A Blurry Week…

Yep.. this week has gone by so fast it is a blur.. Ever have one of those weeks?  Since I retired from nursing I don’t seem to have them very often but this week was a busy one in the books for sure!

The beginning of the week started each day with a vigorous walk on the beach.. we are walking over a mile now and really loving it!

Today we walked a different way and didn’t chart our distance but we had taken  a couple days off as after a day walking 1/2 mile on concrete I had stone bruises on my feet (note to self… don’t use beach shoes for long distance walks on concrete! lol)  All better now… we enjoyed the walk this morning!

 This is a cool shot showing the hotels disappearing in the foggy morning 🙂  Less coast line showing walking this way too..

Not much happening on the quilty front but I did gift a quilt today to my daughters best friend Tiffany…

this is the backside… her favorite at the moment… of a quilt I made in 2013.  It has pinwheels of Dr. Seuss fabric on the front set on a white background… lots of fun to make and all hand quilted too!

Daisy had to be part of the giving ceremony! lol

Along with loving from Tiffany!  Tiffany has coveted one of my quilts so I am happy I could oblige her 🙂

I realized today all the quilts I have gifted .. rarely have I gifted them myself.. I found myself tongue tied a bit in explaining this quilts history.

If you are interested in seeing the front check out the links to “Pam’s (pams) quilt” as this was made for my ex best friend… who now no longer speaks to me…it has a permanent new home with Tiffany 🙂
I have had a busy but over all positive week.. My honey got a good bill of health with his new PCP this week!  Yippee for good experiences with the VA!
I made a few adjustments in my regime.. and continue to take off a pound or so a week 🙂  Yay!  And really I am not trying either… just staying active!

Hope you are having a blessed weekend!

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Pam’s quilt DONE is 1 1/2 months start to finish :)

On May 16 I started piecing these cute double pinwheels…

I finished that part of the piecing on May 22 and started putting them into rows. then a quilt top with borders was born on May 24 late into the night… now nicely pressed and ready to sandwich 🙂

My needle hit the quilt sandwich for first stitches May 25 about 6 pm. 🙂  It felt so nice to quilt again! lol

The last square was quilted in aqua thread about 3 pm on June 9.  Time to load up 2 needles and white now 🙂

By 6 pm on June 9th I had started on one of the butterflies and doing the outline of the white spot there…

Just 29 more to go plus outlining all the edges of the quilt to prepare for the border treatment… what to do there is the question at the moment! lol

On June 19th about 9 am I finished the butterflies and started the 45 degree angle lines from this pattern drawn by my bestie Connie Combs…

I had a hard time finding a marking utensil to mark with… every water based pen was going dry so I wound up using a grey quilters pencil by Dritz that I found in my stash!  Yahoo 🙂

Here is how one of the corners turned out using her drawing as inspiration 🙂
 

June 25, 2013… just 1 month EXACTLY later… I finished the quilting on this wonderful quilt and it is ready to bind!  Whoop 🙂

Binding complete about 6:30 pm on June 28, 2013.  A quick pic and into the washer it went!

 Check out a close up of the quilting I did 🙂

Overall this was a very fun and interactive project… I really enjoyed it and am glad to put the 5th quilted project in a box for safekeeping until I can deliver it to it’s now owner 🙂  Yipee!

Linked to Quilt Story 🙂

Kathi

Binding Stories…

Do you love binding or hate it… it seems to be one or the other for crafting and quilting… do you like the wind up of a project???

For quilters binding is sewing up all the quilt and readying it for the first wash and dry!  It is an exciting time and a time where expedience really counts.  So why am I writing here instead of binding???

 Well the good news is the binding is over half done…. so I will finish today and post that finish on links noted at the end of this post 🙂  but I needed a personal post… just for me and my followers 🙂  So here it is…

 See the dragonfly above that I quilted… there are 2 in this quilt…

 You see this quilt is destined for my bff of 25 years Pam…

She is lovely and talented but currently has decided not to talk to me anymore and she returned anything “borrowed” over the last few months that we are happy enough to say we only live about an hour from each other now… so this quilt will go in the closet to wait for it’s intended owner to wake up and smell the love that has been sewn into every inch of this quilt!

Love that!  Thanks for letting me vent my personal issues here… thanks for listening if you read this far and thanks for your prayers for me… but especially for Pam and whatever her torment is.

Have a blessed day!

