Finishes and Progress to Share … YAY!

Welcome y’all!  Thanks for stopping in and thanks for all your uplifting comments to last weeks post 🙂

I did not make this and I do not have this cute little hanger but both are doable… look how the quilter used little clothes pins to hold up this cute patchwork! 

But I did make this…

And you will see this photo over at the UFO& WIP link up Julie is doing HERE !!

It was a fairly easy sew.. but I had to prod myself to do it! lol  First I disassembled the old one and used the old padding to determine the size of the top of the ironing board… I laid that out on a big counter with my new fabric washed and ironed and pretty side DOWN with the old batting on top.  Then cut out leaving about 4″ all around 🙂

I replaced the batting and added another layer for a fresh topping on my ironing board because this had just been added a year or so ago and was ok still …

Next I decided this cover would have 1/4″ braided elastic to hold it in place… my last ironing board I had used cording with cord locks… didn’t care for it not staying tight consistently… I LOVE THIS FINISH!!!

I first zig zagged the edges then  pressed them down about 1″ all the way around and went back and straight stitched it down… leaving an opening do deal with the elastic.  You can do this a number of ways actually and I snipped a hole in a zig zagged section I fashioned like a button hole on the back side of mine.

All of this stitching you are doing will be hidden underneath but keeps it washable too !!!

Then get out a nice sized safety pin and guide the elastic around from one side all around til it comes back out the same hole … then pin them together so they won’t go in the hole while you form fit it to your ironing board… knot and trim off the tails and poke the knot inside the hole you used… all done and ready to press your next block or iron some clothes! hahaha   I jest there right??!!!  Actually I do iron a bit of our clothing … but not often! lol  I even made another for a friend for her birthday!!!

Next I will turn this 5 yards of vintage fabric into ironing surface covers… 

more on that process next week when I have done it 3 times! lol

Before I even started on the ironing board covers though I I put Cleo my Singer 319W to work sewing on binding to the front of the finished wall hanging I shared a pic of last weekend!

 Here you can see how I measure how much tail to leave between my staring point and ending point to have room to make a perfect join….

 I open the piece I cut off and use it as a measuring device 😀

Then in no time I had the binding hand stitched down on Monday and my honey with his stronger fingers pushed in the corners to hold in our wall hanging in the tobacco showing basket we found 🙂

This is a big part of southern history and this vintage piece is perfect for it’s center in our bedroom 😀  This is my link up for Julie’s UFO and WIP link up I linked to with the ironing board show off.  You get 2 entries to win something fun!!!

I have been watching my list and marking things off…

While one list is full.. it IS getting marked off little bits at a time. 

My hand stitching finish above is also getting linked up with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday… without her link up I wouldn’t have pulled this out and finished it !!!  HERE 🙂  Come see her free form stars she is hand appliqueing on circles and the circles on squares… all very fun looking to me!!!

Also in the hand quilting progress arena is this…

 Friday I had over a star’s width to stitch the overall design on… well I buckled down knowing this weekend was coming up quick and stitched and stitched and stitched until…

I was ready to roll!  And roll I did and you can see in the lower of the 2 above photos 🙂

This morning I woke with itching fingers to mark and stitch… so I did…

 I use the pink pounce to mark the overall design on the center with my stencil then go over it with the chalk pencil you can see below found on Amazon by Allary company as it is hard to see on it’s own…. Below it is now half marked 🙂

As a note… I did use some of this same pink chalk pencil I have been warned may not come out completely … on the rustic wall hanging border and all came out!!! Now this quilt is holding the chalk longer than that wall hanging did … but I have faith that with soap and warm water and soaking a couple rinses too… I should have a clean and ready to share quilt when done… we shall see!

As you can see also in the photo above… I thought I would have 2 more passes after this one… now I am thinking 1 and a bit more than I can fudge into 1 more pass left so I am now hyper focused to work on this… also

The quilt I have been piecing is now stalled at this point… approx 78″ square!

