October 2018 is around the corner!

Welcome to the last day of September 2018!!!

It is just so hard to believe that TOMORROW will be October 2018!!  Fall is here in North Carolina too!!  Cooler temperatures here in the mountains and crickets in the morning and early in the eves too… leaves are starting to fall on some of our trees and a faint yellowing is present on others…. ooooh soooo exciting!  I will take some pictures as this becomes more obvious for you all not in this area of the world to see… but I am so ready for natures show!  Keep your face toward the sunshine y’all… and your glass half full!

On that note I have an ALMOST finish to share and I am linking all this slow stitching post HERE to my good bloggy friend Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching… binding is where I will be today 🙂  Come over and see what everyone else is linking up… Grab a cuppa and enjoy the show and share!!!

Above I finished the quilt close to bedtime and cut it off the frame where it has been pinned since May…  Molly (our shih poo puppy) immediately claimed it as hers to enjoy! lol

So Molly has become my official quilt inspector!!!  She loves quilts even more than our Daisy did… she is so darling with her love of hand quilted quilts too… more than the ones I machine finished (which are few)… she prefers the softer hand quilted ones!

Getting Molly to pose for a photo is near impossible… but after letting her leisurely lay on the quilt as I trimmed up all 4 edges to prepare for adding the binding…  She even posed with my honey for a shot!  SCORE!!!!

Zena has been tied up quilting a quilt … I unattached the quilt mid quilting for her to do a more important task as she is the machine that can use the walking foot most effectively… so now the Cotton + Steel Optical Black cotton fabric… my favorite solid… got sewed on early the next morning…

 I used all I had and had to substitute some other black I found in my stash … all together 11 strips of width of fabric it took to bind this big old quilt!  It is about 109″ square now… I will remeasure it once it is washed and dried in the dryer this week though 🙂

Here I decided instead of the thicker YLI to put the binding on with 50 wt Aurifil in black… I love how it sinks into the fabric too ❤

 I added a label but this quilt was a lot of collaboration between my honey and I and my bestie… in fact 2 of the stencils I used were mailed to me by my bestie!!!  So I think I will add a proper label to the back side bottom as well to document this cool quilt better.

 Here is where I am this morning as I type this….

Here was the flimsy before it got layered and added to my Hinterberg frame…

 Here was the beginning photo I shared on my blog and social media too!!!

 Here are pillow shams I made with the leftovers of the fat quarters and yardage this quilt was made from…

 Here is one finished… we are using them now though…

 And here is how I feel in life right now…

So in other news… as I was finishing the stitching on the quilt earlier in the week… I took a partial day break from the stitching to make this cute table topper…

 And I tried out this NEW TO ME pen ….

It did NOT fade with washing and drying…

I didn’t dry it hard and it did need a quick steamy press for the three dimensional pumpkin stems.  It is added to my Etsy shop HERE and a quite popular addition I must say 😀  And it was fun to make something on the fly of my own design with new fabrics in my stash !!!  It is machine quilted in the center with hand quilting around the edges in the black border ❤

My giveaway winner from earlier this month was Jill who blogs HERE … she chose a pencil pouch from my shop as her prize!

She is going to use this pouch to wrangle her slow stitching crochet hooks 🙂  I can’t wait to see a photo of it in use too ❤ 

Congratulations Jill … she let me know what she was using it for and was so happy to receive it last week and impressed with how colorful it was and how wide it opened to easily see her different hooks 🙂  I am so happy for her!!!

Finally I wanna share a bit about my next slow stitching project… well I guess there are 2… I have a little pillow I am stitching on whenever I am on the go in my “go bag”… it will become my main project and will be completed before my next blog post so I will share it then.  It is just a simple wholecloth pillow I am hand quilting for my honey to snuggle as he sleeps… he has one but it doesn’t match our new decor in the bedroom with this soon to be completed quilt… so I will finish the pillow and make an envelope opening in the back for easy washing of this pillow covering.  The backing will be the same wide back backing you see on the quilt… I had a tad left over!

Once that is done I will start on my Violet Craft  EPP Rooster Project.  I am adding Project to it’s name for the blog because look at this…

It is 8… yes EIGHT pages of cardstock templates to make this rooster via english paper piecing!!!