Kathi

A busy week then an afternoon in the park :)

This week has been crazy busy… sorry I have been a few days in writing 🙂

My son Mike got his Florida license on Monday then flew back to TN to work on getting himself a car with his brother’s help 🙂

Tuesday morning he bought a 2000 Mustang… his first car!

I have been steadily working on the quilt so much so that I have finished the quilting…

and started the binding…

with a little help along the way…

Then after a doctor’s appointment for my daughter… we stopped by the park and remembered the reason we moved to Florida!  The Great Outdoors 🙂

Brandi on a topsy turvy ride… yep I tried it too 🙂

showing off her walk the plank skills!

Driving us… she wishes!!!

But the hit of the park was all the carved wood sculptures and how pristine and peaceful the park was!  Here is Brandi with a tortoise…

Here is a real turtle running away from the park area because kids came in and started messing with him!

Sea horse

Sea Turtle

Pirate… maybe Captain Hook???

Dophin

Where I hope to marry my honey some day!

So hope you enjoyed this little pic heavy post… just wanted to share some of the stuff going on and the beauty all around too!

Have a blessed day!

Kathi

Border dance time ~ Updated!

Not only have I finished all 30 butterflies with outlines… but I have designed and started on the border of Pam’s quilt!  Yahoo!  Whoop Whoop!  (As my friend Sarah says :))

So here has been my process…
Pray over the quilt to decide the design that should be there… look at the existing quilting and see what will complement it… consult other quilters that are focused on that style of quilting for advice…

So I prayed over it…
Drew on it with erasable pen until I decided on a design then marked the winning design that started like this…

to the fabric using tape as my 1″ measure between lines like this…

can you see the light grey lines???

Using plain old painters tape over and over until it lost its sticky to stabilize the fabric AND mark 1″ measurements… like this 🙂

Then sew on my drawn lines for the grounding effect this flying away pinwheel quilt needed!

So now I am off to sew more straight lines that meet in the middle!

<<>>
Hand quilting straight lines is going fast… and look how cute the middle turned out!

And the corner with the butterfly in it…. looks so cool!

At this writing I am 1/4 of the way done with the border… hope to finish by Monday!  June 24 🙂  Then just to bind!  And that will be the Whoop Whoop I hope to share next week!

Hope you are having a productive week too!

Kathi

P>S>  Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict here.  Check her out and what others have posted too… link any progress or plans for progress!

If you are a quilter looking for some quilty friends check out my facebook page Patchwork Friends here.  It is a private group of quilty goodness to keep our posts off public pages 🙂

The end of our projects is in site!

So as we have been busily working… me on quilting and my honey on refinishing the floors in our Florida room (screened in porch with a roof on it).  We had indoor/outdoor carpeting here from when we bought the house so we are happy for this upgrade!

See how nice the other side looks… now for my side 🙂

This was my temporary desk…. while my regular desk got a good cleaning by my honey!  Yipee

And I got moved out of my seat while the floor was drying… but I just kept on quilting!  My honey rocks like that!

See the quilt I am hand quilting!

You can see the bottom edge is not quilted yet.

And my new and improved work area before I move my sewing machine and cabinets back in…

I got my chair back now… and I have a plastic mat on the floor that is clear so it is protected but not obvious!  LOVE THAT!

Now for a peek at what I got my honey as a belated father’s day and thanks for all he does around here 🙂

He got a hammock… built for 2.. it will hold us both!  Yipee!

See how my sweet Daisy thinks it is all for her!  She is such a poser 🙂  As for my honey… had to drag him out for these shots 🙂

Have a blessed week and hope something happy happens for you!

Kathi

I am overly inspired I think

Ha ha… is there such a thing as overly inspired???  I am so loving the work I am doing on this quilt… still not happy with all my piecing work but loving my hand quilting work!

On butterfly number 21 leaving me 9 butterflies until I start on the borders 🙂  Yipee!

But I find myself inspired to try a kit, learn some new techniques by those that know, and make some quilts for us to use instead of the store bought comforters.