We have decided… after auditioning SEVERAL borders… 

That we need more of this fabric in 1 wide border… 

This fabric was used in the cornerstones so it is not foreign to this quilt and it is a civil war blue and wheaty tan color.  Have a few yards laying around by chance?? lol  So it waits and marinates for more sewing to happen to it…

I did get a new scissor fob in the mail from my favorite Etsy fob designer … Lauren of Mountain Laurel Designs HERE 🙂

She made this fob short at my request… everything was just to my liking actually… I ordered from her in the past so she knows my style too… I ❤ it 😀

Here is some eye candy I found on facebook this week too…

 And a non traditional take on valentines coming up but I love it!

I also wanted to share a new “personality” I found on YouTube thanks to a friend in my facebook group… HERE is  her take on 3 ways to make the Economy Block… take a watch it will open in a new window so you don’t lose your place here too 😀 

Now aren’t you glad you watched some or all of that .. she is sooo entertaining and informational at the same time!!!

My honey is beating the pain he is dealing with by building us a new and built in pantry in our kitchen… our own design and his own knowledge… here are some photos in process…

Still needs the bottom cross members and doors… those may come today or he may rest and watch tv for a bit today 🙂  He has been working on this the last 2 days leaving me to my own devices like stitching!!!

So where ever you are HOT or COLD weather prevails… is there anywhere it is just nice relaxing weather I wonder???  Australia is very very Hot… North of the Equator we are very very cold all compared to regular weather patterns for this time of year so be safe and careful and watch your pets!

Have a blessed one and thanks for visiting and don’t forget to check out ALL the Links I left for you this week as I …

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Rustic Bulls Eye Wall Hanging Progress :)

Thanks for all the well wishes and happy thoughts and prayers sent my way last week!!!  This past week has been MUCH MUCH better! 

The viral flu bug that was rampant since New years here is finally gone completely for both me and my honey…. and he is preparing for his upcoming hip replacement surgery now!!!

This week I focused on a project I had forgotten about… the Rustic Bulls Eye Wall Hanging I started a couple years back!

This little wall hanging was a project I worked on when my honey was at doctor’s appointments.. somehow between the move and all it got forgotten and finally uncovered this past Monday while I was organizing some things (okay looking for something completely different! lol) and I took the photo above!

I had stencils stored with it but decided that little burgandy border I had sewn around the exquisite center my bestie Connie made from a photo I sent her with homespuns raw edge appliqued…. just wouldn’t work so I pulled out my stencils and found this little leaves pattern that seemed to fit….

 Then I pulled out threads … the greens (while leaf like) didn’t work with this to me… but the black was a score!  Then I decided the outer border needed some stitching too… so I thought a nice argyle finish in burgandy and black would be fun there….

 The black zig zag laid down nicely but it definitely needed more and the blue wash away marker I had used to mark the line for the black stitching competed when I tried to mark the red stitching so I pulled out the pink chalk from my current work in progress and could at least make sense of how the marking should go….

 Here is the Allary brand chalk pen I use in pink and I brought a piece of white over too… in case the pink didn’t show up… but the pink worked fine!  I am hoping all this washes out easily once bound and ready to hang!

After figuring one side though I was able to find my reference points and just use the wash away marker for the remaining 3 sides of burgandy thread lines to mark.

Then my honey brought in the basket we planned to hang this inside and I laid it in progress in the basket to see how it looked….

 LOVE IT!!!!  Of course above it isn’t finished and it needs trimmed and bound!

Below you can see how the pink chalk doesn’t spritz away with water as nicely as the blue marker on the left side of the below shot does…

 And here I am with just the last side left to stitch across the bottom outer edge !!! EXCITING!!!