This will be a project!!!!  So I pulled out the project tote my bestie Connie made me several years ago for projects that need a place to be laid out and organized on the go…

I even invested in a spool of Bottom Line polyester thread to keep my stitches as hidden as possible.  Connie also sent me a video of thread basting the hexies but the author of this pattern recommends glue basting with fabric glue because the pieces are mainly odd shaped.  After seeing this … and the hexies in this project are a bit larger than what Connie uses too… I have the fabric glue and will use it.  The tape runner is the author’s remedy to hold the back side of the fabric temporarily to the template… she says it won’t stick to the fabric permanently and it is similar to her recommended type… so I should be good there… It was from my paper scrapbooking days! lol

The pattern can’t be used to make to sell… but after seeing how many pieces this will take for a 20″ square finish… I think I will be fine making one for us and having fun with it alone…

 I will also be sorting my “scrap users system” I adopted from Bonnie Hunter into colors instead of colors and neutrals then sizes … With my new endeavors I find I need colors specific scraps not size specific scraps more for my Etsy shop makings.  I have a big bin in my sewing studio that needs to be sorted so I will start there… and end with these boxes relabeled into colors with a could neutrals bins maybe … maybe one dark and one light neutrals… hmmmm.

 So my question this week is about this sorting I will be doing this week in prep for the rooster start after I complete the binding… that is my sole focus until it is in the washer!!!!!!!!!!

Do you sort your fabric scraps?  How do you sort them if you do??  Do you use any type of scrap users system???  I know Bonnie does hers by size AND color but as you can see from my photo above.. I don’t have the scrap volume Bonnie does… but I am heading there as great friends are sending me scraps for my making … so I need to get a handle on this.  Please send me a photo if you will to my email HERE or leave a comment explaining your system if you have one… Thanks All for visiting!!!

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Fall Progress and some EXCITING news too!

I have made it my habit on purpose to keep my hoop close to my computer… I sit here a few times a day to rest between activities that are going on…

And on days when I don’t feel as good… this chair provides me comfort and relaxation! 🙂

 The table I use to set my quilt on was made by my honey to my specifications and is on rollers that are very nice!  They work well on the tile floor we have out here in our Florida room too! 🙂

I think the parrots really liven up my space… and that lamp is invaluable to me as well!  All in all a cozy space surrounded by pics and momentos from loved ones too!  but this space is also my messy spot as you can tell! lol  We keep the house fairly orderly… but this space is where we do our brainstorming and therefore it tends to stay messy…

Do you have a place in your home that stays a mess to provide you with inspiration?? 

Linking this quilty post to Kelly for NTT (Needle and Thread Thursday)… check out her fun linky HERE!

So as I wake up this morning and start stitching on this oak leaf… I am giddy with excitement as well!

I am going to AQS Daytona Beach quilt week!!!!

Can you believe I have NEVER been to a real quilt show??!!!!  I am mega excited about this too!

My plan is that my honey is going with me… he is equally as excited as we know a few with pieces displayed in this show and they are yummy for sure!  I plan to take lots of pictures with my phone… will be clearing it off closer to time so I have PLENTY of room!!!  I plan to share highlights of my 2 DAYS at the show with you 🙂

Have you been to a big quilt show??  What did you think??

Then next week I go back and take a class… I have signed up for it already as well and have my name badges for me and my honey to enter the show.. it wounds up saving me the membership price almost entirely to join AQS for 1 year… which also includes a mag I hear is really a good one!!!

The class I am taking the next day is on NEEDLETURN APPLIQUE!!!  Just what I really want to learn and I love teal and orange together… this is a lovely piece for sure!  I am VERY excited about this class too!

The class was a bit pricey so I looked on youtube before making the decision to take the class and watched a couple vids to see if I could understand her well… and I could!  So hopefully the class ( max size is only 24 students) should be good at one on one time if I need it! 🙂

This class coincides with a quilt with appliqued parts in it I wanted to do via traditional needleturn… if I master this piece from this class… I will be able to do it!!!  Yippee!!!!

In the last couple days I have been going through and organizing my scrap user system I use… I keep 5″ blocks, 2 1/2″ strips, 1 1/2″ strips, as well as bits & pieces that would be fun for crumb piecing if I ever try that … or for the applique maybe too!

Anyway, this is my 2 1/2″ strip bin… I had to go through the WHOLE shoe box sized bin and sort them as this bin was OVERFLOWING!! lol

 My honey went to the everything a dollar store for me and picked up some blue and orange boxes that were the same size as the clear boxes I already had… just now in my fave colours! lol

 Now doesn’t that look nice… Shout out to my bestie Connie for organizing me to start with last summer!!!

Until my next post please remember Life if Precious … handle with care ~