the belly.  These are just ideas though… nothing firm yet… but wanted to share with you all here 😀

 And we had some neighbors come fish in our pond… and look what Johnny caught…

 This is about a 20 pound fighting … brown trout!  How he caught him we aren’t sure since he is so big!!! lol  All that daily or near daily feeding of high protein food and not many fishing our pond … makes for big healthy fish!!!

 My honey took him back to his house with his son and his magnanimous fish and watched Johnny clean and prepare the fish in the river for cooking… he wrapped it once prepared in aluminum foil for dinner that same night!  Uber cool we say!!!

I saw this little meme on Facebook this week and though how apropos it was to me and my honey:

 What are your adult goals!???

And a favorite Bonnie Hunter saying I saw just the other day… really TRUE!!!!

 Well that catches me up with each of you for this week.  Hope you have a blessed week.  If you made it this far please take time to say hello in a message below!  I love hearing from each of you ❤