 Yesterday my honey figured a way to hang the big and HEAVY basket on the wall… our thought is for me to put tabs on the back side in each corner to then nail or push pin in place the wall hanging to the center of this basket on point…

 Like this!  All done and ready for black binding 🙂

 So today I will machine sew on the binding and hand stitch it in place… making sure to label it and add those hanging tabs to the back corners all around so it hangs well… I will make sure to take a nice photo for all of you to enjoy as well!  This is hanging in our bedroom and goes well with our civil war color scheme in that room 🙂

So that has been my focus along with doing things around the house and selling more things on eBay and Facebook.  Here is my updated list #1…

I hope to get the binding and hanging loops on today or tomorrow too… enjoying the light snowy day we are having and staying inside where it is warm! 😉

I am linking my slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday HERE… and to the Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More HERE.  Please make time to visit both as they are full of inspiration this week!

This week has really been focused on dealing with doctor’s visits for my honey in prep for his hip replacement the end of next month… he is ready for an end of the severe pre-operative pain and I am ready for him to get back to cooking dinner which he hasn’t been able to do as well with his him hurting so bad!

Really I just want to my partner in life not in pain though… please keep him in your thoughts!  Have a blessed week and thanks for visiting and reading this post!!!

Lots of sewing and some QUILTING too :)

I finished cleaning and straightening the sewing room… even tackled all that big pile of fabric I shared in my last post… check out my finished Fabric Chest!!!

And now it is very organized too!  I now need another shelf added to the top of the shelves.. my honey made those with plain plywood for durability… he has more in his ever evolving garage… aka MAN CAVE… currently he is painting the parts that are drywall… one wall is pegboard… more pics on that when he is done though… per his request! lol

Once I was organized here I decided to finish the bedroom organization and with my honey’s help I reorganized how the layout was some to accomodate my desk better…

You see since we moved the desk in here temporarily I have fallen in love with computer time when my honey sleeps in the mornings… we are close and this keeps us close… he snoozes quietly in the background and I am more inspired to write and spend time here quietly of course! lol

So now the plan is to finish the office but keep it as a guest room mainly with a desk area in there for me to use when skyping… or when my honey watches something I don’t care for on TV and I want to get away from that during my time at the computer…

However, I have found sewing has been my current fave pasttime since cleaning everything up!  Take a look at what I finished earlier this week…

I had 2 pillow tops I found when cleaning the sewing room up… they measure about 8 1/2″ square… once cleaned up they were yelling at me to be completed… and now as you can see in the top photo they are finished (from my stash) and ready to be a neck pillow or just a snuggly pillow while watching tv or napping! 🙂  We love these little pillows… Daisy has already snuggled Rick’s (on the right side) too!! lol

I have been catching up with my Singing the Blues quilt block making…

The pattern I designed calls for 32 of each of these blocks for a total of 64 blocks to make a 100″ square quilt… here is my “pattern” I drew out…

I keep it with the block parts that are all made… so basically it is putting together 9 patch blocks now but good for me to do basic stuff when piecing.. I love and feel accomplished with hand quilting but piecing is another matter… I don’t feel all that about my piecing… 

I did take a break early yesterday morning to do a couple projects… FIRST was a project for my friend Debbie.  She had happily received a memory bear made from one of her late husband’s shirts…

But this memory bear came with 2 (didn’t think of the pic until 1 button had been removed) BLUE eyes… yet her husband had dark brown almost black eyes…

So she searched my button selection and found some that reminded her of Jim’s eyes…

I got them sewed on fairly easy and left this sweet memory bear to keep watch over her bed while she is not here presently…

Isn’t he much cuter without dayglow blue eyes??!! LOL

SECOND was finishing up a cushion for Daisy Mae I had started on the day before and not finished up on…

I bought the cotton tapestry center on eBay… and it arrived that day… soon from my stash I had pulled a coordination border to make it the right size we wanted it to be for Daisy… and found some cute Doggy themed word fabric for the side fabric

and a rough quilting cotton for the bottom… it is something I wouldn’t use in a quilt but is perfect to keep it in place on the tile floor… It’s place is in our Florida room now 🙂