So… I bought my first kit!  Yahoo… here is a screen shot of it… I found it in the July/August Love of Quilting 2013

It measures about 55 inches wide by 65 inches long… LOVE it!  It will look wonderful in my foyer or dining room so I love that it will get lots of attention when it is out… and it holds special meaning for me… meaning I feel like it was made just for me almost…

You see…
The 4 candles represent my 4 children (DL, James, Mike, & Brandi)
The 2 hearts represent my 2 loves (my husband til he died and now my honey)
The 4 poinsettas represent my 4 best friends (Pam, Brandy, Connie & Joyce)
I will bejewel the christmas tree so we avoid putting up a tree every year… this will be our place to stack presents… underneath this beautiful wall hanging
I love the chevrons across the top and bottom.. wish you could see the border fabric better but it really ties in all the colors
I may change the mittens to dauchshunds if I get bold enough but I just LOVE the fun holly border top and bottom… Have I missed an inch of this quilt kit yet?

All it is missing is the batting and backing so I will be on the lookout for something fitting for the back… or may just do muslin… not sure 🙂  Whatever it will be awesome and it will be done ALL by hand and by mine to keep!

Also coming up is my bestie Connie’s visit.  She will be staying a week and we will have a quilting fiesta while she is here… we have puzzles to work and beach trips planned… as well as a quilt shop day too!  So much quilty goodness!

What is your fave part of crafting???  Would love your feedback!

Check out this great quilt I found on a google search…. this is what I aspire to do someday!

Have a blessed crafty week!

Kathi

Slowly making progress… Aloe Update too!

Well in my last post I shared all we have been up to… the family like has gotten busier and the work has slowed but not stopped 🙂

I am on the 20th butterfly on Pam’s quilt out of 30 total.. then on to border work.  Yahoo for progress… sure wish the butterflies were done but I won’t wish away the time to stitch them either!
 Here is the back side with my needles loaded and ready to go…

In between stitches I fixed this curtain to hang up higher in the middle… I like it now and like the shabby chik look it has 🙂

Meanwhile….
My honey is making progress on the Florida room floor tiles and is cutting the last one as I write this…

So now it looks like this…

And now for an aloe update…

Here she was earlier this week…

The blooms are drying up and blowing away and the hairs that grew on te limbs are shooting out a seed pod looking thing… there are 3 of them on the aloein this pic on Thursday…

Today it looks like this…

Now all the blooms are basically gone and the seed pods are getting jucier looking… hmmm wonder what is next???

We have had a lot of rain for this time of year thanks to an early tropical storm from the Gulf side of the state… but it looks healthy and happy otherwise… will keep watching!

Have a blessed Father’s Day and a happy Sunday!

Kathi

We are halfway there!

Halfway to where you ask… to meeting our goals… 🙂

My goal is to finish the butterflies on Pam’s quilt with outlining and start on the border… I am almost halfway there!  Yipee!

 Here is one of the little fellas now… when I don’t have a hard surface to use the graphite I have to go back to my water soluble purple marker! lol

Linking this much complete on Sarah’s blog for her Friday Whoop Whoop here….do you have something to whoop about??? Check her out!

I am planning to mark a quilt before I sandwich it while Connie is here so that will make using the graphite easy peasy!  We are excited about that…. while I have been stitching my honey has been busy too… working on the Florida room in Casa Del Loro!

Yep, I am getting tile flooring where once was indoor/outdoor commercial grade carpet!  See my honey pulling it up!

Now he is almost halfway done laying the same tile we put in the house but bigger!

 This is 18″ tile…

Important to note in tools for this job are kneepads… spring on the good ones.. they have really taken the wear and left my honey’s knees not sore! 

Meanwhile, my dd is in Tennesse and I am missing her terribly… she is my youngest at 14 (15 next month) and has been so looking forward to this trip… so I let her go and she is having fun so it is all good… just miss her daily chatter 🙂

My boys are happy in their lives… or seem to be so all is well with the world! lol

Have a blessed day and thanks for visiting!

Kathi

Marking with premium graphite on white

Okay guys call me the wild one but I am using graphite for the first time to mark butterflies on a white quilt area… 30 of them to be exact!

See!…

Yep… I used my coupon and got one at JoAnn’s but it came with white lead… so I had to buy the graphite.. harder than pencil lead for sure… you have to mark with conviction to get it to mark… but then it is so nice to have a skinny line to sew on 😀

Wanna see some more butterflies??? How about from the back!

 And a nice close up of the front!

I am quilting the border of the white areas with 40/3 YLI thread in white and quilting the butterfly in white Pearle 12 cotton thread for more depth… once it is washed it will show itself a bit more without being in your face like the rest of the quilt! lol

Hope you enjoyed the butterflies… I am .. and loving my new marking pencil that will now work on any color I have and wash right away !  Yippee!!!

Have a blessed crafty day!

Kathi