Then I made a few more blocks but this centerpiece Connie (my bestie) had made me over a year ago kept calling to be finished… soon I had pulled out all the fabric that I had in homespun leftovers from this and the other project…

Homespuns are very very stringy once cut… so I worked gently with this fabric… making borders for what will be a small wall hanging for our kitchen!  It will actually hang just around the corner from this piece I finished last year I think…

 She fashioned this center piece from this pic I sent her… for my birthday last year if I remember right! lol  Not sure as we are always sending each other stuff! 🙂

She machine appliqued this one… and I am glad she did the raw edge applique via machine…

Here is how I completed this flimsy wall hanging to be 🙂

Then I layered and pin basted it… I used wool batting in it for depth of stitching look on it when done…

Then I took a break and made a couple more blocks for Singing the Blues…  for all the sewing work I have shown… I looked to my Glorious GLORIA.. Singer 301a

I love that she is an LBOW (light brown/oyster white) coloring… I love the pin cushion Connie made me this year for my 50th birthday too!  And where would I be without a nice dry hot iron like this Dominion!  I love it for all my piecing… I save the steam iron for pre-sewing ironing of wrinkled fabrics and ironing my honey’s shirts! lol  then there is coffee, tea or water at my side at all times too!

Finally I pulled out my 17″ favorite hoop that was gifted to me so long ago and hooped up this project and got started on it… just outlining the flowers on the center with a medium grey thread that blends nicely…

Check out Daisy watching me as she sits on her new cushion too!  This is her favorite chair to sit in when Debbie isn’t here… so after posing it where it should go for pics… I put it up in the chair and she LOVES it!!!  So with her company near me last night I started the stitching on this… should be a fun and quick project allowing me to return to STARLIGHT … STARBRIGHT soon!  And refreshed from the break to finish and bind that big quilt!

So I have been MEGA busy as you can all see from this post… and as I close (the blocks are calling me back to work on a couple more! lol) I hope you each have a great rest of your week!

We have had a roller coaster of an election here in the USA that has left Donald Trump as our President elect… many feel this could be bad… but for once I am glad it isn’t a career politician in our nations highest office… he is also a Republican and has majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well… During his tenure he will name a few Supreme Court Justices too… 1 is waiting to be named as soon as he takes office in January.  Please continue to keep us and President Trump in your thoughts!

Mostly remember to…

Whooping a NEW BEGINNING!!!

Hey there from my sweet grandkids…
From my home… here is CJ at 14 months old….

 And via Facebook and Tennessee here is sweet Kaydence I have yet to focus my camera or kisses on yet! lol  She is 2 months already too!!!

It has been a while since I have had a post that made me wanna whoop really… at least around a Friday! lol  Cue Sarah at Confessions of a Febric Addicts Friday linky party… check her out HERE!

So what am I whooping besides the worlds cutest grandkids a Grammy could ask for??? lol

My new beginning quilt I showed you here last week

… and in this shot I was ready to quilt on my new desk my honey made me too!

Well…. I love the quilt and I love Love LOVE the desk!!!  It rolls and it is a nice large 16″ x 42″ top… my honey picked out all the wood special for this project and the casters work great on the tile floor too!  It has a shelf on the bottom for current supplies and for a place or me to prop my feet when I am in depth quilting 🙂

Superb is my review of having a desk to set my hoop on and use to work off of! 🙂  Love it for my style!  Home Run Honey 😀

As far as my progress… it has been stellar too…

Here is the center block… about 16″ x 24″ background block size… it is a rabbit jumper from when Kimber’s daughter was about 18 months old…

 Here you can see some of the blue lines I haven’t sprintzed out but you can see the design better this way… all lines are gone now though ! lol  This tshirt was one of Kimber’s favorites… she said her daughter was truly a little chatterbox! 🙂

 And here is how I start each outfit… with a picture and add drawing on my iPad.. not sure i I endorse any program for this topic yet… Do you have a fave one that draws easily on photos… and lets you type in a title like I have done here????

This dress above is one of Kaylie’s baby dresses.. note we were able to leave the buttons on the dress front during piecing and my quilting plan includes accentuating them.  See… 🙂

Also this week I tried my first paper pieced block…

Yes, it turned out nice.. but boy is it a waste if you are tight on fabric! lol

Also it took me over 2 hours to produce this block after watching a long vid by Carol Doak.

I do like her reasoning and methods.. but it isn’t fun like I like quilting to be for me… I have 3 more blocks to do like this but different “bird” colors…. lol!  We shall see how long that takes 🙂

Another Whoop to share during this last week was that my recent finish wall hanging was featured as the header of one of my facebook hand quilting groups… I don’t frequent it much anymore as it has gotten large and more impersonal.. but I enjoy the eye candy… 

 Imagine how amazed I was to be the giver of the candy for 24 hours of show!  Whoop!

In closing… here is one more pic I found of Kaydence.. taken by a photographer…

 Doesn’t this shot just make you want to smile! 🙂  It sure does me !!!

Have a blessed weekend and until my next post…

Rustic Bulls Eye ~ A FINISH!!!

Yep… by Sunday night I was looking at this…

 The left side of this shot shows where I started on the border.. and on the right side of the picture is where I am coming back around my starting point 🙂  Yippee!
I am definitely glad I did all the border in 1 swipe like I did… I did get some comments on that last time… but I would definitely do a border like this again and do it the way I did this so it all gets done at once 🙂

I finished up that border Monday morning… then while everyone was asleep (I wake EARLY!) …. I sewed on the binding I had made up a few weeks back just for this project.. I had “borrowed a bit to test out a featherweight for my honey but not much… look at what I had left!!

 The unusable selvedge!  Can you believe I had JUST ENOUGH to bind this quilt without adding more.  Praise God!!!

Once it was sewn to the front it was time to hand stitch it to the back… This really hurts my left thumb a lot so it took me 2 days to bind this little wall hanging ! lol

Tuesday evening rolled around and  I finally was at a point to remove the worst of the pencil marks in preparation for washing this cute quilt! 😉

 I use a formula available google search online and keep it in the bottle of expensive stuff that works but I bought before I knew a much more economical way to remove heavy handed pencil marks… and my dollar store toothbrush does the trick quite quickly laid out on the kitchen counter in nice bright light!

Finally it is washing away and comes out of the washer completely pencil free and BEAUTIFUL!!!!   So pop it into the dryer for just a bit and I take it out to hang dry overnight!  MISTAKE!

You will see how it hangs… I love it but will be rewashing it and blocking it! lol  Lesson learned for a wall hanging!

Meanwhile… as it is drying and I sleep I wake Wednesday with a brainstorm of an idea… Connie made this top for my birthday present, I added borders, backing, and 2 layers of batting and quilted it uniquely… why not keep this piece as a favorite and add MY FIST APPLIQUE & EMBROIDERY to it….

 Hope you can see this close up…
I NEEDLE TURN Appliqued both circles … First I appliqued the black plaid by simply marking a removable line around a rx bottle top of my daughters… trimmed to a scant 1/4″ and did it easy as pie!  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??!!!!  Okay it isn’t perfect and I had perfect circles too but didn’t want that… this is a rustic piece and I wanted this to be natural looking… I think I accomplished that 🙂

 Here is another vie of the label embroidered with the dark grey variegated thread I used in this piece… and finally for you to enjoy is my favorite wall hanging to date!!!!

Meet Rustic Bulls Eye !!!!

 And this is where this wall hanging will reside…

above a collection of antique oil cans and a Willcox and Gibbs sewing machine all that my honey cherishes and sitting on a Martha Washington cabinet with and eBay find lace scarf that looks custom made!  All in all a great look I think!

Other than the wave that blocking should take care of… what do you all think?
Is this worthy of putting in Amy’s Fall quilt festival??

 As soon as I grabbed this shot I had to go pick up my daughter and run some errands.. in fact I was a tad behind because I got so caught up in getting pics and admiring the finish.. I truly can’t believe I did that! lol

For the books… it’s final measurement is 35 1/4″ x 36 1/2″ long.. it started out 38″ square.

Anyway.. when I got back a couple hours later… look what was waiting or me…

 This is my space outside where I quilt.. I used a chair to set my quilting in beside me to hold the bulk of it and to lean on as I hold a 16″ laptop hoop… I love this method for me… Aaanyway, my honey made this table to my specifications (it is on wheels, has a foot rest, is my requested height and no spurs/rough spots noted anywhere!!!) and swept my corner up and declared this table now usable (he finished it a few days ago but it needed to cure before coming out in the humid environment I sew in).  He loves for me to give him a project or idea he can run with… this is one nice piece of furniture too… I love it…

See how I will use it??

I am mongo excited about all this… hope you don’t find me boastful or proud here… I am truly just ecstatic to have so much accomplished… and to be starting on Kimber’s Memory Quilt too!

Hope you have a stellar week & weekend… I am planning on linking this finish and I look forward to replying to each of your comments on this post 🙂

Kelly at NTT (Needle and Thread Thursday) >>> Here
Whooping with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Friday) >>> Here
Richard & Tanya Quilts ~ Link a Finish Friday #179 >>> Here

Until my next post…

Happy Birthday month continues… and Progress on the border :)

July is the Birthday month in our home…

my honey celebrated his year to be equal to a deck of cards (52) ….

… and playing with a sewing machine! lol 

But my daughter is 17 TODAY!!  Yesterday was her friend party and here is a collage I made of the shots she allowed paparazzi! lol

Meanwhile I have been helping in all the festivities and quilting in all my free time!!!

I am now 3/4 of the way around the border 🙂

You can see the variety of threads and needles I am using… plus some other tools too!  I use the hemostats as a needle puller for thick spots and because that perle 8 cotton is kinda tough to pull through several stitches sometimes! lol  And that Clover thimble is quickly becoming a fave 🙂  Kudos go to Wendy for the suggestion on trying this style!!!

Here on the right is me finishing a row of stitching… 5 needles threaded to have their turn before I move the hoop again 🙂

Here on the left you can see one I moved the hoop after finishing the dark grey scallop above… you can see my 5 threads much easier…

And now all that remains is that final 1/4 of the border.. then binding and deciding which side is up … maybe after washing??  and add the hanging sleeve then 🙂

Meanwhile, I am planning out the french braid table topper.  Here is the center that will be set on point for the table topper…

This center was also part of my birthday from Connie… she used leftovers from the wall hanging to make this 🙂  And I want it to be cool and used and enjoyed!  So I went looking for french braid how to vids and who did I find but Jenny Doan of MSQC fame!!!

 She calls it a Scrappy Table runner I think HERE!  But this is my basic idea… I have more things going on too though… lol!  But her tutorial easily balances the idea with my ideas too!  So I am excited in the future to see this happen too!

So that is what have been up to this week!  How about you?

Well Kathy finished a mini quilt this week.. go check out her blog.. and if you blog write one and link up!!!  We all wanna know what you have been up to 🙂  I am linking with her too!

So until my next post…

Bordering FUN!

Well… as soon as I quit lamenting over the weekend about how bored I was with doing the repetitive center quilting on this wall hanging… I got to the border and FUN jumped back into this project !!!!

 I am running 5 needles across at a time…

 Check out this close up…

 I am using Valdani perle 8 and perle 12 weight threads in this border with a dash of light grey 12 wt DMC, and some black YLI 40/3 for the edge basting stitch…

 Finally this morning I caught this shot!  I am already 1/3 of the way around this border in under 2 days!!!!

 Here is how the quilt will hand on the wall… this is 1/4 of the whole quilt for reference… each bulls eye is 7 1/2″ finished 🙂

To go along with this great wall hanging… Connie also has sent me the beginnings of a table topper or table runner from one I found on eBay but missed out on winning…

Here is the one Connie made me with the leftovers from the wall hanging above…

This measures about 15″ currently… and this is my plan now for it…

You see I always love making things my own design… so I like skinny logs better than fat ones but love the big squares set on point for the french in this braid design.

I will have 2 logs to each square… then bind it in the same I bind the wall hanging with I think.. we shall see what I have left after piecing this… all my logs will be the homespuns… but the squares will be regular quilt fabric for some stability! lol  This is all still in the planning stages as I am making fast progress on this now!!!

And you know what that means!!!  Soon I will be hand quilting Kimber’s memory quilt!!! Yippee 🙂

I am linking all this quilty progress.. and the quilty ideas too! lol to Kelly’s NTT (Needle and Thread Thursday)!!!  Come see what others are linking up HERE… she is a fun quilter and always has fun people linking up interesting things.

Before I close… I had a video to share this week… My grandson CJ is officially WALKING!!!  But I couldn’t figure out how to post a video from my iPhone to my blogspot blog.  I am just not techie! lol  So here is a still shot from the video I have to share with you today 🙂

He is 13 1/2 months old now 🙂

Thanks for joining me today!  And whatever you have planned remember to…

Bulls Eye Wall Hanging… almost there!

Can you believe it… I started this 2 layered batting wall hanging back in June … soon after Connie sent it to me (early birthday present) … back when we thought I would have it done by July! ha ha 🙂

I do think I will see an end to this project in the next week or two though as all that is left after the center is complete…

… is to quilt the border surround that is already marked… bind and put a label and hanging sleeve on it.  Yippee!  Light is bright at the end of this tunnel 🙂  I am currently on bulls eye #15 out of 16 total!! 🙂  Yahoo !!!

I have been dreaming of quilting Kimber’s memory quilt a lot this week.. I am ready for some fun quilting without the layers of thickness to sew though… don’t get me wrong… the clothes will make

me keep out my hemostats for thick seam moments… but most of my quilting these is planned very differently.. that one I will quilt each block how IT looks best 🙂

CJ came over a couple times this week..

That was definitely fun !!!

My daughter is taking 2 classes in summer school this month.. she finished and passed 1 class over the last 2 weeks… now to finish and pass the second class next 🙂

So as I slow stitch today I want to link up this excellent progress with Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching 🙂  Come on over and see what other slow stitching is going on around the globe!

Until my next post…

My Faves ~ July Edition :)

My Faves ~ July 2015

Recent Pictures…

Great friends!

Great Memories!

and Great Looking! lol

 We did it together…

Matching Tshirts

Pedicures… she went back for a mani before leaving too! lol

A pic I worked on as a sweet memory of her short beach time this trip

Birthday Memories…

Yep, I am a firecracker!  Born on the 4th of July 🙂  So we celebrated and had dessert..

Such a yummy dessert we got for our birthday celebration at a local restaurant 🙂

It didn’t last long.. there were 4 of us celebrating birthdays in July! lol

My dd made me red velvet brownies too!  Yummm 🙂

And I was blessed with lots of loot… My daughter painted me a special large canvas in a cool way…

My honey really spoiled me this year though!

I got my fave chocolates.. in mini size!!

And this pattern on the left is a BOM style pattern of a quilt I want to make.. I will share more on that later… and the fat quarter bundle on the right is the fabric to make it with that I had already picked out!!!!

I can’t believe how generous he has been to me for a birthday too!

 Now what to do for him!!???  His birthday is coming on the 20th

I also got a host of cards and other gifts… Connie had given me a wall hanging to quilt, and the matching t-shirts to wear during her visit!  My favorite card was from my grandmother who is 96 years young and never forgets my birthday or to send me a card on my day 🙂  That means sooo much!

I certainly feel loved this year for sure on my special day.  Do you enjoy your special day each year??

 

Quilting Accomplishments…

I am so excited about this part of my week I am linking with Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday on Sunday morning… that is my fave spot to read on Sunday’s and my fave thing to do!!! lol   Today she shows her hand embroidery and talks about how good closure on a project feels! 

So come on now and check out how well my week has gone…

Got this quilt layered and pin basted ready for hand quilting…

Close up of the center block 🙂

 This block measures about 16 x 22 inches and is a little 18 month old jumper.  I only need to quilt every 8″ with this particular batting (it says how close/far you need to stitch or the batting to remain secure within the quilt on the batting packing or insert if getting off a roll) but I want this to feel cozy.

My friend Wendy suggested something like this and I LOVE this more interpretive quilting idea…

I plan to stitch in white YLI 40/3 thread to keep it super sturdy for years of snuggles too!

And in the meantime I have been working on my Bulls Eye wall hanging…

 I am now on the 11th of 16 bulls eyes.. hope to make better progress on this before my next report to you! lol

And finally choosing which of those luscious fabrics from the fat quarter bundle and which from my own stash to put together for the pattern I received for my birthday…

Although the official pattern is called “Journey of a Quilter” by Leanne Beasley… I will be calling mine “Kathi’s Friendship Journey” quilt… It will hold my first embroidered patchwork done from scratch  and my first applique… needleturn or otherwise.. will be my firsts!Yay!  Do you have quilts you enjoy that are full of firsts too?  I love to see my first hand quilting too!  I sleep under still every night! 🙂

So that is what is up with me… hope you enjoyed the ride today!

Thanks for visiting 🙂

Bulls Eye Progress & Kimber’s Memory Quilt too!

I so look forward to my Slow Stitching Sunday posts 🙂  Check out all the bloggers that link HERE!

Today Kathy is sewing down a binding whilst I am big stitch hand quilting on my Bulls Eye Wall hanging…

I am enjoying the mix of threads… I am using a perle 8 cotton by Valdani variegated black and YLI 40/3 black 🙂

I am on bulls eye #9 out of 16 total so over halfway now… I am new to using a thimble and am finding it more and more handy to put on… for so many years I didn’t prepare.. I just sat down and quilted… now I try to prepare a bit by putting on my thimble and looking where I have been and where I am going… works well!

Connie made it safely her from Tennessee on Monday

and by Tuesday we were planning the quilt out…

here are the clothes that made the quilt because they were most precious to Kimber and quiltable in some sense! lol

And here is the fabric that we chose from to make it into a proper looking quilt…

And here is the backing Kimber picked out that helped us decide on all the above!

Kaylie, her daughter, loved butterflies and bright colors… so we are focusing on those here 🙂

By midweek we both fell in to bed with this much accomplished..

We both helped in the design of each block but Connie did the sewing once we got started and I did the cutting and refocusing as needed…

And here is how the center turned out!!!!!  Ready for borders 🙂

Adding the borders and mitering the corners of the borders was my job… so the last full day Connie was to be here I woke early … got motivated and added the borders all around… then mitered them as one seam being careful to match my fabrics at the corners…

And we ended the week with this flimsy ready for layering, pin basting, and hand quilting too!

I just love how this came out and so does Connie… what do you think??!!

Kimber’s Memory Quilt it will be called for now.

We also sent Kimber a shot of the clothes we planned to use before getting into them and preparing them for the quilt… and we gave her scraps of the fabrics used in the quilt as well!  She is VERY excited and doesn’t read or know of my blog!  So I will be sharing here the journey of quilting this very special quilt!!!!

More about my birthday and Connie’s visit otherwise in my next post… until then…